Autism, Life & Learning
First a quick catch up I passed my TMA 04 which is good. I have just TMA 05 to do and my assessments, an exam through course work, for this module. I'm just getting ready to go back to Nottingham and whilst training I may have caught a bit of sun stroke- but I can't stroke the sun because apparently it 'too hot’ .
This one is going to be an odd one. This post is going to be how some people on the spectrum don't feel like they are human, or should I say they don't feel like homo sapiens. There are two main ways to look at this. 1) They feel like they can do everything better then the standard homo sapiens because their 'gifts' give them an unusual amount of input to the world around them. I kinda fall in this category with my 'gifts' I can mimic and adapt to virtually any situation or environment given to me with near precision hence the nickname Gecko. From this things like adverts or sublimate messages don't work on me because they become part of the environment I’m in. Some As I have mentioned have a very high empathic skill these know and can feel peoples feeling around them or they can sense the atmosphere they are in and sense each individual persons emotions- One skill I would like. 2) They feel don’t fit in the mould where they think they are human but feel more like a computer and can relate more to something technological then biological. They can come from how fast we think- I might talk about that later on. We also have meltdowns or shutdowns which are explained and kinda look like a computer crashing. A lot of us have a high or good memory which can seem like a computer storage system. Sorry this is so short. This kind of an odd one that doesn't really get talked about so I though I would put as part of this set up. This might help with the next post I will put up.
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It's been a while since my last blog post so here is a little catch up. I've raced up in Nottingham and came first in my final and beat the Girls4Gold team, which is nice broke a couple records for Exeter but still no medal :/ . My fourth assingment is due soon and the tutorial for this assignment was last week and guess how many people turned up... Yep ONE, me. I know I'm special but I didn't need a whole classroom to myself. Anyway here is some, I'm not saying all but these two are quite popular, what I mean by that is people who work in the autism field and when i got tested they asked "which argument do you support". I will try and be neutral and list pros and cons of each if I miss something please say.
Argument 1- Autism is a evolutionary step. I know as first glace its sounds odd. This is the arument as I understand it. As most reasonable minds see things there is a thoery of evoulution. In this we came from lizards or small mammals of the time and further back it crated eyes, ears and most of our anatomy as we know it now. Where autism comes in is a lot of us have hightened senses may this be hearing, seeing, smell, touch, taste or all of them. This is a state of evolution which hasn't completely finshed because the brain hasn't mapped these functions as being that heightened so to cope with this each function has a shut off point where it overloads. It explains why there is no uniformity in autism. Some other evidents to back it up is that evolution is in constate flux and some of us have better memory, pain toleration and reflexes. Although some of this has to be taught, its there. So depending on this scale it shows people how evolved they are. Also the number of people being diagnosed with autism is growing so it kinda shows that they are more and it is growing soon autism maybe the norm- which will be a change. This is a rough explanation for everyone, but here are the pros and cons. Pros: - It explains autism -It explains why we have better senses then 'normal' people - Explains the spectrum a little more Cons: - It doesn't explain how we have evolved - Some things have to be taught - It doesn't explain the personality quirks most people with autism have such as being obnoxious or things like twitching Argument 2- Autism is the human idea of a sacrificial lamb This runs of the same idea with the evolutionary setting. As most reasonable minds see things there is a theory of evolution. In this we came from lizards or small mammals of the time and further back it crated eyes, ears and most of our anatomy as we know it now. Where autism comes in is a lot of us have heightened senses may this be hearing, seeing, smell, touch, taste or all of them. This is a state of evolution which hasn't completely finished because the brain hasn't mapped these functions as being that heightened so to cope with this each function has a shut off point where it overloads, this is where we would get either killed or put in serous danger. Instead of being the more advance idea of people, we are sacrificial lambs who help the collective survive. Apart from those with good memory's because they would record what had happen so the rest of the 'pack' or group you are with don't make the same mistake. Hence why we don't understand danger or have emotions because they aren't needed. Also to help this argument most people with autism when have an overload of sound or emotions will freeze, instead of running or facing it. Pros: - It explains autism -It explains why we have better senses then 'normal' people - Explains the spectrum a little more - It explain some the personality quirks most people, with autism have such as being obnoxious or things like twitching Cons: - It doesn't explain how we have evolved - Some things have to be taught - Isn't explained why it is still needed thousands of years later - Doesn't completely explain atypical autism or the people with autism who can adapt or mimic I hope this was interesting and i will let you pick which one is you think is right. 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 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 This month has been busy. To make sure ive understood this because my head its still spinning. I have been working now two months going all over Devon, I have caught up with friends i lost contact with, I raced in my C1, had a car accident (more on that one later), had lesson for my OU course and finished my TMA. That's pretty condensed and with all this I had 2 meltdowns.
Right, I'm going to spend most of this post explaining this silly accident. I should say I wasn't driving. A couple weeks ago me and my mum were going down to training. As my mum was looking up the junction the car go hit on the rear, the number plate came off, I was the only one in the car that was calm and making lots of inappropriate jokes, many I can't say on here. We then chose to abandoned training to go head home to phone the insurance people. No one worry we are both fine. The car had to be repaired though. So we had a hire car... It was a hybrid -_- but not a Prius. My lesson about sociology, or what the OU is calling it: the social sciences, has been so droll because we have been learning about a street, in Cardiff, in Wales. I live in Devon, in England... How is it meant to be relatable? If you live in wales i can see why its relatable. Now its picking up we are learning about supermarkets. Its still boring but at least i can look at a supermarket or go in one. After this i think we are looking at how and why things are being thrown away. The TMA has been fun, I had to plan, where there's autism, there's a plan- usually for or against autism. I do like plans, i can have some order. The down side was the plan had to be a page long- its way to short for a plan it needs to be at least two three pages long. Then I had to use the plan, i finished my TMA in two hours. Then back to work. My life is fun, if i'm not studying, i'm working if i am not doing either of that I'm training. This has been quite a short post but there is so much happening I can't process all of it. I am still quite surprised I've had two meltdowns. 🌝 |
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September 2019
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