Autism and the Nautilus

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Autism and the Nautilus

The core "conflict" of Autism and farther out into a Broader Autism Phenotype seems to be a disconnect of Emotion and Language.

At core, perhaps Alexithymia and Autism is one.

The drive for reciprocal social communication among Social Animals is so strong, that I cannot help but to think that Creativity or "Creation Activity" in all its forms is driven in core by those who look to find that connection in Reciprocal Social Communication with others and cannot find it easily.

I see that "expressionless face" of reciprocal social communication in messages of "Creation Activity" from Poets, Writers, Painters, Musicians, Mechanics, Carpenters, Architects, Software Engineers, and anyone else that spends their life in Creation Activity.

The End Result is everything we see around us, "man-I-fest" by the Human Species.

I have always been fascinated by patterns in Nature.

Among my favorites are Nautilus Shells, Fetuses, Hurricanes, and Galaxies.

My School Logo was a Nautilus Shell, which by Synchronicity or Coincidence I was born with three at Birth.

I also spent my life in a "Nautilus" Shell in an attempt to become stronger aided by that advantage in Exercise Technology provided by culture for some who are born weaker than others are.

My school Motto coming from Oliver Wendell Holmes and his poem about the Nautilus Shell is:


"Build Thee More Stately Mansions"





It took me longer to Build one than most but I started here, linked below, in music that has finally become words. One note led to one note led to another and finally a structure of notes became one.

Years after, there was a word, a sentence, a paragraph, and finally a "Mansion" that continues to grow.

It appears to me now that the Human Species and all that comes from it is "man-I-fest" of when "I" becomes more fully aware of "AM" that "IS".

Shell becomes ONE with Nautilus.


I could not identify an emotion in My Music but I think I found a word to describe it:



"Nautilus"



[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SApGpWf2dg[/youtube]


What I perceive when I listen to it is a spiraling motion of notes in my mind that has no end but "One"
(note: doesn't playback well on mobile devices, but okay on desktops at low volume)

My blog post that goes into more detail about my experience with Alexithymia and Music, linked below:

http://katiemiaaghogday.blogspot.com/20 ... music.html

Not sure if I get it? Emotions and music is always a strong thing for all people?

If emotions develope over time they seem to be easier to indentify while underdeveloped emotions maybe hard to understand?

There is a spectrum of response to emotion and music, like almost everything else in life.

Not all people describe a strong emotional response from music, and others describe an extremely strong response for music.

As an analogy, some people cannot bear to watch the marketing efforts by charitable organizations in showing abused animals to raise money for them, and it does not phase other people.

Those are all common responses, within what one could describe as a "norm" seen in the general population.

Alexithymia, is a much more complicated issue that is measured prevalent among 85% of people on the spectrum. It is identified higher in this subgroup of "condition" than any other identified co-morbid condition.

The DSMIV Criteria for ASD's is currently loosely described, and does not necessarily capture individuals with difficulties in social-emotional reciprocity as that criterion element is not currently a mandatory one. It becomes a mandatory one with the DSM5 criteria.

If everyone could be "magically" re-diagnosed "strictly" according to that new criteria, there could be as many as 95% or more people identified with Alexithymia on the spectrum because it is often associated with difficulties in social-emotional reciprocity.

Not only do people assessed with the condition of Alexithymia, have difficulty describing their emotions in words they also can have difficulty describing the emotions of others in words, which can be a substantial source of difficulty in reciprocal social-emotional communication with others.

There is also an identified deficit in experiencing "affective emotion" for others at the biological level for some individuals with the condition of Alexithymia.

The current "ground breaking" research in providing therapies for children on the spectrum with severe language problems is a type of music therapy that is associated with tapping drums. That is not ground breaking to me at all, as I was much better able to communicate with others through emotion, after I became involved in actively participating in generating music instead of only listening to it.

I apologize as I did not include a link to what Alexithymia is, in case some people have not heard of the condition before. The link below from Wiki provides a good overview of the complexities of the condition, along with information about music therapy for Alexithymia.

I think if a person never experienced Alexithymia it would be very hard to relate to those individuals that have had problems with it.

Even among people with the condition that communicate "adequately" to get by in life, it is still a substantial source of difficulty in reciprocal social-emotional communication with others.

Abilities in reciprocal social-emotional communication are key in forming and maintaining peer appropriate relationships. That is also now a mandatory criterion element in the DSM5 criteria for ASD, which was an optional one before, per peer appropriate relationships, for all ASD's, in DSMIV criteria.

In fact, the DSM5 ASD chair of that working group that created the criteria, Sue Swedo, now identifies and describes Autism as a disorder of Reciprocal Social Communication. Here is the link to her video describing it from the APA.

http://www.psychiatry.org/practice/dsm/ ... m-disorder

That is quite a change as behavioral impairments in social-emotional reciprocity were not a mandatory criterion element in the previous criterion element, in the DSMIV, describing social interaction behavioral impairments.

Here is the Alexithymia link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexithymia

I hope that helps to provide clarification.

The last line of my communication is what can be described as reciprocal social emotional communication. I am expressing emotion in hope to connect with another person and in the opening I expressed an apology to socially connect that I am the one at fault for miss-communicating information not that anyone else should be able to read my mind.

The "smiley", face is another form of reciprocal social emotional communication.

This comes naturally to most people. Others have to make a concerted cognitive effort to make it happen, as they do not receive the same intrinsic rewards that others do by "social instinct" rather than cognitive demand of mechanical task in social communication.

With that concerted cognitive effort, in what some might describe as "conscientious" behavior, comes what others may view as "role model" behavior in ethics with others.

That is what one might describe as an "altruistic" adaptation to adversity in life.

That is ironic, as others who are considered "psychopaths" instead of "Autistic psychopaths", are described as using an adaptation to a condition of difficulty in emotional empathy with others, also identified as having a possible neurological origin, as a maladaptive one for self gain rather than "altruistic" effect from "conscientious" behavior.

In effect the maladaptive intent can still be described as "conscientious" behavior in "ill intent" instead of "altruistic intent".

Environmental and inherent factors like language impairments, the nurturing environment in childhood, and motor development may make the difference between what is observed by some as "maladaptive intent" vs. 'altruistic intent" in interactive behaviors associated with Society at large.

Also to be clear I am not attempting to "lecture" you personally about these issues, as I have no idea what your understanding may or may not be on these issues, but I provide the information for anyone who might find it useful listening in.

That is what could be described as "Altruistic Autistic" behavior.

I am not getting paid to do this. It is a special interest for me, that might help other people.

There is also no likely pay-off in this environment that anyone will socially connect with me, in providing this information.

I gained a special interest in discussing the Autism Speaks controversy over a year ago, and was often accused of being an employee of the organization, because of my tenacious efforts in discussing my special interest on that issue.

If I look hard enough I can still find the quote on this website, but my a-Ha moment came when a person told me I had to work for the organization because "no one" is that altruistic.

I am no one.

There are others like me.