Autism, Life & Learning
Well this firstly isn't an argument more bigotry or ignorants, take your pick. For anyone whos dosen't know too much about autism I will run the basics off.
Firstly because Austim is known as Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD), or Autism Spectrum Condition(ASC). Autism is a 'developmental' disorder, this meant to happen as we develop but before birth. That is pretty much everyone knows about that bit. Autism allows that person to become sentive to sound, light, tates and touching or just all of them.Autism affects social and communition skill aswell as motor fine and gross funtion skills, thats movement skill. Fine motor are small/fine movements like threding needles and gross movements are big moments like walking. It can also affects speach, thats why some are non-verbal or have a stammer. Also most have a talent of some kind and perfect pitch or can at least sense perfect pitch. Anyway thats enough of that. Heres the cure 'argument' There are people who think that autism can be cured because it is a condition or a disorder. These come in a variety of things such as; spells, medication, being beaten or just being locked in a room by your self. I'm not going to say what type of people do this. The reason they think they can cure autism is because its a condition and we look normal on the outside so why are we odd in the inside. That is the basis they think we can be cured by any of that. The question these people haven't thought about is do we need a cure? Yes it can be hard work. Yes it can be annoying not understanding people but Autism makes us uquine people. Lastly a question for anyone who belives in this cure or for anyone who wants to ponder it. Before you answer people with autism 1/5 of elements on the peirodic table, we expanded the field of knowledge in Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Biology, Design and Electronics- without autism you may not be reading this from your computer, tablet or phone. That what i can think off the top of my head. Without autism the world would be different because its our 'out of of the box' thinking that has found these things and more. Why would you want to cure autism? That is the cure arugement folks- it is a simple argument but also a little silly aswell.
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I know this is my fourth blog of the month. Which shows that i have a lot of free time, that wasn't planned but work has been lax so i have done my hours which meant waiting for emails mainly. So I have a lot of time to plan things. Training has been odd as I'm racing in about a week's time, more about that later, so I have done sets which meant I couldn't push it too much in case of injury.
So anyway my third assignment came back was another PASS in this case just, i just passed because I put too much detail in my work. I don't quite understand how you do that I was told to describe... so I did a lot. I had to make a plan so did, I had to follow the plan so I did and use statistics in my assignment so I did. I swear part of the marking scheme doesn't account for autistic people taking things absolutely literally. I think it's about 1 in 80 ish people are autistic and that is rising steadily. So is there a 1000 people studying that's at least 20 people who are autistic, I know we are a minority but as soon as the statistics go to 1 in 55 to 1 in 50 then something should be in place by then. It was 1 in 100 in some places across the world 5 years ago now in the same places it's anywhere between 1 in 65 to 1 in 80 so I hope places in education understand that educating someone with autism is a bit different then most methods, so guides go out the window because we know somethings but if we haven't been told to put them in then why should we. Most things we see are thought with logical reasoning behind it. Although in have somewhere I don't how reasonable it is. I am racing next week (Saturday 2 June) in Nottingham it's going to be mixed groups so it should be fun. I don't really have much to say about it I have my friend helping me not panic so I just got to breathe, not launch and hope that I really don't panic. I really have much to say there will be a piece on here about it after I am back home. Anyway I am going to start a little mini series about different things about autism so this will be: 1- Why autism is around- from an autistics point of view. 2- The cure argument- because it is just so funny. 3- Friends 4- Not human- another autistic argument and because I have the number 4 ... 5- gender and sexuality These are either going to be from my own views or from a general number of people who have autism so please don't get offended by anything or think any of this isn't coming from sensitive or private place. Hopefully this should give any neurotypical a view from some people who have autism. It's the last day of mental health Awareness week and it's focusing on stress... Oh boy. I know they want more people to know more about mental health in general but stress? I know everyone 'suffers' through stress, I'll explain why it's put like that later, let's put it through the eyes of someone who autistic. Stress to us is well... life. I could just sum it up like that but I'm going to explain mainly because when I talk to people they don't understand how I see things, but if i do anything general I'm going to focus from a higher functioning autism (& Asperger's) point of veiw. Every step I take I see countless dangers, it could be anything from me tripping to a meteor falling on me, most non-autistic brains will filter this. Then add on contacting people so talking or just walking past them, as I think a meteor is going to fall on me you don't have to guess much with might happen with that, still I will say, so to me the person could be harmless to they might spontaneously combust (blow up with no help needed). When it come to talking to people I don’t know what people could say so I prepare phases to things either to buy me time or to give answer. Also like most people with autism I’m sensitive to the world around me, in my case light and sound. So I have to process all the sounds around me to keep a step ahead of what’s in front of me. I have to adjust my vision so I take in enough light to see but that’s it any more and I feel like my eyes are going to burn and too little and I can’t see. It’s handy at night time but I’m not an owl. On top of things I physical twitches so I have to hide that because if I twitch people have been known to either not help me or treatment like I’m a toddler. Also I also have verbal twitches/outbursts, which make things interesting... I sometimes can’t control somethings I say like “peek-a-boo” or “I’m a turtle”. This doesn’t make life easy but you get use to it. To add some general things in its between 23-28% of all autistics are epileptic and a further 25-36% have epileptic like issues but it’s not epilepsy. In this area all of them combine so that is 48-64% of all autistics will have a epileptic attacks (for the 25-36% it is usually their last) usually it will happen whilst being asleep. Also when we have meltdowns or shutdowns all what I said times it by ten because most of us won’t even talk until we can handle what is happening. So the idea of handling stress for neurotypicals (non-autistic people) is laughable because before people usually think they have a lot going on or too much happening. For a day just try being us or look at how much you actually have going on. Most of autistics have all this and most likely more. This is partly why I (and maybe others) have special items such as bowls and forks etc. Or why I have special places I visit or have specific spot I go or sit. If it moves the slightest bit I have to recalculate everything and adapt. This is why I phrased stress the way I did to a neurotypical, stress can be a hard thing and I can do other things like affect eating and sleep. To people who are autistic we have the same things but it affects us physically we have so much mental capacity we can starve are brain of anything needed or we can stop any of our senses. In theory with the capacity we have over our brains we can do anything in theory. For neurotypicals there are signs and symptoms for us there’s some signs and some symptoms but no one knows what happens in our heads. Stress is the most certain uncertainty most autistics face and it leads to different forms of self harm and abuse. It also makes any condition/s we have a whole lot worse, take socialising it’s tough but it’s doable, with stress it’s like your mouth is sowed shut and your whole body is wrapped tight. I thought I would end of my mental health experiences. Through my autism I have anxiety disorder called selective mutism also I have anxiety on top. I have also had breakdowns, yes breakdowns-plural, no one noticed accept me. They though I also had depression- but that turned out to be autism. I’ve also had other things happen which I won’t say on here being public. So my mental health was rough and it still is but I take a day at a time because that’s all I can do. I evolve to a different thing every time, like Eevee - best excuse for use pokèmon I could find. I thought I would say some of the funny things i had said or done to me or what i have done. As I have had some weird and wonderful things said when i mention i am on the spectrum. Also some people think that its hard being autistic, its even what i got taught in my health and social care course apprently be autistic can be very challenging. I haven't seen much difference from being normal. We just tilt are heads and walk- get it as we see things from a different angle. Sorry i know its a bad joke.
Anyway lets get on with begin funny. Apologies for any bad jokes. 🌝 I was training on the water and someone decided to have a conversation with me we got talking, although it took awhile to get talking, this person i mentioned that was autistic more exactly i have Asperger's Syndrome and he response was " Oh, I'm sorry" I just smiled. You wouldn't believe how many people go to this response if you mention you have autism or Asperger's. I've even had it in an interview. I'm still trying to figure out why they are sorry- I'm special and i like soft furry things instead of being sorry just put a cat or an animal i can touch in front of me. Another thing someone has said is "never mind, you will phase out of it" what i usually say is no i can't go through walls. I can't see why people say silly things like this, if they say thins like that then i will usually say silly things back to them. Right this is some from me now. I was at a restaurant with my parents, I had a drink it was a Pepsi with ice and a lime, when i came to drink from it then lime touch me. I pulled my drink away from me. I looked at my parents and said "the lime touched me inappropriately" I paused then i said "I don't like that lime". This is one that i always do but I'm picking the best one. Me and my mum were in town we got to a blind corner she turned the music down so she could hear any queit cars or bikes and just as she turned out of the corner all you heard from me was "Peek-a-Boo" my mum pulled the car over tried to stop laughing then carried on heading home. Anybody who knows me i can mimic very well and guess what? Anyone reading this is going to have to use their imagination, poor you. The Action man moneysupermaket advert was on, so i grab my dog and made them act part of it out... then they slapped me so i carried to mimic it the only issue is I'm not plastic. I might be the odd acceptation but I try to be funny and happy because if i goof up, i look like me if i don't goof up (and I'm not with any strangers) i can do little dance. I thought i would talk about what overloads feel like and also what shutdowns feel like as well. I thought i would firstly explain what overloads and shutdowns are for anyone who isn't ASD literate.
Overloads are where all the information me or anyone with autism has collected through the day but it usually hasn't been processed yet most of this is filtered by your brain if you don't have autism or some learning disabilities. This will usually be everything you encounter so everything you see including raw light, hear even if it is distance or background noise, feel including air touching your skin and taste including everytime you breathe. If you think about it you do alot of this in a day and not relise. So if you overload you feel slow and sluggish as your brain can't take anymore thing in but it has to, it's like force feeding your brain to stay awake and take more things on. Shutdowns/Meltdowns usually happen if someone is overloading or have overloaded this is where we can't take anymore information or don't want to and we stop everything we are processing but no how to shut ourselves off so there are usally three ways someone with autism will go: 1) They will shut them selves off completely 2) get very angry and bossy- this usually looks like a tantrum that a toddler might have at times 3) they still keep try to keep processing but have to slow everything down to get to a point where they can keep everything stable. Guess which I do? That right number ...3 ! I have done all these some point in my life, but i think if i keep going i will eventually pick up the slack although this doesn't always work in which case most of us will go to the extreme idea of how to stop shutdowns or overloads and that is sleep or in people with higher functions some of us have learn to shut down the processing part of our brain so we can see the world around us without having to processing it, although we won't remember what has happened in that bit or what happened through out the day but most of us live with that as msot of us will have an order what was going to happen that day so we can trace our steps, if we can be bothered. Overloads feel to me like the whole world is going through my head, if i don't know what is going to happen then i just feel like i want to put my head on a table and hide away. It can feel like everything is caving in around me because everything has slowed down. This could be different for others. There is a video The National Autistic Society did which i will link in somewhere... Shutdowns right this one is tricky to describe if you never had one but i will try my best to describe how it feels to me. To it feels like i am trapped in a mountian of infomation but everytime i move or do anything more information gets put on top of me but i can't breathe more and more. This is where my definition of friend comes in as they help me through this or they can help me process this. I only have a few friends who can do this and I'm very thankful they are there. To make things a bit lighter and more colourful I was working today and i got sidetracked a stared drawing in one of the coffee breaks i had. I drawed the Autism Awareness symbol with its little phases or tag lines- i don't know what it is called. If you can't read them they are LOVE, TEACH, HOPE, INSPIRE. I know they are in the wrong order slightly but i can't change it . To me you can look at it two ways as a person or parent: you can LOVE them for being them. TEACH them about life and how to get through. Install HOPE inthem to live life to the fullest and from there HOPEfully you can INSPIRE them to be the best of them. Or There is the the awareness route which you LOVE your community to TEACH the community about autism and how to be understanding towards autism. From there you HOPE people will continue to listen and understand and you INSPIRE more awareness in your community. Anyway here is a picture of the picture As today is the last day of autism awareness month I would like to share how life with autism is well to me anyway. I going to spilt this in to three bits: Emotions, danger and life.
Emotions: In general I have three emotions these are happy, sad and angry. I can't laugh (as in i make a face but no sound comes out) although i can mimic laughter each mimic of laughter is my gauge of how funny something is. To me there is no inbetween i am one of those three. When I was around year 5 to year 6 I got bored with just having these emotions, partly because i couldn't connect with anybody but also because I couldn't see from points of view only my own which is purely logical which caused issues beacuse i could take in more things then anyone in my class but my teachers couldn't really understand me although they could teach me. So I made what i called a 'Synthetic Emotion Chip' in this i put all the emotions i thought i should have like annoyed, excited and worried I think now i have around 15 'synthetic' emotions this doesn't always work but it better then not understanding someone i really want to help. An added bonus is i can turn of my 'emotion chip' when needed. Danger: This one is an odd one where I overthink so i can see dangers before they happen. The example I use is if two cars, one going up a road the other down, are coming to a point where they meet. The three I see at least are what I call a safe vision, a mild vision and a extreme vision these look like. A Safe- they pass it other keeping on their side of the road and no harm is done. A Mild- They clip each other but all is well A Extreme- The hit head on and bust in to flames anyone who was in the cars or near them is dead. Also the other issues I have are not seeing cars or noticing any danger coming towards me so have learnt to bounce, I'm pretty sure I am made of putty. Life: As I have said I overthink but my life is full of bits i can't filter like that but i see things like this pretty much every step. I don't cope well with loud noises, people, touching or lots of light. I swear i was meant to be a bat. I don't really have friends or what I will call friends. I think I have one or two but that's it. I can see things from other people's point of view but its hard to understand my own. I tic pretty much constantly whenever i have an emotional reaction which isn't good especially when you don't want to look like a panda. It may sound like hard work or hell to me this is life I've learnt how to control certain bits like the twitching... to a point. So Please be Autistic aware Some people may have issues worse then me or better but all we want is to be treated with respected and not looked at like we are odd. 🌝 |
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September 2019
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