Some efforts to make the ER less autism unfriendly

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Helping patients with autism navigate the stressful ER - CNN

Hospitals are extreamly sensory over stimulating, crowded, noisy, always bieng unexpectedly poked and prodded at a time obviously you are feeling very lousy anyways.

Interesting article. Seems oblivious to Autistic adults...I wonder how they address that.

I also noticed that they said Autism correlates to gastrointestinal disorders and schizophrenia. Is this true?

That schizophrenia idea is dated. Autism was coined as a word in 1911 to describe a type of schzophrenic behavior of withdrawing into ones own world. Leo Kanner identified Autism a sepreate condition from schzophrenia in the early 1940's but "childhood schizophrenia" and autism were interchangeable diagnosis for the following few decades but have been considered seperate conditions in the last few decades.

GI issues are a well known co-morbid of autism.

Thanks for the info. I had to ask because:
1) Been under psychiatric care before and Schizophrenia was not part of the diagnosis or anywhere near diagnosis. Neither were Narcissism (Got checked for that because, well, artists by nature are a bit narcissistic anyway), no psychopathy or sociopathy (too much guilt and a conscious).

2) The gastrointestinal issue is interesting because I've always had one problem or another for my entire life. Mostly chalked up to 'being in my head'. And for the last year or so I have had no appetite, no hunger and no apparent loss of health as a result. I put that towards me being fat and a lot of reserves. Although I just had to ditch the belt a couple of weeks ago and switch to suspenders because my clothes were falling off me. Literally. That last night, I walked home holding up my pants.

Of course, I'm an old white guy. No ass.......

That's good to know. For me hospital = pure hell.

I have been diagnosed with mild schizophrenia, but it is considered co-morbid. I wonder if people with autism are more prone to GI issues because we deal with so much anxiety and stress. I get stomach cramps a lot because of that.

Last edited by EzraS on 01 Mar 2016, 12:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The stress idea is my theory

My grandson is having sensory issues lately dealing with his hunger. He is not processing hunger, but instead, is processing it as having to go to the bathroom.

The stress thing is spot on for me. I can feel my stomach knotting up the day before I have to go out and do anything. It's made me nauseous, cramping and even made me dry heave.

Really?

Mild schizophrenia can be co-morbid with autism? Since when? How so? What diagnostic system/manual allows for that?

I know that there has been some thinking that autism and schizophrenia might be on a mutual spectrum but I didn't know anyone had codified that.

For me allergies are a bigger part of the GI issues. Stress plays a part but more often it appears that allergies are the main driver. When I eat little to no gluten I have less issues. When it isn't "allergy season" I have less problems.

After 52 years on this God forsaken planet, I've gathered evidence, not just anecdote. For my own situation at least, I can't speak for others...of course.