Despite the fact that there is a considerable emphasis on promoting mental health in the modern society, most researchers, scholars and medical experts have over the years ignored autism as a mental health. According to Ghaziuddin (2005), the failure by some health professionals and caregivers to recognise autism as a mental disorder is often encouraged by the misperception that people with autism do not develop additional psychiatric conditions. However, this is not the case. On contrary, studies reveal that people with autism are likely to experience psychiatric problems such as hyperactivity, depression and anger outbursts (Ghaziuddin, 2005). Speaking from this perspective, autism cannot just be perceived as a development disorder but also needs to be perceived as mental disorder that affects the psychological perceptions of the affected people. This is further affirmed by Ali, O’Reilly and Karim (2013) who observe that ignoring the relationship between autism and mental health has undermined the ability of the healthcare industry to tackle this problem in children. Importantly, to affirm the need to recognise autism as a mental health issue, Ali, O’Reilly and Karim (2013) reiterate that children with autism are likely to develop further mental problems, thus undermining their ability of ever leading a normal life in future. With this in mind, understanding autism from a mental health perspective is critical to developing and deploying intervention measures to address the problem and as such, ensure that the affected persons are helped to lead normal lives.
尽管现代社会相当重视促进心理健康，但多年来，大多数研究人员、学者和医学专家都忽视了孤独症作为一种心理健康。根据Ghaziuddin（2005年）的说法，一些卫生专业人员和护理人员未能将孤独症视为一种精神障碍，这往往是因为他们误认为孤独症患者不会发展出额外的精神疾病。然而，情况并非如此。相反，研究表明，自闭症患者可能会经历多动、抑郁和愤怒爆发等精神问题（Ghaziuddin，2005）。从这个角度讲，孤独症不能仅仅被视为一种发展障碍，还需要被视为影响受影响者心理感知的精神障碍。Ali、O'Reilly和Karim（2013）进一步证实了这一点，他们观察到忽视孤独症与心理健康之间的关系削弱了医疗行业解决儿童这一问题的能力。重要的是，为了确认有必要将孤独症视为一个心理健康问题，Ali、O'Reilly和Karim（2013）重申，孤独症儿童可能会发展出更多的心理问题，从而破坏他们未来正常生活的能力。考虑到这一点，从心理健康的角度理解孤独症对于制定和部署干预措施来解决这个问题至关重要，因此，确保受影响的人得到帮助，过上正常的生活。
Narrative psychology 叙事心理学
There are different intervention measures that could be adopted to help address the problem of autism in society and as such, help the affected to live normal lives. One of the ways to address this problem is through the use of narrative psychology. In reference to Crossley (2000), narrative psychology is perceived as a field of psychology that is concerned with the use of narratives on human experience to help individuals deal with their own experiences. Furthermore, Crossley (2000) emphasise that narrative psychology seeks to help individuals in society to build meaning through providing insights on human relationships and connections in society. In this case, through the use of narrative psychology, medical professionals seek to help patients creating meaning in the context of human relations and connections since human realms are founded on the experiences of people within the framework of social interactions.
可以采取不同的干预措施来帮助解决社会中的孤独症问题，从而帮助受影响者过上正常的生活。解决这个问题的方法之一就是运用叙事心理学。根据Crossley（2000）的观点，叙事心理学被认为是一个心理学领域，它关注对人类经验的叙事，以帮助个体处理自己的经验。此外，Crossley（2000）强调，叙事心理学旨在通过提供对人际关系和社会关系的洞察，帮助社会中的个体构建意义。在这种情况下，通过使用叙事心理学，医疗专业人员试图帮助患者在人际关系和联系的背景下创造意义，因为人类领域是建立在社会互动框架内人们的经验基础上的。
The effectiveness of narrative psychology in helping improve the conditions of mental health patients is supported by the aspect that the narration of human experiences is integrated in social action, thus enabling events to become visible. As result, László (2008) affirms that narrative psychology helps to build reality among mental health patients, and as such, help them not only connect to the surroundings and to people around them but also define their identity. This is pointed out by Schiff (2012) who notes that narrative is a powerful way of understanding life. In this regard, Schiff (2012) emphasises that narratives are not made special because of their structural nature but rather by the meanings that people are able to articulate and express through narrating. Speaking from this point of view, the use of narrative psychology is dealing with patients with different psychological challenges is founded on the need to help such patients form and express meaning about their lives as well as their surroundings.
叙事心理学在帮助改善心理健康患者状况方面的有效性得到了以下方面的支持：人类经验的叙事融入到社会行动中，从而使事件变得可见。因此，László（2008）肯定了叙事心理学有助于在心理健康患者中建立现实，因此，不仅帮助他们与周围环境和周围的人建立联系，还帮助他们定义自己的身份。希夫（2012）指出了这一点，他指出叙事是理解生活的有力方式。在这方面，希夫（2012）强调，叙事之所以特殊，不是因为其结构性质，而是因为人们能够通过叙事表达和表达的意义。从这个角度讲，叙事心理学的使用是为了应对不同心理挑战的患者，其基础是帮助这些患者形成并表达关于他们的生活和周围环境的意义。