This is Autism!

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Why do I need to test it??? I am it!! !

Star

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence..

I dunno...sounds like Sociobiology. In all that you say, I say there is something that's true, but not that there's truth in everything you say. I was born between the Korean and Vietnam wars, and Dad was drafted into the Navy a week after WWII ended, so unless you're thinking of the Cold War, I'm not a representative sample...

The brain has a split cerebellum, each which would be part of the whole brain. Some parts may be dominant over other parts, depending on the person. AS may be a hereditary syndrome, rather than influenced by immediate surroundings, it's probably more Darwin than Lysenko.

Still, you've been considering the situation. The DSV's only had us in the listings for 14 or so years, so there's a lot to consider still.

What is Autism???

This is a question that every scientist in the last 15 years keeps asking and researching, but the more they research the further they seem to wander from the core. What is the core? The core is almost like an instinct, a 'fact' that ALL autistics -classic, aspies, HFAs, PDD-NOSers, etc- somehow have, understand, accept and share. It almost seems like a central common trait, like all people who are Asian have almond shaped eyes, or people who have dark skin have a higher amount on melanin in their skin.

Scientists that study autism have called it core Theory of Mind or ToM in short. They think that we lack certain things and that is why we are different than the NTs. They have hammered this notion for 15 long years and we have slowly come to believe it ourselves. Or have we not?

You see, it is easy to sit back and say, I can't handle life cause I lack something you have therefore I am entitled to something extra, a softer approach, an extra accommodation, a special kind of understanding, more tolerance, and of course acceptance . Lacking something others have, also allows for personal excuses: "I am depressed today, so I won't get out of bed," "I can't read others thoughts, so I won't bother spending time find out what they think or need," "I can't run as the NTs can so I will just sit and take a nap."

Ok, yes, I am exaggerating with the examples I gave, but I am trying to make a point. What is the point I want to make?

What, if there was NOTHING wrong with us, and autism was not a lack of something, but an addition of something that we autistics have but not learned how to 'use' because living in an NT world full of people who lack this something we have, there is no way to know how to put it into use. Almost like a Swiss army knife that has this one extra tool, which all other foldable knives do not have. But no one knows what it does, what this one extra tool is for, or how to use it.

Having this extra tool of course alters the way the Swiss army knife is make because for it to accommodate this extra tool the other tools that it includes had to also be a bit adjusted. The blade of the saw is a bit shorter, the screwdriver is thinner, and the scissors are shaped a bit different -but still cut perfectly well. All in all, this special Swiss army knife compared to the other regular foldable knives seems to lack the sturdiness and handiness they have. And the extra tool? Well, all the experts agree, that it is just an extra tool that somehow was added by accident and has no practical function. On the contrary, it causes all the other functional tools of the Swiss army knife to be below standard.

In other words, this Swiss army knife with the extra tool is less useful than the regular folding knives and it needs to be fixed, changed and made up to standard.

What is this extra tool? It is the core of autism. No one knows what it is, what it does or why it is there. No one? Yes, probably no one. What if someone did know what it is, what it does and why it is there? Would they believe him/her? Who? The autistics or the experts who study autism. Probably both. The autistics would be disinterested: "well, it is my own tool and I know already what it does" even if they did not know, but saving face and not seem like an ignorant idiot is part of this core, so the autistics would not really care if anyone knew what this tools does and why it is there.

Then there are the experts. Unless the person who knows what this tool does has a PhD, MSA, GRF, STD, BP, ATM, PMS or any other three-letter code following their name, the experts will not listen. It is not what one knows or how many books one has read that counts, but how many ladders one has climbed in any established social, scientific or other podium until they are the king of the (ant) hill.

So like any wise autie/aspie the one who know what this tool is and what it does speaks not. S/He sits and reads the next latest discovery that scientists think will finally solve the mystery of autism, complete the puzzle and pinpoint the cause and origin, and laughs so hard that s/he falls off of her chair.

In any average population any symptom and any malfunction can be correlated with anything else. It is a fact of science. Let me give you an example: Fast food can cause poverty because according to research, it is significantly more poor people that eat fast food than not, so one can conclude that fast food causes poverty. If this sound silly then wait until you hear about the mercury vaccines causing autism, and the high testosterone in embryos causing the androgen effect in autistics. This last one I liked the most. You see in my country, the Netherlands, this androgen effect we call it homosexuality and the autistics call themselves gay and lesbians. You see how absurd this all sounds?

So, what is autism? It is not caused by mercury, it is not caused by all the other crap they have found because if it was, they would have found some kind of vaccine or medicine to fix and cure it as they have for everything else including cancer.

What then? Have you ever looked at a mirror? Of course you have. You know that what is there is your own face, right? Are you sure? Look a bit more carefully. It looks like your own face, but it is not. Your left ear is not sticking out like that! It is your right ear that does. And what about that nose ring? It is on the wrong nostril, isn't it? If you think about it, the face you see is not really your own. It is the mirror-image of your own. Like a silly twin who has everything you have but opposite. You move your left arm she moves her right. You blink with your right eye, he blinks with the left. We are so used to seeing our mirror image and automatically assuming it is us, that we have never thought that it is actually someone else. Some that looks like us, but is opposite than us, if we have not learned that what we see is a mirror image the whole sight of this being with the unexplainable and opposite movements would be a reason to be alarmed.

Almost as big a reason as that the weariness that NTs see Autism. The autistics look like them, but they seem to make unexplained and opposite actions and reactions than the NT norm does. They seem to laugh when there is no reason for even a smile. They burst into tears when there is no reason to cry, they look away when they should be making eye contact, they are wide awake when all are meant to go to sleep, they shut off when they should be listening, they notice details when they should be seeing the whole, they run when they should be walking or standing still, they go into apathy when they should be taking action, they explode and get angry when there is no reason for such outburst, they seem to do everything opposite that it should be.

Was that opposite? You mean like a mirror does, showing everything in an opposite way and making the left right and the right... wrong??? Could it be? Could the answer be that simple? No! That is impossible.

How come and only autistics do that? I mean, if it is that simple, how come and NTs don't do that? What makes autistics do that and not NTs? What makes the cutting edge? The answer is survival. The survival mechanism in any and every being. But NTs have this mechanism, too? Yes, they do. Then what causes this sidetracking from the norm? Fear and the chemistry of fear.

We all know that fear is an instinct we all have. Any and every being that is alive and has a brain that can produce chemicals, has the instinct of fear because this instinct is the basis for survival. Fear is like a sensor inside our brain that activates the alarm button when something is wrong. To determine what is wrong, the brain needs to know what is right. Right is the normal, the common, the routine, the boundaries, the usual, the known, the safe, the protection, the pleasure, the happiness. These the brain learns from the moment it is born. Each moment of our life and each event that takes place is constantly classified by our brain as right and as wrong. Seeing familiar face = right, seeing unknown face = wrong ==> fear ==> alarm button ==> chemistry of fear activated. This goes on day in day out until our brain creates a long list of everything that is right and everything that is wrong. This is the normal brain.

When the normal brain gets to the 'alarm button' phase and the chemistry of fear phase, the following take place inside the body: Hormones are produced that do two equal and opposite things. One set of hormones that include among others adrenaline and testosterone are meant to do two things. These two things are again equal and opposite to each other: stand and fight or start running and flee. This is known as the fight or flight reaction to fear.

The other set of hormones that include opiates that are similar to morphine, are set to do again two equal and opposite things: eliminate pain (in case of injury) and create a high effect. This high effect is what is also known as being in shock. This is a safety mechanism of the brain. In case the source of fear ends up being the source of death the being is being 'protected' be this high so that the final moment is not a huge trauma.

This is an interesting concept. Fear has 2 sets of reactions. One is the acknowledgement that one is facing danger and even injury or death and must fight or flight and the other is a sort of pleasure due to the opiates that cause us to feel fearless, feel less pain, not feel cold, and not even care if we live or die. Our brain at that moment is almost like a rope being pulled towards two equal and opposite wishes. One wish is to protect ourselves by fighting or running away, while the other is a wish to stay and experience this event as if attracted by the danger, the opponent that threatens our lives.

One will wonder why the heck do we need these two opposite situations, just running and getting out of there would be enough, right? Wrong. Each species, to be able to survive, it needs to know how it stands in the food chain. Who can eat it and which can he eat. Who forms a threat because it is bigger and stronger and who can be won easily and gain advancement. If each species would run away when confronted by another no one would know who does what and who is a threat and who is food. All species would die from hunger!

Back to the autism issue. As we saw fear causes the brain and the body to produce 2 sets of chemicals: the fear hormones and the pleasure hormones. Freud called these two opposites as the Eros and Thantos effect. Beings seem to find very attractive what scares them the most. This is because what scares them the most also produces the most pleasure because the amount of opiates that are produced in the brain is equal to the amount of the adrenaline and the testosterone, the fight and flight hormones.

In other words: the greater the fear, the greater the pleasure. This is the thin line that separates the so called normal neurotypical brain from the so called abnormal autistic brain. Do not get mad at me, as I mean both terms of normal and abnormal with a tone of sarcasm.

If you are still with me and I have not bored you to death or deep sleep, let me continue by saying that the turning point for this split into two, the same as it feels when standing in front of a mirror and consciously knowing that you are one, but what you see and witness and experience is two of you each an exact copy of the other, yet in an opposite orientation. This opposite orientation is what makes neurotypicality and autism the mirror images of each other. I know that you are hardly convinced that this is true, but I hope to have stimulated your interest to keep on reading.

To review, fear is the basic instinct that is a built-in meter that can tell the brain when something veers from the known normal (the routine) and thus safe and presents a threat thus unsafe. Unsafe means that survival is being threatened with extinction thus death or any degree towards that extinction thus injury.

The being reacts by releasing chemicals that cause an intense repulsion and an intense attraction towards the threat. In terms of survival this attraction/repulsion is necessary for the following reasons: Repulsion will ensure that the being will try and preserve its existence and attraction will ensure that it gets to know the enemy better. If knowing the enemy better combined with its attempt to preserve its existence has as a result the survival of the being, the experience will give the being an additional and very valuable piece of knowledge. Facing the enemy and surviving ads wisdom and the wiser the being the better it will handle its survival.

Let's now assume that during a situation of fear the being is not alone. Inside the being is another being, a fetus. The mother being encounters fear and her body begins producing the above mentioned combination of chemicals, hormones that will help her survive. These hormones do not only affect her own body, but also the developing body of her fetus. Especially, the developing brain of the fetus. The fetus like the mother will experience both the feeling of repulsion and the feeling of attraction, because feelings are actually chemical reactions inside the brain that are recognized as a feeling. Hate and love are actually the resulting feelings that the repulsion and attraction cause.

The fetus experiences this hate and love even if it doesn't know yet what it is. It does know that it has something to do with its existence and the extinction of that existence. If the situation that the mother encounters is prolonged, and the fear chemicals' levels in her body are elevated for periods of time that are abnormal -what is abnormal here is determined by the species tolerance to these chemicals and how easily the species can counteract these chemicals so that they do not result in substantial or even permanent damage or physical alterations, a mutation of some sort, these chemicals will have a significant effect on the fetus and the overall development of that fetus.

If the mother's body is full of testosterone, and the fetus is exposed for a prolonged and thus abnormal period of time to this testosterone, structural changes will result in the fetus' brain and body. Research that is connected with the scientific search of what is autism has shown that a high level of testosterone will alter the size of the amygdala, the emotional center in the brain.

Additional research with mice this time has also shown that a high level of testosterone during gestation will result in alterations in the stereotypical male and female behavior of the offspring. This means that a high level of testosterone can create an androgynous effect making the male mice less aggressive and the female mice more aggressive!

Finally, an even more interesting study has shown that high levels of adrenaline and testosterone (and the opiates, let’s not forget them) can alter the function of the brain as a whole! This research has shown that the brain can go into a permanent state of R.E.M. sleep altering the frequency of the waves that it uses to operate. When at this (permanent) state the brain is more prone to experience daydreaming, hallucinations, paranormal phenomena and more.

How does this all connect to autism? If you have not figured that out by now, I am afraid that you will have to keep on reading. If you have, then you can now stop reading and think all you have read over.

It is a fact that many autistics have experienced a difficult birth, and I am not just saying that, there is research that has proven this info statistically. Other research has shown that if a person experiences trauma then every subsequent trauma will multiply the effect by 40-70%. This means that if a fetus has experienced a traumatic situation through the body of the mother -remember that the fetus experiences fear even if it does not consciously know what fear is, and then experiences a traumatic birth, the combination of the two can cause the brain to go into a permanent R.E.M. sleep state.

If the neurotypical brain operates in an 'awake' state, then its mirror image, the autistic brain operates in a 'sleep' state.' Before you lynch me, let me explain that I by no means mean that autistics are asleep or that we are idiots in an endless dreamland (maybe some of us are, but that is another story - this was a joke!).

What it means is that the 'sleep' state creates an equal but opposite set of rules than the 'awake' state that the neurotypical brain understands and is able to function within. The 'awake' state means that the brain waves alter to 'sleep' waves when the person is asleep, while in the case of us autistics the 'sleep' waves do not change when we are asleep, they become stronger. This is why our awake and sleep state is so different than that of the neurotypicals.

Another issue is the thinking in pictures. You see, the brain in the 'sleep' state is capable to operate in the same way as it operates when dreaming. Dreams are not only images, but most importantly, the brains way to sort out, categorize, systemize, analyze, and finally memorize all events that it experienced during the day. Within 2 cycles of a 3-4 hour R.E.M. sleep the brain has managed to process data that it accumulated throughout a 16 or more hour day!

This means that the 'sleep' state, the dreaming and seeing images is a much faster way to process information than the 'awake' state that uses language. There are many other benefits to having a brain that operates in the 'sleep' state' such as heightened sensitivity, both empathic/telepathic and physical. The down side of this is the overload that we all know happens.

This is because, just like the R.E.M. sleep, the brain operates at optimum capacity in a 3-4 hour cycle and then it needs to rest before it starts another 3-4 hour cycle. This is why the best way for an autistic to use his/her brain is to take a pause every about 4 hours and alter the source of stimulation, it can be as simple as lying on the couch and taking a 10 minute nap, or going to the bathroom and isolating oneself from much external stimuli, or listening to music with your eyes shut.

The biggest benefit of this 'sleep' state is the extra tool of the Swiss army knife we all autistics have: As many scientists have proven time is not linear but is goes round and round in a sort of loop. Actually it is a shape that looks like an 8 but lying on its side. This is the also the symbol of infinity. To understand this all you need to do is to cut a strip of paper about one 1 inch (2.5 cm) wide and about 12 inches (30 cm) long. Color one side black and leave the other side white. Now take the two ends and bring them to touch each other creating a circle with the stripe of paper. One side the inner let's say will be black and the outer will be white. Now take one end and twist it so that the black side of one end touches the white side of the other end. Bring these two ends to overlap each other; you will have a white end that goes over to become black once the line is crossed. Glue the two ends together. If you hold the 'circle' now you will see that it is not a circle any more but is looks like an 8 because one side is twisted.

Now place your finger on the black side and trace it. You will see that it goes round and then crosses the line and becomes white and goes on and crosses the line again and becomes black and goes on and on endlessly! This is time. We began with a straight line, a strip of paper, and now we have an endless loop. Any part of that loop is both past, present and future because there is no beginning and there is no end in time. Existence is like a photograph: a moment in time. We live, exist in moments, that are actually independent of each other but we, human beings, have placed them in a linear shape so that we can make sense of our lives, our existence.

The extra tool autistics have enables us to instinctively understand many of these things. We feel a special connection to nature, to the planet Earth, the universe, and the cosmos. We feel that there is some higher power out there and we are connected to that in a spiritual sense. We also know that there is no such thing as linear time. Scientists have said based on their research that autistics have no sense of time and that we are bad at managing time and we need to make schedules and programs and lists of how to divide and use time in the normal way, the neurotypical way. And this while, we know instinctively, subconsciously that there is no linear time, there are moments, there is now and now and now and now and now...

It is not accidental that the men and women who have opened doors that led to expanding the world's consciousness and understanding about the world around us, about the universe, quantum physics were people like Newton, Galileo, Einstein, and others who are now thought to have been autistic. They realized they had an extra tool and learned how to use it. And so have I. This tool allowed me to piece the puzzle together, put all the research ever done about autism or otherwise, and discover what autism is.

What is Autism?

Autism is a coincidence, a mutation that resulted from a combination of exposure to high levels of fear hormones (adrenaline, testosterone and opiates) during gestation and a traumatic birth. This combination that was experienced by the fetus as highly traumatic, increased the levels of the fear chemicals to such a degree that the brain went into a permanent 'sleep' state that resulted in a brain that uses a different frequency of waves (similar to the R.E.M. sleep wave length) than the neurotypical brain.

The mother of the fetus had experienced far above normal stressors in her life during her pregnancy, or her mother (the grandmother of the fetus) was also autistic and had elevated testosterone levels, which she passed on to her fetus as a result from her own mother's elevated stress levels. I believe that for example wars were and still are in many parts of the world, such periods of extensive stressors that resulted to waves of high numbers of autistics being born.

If you think about it, the WWI was between 1914 and 1918. Mothers that gave birth to children at that time must have had a large percentage of children (male and female) being autistic. These children were old enough to have a second generation of autistics by 1940 when both the Austrian Hans Asperger in Europe and the also Austrian Leo Kanner 'discovered' autism! While Asperger was in Europe and Kanner was in the USA, they were both treating mostly European patients as many Europeans -especially Jews- had migrated to the USA during and after WWII. This can very well mean, that autism as we know it today could have originated in Europe and spread to the rest of the world together with the Europeans.

Why the autistics spread? Because who are more likely to leave a society that does not feel welcoming than autistics, and immigrate to new lands seeking new opportunities and form new communities and societies that must have been in their primary state more tailor-made to the autistic needs. Such communities still exist. Think of the Amish for one.

Then came the WWII generation of autistics born between 1940-1950, which became the Hippie generation that opposed war, rejected the rules and norms of society, and all in all exhibited a very autistic behavior to say the least. That 60s generation of autistics gave birth to children that were in their teens in the 1980s and this was the second, more concentrated generation of autistics. That is when autism became most apparent, around mid 1980s when Lorna Wing for the first time used the term Asperger's Syndrome, but it took another 10 years until the mid 1990s for scientists to start researching and trying to find a cure for the most perplexing disorder of the last century.

And here we are today, 15 years later and while the world is searching under every stone to find what autism is, it is an autistic that has the answer.

It serves them right doesn't it?

I pretty much agree if not more dimensions:
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt65698.html

The bit about adrenaline, and testosterone kind of lost me sorry. I do thing that they can act like 'volatile' agents, the the connection between the two isn't really that apparent. Many things can do that.

One thing is testosterone during gestation. It isn't necessarily the case that baby will have high testosterone level later on in life. Like I discussed in another thread as with any agent introduced during gestation, timing is everything. I seems that there is whole host of conditions that could be caused by high testosterone during gestation, they aren't necessarily concurrent but could be. So the fact that there is hight testosterone is only part of the picture.

Stress/anxiety and therefore adrenaline is pretty much known to have an impact on the babies development when it is in the high levels. It also affects the birth process itself.

Remember thalidomide? well that is a volatile agent the affects the growth process during gestation. But is not all bad. It is actually very good at fighting off liquid forms of cancer as are its derivatives.

I know some people refuse to believe this, because it doesn't fit the romantic notion of pregnancy: but medically it is the gestation process and environment that is doing the bulk of the development. Take the baby out of there too early and it will cease to live, without critical care. They also know that special chemical signals kick start certain processes and these responses can be interfered with by other agents.

I haven't read everything you written because it is late and my ED is kicking in. But from what I've read, I would recommend against chaining together loose circumstantial theories and information. Start with a viable hypothesis and then *IF* you find it to be true then make the next one. I know it is easy to get carried away, I don't mean it as a personal slight.

My dear science has been feeding us "loose circumstantial theories and information" about autism for the last 20 so years and you have all believed it to the point that you are sure that what you have is a lesser mind compared to the neurotypical one.

Now, you tell me not to chain together loose circumstantial theories and information when FINALLY the truth is out...

Hmmmm.... what is wrong in this picture?

Star

I have a hard time believing an argument that completely side-steps genetics. I also believe the original statement of a "3-D" Autism puzzle oversimplifies the Autism spectrum.

The other thing you seem to be ignoring, is that some Autistics are truely disabled. They could be a swiss-army knife with an additional tool - but we can't tell because the knife is closed and has several layers of tape wrapped around it.

I know the way to remove the tape and teach them how to use the swiss-army knife that is their autistic brain and abilities. I am working on this therapy as we speak together with an occupational therapist who is also autistic.

Science is a fool and a half-blind fool too! If it was otherwise they would have discovered already years ago what is autism. Either they can't find the answer due to being a fool and half-blind or they KNOW the answer and they do not want anyone else to know because they would have to admitt that autism is actually the next evolutionary step of the human race.

Instead they profit by milking the parents of millions of autistic kids by telling them that their kids are broken and if you pay we will fix them for you, we will find a cure, we will find a way to detect teh autistic fetus, we will give them all kinds of medications to neutralize their abilities so they do not bother us, and so on.

If you want science to prove what autism is then you are just a fool and half-blind too.

Star

I never said I wanted science to prove what autism is. I said:



I don't need science to tell me that autism is genetic. I can look at my own family tree and see it.

At any rate, you've made assumptions about me and resorted to name-calling after a minor critique of your premise. You could have just explained how genetics does or does not fit into your paradigm. Unfortunately, you've done neither. I interpret your response as unwanting to participate in a true discussion and will move on to other threads in which such discussion is desired. Good luck in your endeavors.

Do not take others posts personaly!

When I reply to a post even if there is a quote from one author I am always aware that many others will also read it so my reply includes them all as well.

If you want to know how genetics connect into this then please look at my blog at

Asperger Mind Speaks

I am open and willing to discuss the matter with you after you have read my blog that way I will not have to repeat and explain things that I have already stated in my blog.

Thanks!

Star

Science doesn't feed people do. Mostly the ones not using proper scientific method. The truth will come out regardless, I'm trying to help you get there faster. You can use whatever technique you like. Although at the moment you are doing nothing to work towards that. Just theories loosely chained together circumstantially. There are so many possibilities. That is why it makes sense to start with a reasonable hypothesis and work from there.

If it is meant as purely a metaphysical exercise then fine.

I see where you are going, but that method is itself isn't conclusive proof you still have to rule out other possibilities.

Just look at Henry Goddard's famous study. He used it to insinuate that 'feeble mindedness' is genetic. A more recent of the side of the family in question concluded that the ofspring were probably had fetal alcohol syndrome, which is no genetic and something particularly endemic where there is extreme poverty.

Personally I worry about you if you are turning vigilantly anti science like the folk at AFF. That is just as bad as the 'curbies' IMO.

The problem isn't science it is the lack of good science.

I also agree that denial and assimilation have proved helpful in points of history, but I try not to use it all the time nowadays. a) because I actually need help with some things b) I have higher expectations (even if the disappointment kills me every day)

Why genetic?

Where was this gene? That would be very simple to track.

Lots has been spent, and the best research says several hundred genes might be involved.

Just because something runs in families does not make it genetic.

A chemical change due to stress does fit the facts.

The wave birth theory of Autism does fit the facts.

If genetics was the ruling factor, the children of one couple would be very much alike, fraturnal twins born at different times.

The truth is they can be very different. Not only in hair and eye color, but on every other level.

Autistics can have NT children, genetics would say otherwise.

Chemicals produced by stress producing a natural stress state that runs for generations, perhaps longer, does fit the picture I see.

Even the Amish are a byproduct of European wars, a people apart, I know that feeling, that joined and chose to live apart in a simple and rational life.

Now who likes simple and rational rules? Why do Autistic love Science? Technology? It's rational.

Even after generations of living in peace, there are no Amish motorcycle gangs, nor do they chose to be warriors. It is just not in their nature.

They are very much the model of an Autistic community. It is not religion or cult leaders that bind them to their way of life, it is just their way of life.

At the worst, if they quit, left, they would go be Amish somewhere else.