Autism Politics - Free For All

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Okay.

In my experience one of the best coping mechanisms for sensory overload was escape into nature away from anything manmade. I spent years walking deserted beaches, coming back to the other world I knew, with the experience of homeostatis. At the time, I didn't realize how much it helped me.

Spending reasonable periods of time in the Sunlight, can also increase serotonin and dopamine, chemicals that some with autism suggested to be short on.

Also, from my experience, the overload of adrenaline used to cope with everyday life, particularly evident for Autistic people that are likely to experience more stress in life, can be resolved on a daily basis by physical exercise, if an individual is physically able to exercise.. By resolved, I mean the stress hormones circulated in the blood stream and be burned off, resulting in the possibility for homeostatis and comfortable sleep. Exercise also boosts natural endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine. And in addition oxytocin, another chemical some people with autism are suggested to be short on.

Healthy special interests are of importance for people with Autism. A special interest like pornography could be particularly harmful for someone that has Autism. For some that think visually, it could easily become the focus of their world.

Music is a great coping mechanism for Autism because it helps one express and understand emotions. For those that parent a child with Autism, the gift of learning a musical instrument can be a gift of coping that lasts a lifetime. It is important, though, that the child is not forced to play an instrument that they are not interested in.

I didn't accomplish any organized efforts to assist people with Autism, other than a support program at my place of work that I helped supervise. My intent was treating all of the individuals involved in a respectful dignified manner, and expecting the same the other people under my supervision in helping with this program. At the time, I didn't realize I had Autism, but certainly understood my value as an individual did not supercede anyone elses value.

It might seem like common sense for all, but it was surprising to me how cruel otherwise nice adults could be to those in a support program.

So the coping is a form of treatment but not cure. So why evade the cure potential for this symptom. Also I expected a reply with classifications of political typologies. Yes I've seen the cruel. I won't explain entirely the circumstance but it had to do favoritism and ladies and reproductive activity potentials.

Do you want to know the truth about why I hate Autism Speaks. It's that scene in the Autism Everyday video where that mother is changing her 5 year old's diaper, cause I wear diapers, too. A soiling problem and a diaper will not keep many autistics who need diapers from living successful and productive lives. If you want to see the video, look for it yourself. I'm here to speak my mind, not to do the leg work

I'm not sure why the need for adult diapers is an issue. Many conditions require adult diapers and as we age increases in the likelihood of needing them transpire. While I cannot confirm you actually require adult diapers as folks will say all sorts of things on the internet to make them believe things I am not sure of the issue relevancy in context. Perhaps you can reply again.

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Stress hormones are a result of stress; and stress is a core issue for many with Autism. For me the symptom was excess adrenaline, caused mostly by social stress. Reducing these stress hormones also can reduce anxiety; another core symptom of Autism that can result from social interaction; this allows a person more confidence in life. Anxiety is fear related and confidence is the absence of fear. Without anxiety a person has a better opportunity to engage in a successful social interaction.

Dopamine, Serotonin, and Endorphins increased by exercise can enhance mood and reduce the chances for depression.

Dopamine assists one in executive function and focus, symptoms also seen in people with Autism.

An escape into nature, is also a way to reduce stress hormones, with much of the potential that exercise has to help one manage stress.

It has been suggested that Alexithymia (inability to understand emotions) is evident in up to eighty-five percent of those that have Autism. There is research that suggests that music can help one gain a better understanding of emotion and help a person with emotive verbal interaction.

Coping mechanisms may allow a person to successfully function in life. My idea was to leave the polarizing political classifications, that I listed, out of it, and focus on topics that still have a political element that may lead to a more productive discussion.

For instance, in the work you do to provide jobs to those with disabilities, a polarizing political classification is of no use to those that benefit from those jobs. One could question the dignity of the work, wages, or respect shown to the workers, and provide examples of how these issues are addressed, as illustrated in my example.

In the case of coping mechanisms, polarizing political classifications are also not necessary. One may argue against the coping mechanisms or against the particular type of work that you provide to the disabled and we would hope to be able to provide the answers, but there is no need to classify it under a polarizing political classification. Coping Mechanisms and Government supported work for the disabled is a typology (or type) of effort that may help people with Autism function better in life.

There is science, research, and funding behind all of this, but no need to focus on the source of the funding for it. Specifically, though, it does show the importance of research and funding to help people find the effective things in life, to cope with symptoms associated with Autism.

In my case, I found the things that worked for me, research now suggests why it works. For those that have an analytical mind, the evidence of why it works may provide motivation for participation in those activities, to cope better with Autism.

So, if one were to present this under a topic of discussion, it might be the effectiveness of research in coping mechanisms for Autism. Or, on how to insure Dignity and Respect in the workplace provided by support programs for people with Autism. One might also bring up the ADA and the benefit of a diagnosis in the mainstream workplace environment.

We all understand, I think, what the polarizing political classifications are but I will repeat them and expand a little: ASAN, Autism Speaks, Anti-Cure, Cure, Prenatal Test, Abortion, Anti-abortion, Pro-Life, Choice.

Mention any of these words and it is likely we will get an endless argument on one side or the other. It is quite a challenge not to mention them in this forum, but for the sake of a productive conversation that may actually benefit people with Autism, we might try to avoid them if possible and provide topics somewhere in the middle.

I am being bugged to go elsewhere again. So I will come back and reply to other parts. As far as jobs go it is simply public relations and product development. When the actual center starts other then my working with other centers for inclusion folks will get a say on Pr matters. In the beginning there will be no funding for a behaviorist nor is a behaviorist typically part of work centers but I do want to have one hired that will also do the ISP assessments and meetings. I get stressed easy and have to go home depends on how much noise, new place and the lighting. I sit and watch the same music related videos 50 or more times then again the same one or few ones the following day to understand emotions.

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Try understanding the origins of the universe through the psyche.

You are a person that is very high functioning and you'd be considered as having a very mild form of autism. I am told similar behavior then that of autism exists in others. Such as stemming, stress and meltdowns, narrow interests and related. That autism can be misdiagnosed or be very mild. Folks that are able to attend college, work and function within the realm of normalcy I'd see it made possible that their advocacy not effect those who are substantially disabled. These kinds of folks typically dominate self-advocacy and have more control of the movement. It is my decision as the advocacy around me transpires to only allow those confirmed diagnosed by a government regulated and funded agency partake and no outsiders. That way we are sure to have proper empowering say and expression.

I was diagnosed with Aspergers and later PDD NOS at age 47. I had a development delay in speaking until age four and have had problems talking all my life. In someways you might say I had close to savant qualities in my ability to laser focus in lectures and remember information long enough to get almost perfect grades and three college degrees.

My ability for input was like a computer, but output with speaking and writing (before word processors came along) was average and below; when it came time to get a job, the only job I could handle was working at a government Bowling Center for 18 years, followed by a couple of stressful jobs as a Military Community Activities Director, and then a Military Athletic Director. I worked as a government employee, protected from discrimination, during this whole period of time.

At present my functioning ability is lower than yours, from the description of what you can independently do in life. I have vision problems so this is part of the issue, but the autism, and problems with executive functioning puts me at a diagnosed low level of functioning on the Autism Spectrum.

I was largely a visual orientated thinker, I can't tell you how hard executive functioning has been without the vision I had before. If it wasn't for my wife as caregiver, I wouldn't be alive today.

My experience with these difficulties in life gives me an understanding and respect of how important research is to find help with symptoms for all disabilities. My wife has Epilepsy, and she has benefitted much with the treatments that have come from recent research in that area. I think I mentioned to you before that I had a child born disabled also, so I won't go into those details again.

When I talk to you of the importance of living with Autism and believing in one's self as someone normal enough, when they have to fit in to survive; that is where my perspective comes in support of so many people on this website and in the world that struggle in life with myriads of issues related to autism; seemingly high functioning in that they might have gone to college and have held jobs, but often on the brink of losing their mind from being forced into a mold entirely different than nature intended for them.

There are quite a few people like me on this site that you might think function highly in life, based on their ability to relay information on a computer, but keep in mind the computer, in general, is a coping mechanism for communication for many Autistic people that have little or no ability to speak.

Looking back at my life, I wouldn't change much, and didn't even understand the challenge that I faced each day, because it was all I knew and there was no help or information other than what worked on a trial and error basis.

That challenge finally caught up with me at age 47, as it does for many other people that make their best stab at making it in life with Autism or any other condition that has the potential to disable a person.

Please try to understand that the life of those with Autism that have managed to go to college or hold a job doesn't mean they were not severely deficient in other areas that may have made life an horrendous struggle, with visits to institutions, attempts at suicide, and other discursions of such in life.

Those voices in Autism have a place that is just as important as those that are more severely impacted with lifelong disabilities from Autism. Neither you nor I are in a position to know how hard anyones struggle may be. This is the reason, I took the time and effort to try to clear up the misunderstanding between you and another poster a few days ago.

How is it possible you are low functioning yet were able to attend college, work a job full time and do all of that? I am high functioning cognitively and have never been able to do any of that. So how do you equate those not able to achieve those things are higher functioning then those that do. Also I realize those that have great difficulty can also attend college at times but how do they manage multiple topics of study and changing environments?

Also to you what is the difference between sensory overload and social anxiety?

I perceive anxiety toward people something to be handled accordingly with blunt articulation and confidence. I believe social self-perception hinders some people whereas sensory overload is hardwired. Folks like Ari and the ASAN leadership seem to be very high functioning and so is Temple Grandin. People able to self-integrate with ease compared to those who cannot.

It is my belief that both the ideological diversity in agenda's and functional differences require more specific empowered representations so that the autism community can actually be more productive in advocacy. People spend to much time with disputes then collective progresses. Organizations and individuals seem to focus a great deal on ideological disagreements among organizations in the self-advocacy community rather then empowerment of choices.

I just do not see much hope in the autism community as it is now for adult integration issues.

Up until age 45 I was hyposensitive to light and hypersensitive to sounds until loud music damaged a little of my hearing, but extremely hypersensitive to tactile sensations. So much that I could not touch my own feet or clothiing. My coping mechanism of interacting people was mimicking their voices and gestures.

My college degrees were in Anthropology, Social Sciences Disciplinary, and Health Science; they were not nearly as difficult as those in the Business and Engineering divisions in college.

As I mentioned before I used laser focus, writing notes, my excellent memory, and the fact in those days that most tests, tested rote learning with multiple choice, or one or two sentence discussions.

A Bowling Center is probably easier than the work you do. I had the opportunity to study people and learn interaction from this study for eighteen years. Knowledge I gained about computers was leverage for the more stressful positions.

They were more stressful, mostly because I had to go toe to toe with personalities like the Captain of a military installation and was directly responsible to supervise 31 employees and indirectly responsible for 70 more at times.

At age 45 I started to have sensory issues with light and became extremely sensitive to sound; I attribute it to hypervigilence created by social demands that I was not equipped to deal with.

I have had a horrible time with changing environments my whole life. Visiting a city 200 miles from home I was bothered by things like how the air felt different, and the water felt different when I took a shower. How, I couldn't stand textures of towels or different soaps; smells of different cars, the list goes on forever and forever.

But, I experienced it my whole life so I had nothing concrete to compare it to, to understand it wasn't a normal experience of life, other than noone I knew, besides me, couldn't stand to touch the carpet or a cloth seat in a car.

The way I handled it was through an extremely complex system of coping mechanisms, an obsession with vigorous exercise, everyday to calm my nerves since I was 12 years old. playing the piano to get in touch and release emotions I couldn't understand, adherence to routine and structure to keep myself on track.

Most important of all a mother and sister who understood and loved me despite of all of my eccentricities. And later a wife who did the same.

Without that I would have been institutionalized for life without having a chance at any college degrees or full time jobs.

And finally, there must be a God of somekind, or I was the luckiest person on the planet. Or just the unique design of my mind that took me through the journey somehow to get me to this point still clinging to survival.

I would have never developed the ability to speak in front of an audience or say more than a few sentences because of the verbal difficulties I had since childhood; although, I was forced into doing this late in my career and was able to use notes to get through it.

I still don't understand how anyone with Autism can do this, but it just shows how diverse the condition is, and how some people can come up with amazing coping mechanisms to accomplish what might normally have been considered impossible earlier in their life.

I have lost much of my function through age, stress, and comorbid conditions. I would not have been considered at this very low level of functioning when I was still working.

There is already prescence of higher functioning individuals in these organizations. We need more input of those lower on the spectrum for better understanding of their needs.

I'll be frank.

Those prone to chronic isolation, not integrated much at all and have a life of little hope without a structured framework for compassionate integrations deserve and will receive greater awareness to enable this. I will give the up tight pride mongers a few chances and then ignore them after that as I am fed up with their intolerance for compassionate awareness means and if them folk cross my path in a negative way again I will protect the compassionate means with one hell of a vigor in YouTube productions. I have more confidence and hope in Autism Speaks helping along with the ASA and the alike then them folk. I for one ain't waiting around long enough to make sure folks agree with little things to put on the forefront the real priorities that are ignored or pushed away because of EGO's and coinciding image of autism political horse, bull and chicken shi*.

there is no direct corolation between severety of autism dx and a person need for help or how much they struggle or hurt.i have tried to explain that on his forum amillion times and no one gets it.i have met many people who were mid to low functioning on the spectrum who could get a better job and keep more job than i could.i also have met peole with adhd who couldnt get or hold jobs as well as i could

The way in which low and high functioning is being defined is incorrect.

Best just to go in the direction where the needs you provide are accepted. I doubt these "pride mongerers" you are speaking of will ever bother you again if you ignore them. From the way you describe these people, they are not the ones that want or need the kind of service you provide and are more interested in supporting mainstream efforts for people with Autism.

I personally think what you are doing with "Compassionate Integrations" is a good thing and there will be many to support it. If there are those that don't, no big deal, it's the way it is for most things in life; we just have to focus on what works.

I think most of the general public will support your efforts, so you already probably have a large enough target audience, to reduce any real concern over some that may not be enthuisiastic over your efforts.

What I got from the pride mongers was hatred, intolerance and cold hearted mentalities. These kinds of very high functioning people are worse then hate against people with disabilities by the non-disabled. They are akin to pure evil enabling hatred against the disabled. I question whether they are human or of the spirit of the devils back-wind if something like that should exist in imagination. They play victim over everything, make things up and conspire against good deeds. This seems to be their tact as if the world is against them and everyone else aside from their inter-cult is against them.

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