What can you tell me about Autism?

that sounds like the kind of safeguarding issue that social services and/or whoever's running that centre ought to be made aware of tbh

he'd built up a good relationship with one of their people, who was one of the good ones. At the time I thought him having experience away from home would be good for him. And at the time the missus had tried to OD and his behaviour was at the peak of how challenging he could be. It was quite good at first and I think he enjoyed the novelty of it. But in the summer they fobbed him off with lots of Sundays, when his fave person wasn't there, and obv there wasn't an interesting or stimulating environment being made for him, it was just basic containment, like a kennel. At the time him going there became part of a section 47, after some wanker of a neighbour said my missus with MS was beating him up. Ironically the last time he stayed there, when he came home he was in such an upset state + hospitalised the missus while I was picking up their prescription, by pushing her into a kitchen unit and splitting her nut open!

sorry rambling inarticulate post!

Nah it was perfectly articulate. It's not good enough is it?

Charity I'm gonna work for has an interesting-looking programme for helping people to reduce challenging behaviour btw, looking forward to learning more. It seems to be very person-focused.

good news from both worthy men itt

Hi all. This might not be the right place to ask as I know we tend to discuss more serious autism cases ITT. But has anyone had experience with Aspergers diagnoses? Was it worth it? Did it take a long time?

for an adult or somebody under 18?

imo we need an aspie/mild autism thread separate from this

for this autistic imperium is nihil reich for us!

when my son was diagnosed i think aspergers had already been phased out as the diagnostic criteria was redefined into the broader "autism spectrum disorder/condition". he probably would have received the aspergers diagnosis otherwise.

i think it does make sense as a broad spectrum. my younger son doesn't have a diagnosis and probably wouldn't receive one if tested but we certainly see autism traits in him

not much of a fan of the DSM in general but 5 is going to be fought over for years

fwiw i think obtaining a diagnosis - whatever your individual circumstances, needs, or challenges might warrant, can be really helpful and very much worth the effort. for us, having something on paper has been really crucial as we negotiate for resources, funding, and therapies. we've seen friends, sometimes w/ needs that are much greater than ours, get denied appropriate resources and school placements merely because their child didn't have an official diagnosis. it gives the institution/system a pass for not providing anything. booking evaluations and appointments takes time and money for sure, it's a pain in the ass, but i think it can be worth it at least for our US experience.

ime w/ both my son and myself (ADHD), i try not to get too hung up on the specific semantics or greater meaning of the diagnosis itself, knowing that the dsm is a flawed, limited, and changing manual. do i think either of us has a "disorder?" not really. but having some insight into some of the needs we have and being able to leverage something in a frustrating and bureaucratic system to better advocate for ourselves has generally been useful

that's way better than i could have put it marcos. i feel like in the UK at least it's always worth trying to get a diagnosis for a child, so much of what happens in our school system alone can hinge on "something on paper". my personal unprofessional opinion is that in adulthood it really is up to the individual - some people benefit from the process of diagnosis, it helps them to understand aspects of themselves and recognise that feelings of something being "wrong" come from a real place, it helps life make sense for them. for other adults (again talking about the UK) i don't know that the diagnosis really makes any difference to their sense of themself and society, and there are far fewer welfare and logistic advantages to being diagnosed as an adult i.e. services and support are thin on the ground. plus like you say, marcos, a lot of people don't think of this as a condition, just a part of who they are.

no such thing as "more serious" autism, just the spectrum. Obv some people on this spectrum need a lot more help with daily living because of the challenges of sensory, vestibular, language issues that can become very complex within neurotypical society. But that doesn't mean so called milder autism doesn't represent its own challenges. I think the Aspergers label has become a bit problematic, seeing as the cunt was a complete aktion T4 player. But I don't see any issues with people using this thread to talk about it.

complete aktion T4 player

Huh. Didn't see that mentioned in Neurotribes, but I didn't finish the book tbf.

I've been thinking quite seriously about seeking a diagnosis. My GP has agreed to give me a referral but asked me to write something about why I think I might have ASD and why I'm interested in a diagnosis. I was trying to explain on the phone that communication was an issue but didn't don't think I did a very good job of it. LOL.

They are reasonable questions and he needs something to support a referral, I guess. But it's proved hard for me to organise my thoughts about this, or work out what to say or what not to say. I mean, mapping a lifetime of experience of my neurology on to what I've learned about ASD is the answer to the first question, what other reason would there be? And why would I like to know if I'm right about that?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/19/hans-asperger-aided-and-supported-nazi-programme-study-says

read it and weep, unfortunately it's true :(

guys Robyn and Jamie from the Ouch podcast have their own show! it's called 1800 Seconds on Autism and i might have had something to do with it :)

calz et al i would love to know your thoughts.

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/1800-seconds-on-autism/id1444057570?mt=2

non-iTunes link here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06sdq0x/episodes/downloads

I listened to a bit before the football started, Tracer. Very charming duo and so very highly intelligent and talking about jazz theory stuff I don't even understand after listening to it for decades! Good stuff though, and I do like them a lot.

yeah they are really good presenters full stop.

and I'm really glad you like it! i genuinely don't think there's anything else out there like it

Alex managed to have an MRI scan today. He needed general anaesthetic obv and I was quite concerned how this was going to happen, given that even flu jabs are an absolute nightmare. They give him a pre-med drink that he downed in one but then fought quite hard against, but eventually succumbed to. Then he woke up between the children's ward and MRI but he was still groggy and not strong enough to fight off the gas mask. It was all very autism aware and excellent work tbh. He was having a loud meltdown when we arrived and was quickly given a room to help him chill. There were a few bumps along the way, but it was at least a hundred times smoother than I was expecting it to be.

it's good when people actually know what they're doing, yay!

If I ever get massively rich I'm gonna start a scholarship program for dentists to specialize in working with people with autism and dementia. And will fund practices specifically designed for that.

I get the joke, it's funny, but I feel that the fact that the ambiguous 'messaging' bugs me is kind of an autistic thing. Or maybe it's just not a well thought out 'memme.

I mean, it literally appears to equate the claims of climate scientists with the arbitrary, coercive demands of greedy, sociopathic comedy mobsters, but vague 'context' is supposed to tell us that's not the intent.

Grim pic.twitter.com/xZ14XZh8AD

— Ireland Simpsons Fans (@iresimpsonsfans) December 29, 2018

You've got the single word "grim" accompanying the post, which on balance is probably more likely to be a comment on the climate rather than on the conduct of climate scientists, although I'm not quite sure why, against the history of those particular characters.

anyone got any good ideas for some classic autism friendly ps4 games? something colourful and fun, 3d world exploring type shit that isn't too demanding? god knows.

"spyro reignited trilogy" might be the sort of thing you're after?

popped this q on the ol group chat and they came back with knack (and its sequel), a platform game, & no man's sky, which is a (more grown up) exploration/survival space game, might be worth a look?

oh no wait apparently they're joking abt knack and its famously bad

I'm thinking Subnautica looks a good sensory/ambient/exploration world type experience, but it might have too much troublesome gameplay for Alex's liking.

A friend's son who is on the spectrum used to be really into Skylanders, the gameplay on that looked pretty straightforward but this kid was a bit younger than Alex, not sure about all the collectable toy nonsense that goes with those games

it's a shame that Stacking is only a ps3 game, i feel like they could be good

my pals also suggest abzu on an aquatic theme, journey and little big planet.

the only interactive stuff he ever got into was cause and effect sensory light/sound box on the ipad. And years ago there was a very simple gameplay-free indie pc game that was a blocky 3d island to explore, can't remember the name of that one but if someone did something similar with the ps4's capabilities it would be autism gaming gold.

abzu deffo looks the ticket.

thanks for some of the reccs folks.

do you know about Flower and Journey calz??

oh yes Flower looks perfect as well. I could imagine getting into myself tbh.

it's pretty amazing!

got Journey/Flower/Flow in one bumper package for £20. I was quite addicted to Eufloria on ios at one point, and flower looks like a 3d variant of it with very beautiful graphics.

false appendicitis scare fun today that led to much panic and an ambulance to pinderfields, only to find he has a very sore throat! his pain management isn't great, and its hard to get to the bottom of medical problems at the best of times - he was screaming for an hour this morning so we thought the worst.

this week I've had the dog nearly die from ingesting a sock, one ambulance trip yesterday with alex's appendicitis false alarm and another ambulance trip this morn cos of his first epileptic fit in 6 years. I'm at war with some wannabe gangsta parents who think their kids can shout "you're fucking disabled" at alex. I've got my fuckwitted neighbour harassing me to put up a floodlight at the front of his house (which I stupidly agreed to do gratis when pissed up). Seriously would accept an invitation for a good old smack gouch rn!

https://www.lrb.co.uk/v41/n06/michele-pridmore-brown/unfeeling-malice

https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/whistle-blower-withdraws-offer-to-help-police-reopen-probe-into-autistic-abuse-scandal/

bad NAS joke but It Ain't Hard To Tell what the shady bastards have been up to here.

https://inews.co.uk/opinion/columnists/incarcerating-disabled-people-panorama/

I don't think i'll be able to watch this ep of panorama tonight. utterly sickmaking.

I totally verbally lost my temper with some little horrible thug who was pointing and laughing and completely adding to Alex's distress while he was having bit of a mini-meltdown/sensory overload because of the loud shit music they were blaring out, while he was entering the local swimming baths last night. But thankfully the nearest life-guard wasn't a complete dick and had the music turned off and read the riot act to the little shit rather than what i was expecting to happen. So not all bad on the autism awareness front, but there are still way too many arseholes out there.

I hope you said something to this antagonist that really lodged in his gut & costs him personal comfort for months if not years.

I’m so sorry, calzino

As usual in the heat of the situation, I always think of the most sensible retorts afterwards and am feeling like I didn't deal with my temper very well, but I did mention something about disablism before I sternly told him to stfu. need to get better at this tbh!