AUTISTIC MIND

An Article about autism awareness. I have capitalized some words/statements for emphasis

PREFACE

(Please read the preface before going through the article)

Autistic mind is a mind baffled and puzzled by the darkness of the night (the world), standing in front of the two crossroads " one of which is clear and stretches far to meet the sky, where the other is crammed with jungle; from where comes an occasional, menacing howl.

The mind is bemused, unable to select one path and go ahead. In the core of the mind, conceptions and assumptions are clashing; vitalizing the inferno of confusions.

THE WORLD IS RAMBUNCTIOUS.

So, a guide is needed to show the right path to these minds. We are, of course, raising our hands for acting as the guide, paying little heed to the fact that we ourselves are confused as well.

That is why, we try to help. We call to them by their names; presuming in the first place that a response will be ungiven. But, only for our sake, if a reply ensues, we get even bewildered and stammer out some words. We perspire; because we do not know what to say then. This is the reason for us to think of short-cuts " for example, ambushing them with hungry hounds so that fear will induce panic in them , and make them pick ‘any’ of the routes to ‘run for life’. But, if they do not take into consideration the fact that "

‘The hounds will kill me; I must ‘run for life’,’ and stand rooted to the spot, petrified by a thousand confusions, then, should it be assumed that we are helping/guiding them?

AUTISTIC MIND

How do you feel when you hear the word ‘Autism’ or ‘Autistic’? I guess, like me, a bizarre shudder runs down your spine, and you think �"‘Why does this term exist?’

Now, let me move on to a more elaborate definition of the term ‘Autism’ - a term that every one fears. Why does everyone fear it? The answer is �" everyone is so hopeless about this because it is commonly assumed as a psychological disorder. So, a common assumption brings up the axiom that the autistic people are ‘insane’. Autistic children are thought as retard, mentally ill, disabled or freaks because of their unsocial, unusual and bizarre behaviors which include hand flapping, inappropriate facial expressions, tantrums, ‘stimming' etc. Stimming [(repeated actions/obsessions) such as wriggling fingers, babbling] is caused by stimulus oversensitivity due to neuro-inflammation and hyper-connected neurons �" which can make them ‘puzzled’ (as I previously stated), so they cannot focus on what others want them to concentrate on.

For this reason, an autistic child is a nightmare to parents. It is difficult to raise a child; but it is the most difficult ‘challenge’ to raise an autistic one.

The truth is, all verbal and nonverbal autistic individuals do understand us, but they just don’t know how to communicate or what to say. They understand all our words and emotions. But unfortunately, these minds seem to be trapped in the ‘transitional state’ between ‘spirit world’ and this ‘object world’.

'The mind' is the 'operating system' of 'the brain' in man. The mind consists of two parts: 'the spirit' and 'the soul'. The spirit is the up thrust force. The soul is the gravity. The combined action of the opposite forces enables man to keep up with the object world. But, in autistic children, the gravity is weaker compared to the up thrust force. So, they appear more self-centered, and absent in this object world as if they have nothing interesting here. The spirit world and the object world are the two individual crossroads that bemuse them.

(In this article, I emphasize on autistic children because THEY are the future generation of today’s Earth.)

HOW DO WE TRY TO PULL THEM TOWARDS THE EARTH WHERE THEY APPARENTLY BELONG? Detaching them from a normal life, or, at least, a normal childhood, since the very time they are diagnosed with autism? So many desperate parents rush with their autistic children to various ‘specialists’, who usually recommend admitting autistic children to a ‘special school’. Special schools have a sensory-friendly environment. This confines them to a specific environment with the same kind of children with special needs around them. They do not actually learn anything. They just presume �" ‘All the kids around me behave the same way (stimming/babbling) then, why do the elder people tell me to behave properly? I behave like how the other kids do, so I don’t need to behave “more” properly.’

Then, can autistic children show behavioral improvements in a more social place (crowded place, e.g. a mainstream school or a family gathering)? But…this will only work when these people are accepting them as they are, not judging them or laughing at their disabilities, or scared or disgusted of their tantrums or stimmings.

SO, WE ALL NEED TO SUPPORT THESE AUTISTIC CHILDREN WITH EARLY INTERVENTION TO LEARN SELF-REGULATION WITH LOVE AND AFFECTION.

‘SUPPORTING’ does not refer to helping them with various therapies by making them understand that they are DIFFERENT, so they are given the therapies. No two children on the spectrum are same, so therapy should be individual specific.

If we really want to support them, then we MUST accept them in the society and just…MAKE THEM UNDERSTAND THAT WE LOVE THEM AND NEED THEM, AND THAT THEY NEED US.

We just have to make them understand that:

‘You may be slightly different, but you too are a human, so you MUST learn proper behaviors to adapt in this intricate world.’

‘THE WORLD WILL NOT CHANGE FOR YOU.’

Neuro-Typical children learn naturally how to talk; how to show emotions. But these paths seemed to be blocked in some autistic children. These need to be surfaced by making them learn everything -from pointing to greeting, to smiling, to feeling joy when they do a good deed- how we celebrate it overwhelmingly. Only then will our encouragement and love certainly help trigger these paths to open.

If we want to guide them, we need a key to unlock their minds and open them to us:

Inevitably, this key has to be “LOVE and AFFECTION”.

LOVE can unlock a human mind. Family plays a major role in autistic children‘s life. Sibling support is also necessary. But the support of THE SOCIETY is MUST.

The reason is:

Isn’t it LOVE that caused the Creator to create the most vulnerable yet most powerful creatures (us) in this universe?

So, we must use LOVE to unlock these autistic minds in order to open their intellect to a full potential.

We must cling them to the society; not detach them thinking they are ‘insane’. If they continue their stimmings, we should follow different strategies to calm their stimulus over-sensitivity, because it CAN be controlled by self-regulation.

We must let these children know that we do LOVE them and CARE for them but certain behaviors are not acceptable. Believe me - they themselves want to be controlled from the gust of turmoil that lashes them repeatedly and causes those tantrums and meltdowns to occur. But…they are just ‘carried away’. We need our LOVE to cling them to ourselves - not let them get ‘carried away’ ending in meltdowns.

They may be inept in social attitudes. But that DOES NOT mean that they cannot learn too. One path in their mind can be blocked; but the other is NOT �" never.

We must teach them academic studies according to their age groups. Some autistic children show enthusiasm in drawing/ singing/playing music. We must let them practice those too. We have to try our best with love to bring out the enormous gift that their autism might have given them.

We have to understand:

These children can guide the world to a bright future. We all hope for a bright future. But, how can we build it WITHOUT them?

When we reach out for the switch to turn on the electric light, do we think about the person; Thomas Alva Edison, who brought it at our fingertips?

When we reach out for our computer/I-pad for playing the popular and our most favorite game ‘Pokémon’, do we think about the person; Satoshi Tajiri who created the game for us?

When we flip through our physics books, do we think about the greatest scientist; Albert Einstein? We wonder-

‘How did he discover the “Theory of Relativity”?'

If we delve deep into the early life of these great people who have gifted us with their creativity, we notice that they too had a mild form of autism.

AUTISTIC CHILDREN HAVE A MIND THAT IS MORE CREATIVE THAN ANY OF THE NEURO-TYPICALS (normal human beings [us]).

THEY CAN BE AUTISTIC NOW, BUT WE CAN NEVER TELL HOW DESTINY BLESSES THEM.

SO, WE SHOULD GIVE THEM A CHANCE.

IF WE LOVE THEM TRULY; THEN THEY ARE GOING TO RETURN OUR LOVE BY MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE.

As we all are their CAREGIVERS, we should always think POSITIVELY about them; and never grow pessimistic about them. We must make these autistic minds understand that they have the potential to perform beyond. It is our duty to help them and guide them to adapt in this world and we also need to open up their minds - so that the resource (the intelligence and creativity) they have can advance our world in an unimaginable way.

REFERENCES:

THE REFERENCES TO THIS ARTICLE ARE AS FOLLOWS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1HQKB2txgY

https://iancommunity.org/cs/simons_simplex_community/speech_onset_study

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4717322/