I have a 5-year-old nephew who was diagnosed to be autistic when he was in Pakistan. Shortly after he arrived in Texas, he was diagnosed by his school. My brother was destroyed when he read the damning report. They wrote that he is highly autistic and he is getting worse. I shared the long diagnosis report with a Canadian friend who is a clinical psychologist who also did my sister's assessment (she is with down syndrome). She said that the diagnosis did not consider alot of factors that affected my nephew. We moved from Afghanistan to Pakistan two months after August 15 and shortly after, my nephew was separated from all these people who took care of him - uncles, aunts and grandparents. Yes, Afghan families live in big families and we all took care of my nephew. At age two, he was a curious boy. I remembered chatting with him while we were walking down the street in Islamabad to get groceries. He heard celebratory gunshots in Islamabad streets and he asked me if they were the Taliban. Shortly after I moved to Albania and Canada afterwards with two sisters and one brother and my mother, my nephew stopped talking. He was not functioning well. This separation from us, particularly my mother, was devastating for him. He was put in a Montessori school. There, he was exposed with English and Urdu languages and 3 years later (4 days before Trump inauguration - yes, they were lucky), they moved to Dallas, Texas. Now, they say he needs alot of work. Sorry for this long story, but I wanted to say that my nephew's situation was worsened by lots of things happening around him. My mother's special boy was affected by war, immigration and separation from loved ones. You dealt with two wars (1500 days) in Iraq and Afghanistan and suffer from watching the country you care about and its people torn apart and your friends struggling. That is some big shit happening in your life in addition to missing your daughter and whatever else happening in your life. All I'm saying is take it easy. I don't know you and you don't know me. But I know you are doing some good work and advocacy for my people. So I appreciate your support and hard work for our people.
Will, whenever you notice something, you become maniacal about fixing it. Problem is that you have noticed 100 things, and no human being can completely fix even one.
I was on a wonderful backpacking trip. We were in a valley surrounded by mountains. It was beautiful, but somehow a bit much. Then we composed the song of the deranged backpackers: “Climb EVERY mountain, ford EVERY stream!”
Thank You for posting this. It has helped me. I am “something”. Don’t know what and never diagnosed because I am female and did the copy and behavior enough to “blend” - even though I never did totally. Fortunately, I believe I have spent most of my life around others whose brain wiring isn’t neurotypical. Those were the people I tended to feel the most comfortable around. I am 68. Those people had also learned to blend in public.
Now, I have significant PTSD on top of whatever. It’s much easier to be away from large crowds and to have animals around. They read my moods and step in. On the other hand I read them. I live among other people who aren’t neurotypical. Most of the others have spent some time in jail or prison because they acted out inappropriately for neurotypical society and if handled wrong could become dangerous. They were not in the military because they realized they could not handle the discipline it takes. Interestingly, we can somewhat keep each other going in a way that society can handle.
I have a 5-year-old nephew who was diagnosed to be autistic when he was in Pakistan. Shortly after he arrived in Texas, he was diagnosed by his school. My brother was destroyed when he read the damning report. They wrote that he is highly autistic and he is getting worse. I shared the long diagnosis report with a Canadian friend who is a clinical psychologist who also did my sister's assessment (she is with down syndrome). She said that the diagnosis did not consider alot of factors that affected my nephew. We moved from Afghanistan to Pakistan two months after August 15 and shortly after, my nephew was separated from all these people who took care of him - uncles, aunts and grandparents. Yes, Afghan families live in big families and we all took care of my nephew. At age two, he was a curious boy. I remembered chatting with him while we were walking down the street in Islamabad to get groceries. He heard celebratory gunshots in Islamabad streets and he asked me if they were the Taliban. Shortly after I moved to Albania and Canada afterwards with two sisters and one brother and my mother, my nephew stopped talking. He was not functioning well. This separation from us, particularly my mother, was devastating for him. He was put in a Montessori school. There, he was exposed with English and Urdu languages and 3 years later (4 days before Trump inauguration - yes, they were lucky), they moved to Dallas, Texas. Now, they say he needs alot of work. Sorry for this long story, but I wanted to say that my nephew's situation was worsened by lots of things happening around him. My mother's special boy was affected by war, immigration and separation from loved ones. You dealt with two wars (1500 days) in Iraq and Afghanistan and suffer from watching the country you care about and its people torn apart and your friends struggling. That is some big shit happening in your life in addition to missing your daughter and whatever else happening in your life. All I'm saying is take it easy. I don't know you and you don't know me. But I know you are doing some good work and advocacy for my people. So I appreciate your support and hard work for our people.
That’s not it. Believe me. The people who diagnosed me were fellow Aspeys who work to assist those trying to understand their brains.
Never been diagnosed myself, however, all three of my wives have been convinced that I am on the spectrum. Feels like home to me.
Will, whenever you notice something, you become maniacal about fixing it. Problem is that you have noticed 100 things, and no human being can completely fix even one.
I was on a wonderful backpacking trip. We were in a valley surrounded by mountains. It was beautiful, but somehow a bit much. Then we composed the song of the deranged backpackers: “Climb EVERY mountain, ford EVERY stream!”
Thank You for posting this. It has helped me. I am “something”. Don’t know what and never diagnosed because I am female and did the copy and behavior enough to “blend” - even though I never did totally. Fortunately, I believe I have spent most of my life around others whose brain wiring isn’t neurotypical. Those were the people I tended to feel the most comfortable around. I am 68. Those people had also learned to blend in public.
Now, I have significant PTSD on top of whatever. It’s much easier to be away from large crowds and to have animals around. They read my moods and step in. On the other hand I read them. I live among other people who aren’t neurotypical. Most of the others have spent some time in jail or prison because they acted out inappropriately for neurotypical society and if handled wrong could become dangerous. They were not in the military because they realized they could not handle the discipline it takes. Interestingly, we can somewhat keep each other going in a way that society can handle.
Bingo.