"How Autism Ages" article

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Forgive me if someone's already posted this but I just came across this article in Time magazine about
adults with autism written by the brother of one.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... 22,00.html

No ark for Noah topic

This person went through hell, and may still be there. How can he tell us?

I am reminded of Cheryl, a woman I shared a facility with in the early 70's. I did not know her last name.

Cheryl was probably autistic, now that I remember. She was non verbal and not at all aware of her surroundings, and probably heavily medicated. She was at least 10 years older than me, and I doubt she is still alive. Her behaviour was very violent, mostly to herself, and I saw her being sexually abused by another "inmate". (I reported this, and was believed, mainly because the inmate was a known sexual sadist and housed in the facility with me, Cheryl and others while waiting for a maximum security placement in a Criminal mental hospital. )

The things I saw in that place would make a person's skin crawl right off the body.

I saw first hand what many of these "low functioning" people on the Spectrum went through, and I can only hope Noah does not remember any of it.

Great find and fascinating read. As a higher-functioning Aspie who has visited mental health institutions and long-term care facilities, I often find myself thinking something like "there but for the grace of God..." even though I'm not a believer.

I've been trying to find solid research on adults on the ASD, but there really isn't much. I hope that changes soon.

Articles like that just make me nauseous with fear for my daughter. I'll be elderly when she's middle aged and she has no siblings. So either she can take care of herself by then or someone not related to her will have to take care of her. And that is a gamble.

I swear to God the real reason I'm here is to read posts that are evidence it doesn't have to be like that. That adults with autism don't just shrivel up and get beaten up. There are posts here from people in residential care and I treasure those posts the most as evidence that residential care doesn't have to be the horror that this man put up with. It doesn't HAVE to be. But sometimes it is. And that's just scary because I'm not immortal and the odds are high that at some point she will be cared for by somebody who just wants their annoying workday to end. Shudder.

First of all: How does this sad tale extrapolate to the entire adult autistic population???

Second of all: I totally sympathize with this family’s quest for help with their son. Unfortunately, this article highlights why one should be very leery of going to NTs for this help - of course, how would they know? NTs control the market. NTs do not treat ASDs with human dignity (well, some do – but not enough)

My first exposure to autism (before my own aspie DX, anyway), was as a facilitator to an AAC user. He was so totally a person who would be labeled “LFA” (which I feel is an insulting label that should be overturned IMMEDIATELY), yet bright and dedicated to what he felt was a first amendment right: free speech for everyone. He was a nonverbal, flapping bear of a man who scared most NTs. He spoke at facilitated communication conferences and mentored new facilitated speakers.

One of the people he mentored while I was his facilitator was a man who had been institutionalized his entire life - as NT physicians used to counsel parents to do. Yes, like Noah, he was very angry about the horrific abuses that he endured. He would still have melt downs about these memories a decade later, but he could talk about them, process them, and share them!! ! This made him feel safe.

The NTs have banned FC from this nonverbal population. They call any support of it anti-science. FC had been becoming a real life-saver for the population NTs refer to as “LFA”s. Then one man’s apparent accusation of sexual abuse was proven false. Instead of looking into what could be done to remedy the situation (better trained facilitators perhaps?), NTs attacked it, banned it (e.g. http://www.geocities.com/validationluna ... _FC_e.html). Even the American Speech Language Hearing Association bans it as an unproven intervention, belittling any evidence supporting it.

Noah has known horrid abuse – as have many nonverbal people with autism - and to this day, few have any way to talk about. Few have any control over their lives. They do not feel safe.

I’d be MAD, wouldn’t you?!?

No matter what age I was!! !