...in an insensitive and hyperverbal world.
There's ten years of work behind this summary so don't dismiss it out of hand! But everyone is biochemically unique so everyone has to figure themselves out. This is for adult autistics but if I had autistic children I'd use the same principle for them.
1. Minimize irritants and stimulants:
Food: caffeine; sugar; alcohol; legal and illegal drugs; synthetic additives, preservatives and colourings. It's not as hard as it sounds once you get used to shopping in health food stores.
Environment: use all natural soaps, cosmetics and detergents; use organic clothing, bedding and towels; avoid electronic equipment in bedrom i.e. TV, computer etc.
2. Learn to listen to yourself instead of being overwhelmed by external environment: daily yoga practice, meditation, shiatsu selftreatment etc. ( I especially recommend shiatsu selftreatment, takes about half an hour every day, makes the boundary between self and non-self a lot less brittle)
3. Read biographies and autobiographies (NOT from royalty and movie stars) to learn that struggling is part of life and to unlearn the sanitized, commercialized ideal lifestyle that people can't help but think is for real.
4. Study history and politics to be able to make sense of things in context. I can get overwhelmed looking at a bus and thinking of all the unknown stops it makes along the way, and react the same way to humans, but since I have a basic grasp of colonial history, class structures and gender issues I can place the people and phenomena I encounter and know roughly where they fit. Since I can structure my mind this way there is no chaos so I can afford to access my thoughts and feelings.
The difference between people who care and people who don't care is that people who don't care feel (subconsciously) that they can't afford to. In war because of external chaos, in autism because of internal chaos. The less overwhelmed you are the better you are able to access yourself. But give yourself time.
15 Dec 2007, 11:36 am
