A very serious post

I can see your point, although I would have to add to Sila's statement. AS is where a person has a neurological difference in the way their brain functions. That is not an implication that it is a disorder. AS people function and think differently than NTs. It's not that their brains are malfunctioning or wired incorrectly it's that it's wired differently. They function perfectly normal, just not like NTs

[quote=Callista;2866326]Yeah, autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder./quote]

I would agree taht it's a neurologically based condition (again, not disordered) but I do not believe it is develpmentally based. As in I don't think that it has to do with how the child's brain developed, I think it's already wired the way it's going to develop, that is, as an AS brain.

I tend to agree with that, though I think there are some difficulties this different brain wiring causes that wouldn't be there without it. So it certainly can interfere with functioning well at least that is how I feel about it. For instance finding normal amounts of noise painfully loud is not particularly helpful for instance. But over all I think it is a difference to be accepted and the focusing should be functioning well for an autistic individual not trying to make them appear neurotypical.

I mean I could likely write a paper on neurotypical social interaction if I did a bit of research, but I can't pull it off myself in real interactions even if I understand it...it helps me understand other peoples behavior but its not something I can mimic.

My older brother has AS - only recently dx, but I've known for a few years that he fit the description. He's less accepting of that. Previous to the dx, he found out that his GP wrote in his file that he has a "poisonous personality". He was close to crying when he told me that. I get so angry that people that have that kind of power haven't made the effort to get to know him more - don't know how awesomely funny he is, or that he loves animals, and that he's "poisonous" mostly when he feels he's being attacked. One night 10 years ago he was on the edge of suicide and demanding a reason why he shouldn't do it. I yelled back that he shouldn't because I love him. We didn't use that word in our house growing up. It turns out that he does not recall anyone ever telling him that they love him. Everything that ever went wrong in our family somehow got pinned on him. He was bullied in school horribly - relatively little physical stuff but constant other kinds of bullying that he usually ended up being strapped for. My point is that sometimes when he is really raging about someone or a group of someones, I am afraid that he will do something. He doesn't have any weapons and actually hates firearms, so I don't think he will but ...

I'm not defending the actions of the shooters at all, but part of me does understand the level of the pain that has brought them to that point.

To think that someone at the professional level would be so insensitive as to call anyone "poisonous" is baffling. Considering we go to these professionals for help and our DXs, how much more weight those words carry when you have those credentials? I can understand his wanting to cry about that. :/

I understand that too but getting back to the point of the post, and relating it to your statement here, it doesn't have to be an aspie that has endured such troubles and ends up lashing out terribly. Someone with any mental illness, a weight problem etc.. bullied and oppressed enough, it will bring out those same feelings. The question is what makes the difference in people that act on those feelings? It's definitely not something that would be easily tied to Aspergers itself. That's the thing. There are tons of people being put down, hurt, oppressed, bullied and everything. Instead of the media focusing on his neurological state which is irrelevant with regards to the violence, they should be focusing on why he lacked the controls to stop himself from this.

I understand that too but getting back to the point of the post, and relating it to your statement here, it doesn't have to be an aspie that has endured such troubles and ends up lashing out terribly. Someone with any mental illness, a weight problem etc.. bullied and oppressed enough, it will bring out those same feelings. The question is what makes the difference in people that act on those feelings? It's definitely not something that would be easily tied to Aspergers itself. That's the thing. There are tons of people being put down, hurt, oppressed, bullied and everything. Instead of the media focusing on his neurological state which is irrelevant with regards to the violence, they should be focusing on why he lacked the controls to stop himself from this.[/quote]

Poohbah, you're totally right. I got going about my bro and lost part of where I was going!

Poohbah, you're totally right. I got going about my bro and lost part of where I was going![/quote]

np. on another note, you forgot a quote tag. I started reading and I was like "hey this person has said what I said whaaaa??? " Then I realized hahahahah

That's kind of what it means.

OK, so: Basically, autism is almost entirely genetic. Heritability is in the mid-90% range. So the genes affect how the brain develops, and the brain develops differently because you're autistic.

Most brain development is done at birth, so yeah, it's "wired in" at birth. But humans are essentially born premature because of our big heads needing to fit through a woman's pelvis, which they can only do while babies are still tiny and helpless... meaning that a big chunk of brain development takes place after birth. Most of that is done by age three, but the finishing touches aren't in place until your mid-twenties.

And in addition to that, the brain is really, really flexible, especially before birth. If it weren't, identical twins would have identical personalities--but they don't. Maybe quite similar, but they are individual people. So exactly how autism affects you can be determined while your brain is still developing. That high heritability is for all autism spectrum disorders; it's not at all uncommon to have one identical twin with one set of autistic traits, while the other twin has a distinct set of traits.

So because of how long the brain takes to develop, the term "neurodevelopmental disorder" means not just an atypical brain to start out with, but atypical development as you grow up. An autistic child might learn things "out of order", faster or slower or just unpredictably, or pick them up as savant skills, or do them in a way that seems totally counterintuitive to typical folks. Autism doesn't just start you out different; you grow differently, too. That's probably a good thing, because the brain is so flexible; it's likely that some of that atypical development is an attempt to compensate for the fact that you were born into a world that's not exactly brain-friendly for you. I think autistic kids adapt to the crazy mess of a world we live in pretty well, all things considered, especially given a good environment that gives plenty of opportunity for learning, but doesn't constantly overload them or push them past their limits.

Poohbah - I'm new to posting. How do I put in the quote tags? I realized it looked different than other people's after I posted and figured I'd missed something.

Or maybe I really did think exactly the same thing as you. lol

What probably happened ws you clicked reply within the post which automatically places quotes around the other person's post. but then the first quote tag somehow got erased, perhaps just with your typing. No big deal really just kinda giving you a hard time