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LA Times Profile of 17 year old advocate

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ASPartOfMe
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29 Dec 2013, 2:13 pm

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-c1-a ... z2otPEHB3M


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Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity

“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman


JSBACHlover
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29 Dec 2013, 2:27 pm

That's simply remarkable. Ido''s words moved me deeply. As a high functioning Aspie, I would like to visit Autismland, too, as long as I didn't have to stay there.....



AardvarkGoodSwimmer
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12 Jan 2014, 9:35 pm

Whereas I'm not too crazy about the Los Angeles Times using the phrase "the 'silent prison' of autism" in the damn title of the article, I do like the way both the article and especially this confident young man Ido Kedar describes both sensory issues and stimming.

Quote:
The water surges around them. The sound of the waves and sea gulls, the voices and screams of children and families, the surf, rising and falling, its ceaseless crescendo and diminuendo, rushes at Ido as a terrible cacophony like the buzzing of mosquitoes, loud and inescapable.

As unsettling and as unpredictable as autism is, it also brings a strange pleasure to Ido's life. Glints of sunshine, pockets of shade mesmerize him, and objects in motion reveal traces of acceleration, like stop-motion photography.


Quote:
Like many of his repetitive behaviors — arm-flapping, finger-dancing, string-twirling — this gesture, referred to in the autistic community as a "stim" (for self-stimulation), enhances sensations around him and has a narcotic effect.

They take me to a sensory experience that is pretty intoxicating. I don't get lightheaded, but I can get so absorbed in a stim I sort of vanish from my personhood.