Where can i find out anything about Autism?

Question

I personally have autism and i need some information on it and i was woundering if there was a particular place to get some info?

i have the papers that say i am diagnosed with autism high functioning and i also have add and thats no lie. if u disagree about anything you can contact me personally

Answer 1

I'm autistic and I'll try to answer this for you, but try reading writing by other autistics for even more information. The autistics.org library is a good place to start. (I've used this answer before for the same question, so you may have seen it around Yahoo Answers before.)

Being autistic means that one has a neurological configuration different from the norm (those of us in the autistic community call non-autistics neurotypicals or NTs). It doesn't mean that one is wired defectively, just differently.

Our senses are different from NT senses: we tend to be either hypo- or hyper- sensitive to sensory stimuli of different sorts, have an increased incidence of synesthesia (a crossing between senses, to use an example from my experience, the ring of a telephone looks like a red spiraling corkscrew), have difficulty parsing speech (central auditory processing disorder), hear pitches that most people can't, and have difficulty reading text because of various visual processing issues collectively known as Irlen Syndrome. (Those aren't all of the sensory oddities autistics can have, just a few of the most common.) Some of our sensory sensitivities can put us at a disadvantage in a society designed for NTs - for example, many of us can see fluorescent flicker, which can result in anything from minor irritation, to headaches, to falling asleep. We do something called stimming, which includes things like flapping our hands, rocking back and forth, listening to the same piece of music repeatedly, and jumping up and down. This allows us to deal with sensory stimuli so that we don't become overloaded, and also lets us get the extra stimulation we may need. Lots of NTs try to stop us from stimming, but while bigots may dislike it, it's necessary for us to function in this world.

Most NTs and many autistics think that being autistic means that one has poor social skills and lacks empathy. In reality, we have autistic social skills and so have trouble interacting with NTs, but are usually just fine with other autistics. While NT social interaction generally takes the form of intrusive give and take interactions, we do better in parallel. We can be successful with NTs, so long as they are willing to do their half of the work to communicate with us, and we can have trouble interacting with other autistics if they have been trained to pretend to be NT or if we have not been allowed opportunities to interact with our own kind, but as a general rule we're better at interacting with other autistics, just as NTs are better at interacting with other NTs. We're also just fine at empathizing with other autistics, and no more lacking in empathy than neurotypicals. Most normal-brained people have difficulty empathizing with autistics. That's why they bully us, why they think that a particular therapy (ABA) that invalidates who we are and tries to replace us with a neurotypical person is helpful, and why they so often excuse the murder of autistics. (Not saying that all neurotypicals are like that, just that many are.)

We also tend to have 1-3 very intense interests, called perseverations. Mine is autism, specifically autistic advocacy, if you couldn't tell already. *g* These are a good thing, and we need to have time to focus on these interests. Monologuing on them isn't bad, in fact, it's one of the parts of natural autistic interaction. If one can't do that, though, it doesn't mean that they're non-autistic. I'm the same way with sharing my interests through speech, I learned to hide them from the time I was about 8 years old. I just don't consider that a good thing, since I would like to be able to discuss my perseverations in real life and not just online.

Oh, and we tend to have difficulties with spoken communication as well, though some of us are eventually fine with it. We're almost always better with text than with speech (the person who said that she thought you were misdiagnosed because you can write is wrong, wrong, wrong!) and often have trouble with telephones. We have trouble with the figurative language that NTs use, often have trouble with slang, are straightforward in our words, and are often echolalic, meaning that we repeat things that we've heard over and over again.

So far, it seems that autism is genetic - our parents tend to have autistic traits themselves, and we usually have relatives on the autistic spectrum. Autism is not mercury poisoning, and not food allergies. We are more prone to things like allergies than NTs, and we may act differently when those allergies are treated, but we're still just as autistic as we were.

Also, I highly recommend reading all the way through www.gettingthetruthout.org and reading some of the entries in ballastexistenz.autistics.org. You'll both get more information on autism and learn that autistics, even those designated "low-functioning" (I don't believe that functioning levels are useful myself) don't necessarily want to be cured.

To get in contact with other autistics, I recommend joining LiveJournal if you haven't already. The asperger community over there is a good source of information. I'm also happy to answer any other questions about autism that you may have over at my LJ (I'm invisible_k) or through e-mail.

Answer 2

My son is autistic, you have very good written skills for being autistic, which makes me wonder if you are misdiagnosing yourself. There are hundreds of websites with information. Do a quick search on the web and you will have way too much to look at. Here are things to consider for a diagnosis.

1) Poor or non existent language skills
2) Little interaction with peers
3) repetitive gestures

Feel free to email me at [e-mail] if you need more help.

Answer 3

before each and every thing...whoever reported it truly is humorous to attempt to video exhibit them upload and spell is ill contained in the accurate. So ignore them, delete it if achievable. I somewhat have worked with autistic little ones before and to inform you the reality, all of them are different. I somewhat have worked with ones who were somewhat violent and others who purely had little behaviors the following and there. they're easily somewhat intelligent and that all of them have favor to get the prospect to prevail in existence. Your daughter has each and every possibility to boost up and be sensible and a impressive female. i do not stay in Texas so i'm no longer particular of help communities yet you are able to favor to ask your healthcare professional that still. good luck!

Answer 4

http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/autism/detail_autism.htm
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/autism.cfm
http://www.healing-arts.org/children/autism-treatments.htm
http://www.geocities.com/autismtole/
Here are a few sites to check out, I hope they help!

Answer 5

www.autism.com has dozens of websites to learn all you want to know about it.
Good luck.