World Autism Day...is tomorrow

[sigh]

World autism day is tomorrow. I actually came in to create an Autism Awareness Month thread (something I haven't done in years) when I remembered that April is no longer Autism Awareness Month. That's in October. But I'm here and I can't sleep so here goes anyway.

My first autism thread was in 2003. My son was 11 at the time. Now he's an adult and sooooooooo much has changed. But then again, not everything is different. He's still the same person. And he still has autism.

I searched and found that old thread and this is my first post in it from those many years ago. I was surprised to find it so relevant still.

Go to a cafeteria at lunchtime in any grade school in America. Hear the noise, the laughing voices, the conversations flowing all around. Focus on one voice, then another, and laugh at the jokes of your tablemates, or at the cavorting of the class clown two tables over.

But then stop trying to focus and open your senses fully and let yourself drift. Don’t follow any particular conversation but listen instead to the cacophony as a whole, without the mental filters we automatically use to deaden background noises, which allow us to focus on just one item of interest at a time. Hear a snatch of conversation here, half a word there. A laugh cuts through from across the room and the buzz from the fluorescent lights waxes and wanes its electric pulse.

From outside a horn honks but then the monitor claps for attention and barks out instructions but you don’t hear them because someone is sniffling across from you as someone else closes her lunchbox with a click. And suddenly everyone is rising with a babble of incomprehensible noise, heading out to wherever you’ve all been sent but you don’t know what’s happening. You missed what you’ve been told to do and stay sitting instead, frantically clinging to the last thing you were doing that you knew was right.

Anxiety rises, your heart rate increases, the babble grows louder and you become more and more lost with each passing second. The monitor comes to you because once again you’re refusing to do what you’ve been told and her instructions bite with harshness but they’re just a part of the jumble you’ve found yourself spinning through.

There’s no way out of this now. The meltdown is coming.

Welcome to the world of Autism.

 

[rockcasbah]

I observe World Autism Day by randomly alternating between staring at carpet lint and ceilings when people speak.

 

[oggbashan]

Our friends have a teenage daughter who has problems and has had since age 8. She has been through 'the system' several times. Is she ADHD or Autistic?

Each time the experts disagree and she goes back to the start again.

It distresses her, her parents, and her brother - but they love her.

Yesterday they had renewed hope. They saw a very experienced practitioner who thinks she is AD without HD and is on the Autistic spectrum as well. She has promised to fast-track the system and use the short cuts she is aware of because of her experience.

You can click on this link everyday to provide support - free:

https://thebreastcancersite.greater...rce=ctgtabs&gg_medium=sitenav&gg_campaign=VET

 

[sigh]

I observe World Autism Day by randomly alternating between staring at carpet lint and ceilings when people speak.

Very few people with autism do that, but if you want to waste your day, go ahead. My kid will be on the first bus after breakfast, celebrating a day off by making a day of Pokemon GO.

Most people with autism will talk to you if they can. Nearly all will respond in whatever way they're able. For many, it'll spark a conversation that could go on forever that you'll grow tired of very quickly. And many others will respond exactly correctly and as long as the interaction doesn't go on too long, most people will never know they're talking to a person with autism.

There's an incredible range of expressions of autism. But under it all, there are a series of clearly notable similarities.

 

[sigh]

Our friends have a teenage daughter who has problems and has had since age 8. She has been through 'the system' several times. Is she ADHD or Autistic?

Each time the experts disagree and she goes back to the start again.

It distresses her, her parents, and her brother - but they love her.

Yesterday they had renewed hope. They saw a very experienced practitioner who thinks she is AD without HD and is on the Autistic spectrum as well. She has promised to fast-track the system and use the short cuts she is aware of because of her experience.

You can click on this link everyday to provide support - free:

https://thebreastcancersite.greater...rce=ctgtabs&gg_medium=sitenav&gg_campaign=VET

I've seen ADD with Autism (our disability community is incredibly tight - everybody sees everybody at every event). It's a challenge, to say the least. So glad she has the love of her family. It means so much.

 

[oggbashan]

I've seen ADD with Autism (our disability community is incredibly tight - everybody sees everybody at every event). It's a challenge, to say the least. So glad she has the love of her family. It means so much.

She has 'adopted' us as substitute grandparents. Whenever she visits us (not recently because of ****** covid) she is unstressed because we accept her as she is.

 

[dolf]

My first autism thread was in 2003. My son was 11 at the time. Now he's an adult and sooooooooo much has changed. But then again, not everything is different. He's still the same person. And he still has autism.

I searched and found that old thread and this is my first post in it from those many years ago. I was surprised to find it so relevant still.

Go to a cafeteria at lunchtime in any grade school in America. Hear the noise, the laughing voices, the conversations flowing all around. Focus on one voice, then another, and laugh at the jokes of your tablemates, or at the cavorting of the class clown two tables over.

But then stop trying to focus and open your senses fully and let yourself drift. Don’t follow any particular conversation but listen instead to the cacophony as a whole, without the mental filters we automatically use to deaden background noises, which allow us to focus on just one item of interest at a time. Hear a snatch of conversation here, half a word there. A laugh cuts through from across the room and the buzz from the fluorescent lights waxes and wanes its electric pulse.

From outside a horn honks but then the monitor claps for attention and barks out instructions but you don’t hear them because someone is sniffling across from you as someone else closes her lunchbox with a click. And suddenly everyone is rising with a babble of incomprehensible noise, heading out to wherever you’ve all been sent but you don’t know what’s happening. You missed what you’ve been told to do and stay sitting instead, frantically clinging to the last thing you were doing that you knew was right.

Anxiety rises, your heart rate increases, the babble grows louder and you become more and more lost with each passing second. The monitor comes to you because once again you’re refusing to do what you’ve been told and her instructions bite with harshness but they’re just a part of the jumble you’ve found yourself spinning through.

There’s no way out of this now. The meltdown is coming.

Welcome to the world of Autism.

When I figured out that I could hide during lunch and avoid the that, it was fabulous.
My weight plummeted, but so did my anxiety. School canteens are the 10th circle of hell.

I didn't realise it was my day, but I've got a box of Barfi being delivered later, so I'll celebrate by stuffing my face in the peaceful sanctuary of my home. How apt

 

[rockcasbah]

Very few people with autism do that, but if you want to waste your day, go ahead. My kid will be on the first bus after breakfast, celebrating a day off by making a day of Pokemon GO.

Most people with autism will talk to you if they can. Nearly all will respond in whatever way they're able. For many, it'll spark a conversation that could go on forever that you'll grow tired of very quickly. And many others will respond exactly correctly and as long as the interaction doesn't go on too long, most people will never know they're talking to a person with autism.

There's an incredible range of expressions of autism. But under it all, there are a series of clearly notable similarities.

Each of us should be able to observe WAD in our own way, without judgement, I think.

 

[sigh]

Each of us should be able to observe WAD in our own way, without judgement, I think.

True enough. Mostly I wanted to point our how limited your image of autism was, but you're right. Enjoy the day any way you wish.

 

[sigh]

She has 'adopted' us as substitute grandparents. Whenever she visits us (not recently because of ****** covid) she is unstressed because we accept her as she is.

I can't tell you what a blessing you are. The world is FULL of people who know my son and look out for him on his wanders around the cities. I hear tales about him all the time. He's buddies with guys on all four police agencies in town. The firemen too. It lessens my fears that some day he'll be alone.

 

[rockcasbah]

True enough. Mostly I wanted to point our how limited your image of autism was, but you're right. Enjoy the day any way you wish.

I’m almost always right, but hearing it from someone else never loses its’ charm...thanks!

 

[sigh]

When I figured out that I could hide during lunch and avoid the that, it was fabulous.
My weight plummeted, but so did my anxiety. School canteens are the 10th circle of hell.

I didn't realise it was my day, but I've got a box of Barfi being delivered later, so I'll celebrate by stuffing my face in the peaceful sanctuary of my home. How apt

I dislike loud parties and bars full of people. I can enjoy them, but mostly I'd rather not be there. My son did not arise from a vacuum.

 

[oggbashan]

One of my daughter's friends had severe problems at primary school. But she had friends who looked after her when she went on to secondary school.

I am pleased to see her working as a supermarket cashier, as she has done for the last ten years. If she has problems, her colleagues are all there in seconds...

 

[rockcasbah]

I can't tell you what a blessing you are. The world is FULL of people who know my son and look out for him on his wanders around the cities. I hear tales about him all the time. He's buddies with guys on all four police agencies in town. The firemen too. It lessens my fears that some day he'll be alone.

In a caring community, all vulnerable people could live free range without fear.

That’d be a great place to live.

Well, visit; I’d likely be a few miles out.

 

[sigh]

One of my daughter's friends had severe problems at primary school. But she had friends who looked after her when she went on to secondary school.

I am pleased to see her working as a supermarket cashier, as she has done for the last ten years. If she has problems, her colleagues are all there in seconds...

My son's been at a drug store for 5 years now. He started out just checking shelves for outdated products but now he mans the photo counter, scans in orders as they arrive from deliveries, and runs the cash register.

A lot of people who were in school with him from his elementary days, who witnessed (and were cleared from classrooms because of) his behaviors, are now his strongest supporters all over town. Makes me all goose-pimply just thinking about how cool that is. They tell me how bad they always felt when he was being restrained or carried away.

Shit. Now I'm teary.

 

[Conager]

I dislike loud parties and bars full of people. I can enjoy them, but mostly I'd rather not be there. My son did not arise from a vacuum.

I reflect on thoughts like that frequently.

I've seen ADD with Autism (our disability community is incredibly tight - everybody sees everybody at every event). It's a challenge, to say the least. So glad she has the love of her family. It means so much.

It is a frequently seen co-morbid condition. Hard to say if it's prevalence being noted higher than the incidence in the general population is due to autistics being more likely to come to the attention of someone able to recognize the ADHD while the autistic behaviors are bring looked at.

 

[sigh]

I reflect on thoughts like that frequently.



It is a frequently seen co-morbid condition. Hard to say if it's prevalence being noted higher than the incidence in the general population is due to autistics being more likely to come to the attention of someone able to recognize the ADHD while the autistic behaviors are bring looked at.

When my kid was little, autism was suddenly exploding. It went from really rare to "oh-my-god what's going on" in just a few years. And it's still rising. I have no idea if it's a rise in prevalence verses awareness or some of each. And comorbidities pop up everywhere. I'm not following the studies as closely as I used to. I way past looking for a way to "fix" him and finding instead a world he can be happy in.

People like ogg make that easier.

 

[stickygirl]

When my kid was little, autism was suddenly exploding. It went from really rare to "oh-my-god what's going on" in just a few years. And it's still rising. I have no idea if it's a rise in prevalence verses awareness or some of each. And comorbidities pop up everywhere. I'm not following the studies as closely as I used to. I way past looking for a way to "fix" him and finding instead a world he can be happy in.

Thanks for posting

Educating UK teachers has both increased the numbers of recognised autistic children as well as provide them with early educational support that often helps them integrate more easily into mainstream classes. Same with other conditions which in the past would have meant the kids were labelled as inattentive or disruptive. We have a number of teachers in my extended family.

My neighbours have a non verbal boy who goes to special school and two doors down they have a seven yr old who is at mainstream school. I heard the mother of the non-verbal boy describe her son as 'having autism' which kinda made my grammar nazi twitch but pfft.

I come from a line of under-the-radar autistic bloods, with my grandfather thought to be, an uncle who probably is, a cousin is dyspraxic, a second cousin who is five yrs, asd and making friends at school and 'yours truly' who finally worked out wtf was wrong with the world.

Despite the family occurrences, it doesn't get talked about much except around the five year old. It's annoying that it's regarded as something shameful and talked about behind closed doors. Being diagnosed was a massive help to me not just with managing my own stormy emotions, but in leading me to learn more about it and be a better ally.

I've included an autistic muse in my latest series of stories and it's been interesting to figure out how to describe her emotions and internal processes. Bramblethorn did the same with a series called Anjali's Red Scarf. Since mine were published I've had a couple of people reach out and thank me which gave me the fuzzies.

 

[dolf]

When my kid was little, autism was suddenly exploding. It went from really rare to "oh-my-god what's going on" in just a few years. And it's still rising. I have no idea if it's a rise in prevalence verses awareness or some of each. And comorbidities pop up everywhere. I'm not following the studies as closely as I used to. I way past looking for a way to "fix" him and finding instead a world he can be happy in.

People like ogg make that easier.

I think in the past people were just happier judging and blaming children and adults who fail to thrive in the mainstream. These days we're progressing towards finding a cause and working on solutions. Sometimes society progresses in a sudden jump, sometimes it stagnates.

When I was at primary school, the headteacher yelled at me for being selfish and ungrateful when I wasn't playing with the others. My nephew's headteacher did a bit of research and helped get him diagnosed.

Society has always had plenty of failures and dropouts, which was where I was until I had and explanation. My uncle ended up committing suicide, because he never received the right explanation. By today's standards it should have been obvious, by yesterday's standards we were shy, difficult, stubborn, awkward, intolerant and weird.

 

[sigh]

Thanks for posting

Educating UK teachers has both increased the numbers of recognised autistic children as well as provide them with early educational support that often helps them integrate more easily into mainstream classes. Same with other conditions which in the past would have meant the kids were labelled as inattentive or disruptive. We have a number of teachers in my extended family.

My neighbours have a non verbal boy who goes to special school and two doors down they have a seven yr old who is at mainstream school. I heard the mother of the non-verbal boy describe her son as 'having autism' which kinda made my grammar nazi twitch but pfft.

I come from a line of under-the-radar autistic bloods, with my grandfather thought to be, an uncle who probably is, a cousin is dyspraxic, a second cousin who is five yrs, asd and making friends at school and 'yours truly' who finally worked out wtf was wrong with the world.

Despite the family occurrences, it doesn't get talked about much except around the five year old. It's annoying that it's regarded as something shameful and talked about behind closed doors. Being diagnosed was a massive help to me not just with managing my own stormy emotions, but in leading me to learn more about it and be a better ally.

I've included an autistic muse in my latest series of stories and it's been interesting to figure out how to describe her emotions and internal processes. Bramblethorn did the same with a series called Anjali's Red Scarf. Since mine were published I've had a couple of people reach out and thank me which gave me the fuzzies.

There are people in our autism community here (midwestern US) who are offended by the word "autistic". They argue that it isn't right to label or define a person by their medical condition, and that no other medical condition is treated that way. They prefer "people with autism" over autistic.

When I noted there are "diabetics" and "epileptics"...well, they don't bring it up around me any more, but I'm careful to not offend so I just avoid the term in certain groups. Wonder if that's where your "having autism" bit came from.

 

[sigh]

And yeah, sticky, since you're a grammar nazi, I'm aware that I ended my sentence (entire post, even) with a preposition, but to rearrange a sentence to some form of "from which it came" makes me feel silly. Who the heck talks like that anyway?




Nope. No shred of autism here. Keep moving. Nothing to see. Just a touch of OCD is all. Even after my son's diagnosis it took me years to see some of his traits in me.

 

[oggbashan]

There are people in our autism community here (midwestern US) who are offended by the word "autistic". They argue that it isn't right to label or define a person by their medical condition, and that no other medical condition is treated that way. They prefer "people with autism" over autistic.

When I noted there are "diabetics" and "epileptics"...well, they don't bring it up around me any more, but I'm careful to not offend so I just avoid the term in certain groups. Wonder if that's where your "having autism" bit came from.

Labelling people is a minefield. In the UK, over the years there have been a number of renamings of conditions. No one can be called 'spastic' anymore although the condition can be obvious - because 'spastic' became a term of abuse for people that weren't. When the national UK charity The Spastics Society rebranded itself as 'Sense', initially donations dropped substantially because people no longer knew what they were supporting.

'Hearing-impaired' instead of deaf? Locally there used to be a deaf school for children and people knew that there would be children around who couldn't hear an approaching car. But when it was relabeled a 'special school' motorists were no longer aware that a child couldn't hear them.

A long-established facility for disabled people to live and work in adapted facilities for fifty years was known as 'cripplecraft' but by the 1980s that was considered demeaning. The locals sometimes still call it that instead of the anonymous name it has now.

 

[sigh]

I think in the past people were just happier judging and blaming children and adults who fail to thrive in the mainstream. These days we're progressing towards finding a cause and working on solutions. Sometimes society progresses in a sudden jump, sometimes it stagnates.

When I was at primary school, the headteacher yelled at me for being selfish and ungrateful when I wasn't playing with the others. My nephew's headteacher did a bit of research and helped get him diagnosed.

Society has always had plenty of failures and dropouts, which was where I was until I had and explanation. My uncle ended up committing suicide, because he never received the right explanation. By today's standards it should have been obvious, by yesterday's standards we were shy, difficult, stubborn, awkward, intolerant and weird.

There are a few street people in our town that I recognize from my son's school days. They're in their late twenties now, at least one with family in town that I know would welcome him back. I know they're smart but they're lost. I'm pretty sure they were simply undiagnosed, their needs unrecognized and thus, unfortunately, they were never really accepted. Not even by themselves. So now they wander. Walking quickly. Looking nowhere.

My son IS accepted. At least by a lot of people. I swear he knows more people in town than I do. Certainly more know him by name than me because they say hi to him all the time when we're out. I'm so glad for that.

 

[sigh]

Labelling people is a minefield. In the UK, over the years there have been a number of renamings of conditions. No one can be called 'spastic' anymore although the condition can be obvious - because 'spastic' became a term of abuse for people that weren't. When the national UK charity The Spastics Society rebranded itself as 'Sense', initially donations dropped substantially because people no longer knew what they were supporting.

'Hearing-impaired' instead of deaf? Locally there used to be a deaf school for children and people knew that there would be children around who couldn't hear an approaching car. But when it was relabeled a 'special school' motorists were no longer aware that a child couldn't hear them.

A long-established facility for disabled people to live and work in adapted facilities for fifty years was known as 'cripplecraft' but by the 1980s that was considered demeaning. The locals sometimes still call it that instead of the anonymous name it has now.

Up on Cripple Creek, she sends me
If I spring a leak, she mends me
I don't have to speak, she defends me
A drunkard's dream if I ever did see one

The Band should rename that song, I guess.

 

[stickygirl]

There are people in our autism community here (midwestern US) who are offended by the word "autistic". They argue that it isn't right to label or define a person by their medical condition, and that no other medical condition is treated that way. They prefer "people with autism" over autistic.

When I noted there are "diabetics" and "epileptics"...well, they don't bring it up around me any more, but I'm careful to not offend so I just avoid the term in certain groups. Wonder if that's where your "having autism" bit came from.

( I know I'm preaching to the converted with you and you know far more about it that me so I'm not directing this at you - just putting it out there )
I'm not that much of a grammar nazi but the thinking is that autism isn't an illness you catch; so you can say 'my son has measles' or 'my son has sprained his ankle' because you get better from those - it's a temporary thing. Autism is part of the person, not caught, nor something you recover from. So you'd say both the basketball champs are black and autistic, not that they have autism and blackness.

I had someone in my family who doubted my diagnosis by saying "Well we're all a bit autistic" and I wasn't quick enough to say "You mean like 'I'm a little bit on fire?'" You're either on fire or you're not.

People with autism sounds to me like 'they're almost a person but, y'know, they have autism'. I prefer to be blunt about it - 'I am autistic: deal with it'. If people don't like the word autistic it might be because they associate it with non-verbal or people further along the spectrum, who have always been stigmatised and feared because they act differently to NT standards. Too much language is driven by fear/ignorance. If I'm teaching an outdoor course I'll ask students in their written declaration if they is anything that might help me if they have a sugar-crash or a fit through diabetes or epilepsy.

For sure it's a language difference. I used to prefer 'aspergers' but that got rightly burned to the ground. It could be called Sukhareva-ism because that Russian doctor classified autism years ahead of Asperger and it's been suggested he stole her idea.

Oops... info dump huh?

ETA a preposition is a terrible thing to end a sentence with