as small as a world and as large as alone

10:28am July 19, 2014

bendingthewillow:

Things that are common for a number of Autistic people:

• Sleep related issues (either from anxiety, depression, insomnia, other reasons or a combination of reasons)
• Food related issues - Eating disorder(s), food sensitivities, etc etc

Things that the medical community explicitly doesn’t offer resources for that specifically addresses Autistic people (unless it’s vague and/or dehumanizing):

• All of these things

The following was inspired by my recent internet search of resources for insomnia and asking myself, “but what does that mean for me, as an Autistic adult”, and not getting any helpful answers for myself.

bendingthewillow:

Things that are common for a number of Autistic people:

• Sleep related issues (either from anxiety, depression, insomnia, other reasons or a combination of reasons)
• Food related issues - Eating disorder(s), food sensitivities, etc etc

Things that the medical community explicitly doesn’t offer resources for that specifically addresses Autistic people (unless it’s vague and/or dehumanizing):

• All of these things

The following was inspired by my recent internet search of resources for insomnia and asking myself, “but what does that mean for me, as an Autistic adult”, and not getting any helpful answers for myself.

At one point, like back in 1998, autistic people polled each other on what the most pressing issues they wanted dealt with.  They were:

• Sleep problems.  (Mostly circadian rhythm sleep disorders of every conceivable type.)
• Sensory issues.

And back then, barely anyone was dealing with either one, really.  Now, of course, they do deal with sensory issues, just not in any way that actually solves the problem.  Which is pretty much the same as the few resources that existed back then.  (I went through sensory integration therapy in 1998-1999 and some of it felt good, like joint compressions, but it didn't help me.  I also did Auditory Integration Training, which helped a tiny bit and then went away.  And Irlen lenses, which did help but caused other problems by, I think, scrambling my brain’s way of processing vision.  So there was stuff back then, but it hasn’t really evolved much, other than getting widespread.)

• Also, dealing with overload and shutdown were huge concerns.

Noticeably, overload, shutdown, sensory issues, and circadian rhythm sleep disorders rarely appear in any serious discussion of autism by “experts”.

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