Has Your Life Been Affected By Autism?

Having noticed the flurry of emotional posts on this topic, I am interested to find out how autism affects DUers.

I just stuck it there to see if everything was covered, LOL..anybody care to elaborate?

a severely autistic son. Didn't really affect MY life in any meaningful way, other than seeing the kid regularly and being involved minorly in his life.

I never thought of that one! So in that way I'm sure my friends would fall into that category as well.

Mostly do not and are ignorant about the Mercury (thymeprisol) link. Why? Because corporations and government that mandated the poisoning of a generationof chidren means TRILLIONS in medical costs and lost lives !


Its all one big cover up!


Same thing for the Aluminum/Alzheimers link... Capitalism only works when there is really accountability. As it stands now every single American is basically on their owns as to product and medicines safety!


This issue is huge.

I grew up never meeting one autistic person (save perhaps very mild "autistic spectrum" type folks.) I went to Catholic school and there were these huge families and there were disabilities (I knew several friends with siblings with Down's Syndrome and usually they were the youngest of a big family.) Now there is so much autism. It's like a cottage industry, the service providers/books/etc, it used to be a rather rare disability.

I believe that years ago autistic children were simply lumped in with other special children and labeled as "retarded".

I do not have any autistic children but have a friend whose grandchild is autistic. She teaches everyone she can about autism and has done so much for her grandchild and others with autism, even raising the bulk of the funds for a new school just for kids with autism in my area.

Not so sure about the Thymerosol stuff, but I think people's brain wiring is highly differentiated from person to person. I think a lot of people, especially those who are not so socially accustomed, may have very mild autism.

that is within Autism guidelines. Not all kids get the full blown "autism" label.

Maybe I should have put "autistic spectrum" in the choice, but it's hard to quantify for something like a poll. Kind of a matter of degrees.

but other people might not.

That's right. He has central auditory processing disorder. Sorry if I confused anyone.

and continue contact with the families.

Both on the spectrum.

Definitely not the only "atypical" DUer, though. You just might be surprised who else shows up here...

but a friend's kid is autistic and I have 3 neighbors with Asperger's, so Autism effects my life pretty frequently.

and throughout my childhood I was exposed to autistic children both in person and in conversation with my mother around the dinner table at night.

She's also told me that she wonders if I am mildly autistic- I had some odd, tactile behaviors when I was younger (still do, I fidgit a lot), and, intellectually I suddenly accelerated very quickly around the age of five and surpassed almost all of my peers, while my emotional maturity got a little stunted.

I can be very focused, sometimes.

However, it's fascinating to see how even my mother's understanding of autism has evolved over the years. She used to think of it as an affliction that couldn't be "cured," but then changed her mind after more modern studies came out regarding behavior modification. The brain's wiring can be augmented, it seems. Whether I'm autistic or not, I think the idea is correct, because I've seen real changes in my personality, long-term, as I lived and learned from the world...

Autism is really, really fascinating.

Cure vs. acceptance is one of the many concepts that those who love autistic children struggle with.

It is a very fascinating subject, and I've come to believe only one thing firmly, that is, there are many causes and many treatments.

Asperger's syndrome (which is an autistic spectrum disorder, and is clinically indistinguishable in adults from high-functioning autism).

He's an excellent father, his wife is an excellent mother, and they're doing as well with their son as anyone could.

He called me last week to tell me his son was talking too much! That's a big improvement.

I was treated for it using forced holding and other therapies going around in the early 70s. Now, I test out in the high functioning autistic part of the spectrum. The parts that cause the most difficulty are dealing with ambiguous or conflicting instructions at work, and at home, having my husband interpret my tone of voice or body posture as carrying meaning when it most often doesn't carry any meaning at all. I think that the tendency to categorize things and concepts has given me an edge in data modeling, and is a benefit there.

Hi! Yes I definitely think there are some pluses to being on the spectrum, like you say, data modeling I can see that!

I've heard that holding therapy was very traumatic for a lot of autistic people...and also some say they learned to "look" like they were making eye contact but actually look right to the side of eye contact, just to get the practitioners off their back!

And I'm dealing with exactly what you're talking about at work right now.

My lead gave me a project X and told me not to work on anything else until it was done. When that was finished, about a week later, he gave me another project Y and said the same thing. At the end of the year, when it came time for reviews, he was flabbergasted that I hadn't also done projects Z, P, and Q. I showed him the emails marking the beginning and end of the two exclusive projects, that there had only been seven days in the entire year when he didn't have me assigned to those exclusive projects, and asked him how much exactly he expected me to do in those seven days.

He said that he never expected me to take him literally, and that any sensible person would know that meant to work on these other side projects when blocked on the main ones. Well, I had taken him literally, and when I got blocked on the main project, I did whatever it took to get un-blocked (camp in a dev's office, whatever). He gave me such a terrible review that I had to leave the team after that to find another job, but that personnel review is still on record.

The government needs to do more. A lot more. Now.

my oldest son. I'm proud with what he has done despite obstacles. He will be a soph. @ NC State this fall and has completed a work internship.

I'm really proud of him too -- it gives me a lot of hope. That's great to hear!

Don't you?

It pains me to see what he and his wife go through. They have no family in the area (he's an only child, and her family lives overseas), so it's just the two of them. Their son is 8 and low-functioning; does not really speak, prone to tantrums, etc. He has his own medical problems and worries about how his child will fare should he and his wife not be around one day. Very stressful.

but I clicked "autistic", giving you the benefit of the doubt.

(I'm an Aspie)