Subtitle: Let’s all yawn together for another silly autism cause du jour…

In case you missed it over the past few days, there were about a zillion website articles citing a recent study done in Spain that Paracetamol taken by pregnant mothers can increase the likelihood of autism, mainly in boys. I found one article that basically disagrees and debunks that premise, and personally I disagree with it too; that article is attached.

Paracetamol has been around since 1877, and it is a combination of chemicals derived primarily from aniline which is a toxic compound. The word ‘toxic’ is a red flag and actually there are some people with certain conditions that should avoid taking it. However, other than those individuals, it is a reasonably safe over-the-counter medication.

What it does not do is reduce inflammation, i.e. act as anti-inflammatory medication such as Ibuprofen, a Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory medication which is also an over-the-counter available medication.

Since humans are averse to pain, we’re always looking for a “quick fix” such as a cheap tablet that is easily accessible, preferably without seeing a doctor and available at our local pharmacy, drug store, or supermarket.

Both Paracetamol and Ibuprofen are reasonably inexpensive and easy to acquire. However, I would recommend to a pregnant woman in pain to consider using Ibuprofen opposed to Paracetamol.

And the reason for that if you’ve read any of my earlier posts is that there is strong scientific evidence related to inflammation and the autoimmune system that may very well be the “smoking gun” as part of the real cause for autism.

If one accepts that premise as potentially valid, then controlling inflammation and quieting the autoimmune system might be a good strategy if one is concerned about having an autistic baby.

Personally, I’m glad my mother had an autistic baby, me, and I’m even more grateful that I do not have that infamous comorbid Intellectual Disabilty that often accompanies autism; however, I do have a serious Autoimmune Disorder related to autism.

If scientists want a real challenge to undertake, let’s stop trying to figure out the latest cause du jour of autism, and focus on the comorbid conditions that are often far worse, i.e. Intellectual Disablility and Autoimmune Disorders.

To me that makes sense but unfortunately I think logically and it appears that most scientists don’t. 🙂

To be continued…

Article: Link Between Autism and Paracetamol Dismissed by Scientists

Subtitle: “Why of course Dorothy. Anything is possible” – said the Wizard of Oz

A lot of us autistics feel like aliens from different planets, and at times I’m damn sure that I came from an ‘alien oval planet’. 🙂 In fact, when I think about all of my immediate relatives that are either autistic or slightly autitstic, that definitely makes sense to me.

I do have to confess though that I do have a split personality. I have two Facebook accounts, one for being autistic, and one for being a local resident and businessman in Mexico where I live full-time.

I do not make it a secret that I’m autistic nor am I ashamed of it. It is part of my being and essence, and I’m truly grateful that I was blessed with this neurodiversity. But I do not where a T-shirt advertising it because that’s a bit over-the-top just like Mr. Donald Trump. 🙂

If I listed all of the reasons why I feel this way, a proud autistic, this post would be a book versus a few hundred words. But I am equally proud that over the decades I have learned how to communicate and relate to others whether they are autistic or non-autistic.

This evening I received a Facebook comment on a post in my non-autistic Facebook identity from one of my neighbors.

Recently I posted my current home for sale in my neighborhood on my business Facebook Page because it is too big for one old fart and a slightly old female chihuahua. I decided to downsize to a house in my same neighborhood that is half the size.

My neighbor who saw the post was concerned that I was leaving the area, and that generated all sorts of emotions in me of a good kind.

That neighbor doesn’t know that I’m autistic. All he knows is that he has a very friendly neighbor that engages with him from time to time in chats, sometimes in English and sometimes in Spanish, and his concern demonstrated to me that I have made a small impact in his life in a good way, by trying to be a nice person and assimilate in a culture that is not my native.

At the moment I’m on ‘Cloud 9’ if you know that expression, and as an autistic it took me awhile to figure that one out since we autistics take words literally.

Lots of people think that being autistic is either a death sentence or an incredible disability that precludes an autistic from being a contributing member of society.

That is true for some, especially if they have a comorbid condition of Intellectual Disablity, formerly referred to as Mental Retardation, or being called “a retard” which I was called over and over as a child and an adolescent.

Technically one could say that our brains are malformed in various ways, and I suppose that technically it could be considered a form of brain retardation, but definitely not mental retardation; the latter implies the inability to think and process information.

However, I disagree with that premise and I strongly feel that we autistics are blessed with brains that can transcend many of the silly nuances, rituals, and protocols that non-autistics feel compelled to abide by.

The reason for that is that most autistics tend to be themselves without the knowledge, the innate ability, nor the training to “fit in” with what is artificially called “being normal”.

Over the last fifty plus years I have accomplished a lot. I managed to overcome an horrendous speech disorder called Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia, and most importantly I have learned how to get along with other humans.

Sometimes getting along with other humans requires a conscious decision not to engage in their bullshit nor fuel their need to put down other human beings; the latter appears to be a non-autistic trait that we autistics were blessed not to have. 🙂

And we autistics tend to see the good in people versus looking for faults. And if there was one autistic trait that I would put at the top of the ‘Blessed List’ that would be it.

That is my philosophy for getting along with people, assuming that they are good people until proven otherwise, and that is the reason that I am blessed with neighbors and acquaintances that could care less if I’m autistic or not.

They only know the nice old guy that engages with them in conversations, waves at them when they drive by, and projects an image of a happy person.

In summary, I’m a happy person, I’m a person that feels blessed, and that indescribable energy seems to resonate with others.

Keep that in mind.

To be continued…

Subtitle: “A scratchy shirt collar label can cause me a meltdown.” – one of my responses

I’m always impressed when I see a major news magazine or a similar conduit to the masses speak about autism in a candid and less than ignorant fashion.

The attached article has links to videos which provide the reader/viewer with some interesting perspectives on what it’s like to be autistic.

For most of us autistics, it’s a day to day fluctuating experience. Some days almost anything can cause us anxiety or a meltdown, and on other days nothing seems to bother us.

The above is one of the reasons that putting qualifiers on autism is a bogus metric.

For the majority of us there is no “high functioning” or “low functioning” or anything in the middle. It fluctuates daily depending on lots of external stimuli, whether or not we were able to get a good night’s sleep, and whether or not there is some stressful situation in our lives that we are trying to navigate.

Normally when I read stories from other autistics or see videos like those included in the Forbes’ article attached, I can easily relate to all of them.

We now use the word “spectrum” when referring to autism, but most people use it incorrectly. That word actually refers to a cafeteria style of symptoms, and has nothing to do with a qualifying metric.

Some of us have severe Sensory Processing Disorder, and when we’re out in public, in a restaurant, or in a large store with lots of people, all of those sounds become overwhelming because our brains can’t filter the important noise from the ancillary noise. It’s probably one of the most painful experiences that we have to endure on a regular basis.

That particular aspect is quite profound with me, however sometimes I can blend in with non-autistic people and go about my business in a large store with lots of people.

But when I’m in a restaurant and that occurs, the clatter of dishes, the conversations at other tables increasing and decreasing in volume, the conversations switching between people that I’m seated with, I just can’t cope.

In fact, I normally use my addiction of cigarettes (STIM) to say, “I’m going out for a smoke…” only to get away from all of that chaos that my brain cannot process nor filter out.

One thing that I have overcome is the incessant barking of dogs in the night in my neighborhood. I live in Mexico and almost everyone has a dog as an adjunct security device.

Often in the late evening when I’m going to bed, all of the dogs in the neighborhood one by one start their evening conversation with each other, probably sharing their own personal experiences with their masters or their frustrations being kept behind gates.

That cackle of barks used to set me off, and once about five years ago I actually had a meltdown, went outside and started screaming obscenities at the dog on the other side of the concrete wall, hoping he would get the message and stop. It didn’t work, and I moved. 🙂

However, now in my current and permanent neighborhood I have a different perspective, and a method for handling that evening neighborhood conversation amongst my four legged neighbors.

Since I love dogs in general, and I have one myself, I now realize that they need to spend twenty or thirty minutes every night communicating with their friends on the other sides of walls.

I suspect that’s their method for releasing any anxiety they’ve experienced during the day, looking for a sounding board to vent to, and quite possibly their listeners and neighbors are sympathetic and attempting to console those that need consolation.

When I reached that point in my life a few years ago, being able to handle the nighttime chatter of my four legged neighbors, I felt such an exultation of success that it’s indescribable.

If I can figure out different methods for stores, restaurants, and other venues with large crowds, then maybe I could blend in a little easier and not need my escape of a smoke break. 🙂

If you’re autistic like me, I hope you find little tricks or psychological methods to help you cope just a little better and tricking your brain not to go haywire. 🙂

Forbes article: ‘Experience what it feels like to have autism‘

Subtitle: It did for me…

Two of the core elements of autism, communication and social interaction, are considered deficient, missing, or outside the “norm” (whatever that means) with us autistics.

Furthermore it is often written about that we autistics live in our own “world” with our own reality. The truth is that everyone regardless of whether or not they are autistic experiences their own reality based on what they have perceived or learned over the years.

The challenge when we’re young is figuring out how to assimilate amongst our peers. It’s foreign to us even though we desperately want those connections and to fit in. But how do we learn the process to accomplish that when it’s not an innate skill that we’re born with?

That’s what this article is all about. Using drama lessons to help autistic children apply their skill of “make believe” but with a systematic script of words, actions, and feelings to learn and practice.

In 1958 when I was diagnosed autistic, that’s exactly what my mother did. She enrolled me in a local theatrical school in Los Angeles, California taking drama lessons, singing lessons, and tap dancing lessons.

The tap dancing lessons helped me to learn how to control my limbs that did not respond naturally to my brain signals. The singing lessons helped me to learn how to articulate and pronounce words more correctly along with slowing my rate of speech by systematically using the rhythm of music and the exact placement of a word within a song. And most importantly the drama lessons helped me to learn how society interprets and reacts to stimuli or messages from others, and to store those systemic patterns for further use.

By the time that I entered high school, those drama lessons gave me a set of scripts to apply in all sorts of situations with other people. It has always been a work in progress for me, and it still is today at my current age of 64.

My mother believed in “thinking out of the box” in 1958 by incorporating these methods to help her autistic child, and now the professionals are finally catching up.

Who would have thought? 🙂

To be continued…

Excerpt: “Improvisation exercises are also useful because so many autistic kids otherwise rely on “scripts” to navigate social situations.”

Article from The Atlantic: ‘Boosting Social Skills in Autistic Kids With Drama‘

Subtitle: I have my special place…

Recently I was catching up with Google Alert emails that send me automated links to articles about autism, and one in particular grabbed my attention.

I decided to click on the link and watch the video about a young man with Asperger’s Syndrome that described what had happened to him when his caregiver gave him a new challenge, getting from Point A to Point B by using a map.

When I read the description of the video before watching it what compelled me to watch it were the words “map reading” because that’s one of my escapes when I’m bored, consequently I was hooked.

I thought that maybe I’d learn some new way to engage in that activity and possibly some new trick to further my skill at remembering those tiny obscure places that represent locations of people, places, and things, but that didn’t happen.

What did happen was a view into his world as he sees the external world, a frightening loud mishmash of sights and sounds that causes his brain to nearly shutdown altogether.

His ability to explain his reactions resonated with me deeply and I suspect it would with lots of other autistics when we try and blend into society outside of our own homes.

We’re either told to “suck it up and deal with it” or someone attempts to teach us how to cope with these foreign realities, but most of the time that doesn’t work.

“Loss of control” coupled with “sensory overload” is a common result with many of us autistics, and in order to mitigate the heightened anxiety we use our “STIMs” and have our “safe places”.

And the reason for that is that our brains can’t be molded nor modified to filter out stimuli that is actually quite painful or scary. “We’re wired differently” as most of my tribespeople attest to and that’s a pretty good high level explanation for it.

Often in various autism related Facebook groups, someone will post a question about this asking other members how they navigate the chaos outside of our homes, probably looking for advice or comparing their methods for handling it.

I have several methods but no real advice, I only know what works for me.

I generally avoid large groups such as parties, even though I like to be invited. I have my two hands which often cover my ears when there is a loud noise. I have my anti-anxiety medication which I take as needed. I have my mostly bald head with a crew cut as a tool, and I’ve noticed that I use my left hand to rub that stubble over and over when I’m feeling anxious. I smoke unfortunately, the same as my autistic mother did, and I’m pretty sure that’s one of my STIMs as well. To help me sleep, I always have a comforter over me even in summer, and I sleep with a pillow over my head; I think the weight of those objects make me feel safe.

And finally for a safe place to hang out, I love small quiet spaces where I can feel isolated.

Fortunately I have a small patio at the rear of my house that is almost completely enclosed; I’m in that safe place right now as I’m typing my thoughts.

If you’re autistic like me, how do you cope and do you have a safe place?

The young man in the attached video does a much better job explaining it than I can.

To be continued…

From The Guardian UK: Autism: Getting Lost In London Video

Subtitle: My answer would be magic…

For the past month and a half I have been preoccupied (obsessed) with watching and participating in the Sen. Bernie Sanders campaign for the US Democratic Party nomination.

That man inspired me and made me feel part of him along with wanting to do whatever I could do to help him win the nomination in order to help average souls in the US.

Today I took a break and did what I really enjoy in order to relax and generate emotions and feelings inside of me that make me feel good.

I decided to tune into various YouTube videos which comprise the various music contests internationally. On YouTube I have two favorites, ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ and ‘X Factor UK’. Today I focussed on watching the latest ‘Britain’s Got Talent’.

As I was watching several videos, some with phenomenal acts and others with individual singers, it struck me how important music is to me personally as an autistic person.

As a child and a young adult I had very few friends, so I would either take refuge in the local public library or immerse myself into listening to music that evoked emotions inside me.

Often I would focus on the lyrics of songs and relate to the poetry of the message, but more often the melody and the complexity of a music piece would be the therapy tool that would both give me goose pimples and affect my psyche in a very beneficial way.

I’ve contemplated that history of mine off and on over the years, thinking to myself how music might be one of the most successful tools to break through to those of us autistics that have great difficulty either relating to the non-autistic world or communicating with others how we feel.

When I was young I had a serious verbal communication problem which has been subsequently labeled Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia. It’s a convoluted label because it comprises various deficiencies but with me it could be described as speaking in gibberish, rearranging words in a sentence that made no sense, attempting to spit out that gibberish at warp speed, and in essence preventing most people from understanding what I had to say, how I felt, or most importantly understanding my view of the world.

Over the course of several years, my mother did what she could to find tools to enable me to function in life. One of those tools was singing lessons by a speech therapist at a theatrical school in Los Angeles where I grew up.

What I remember about that era taking those weekly singing lessons was first being able to look at the sheet music and lyrics twice and remembering every word. Secondly when I attempted to sing a song with the accompanying music I was able to get my brain to focus on articulating those words with the exact spot in the music score. There is a pattern to music and when one understands where each word belongs to a set of music notes, it gives the person a system to use to communicate.

Gradually I was able to associate words with the intended emotions of the song, and at least during the actual singing of any song, I was able to be understood by almost anyone.

That gave me great pleasure and a feeling of accomplishment for the few minutes of any song when I sang it that I was not different and finally others could understand me when I tried to communicate although it was not my personal thoughts whirling around in my mind.

Music Therapy is now recognized as one of the many tools to help autistic children come out of their shells and learn to use language among others in society.

But the greatest gift of music for me personally is the tapping into my soul and evoking emotions within me that are absolutely indescribable.

Below is an audition by a young woman that did that for me this evening and if you watch it, I hope you will understand a little about just how important music is no matter whether one is autistic or not.

To be continued…

Video: Kathleen Jenkins ‘Britain’s Got Talent 2016’

http://youtu.be/2CnbFjJw16w