Autism: A Lifespan Condition with Special Gifts

Welcome to my Blog! This is my first one; very exciting for me.

Let me tell you just a little about myself, and why I decided to start a blog. I am a mental health counselor in private practice in Redmond, WA, USA, who specializes in autism spectrum disorders. While I have a general practice and often see folks who are not on the “spectrum”, I found that from the first day I started working with the autism spectrum population, I knew it was definitely for me.

Blogging seemed like a wonderful way to share my thoughts about ASD (autism spectrum disorders). Having been privileged to work with folks on the spectrum for 7+ years, I have a lot of observations, ideas, conclusions, and questions roaming around in my brain. I should note that my experience is with clients who are 12+, many of them being adults, with most of them having Asperger’s Syndrome.

The first, and one of my main thoughts, is that autism in NOT A CHILDHOOD DISORDER! It seems that most people, when one mentions “autism”, respond with, “oh, yes, that’s in kids, right?” or something similar. Well, sure autism begins in kids – it’s a developmental disorder. But those kids do grow up, and they still have autism! A tragedy occurring in our society (I am mostly familiar with American society; would love to hear from residents of other countries on this topic) is that our children on the spectrum are getting pretty good attention and supports. However, once they graduate high school, that ceases by and large. I have seen many, many cases in my practice where the graduate becomes very stuck and depressed because he/she doesn’t know what to do next. One of the features of autism is a deficit in self-initiation, yet they are expected to suddenly become self-initiating and goal-oriented after high school. Parents often become very frustrated and put a lot of pressure on their kid to go out and get a job, study for a career, etc. This, in turn, creates a terrible amount of stress on the “Aspie”, who may have done well in school, but can’t succeed without a lot of structure and support.

Another main point I want to get across is the positive aspects of ASD. So many of the messages parents hear when their child is diagnosed is negative: “disorder”, “treatment”, “disability” that they and the child may lose sight of the strengths and special gifts people on the spectrum have. This will be a theme in my writings, and I will share some of what I’ve learned from my clients about their special gifts.

I saw a beautiful movie I’d like to share with you. Although it’s not about teens or adults, I’m mentioning it because the message is very positive. It’s called, “The Horse Boy”, a documentary produced by Zeitgeist Films and directed by Michel O. Scott. It’s about a young boy who has been diagnosed with autism, and his parents. They take their child to Mongolia to work with horses, reindeer herders and a powerful shaman to help with his frequent tantrums and refusal to potty-train. It was a powerful reminder for me of the very special connection that people on the spectrum often have with animals, and the power of having parents who can accept their child’s autism with open hearts.

I welcome responses to this post; hopefully we can get a dynamic, positive message out there together!

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