Introduction to Autism

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This is a work in progress. A certain user asked a seemingly simple question that I knew immediately would require a very long response. I never want to type this again. I may add to this, but in the future, the same question is getting a LINK. I typed this on Notepad, so no HTML. I apologize in advance to the people I said might answer questions; as of right now, I have not actually asked them if they will do so, and though I think they would, unforeseen circumstances might change that before some future readers read this.

DandelionFireworks's Guide To Having An Autism Spectrum Disorder

SECTION 1-- WHAT IT'S LIKE.

The Bad:

1. Meltdowns. This is an inner state, not a thing or an action. This is the state of being overwhelmed-- by too much sensory input, by hunger, by grief, by anger, by exhaustion or, far more likely, by a combination thereof. (Also other factors. Anything that takes energy.) A meltdown is what happens when you are so overwhelmed that you lose control to some degree over some aspect of your behavior. This manifests differently for different people. For me, they're nothing much so long as I'm alone. I shrink away from people, couldn't coherently explain anything to save my life, cry. Do what I have to to get people away; shout, usually.

2. Shutdowns... exist. Ask someone else. I don't have them; anbuend might be able to explain, though.

3. Sensory issues. You might be hypersensitive-- I know someone hypersensitive to all noise (so far as I can gather), which means that it's much more likely that a given noise will hurt her ears or be upsetting. You can be hyposensitive to certain sensations-- my vestibular (balance/movement) system used to be severely hypo, which meant I couldn't realy feel movement. I used to spin in circles all the time in a desperate attempt to feel something. (This is a stim. More on those later.) My hearing has what's called a sawtooth pattern, which means that it's both. I'm hypersensitive to some sounds, but not uniformly; some sounds I'm hyposensitive to.

4. Sensory overload. I experience this LEIK WOAH. This is where (generally when tired) everything becomes too much. Every sensation you feel is overwhelming. You can strip off your clothes, but you'll still have hair and you'll still feel the ground under your feet or a chair under your bum. You can go away from people and noise, but you're still breathing. (Ever been overloaded by the sound of your own breathing? Life sucks some days.) This is where you wish for absolute sensory deprivation, and wonder if it would still manage to be overwhelming. This can cause meltdowns, by the way.

5. You have a different set of instinctive nonverbal behaviors from the "normal" (neurotypical, or NT) set. You have no chance to practice your instinctive set. No one else uses it. Worse, they often use the exact opposite. What you don't have is a problem with social skills-- you have perfectly viable social skills that are meant for interacting with completely different people. It's sort of like someone from Japan might speak Japanese fluently, but that doesn't really help you when you're communicating with Americans who speak only English. Learn the other set; don't expect too much from this exercise unless you're willing to devote hours every day to studying it intensely. The worst part is, you live among people who trust your nonverbal cues above your words, no matter what, which wouldn't be so bad if your nonverbal cues didn't just happen, by accident, to mean something in their "language" (this meaning generally being either "I hate you" or the opposite of what you're thinking... or, you know, both).

6. For various reasons, our hygiene does not tend to be very good. Then again, some of us are utter neat-freaks, so...


The Good:

1. Special interests. These could be called obsessions or fixations, I guess. A special interest is a topic you become fascinated with, so much so that you would, if possible, devote your every waking minute to it, sometimes to the exclusion of food or sleep, and almost always to the exclusion of a social life. You probably won't actually pursue it to the point of starving to death (after all, you'd die of thirst far sooner), and as long as you can remember to take a few hours to sleep and eat every day (bathing is optional), you'll probably become exceptionally accomplished at it and become an expert. You'd best pray that it's a useful subject, though, and that you're not becoming an expert on, say, your own belly-button. If you are, there's not a whole lot you can do. If, however, your special interest is politics or science or a creative pursuit, you're likely to become a virtuoso or a genius. These can change, though; I haven't cared about dinosaurs in over a decade. Some can last for a ridiculously short time, some for a very long time. I had a special interest for... one evening. Lapwings. As it took only an evening, I couldn't tell you anything about them. On the other hand, fictional books (writing, reading, everything but the process of printing them) are something I've been interested in since I can recall, and various books have become special interests which have lasted anywhere from days to years.

2. In some cases, you don't like people and don't actually want a social life. Rather than wasting time on one, you can be doing worthwhile things.

3. You have an outsider's view, and are a sort of watchdog. When something NTs do doesn't make sense, they never (or rarely) question it; it's up to us to take an unbiased look at society (actually, being unbiased is impossible; however, we can have radically different biases and so be immune to the ones the world so desperately needs people immune to). This accounts for some of the leaps in science we've made (special interests are also part of it).

The Neutral:

1. Stimming. I'm not going to bother here because there's such a good blog post on this topic to be found here: http://chaoticidealism.livejournal.com/83950.html

2. Not seeing the forest for the trees-- seeing parts automatically, the whole with some effort. I'm not the one to ask about this.

SECTION 2-- WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

You're not broken. You can benefit from other people's coping strategies. (Someday I hope to add SECTION 3-- SPECIFIC COPING SKILLS to this document.)

There's some debate over whether Asperger's is autism; go ask someone else. Callista might know.

People whose names you should know:
Jenny McCarthy, whose son probably has autism. She says it's the Mercury; she tried some very crackpot "cures" and claimed they fixed her son. For information, read her book Louder Than Words.
Amanda Baggs, a blogger who claims to have autism. For what it's worth, I believe what she says, but there have been people who have come out an called her a liar. Their stories sound like the sort of lies that generally get told about us; I don't believe them, but who knows?
Simon Baron-Cohen is a leading autism researcher who put forth the "extreme male brain" theory. You can take the EQ/SQ test if you want.
Autism Speaks is... well, I can't talk about them and be fair. I dislike them too passionately for that. Not that I've been fair.

Words you should know:
NT-- neurotypical, someone who doesn't have autism
LFA-- low-functioning autistic. There is no definition; this term is nonsense.
HFA-- high-functioning autistic. Ditto LFA.
Aspie-- person with Asperger's.
Social model-- the social model of disability. Basically, the idea that "disability" isn't a thing inherent to a person, but an interaction between an environment requiring a person of type A and a person of type B (C, D, etc.).
Medical model-- the idea that disability is inherent to the individual and that fixing it takes the form of changing the person to remove the abnormality.
Curebie-- slightly derogatory term for someone who wants a cure for autism.
Neurodiversity-- a movement. The idea is that variation in styles of thinking is GOOD, and should be embraced.

Good job!

Thanks!

Holy crap! I didn't expect that much information to come from that one simple question! Thanks so much! Somebody should sticky this.

Just about all of these describe me better as a kid. When I was a kid I had all of these symptoms. But now, some of them have gone away or at least aren't as bad as they used to be. Does Autism get 'better' as you get older? Or can you train yourself to be slightly less autistic? I feel like that's what happened to me.

Oh yeah, and can the Sensory issues be with eyes? I've always kinda liked doing things in the dark. I keep all lights in my room off except my closet light too. Idk why,, I don't melt in the light or anything, I just prefer it dark.

Eyes... yes.

Getting better... not as such. Autism is a way of being, basically; associated with it are the diagnostic criteria, which are the most negative points and were developed from studies of children. However, all humans, always, will seek to improve themselves. You can overcome some of the associated difficulties to some extent. Meltdowns-- you don't get overwhelmed as much, I would assume, and once you learn how you are, yes, you have fewer. Sensory issues-- well, just think of your ability to endure pain now versus when you were five. Bet it's a lot better, same with your patience. And for us, NT communication is not instinctive... but it IS a learnable skill, and a skill we all find ourselves pressured to learn. Sort of like how you might meet someone with dyslexia who probably reads a lot better now than when they were six, maybe even reads well.