Sara Luterman: Myths about autism’s effects on a marriage must be dispelled

▤ Summary

In a 2007 episode of one of the most-watched television shows in America at the time, Oprah Winfrey noted the supposed 80 percent divorce rate, citing a study from Autism Speaks. A 2008 article in the Denver Post claimed an 85 percent divorce rate, disturbingly followed by a list of autistic children and adults who were killed by their parents, as if somehow their disability makes filicide understandable. In one particularly memorable incident, my eighth-grade homeroom teacher suggested in front of my entire eighth grade class that perhaps if I didn’t talk so much, I’d have more friends. In a 2012 survey from the Kennedy Krieger Institute at Johns Hopkins University of nearly 78,000 parents, 913 of whom had an autism diagnosis in the family, the divorce rate was no higher than among the general population. Another ugly claim that rears its head in autism circles is that mothers with autistic children experience trauma on par with the post-traumatic stress disorder experienced by combat veterans.

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