From Autism Speaks Blog - “I Am Michael”

This post appeared on the Autism Speaks Official Blog today. Very important reading.

This weekend, we received the following e-mail (and accompanying poem) from Gary Herrmann, a member of our community who is the father of a nine-year-old named Michael, who has Asperger Syndrome.

Like a lot of kids with Asperger Syndrome, my son has difficulty in social settings. He has one good friend. At the time he wrote this poem, both families had been very busy for a couple months, and he hadn’t been able to see his friend Billy very often. That, combined with some of the difficulties he had been experiencing in school lately, probably contributed to the feelings he expresses in the poem below.

The assignment was to type the poem. He was given some direction as to how each line should begin and word to use in each.

I was overwhelmed by the poignancy expressed in his poem. As you will see, my son’s name is Michael, and he has a heart the size of our planet … Maybe my son’s poem will strike a chord with parents and families and remind them that even if they have difficulty expressing them, our children experience all of the same emotions we do.

I        am    Michael.

I     wonder    if    I   am   human?

I   hear  ringing    all  the    time.

I   see    molecules ……I   think.

I    want    more   friends .

I   am    lonely.

I   pretend      I   have    more       friends  .

I feel       left  out.

I  have   the   record   of        the             least     friends    in    the     school .

I     worry    if  I   have   no   purpose.

I say  jokes  to   be   funny.

I  hope   people   now   understand.

I   am  Michael.

Sweet Desayuno Tacos

A Hearty, and Simple, Meal That Any Single Guy Will Love

I think the first thing I could ever cook was eggs. My mom told me how and I just started doing it. Scrambled, poached, fried, hard-boiled… I got it covered. I have been known to make pretty good breakfast sandwiches and have even snobbed them up by using muenster and turkey. In late 2007, I started changing our diet to be more gluten- and casein-free. This meant wheat was out as well as cheese and milk. One thing we could eat a lot of that was easy to find was corn tortillas, which meant lots of tacos for many meals. I eventually translated my traditional breakfast sandwich into a gluten-free, casein-free breakfast taco, using some taco seasoning and rice milk in the eggs and either gluten-free sausage or ham. The rice milk actually adds a bit of a sweet flavor to the eggs and makes it harder to burn scrambled eggs.

That experience lead to tonight’s meal, a mexican-inspired dish called Sweet Desayuno (breakfast) Tacos. It's a fairly simple recipe and flexible for your own modification. The ingredients include (for 1 or 2 people, 4 tacos):

Sensory Sensitivity and How It Can Push an Aspie to the Limit.

In my last post, I talked a little about the affect sensory sensitivity can have on someone, myself, with Asperger’s Syndrome. This is very common to anyone with an autism spectrum disorder, and it can manifest itself in differing ways and intensity. Noise, light, fabric, food texture, smell… this can be so overwhelming to someone with an ASD that they may feel the need to remove their skin, end their day, close their eyes tight… something to overcome and/or deal with their overload.

This sensory sensitivities affect me in many different ways. For instance, sound is not a major issue for me except as it becomes a distraction. I have a sound machine that I use to go to sleep with sometimes. The water sounds (beach, rain, river) are very soothing to me and I have found to many other Aspies as well. However, specifically on a sound machine, which uses a looped soundbite to perpetuate the illusion of a continuously active and live experience, I find myself too occupied searching for and recognizing the loop. This backfires as a way to get to sleep because it keeps my mind too active to relax. Light is also not a big issue for me, typically, as long as I am wearing sunglasses. What I'd like to talk specifically about, so it is possible for the reader to better grasp how sensory sensitivity can affect an Aspie, is an issue which took place long ago with me regarding smell and touch.

A Sample Day in the Life of an Aspie and the Ever-present Risk of Meltdown

I have decided to let my guard down a little and share with all interested parties what it's like to move through a typical day with Asperger's Syndrome. This is strictly my experience, but I think might give a general idea how someone with AS might navigate his or her own day, every day.

As I describe this sample day, it is important to understand an Aspie's tendency to have frequent sensory overload. It is common for someone with AS to experience things with our senses (sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell) in an exaggerated way. Aspies tend to have issues with texture, the way clothing fits, smells, light, etc. because we have a heightened sensory experience.

My days always start the night before. Before I am even considering sleep, mental notes about the next day's schedule and needs are running quickly through my head over and over again. Because I think in pictures, this actually becomes rather intense as my other senses are being used, including sight and hearing. I actually see a physical list in my head on legal sized paper scrolling up and then repeating very quickly. While the list is doing this, I also see flashes of different colored lights (quite similar, actually, to a traffic stop at night) behind the list and I am trying to make sure I have everything I need on the list, adding and modifying as I go. A very tiresome experience.

“Is Autism Caused by Childhood Vaccinations?”

Answering another question about autism, “Is autism caused by childhood vaccinations?” This is actually a great question and often debated subject, leading to questions about curing autism or understanding and accepting it.

Many parents become aware of autistic symptoms in their child around six months of age, which also happens to be the timeframe of several routine vaccinations. This has lead to rampant theories that vaccines or their preservatives may cause autism. What makes these theories even more palpable is when a celebrity has a child diagnosed with autism but chooses to stay rather uneducated about ASDs. Jenny McCarthy is one such celebrity mother of a son with autism. Unfortunately, in our society, celebrity is confused with knowledge and wisdom, and many people are easily swayed into a certain mindset because of celebrity platform.

The Unique Ability for Aspies to Lose Themselves

On Friday, April 9, 2010, Nadia Bloom went missing from her home in Florida. Her parents found her bicycle neatly parked a half mile from home.

Nadia is diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, a mild form of autism. It is common for people with autism to wander and subsequently, sometimes, go missing. This problem becomes more dangerous with those who have trouble communicating. I have also heard that people with autism are attracted to bodies of water, making drowning a leading cause of death.

“Is it true that ADHD is a mild form of Autism?”

The simple answer is, no, ADHD is not a mild form of autism. As autism is a spectrum disorder, there are milder and more severe classifications.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) include Asperger's Syndrome/high-functioning autism, autism, Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, and sometimes include Rett syndrome and childhood disintegrative disorder. Where the severe end of the spectrum might be characterized by the autistic savant, with very deep, but very narrow interests and very little typical social interaction; the mild end would be someone with Asperger's Syndrome. Autism is a neural developmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. Asperger's Syndrome (AS) would further be characterized by the preservation of language and cognitive (learning and thinking) skills.

ADHD and its relation to autism is, though, rather integral. A common misdiagnosis for AS is ADHD. In addition, ADHD is commonly diagnosed comorbid with AS. My son was diagnosed with AS and mild ADHD. There is an interesting paradox for AS people: an intense small group of obsessions and trouble focusing. The difficult side of this can include being too easily distracted and the danger of physically wandering off. The bright side is that the AS mind is going, going, going, thinking of solutions or processing things.