A Speech on AS (part 2 of 4)

“THE SKIN: Tactile sensitivity is probably the reason that so many autistic children are regarded as ‘lacking emotional reciprocity’. However there are ways to touch even the most sensitive child without making the alarm bells ring. Never touch any autistic person without first announcing your intention. Touch firmly and slowly – bear hugs are good; quick cuddles are not – but never do the touching if you are not calm emotionally yourself or feeling well. Like lie-detectors, the sensitive skin of an autistic child can detect your emotional state but confusion can result in not knowing the cause of the tension in you that he is feeling so it is likely he will unconsciously assume that it’s to do with your feelings towards him.

Autistics usually have an exceptionally high pain threshold for serious injury and lack of a patella reflex is common. Frequent burns, scalds, bruising (autistic tends to bruise very easily) or other types of injuries can occur without knowing how it happened. However, skin scrapes, small cuts or kicking a toe – trivial assaults on the body are exceptionally painful. Whereas traumatic assaults such as broken bones, spinal injuries or life-threatening injuries such as appendicitis or internal hemorrhage can be overlooked even by experienced specialists because their reaction to the pain is so completely different to what is expected for such injuries.”

I have to be very picky about my clothing. It has be feel soft, even if it feels soft to you it may not to me. If it’s not extremely soft it makes my skin crawl and ache and I cannot focus on anything. Buying clothes for me is no easy task. I hate when other people purchase clothing for me because I often cannot wear it, not only is it a waste of money for them but I feel obligated to wear it sometime to show them that yes, I do like and appreciate it. I’m not sure about the high threshold for pain. I think that may apply to me. I will curse and get very angry over a stubbed toe but my broken arm in the fifth grade I don’t remember feeling any pain. Even when the doctor said it should hurt for a few days after changing the cast and repositioning my wrist and stuff. The only reason I ever even took my pain pills he prescribed was so that I could get out of class for a little while to take a pill and lay down in the nurses office. Not because of pain. I don’t remember any of that hurting at all.

“Autistics tend to require a greater liquid intake than others do and caffeine-based drinks are the usual choice. The autistic nervous system is very sensitive to most drugs and most reactions to them are counter-indicative. Caffeine for instance has a calming effect on autistics rather than being a stimulant as most people appear to experience it to be…. which is the primary reason that most of us drink lots of it whether in the form of coffee, tea or Coca-Cola. No drug should therefore be initially administered in the full dose generally prescribed and psychotropic medications should never be given. If trying a new drug for the first time start with an extremely low dose and then increase the amount over time until either a beneficial or deleterious effect is observed. Never assume that if a little is good then more will be better or work quicker. It is generally far from being the case!”

This is soooo me. I drink probably twice as much as anyone else I know, always have, and it was and still is, always cola. Also caffeine and sugar have never had the affect of me as it seemed to my friends. They would get hyper from having cola and donuts while I’m not and never was affected by that.

“THE EMOTIONS: It’s generally considered that autistics ‘lack empathy’. This isn’t true. Autistics are very empathic – in fact too often they are too overwhelmed empathically to be able to express it. Autistics are so tuned in to the emotional states of others that their ‘lie-detector apparatus’ can work even without physical contact…proximity is all that is necessary. They share the feelings of others they just don’t have the words because they can’t interpret an emotion they’ve never experienced inside themselves. So they will either be so overwhelmed by those feelings they are picking up from others that their emotions go into ‘shutdown’ or appear disinterested by trying to change the subject to alleviate the emotional pressure they experience.”

This is me as well. I am often empathetic with even material things. It’s really weird and is something I’ve tried to hide. I tend to hoard things I can’t bring myself to throw out because of this. I cry when I see a dead animal on the side of the road because all I can think about is how it felt so much pain and died didn’t know why, it didn’t understand. This is something that tears me apart.

I can also tell things about people, I tend to be able to tell what kind of person someone is without doing more than looking at them and watching their movements. Seeing how they interact with others. I predicted my sister-in-laws ex husband would break into her house and try to hurt her…the scary thing…he did it.

“THE ENVIRONMENT: Many autistics are sensitive to external conditions. Of these the most problematic is TEMPERATURE. A typical summer day is usually too hot to permit any physical exercise and autistics tend perspire profusely at lower temperatures than others do. This is why the need for frequent fluid intake especially in warm weather as autistics are prone to dehydration, sun stroke and heat exhaustion as soon as the thermometer creeps only a fraction above normal body temperature.

One of the causes of disturbed sleep is over-heating and children will often discard all their bedcovers even in the middle of winter and then wake up because they are too cold. Some of the adults have solved this by sleeping with their feet out of the end of the bedcovers but keeping the remainder of their bodies covered.

Autistics can often be seen wearing summer clothes in winter – cold is not experienced while the body is active…”People are often shocked by the fact that I shovel snow and stuff with no coat – …and woollen or long-sleeved garments in summer – worn for insulation when body temperature is lower than air temperature and protection from the sun ray’s on their skin.

Continued in next entry: