Quality of Life
© Daniel R. Hawthorne
About the author: Daniel R. Hawthorne is a high-functioning autistic, and as such was speech-delayed for the first years of life. He was diagnosed by a team of psychologists in 1995 following a battery of tests. He is a writer, speaker, consultant, and advocate for the autistic community. Currently, he lives in Ruston, Louisiana with a wife and daughter
One does not have to look far within the autism community to find evidence of a lowered quality of life that does not have to be. Some refer to autism as the invisible disorder - and it may be to those not immediately affected by it. For those within the community, however, it is anything but that. A divorce rate of 80% among such families is only one consequence of the seemingly limitless stress felt by everyone associated with the disorder. High rates of burnout among educational staff is another. The rising incidence of stress-related health problems of everyone in the community, from parents to teachers to nurses, is another.
It would be an understatement, no doubt, to say that medical science has made vast progress in the past thirty years in understanding and treating autism. We now know, for instance, the specific areas of the brain is involved in autism, and to some extent, why. We also now know why those with autism are unable to tolerate crowd noise and other types of sensory stimuli. Yet, for all our progress in the medical field, the suffering goes on. What affects one part of the community affects all.
The individuals with the disorder suffer most of all, and yet have difficulty expressing it due to speech difficulties. As one with the disorder myself, I know first-hand what it is like, and the high level of frustration so inherent in autism. That is why I contend that in order to improve the quality of life for all within the community, it must start with the one having the disorder.
Our senses are like windows to the world. Info is uploaded to the brain for processing. Nature knew that our brains' processing ability needed protecting. thus, during periods of loud crowd noise and such, people are able to blocirrelevantlevent noise. It's the specialized cells knoPurkinjerkinje that do the magic. Unfortunately, autistic individuals have only 40-50% of the number of these cells, and so sensory information overload is a big problem. So, without this protection, I remain vulnerable.
