Autism
Essay Preview: Autism
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Imagine, for a second, if you were seated where you are now, but you were waiting as though in torture, trying to keep your hands and feet still and trying to stay silent. Imagine that you’re able to think clearly and intelligently about what I’m saying, but you can’t stop turning your head around the room and blurting out random things as loud as you can. Imagine that your looks, your communication skills, the way people look at you, and more are significantly worse for a reason no one can figure out. People look at you differently, maybe even stare because you might have the flat, pulled-back facial features similar to someone with Down’s Syndrome. You don’t have any friends besides your family because other people just don’t understand you and most people are actually afraid of your uncontrollable urges to do something random, like hit your head against the wall. You want to let the world know that you do have a mind, that you can think like everyone else, but somewhere between your brain and your mouth the words are lost.
You just got the tiniest glimpse of how someone’s life might be when they have to live with autism. It’s a disease that disables certain areas of the brain causing life-hindering symptoms. It affects people of all different races and genders, and no cure or cause has been pinpointed to date. But most interesting in the case of autism, are the actual stories and experiences from people who have to live with it: how they see others, how they see themselves, and how they prevail over the disease.
Autism is a brain development disorder. In two studies, researchers found that autism actually might be a lack of connections in different areas of the brain. Scientists notice in subjects with autism, that parietal and prefrontal cortexes of the brain don’t effectively communicate with one another. The parietal cortex controls high-level visual thinking and visual imagery which leads to problem-solving. The prefrontal cortex is where the decision-making, judgment, and impulse control reside. Whether this is simply caused by genetic mutations or something else, scientists do not know.
You might have heard about autism in the news lately due to some peoples’ belief that childhood vaccines can actually cause it. In Atlanta, Georgia, a girl named Hannah Poling was, reportedly, a normal toddler until she got several vaccines during a check-up. Within 48 hours, she had a high fever, wouldn’t stop crying, and refused to walk. Within 3 months she began showing the signs of autism, like spinning, staring at lights and fans, and sometimes losing the ability to speak. The government’s Division of Vaccine Injury Compensation concluded that the vaccines she received, “significantly aggravated an underlying mitochondrial disorder,” and developed a brain disorder, “with features of autism spectrum disorder.” This story made such big news because scientists are clueless as to the exact cause of autism and why it is becoming so much more prominent. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that the number of children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, enrolled in public special education programs, went from 20,000 to almost 200,000 between 1994 and 2004. The amount of children in the US with ASD is unknown, but research shows that ASD may affect 2 in every 1000 children. The ratio for children born before 1970 is about 1 in every 2000.
So what does autism exactly do to somebody? It’s really hard to come up with a standard set of symptoms as it affects every person who has it differently. There’s actually a whole spectrum of autistic disorders including Rett’s Syndrome and Asperger’s Syndrome, but the most common type of autism, often titled “classic autism” does have symptoms which can be used to diagnose people. It can range from highly functional forms to seriously debilitating ones. It’s like a gamble on life, never knowing how it’s going to affect someone or which phases might outlast. Autism, most often, impairs social interaction and communication and is most often seen and diagnosed before the age of three. Stereotypy is fairly common, and is what seems like purposeless movement like hand flapping or body rocking. Compulsive behavior means having certain things in daily life strenuously organized and a resistance to change. Restricted behavior causes the person with autism to be extremely focused on one individual interest or activity without any preoccupation with anything else. Autistic patients are also often prone to self-injury like hitting themselves on the head.
But the real question in the case of autism is how do people live with it? How do they really see themselves and move on past the obstacles that the disease places in front of them? Autism is seriously debilitating and slows down many life processes, but there are success stories out there. One example is Daniel Tammet. He wrote his own memoir called Born on a Blue Day which I encourage all of you to read. It offers insight in the mind of someone with autism, but Daniel is even more interesting because he is an autistic savant, which means he has extraordinary genius abilities in a few subjects of life. Daniel definitely has autism. He portrayed many of the symptoms early on in his life like showing he was excited by putting his index finger on the back of peoples’ necks, having to take the exact same route to school every morning, banging his head against the wall, and many more. He still has many of the symptoms, but has realized his disability and improved greatly. When he was a child, he often thought of other people as a hindrance to his life, and never really noticed them. He can remember many of the subjects he was taught in grade school, but never remembers most of his classmates.