Autism

[Psyolopher]

I've found work a few days a week, was recommended through my neighbour!
Going to assist an autistic male, getting through evenings with some exercise.
I hope to gain experience from it, and i hope i really can help someone.
I find autism interesting, for the empirical data they hold.
Espcially the ones who know how to communicate, even though it might not seem as much sometimes.
I've also noticed around the net, that some people who have it difficult to communicate with other people expressing themselfs on the internet.
And i think that is a wonderful thing.
I guess its also, that i just love trying to penetrate/understand someones mind.
(Even animals aswell, by observation ofcourse.)
What are your thoughts on this topic?

 

[random]

Well first, I'm pleased to read that you found something to work and to canalize your energy to.

So, for that, congratulations and hope that you love the experience.

On autism.
Well, personally I don't have any experience with autistic people. The closest I've been with, something similar with autism, is only myself. There are many times that I find myself in silence, just because I can't communicate all the patterns of ideas that are flowing through my mind. When I try to do it, either I get confused and lost in words, or I end up saying something very different from what I was really feeling about the subject at hand.

Sometimes it feels very lonely. But I always have myself to understand myself. Though, I have the happiness to, sometimes, express what I, almost, really feel. And it really feels good when it happens.

But then again, I guess this doesn't help very much about the thing you were asking for.

I would advice you to check librarys and read books about it. Read and make notes. Try to talk with people that also work with people with similar states of mind.

And good luck with everything!

 

[Sumgai]

My thoughts are that some of the behavior I've seen in autistic people has been things I've done myself, on occasion. Usually while exploring various aspects of my synaesthesia. If I couldn't turn down the gain on the additional sensory crossover channels, I'd suspect it would render the world very difficult to comprehend. So I've got a theory that some forms of autism may be something along those lines. They may be completely absorbed by something you don't perceive like the texture the sound of a specific object has when you drop it. Or at least that's the kind of thing I was interested in when doing things like that.

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

A psychedelic approach:

http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v07n3/07318fis.html

http://www.scribd.com/doc/18741840/LSD-Autism-Treatment

An orthomolecular approach:

http://www.orthomolecularhealth.com/~orth9777/autism.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abram_Hoffer (was interested in both the orthomolecular and psychedelic approach)

 

[Psyolopher]

Well first, I'm pleased to read that you found something to work and to canalize your energy to.

So, for that, congratulations and hope that you love the experience.

On autism.
Well, personally I don't have any experience with autistic people. The closest I've been with, something similar with autism, is only myself. There are many times that I find myself in silence, just because I can't communicate all the patterns of ideas that are flowing through my mind. When I try to do it, either I get confused and lost in words, or I end up saying something very different from what I was really feeling about the subject at hand.

Sometimes it feels very lonely. But I always have myself to understand myself. Though, I have the happiness to, sometimes, express what I, almost, really feel. And it really feels good when it happens.

But then again, I guess this doesn't help very much about the thing you were asking for.

I would advice you to check librarys and read books about it. Read and make notes. Try to talk with people that also work with people with similar states of mind.

And good luck with everything!

Thank you!
Well we all do feel lonely.
In my experience, i even thought i was autistic since i was always in my own world as a kid.
Wondering what kept people going etc....
But you're far from Autistic my friend.
And yeah, im going to read alot.
I will also get info from the nurses so it will go fine.
ive been looking around on the net for days now.
So yeah, just looking forward! YAY!

My thoughts are that some of the behavior I've seen in autistic people has been things I've done myself, on occasion. Usually while exploring various aspects of my synaesthesia. If I couldn't turn down the gain on the additional sensory crossover channels, I'd suspect it would render the world very difficult to comprehend. So I've got a theory that some forms of autism may be something along those lines. They may be completely absorbed by something you don't perceive like the texture the sound of a specific object has when you drop it. Or at least that's the kind of thing I was interested in when doing things like that.

Yes yes yes yes.
Man, get it out.
YOu might be onto something here.

A psychedelic approach:

http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v07n3/07318fis.html

http://www.scribd.com/doc/18741840/LSD-Autism-Treatment

An orthomolecular approach:

http://www.orthomolecularhealth.com/~orth9777/autism.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abram_Hoffer (was interested in both the orthomolecular and psychedelic approach)

WOW! thanks alot man. Brain food.
Thats really interesting!

 

[Ganesha]

Don't combine autism with psychedelics unless there is a professional present. It may very well go wrong.

 

[Psyolopher]

Don't combine autism with psychedelics unless there is a professional present. It may very well go wrong.

hahaha ofcourse! :lol:

 

[Sumgai]

Don't combine autism with psychedelics unless there is a professional present. It may very well go wrong.

Not to be funny, but a professional what exactly? Psychiatrist? Psychologist? Neuropharmacologist? GP? Shaman? Midwife?

Is there such a thing as a professional psychedelic therapist?

 

[Ganesha]

There are professional psychedelic therapists, yes, but I think a psychologist who works with autistic people or a bonafide shaman will do. I wouldn't trust anyone who hasn't dealt with serious mental illness before.

 

[Forkbender]

Well, it depends on the severity of the disorder. Mild autism or asperger can go well if the person isn´t very much affected by the disorder in day to day life. I wouldn´t suggest to take a trip without a sitter, though.

 

[Psyolopher]

Maybe the answer to open them up lies with in the psychedelic molecule.
Would be perfect if someone tried to synthesize something to heal them.

 

[Sumgai]

Maybe the answer to open them up lies with in the psychedelic molecule.
Would be perfect if someone tried to synthesize something to heal them.

The problem is our techniques for healing the mind are currently quite primitive and crude compared to the ones we employ for healing the body. Surgery with a sledgehammer if you will. If autisim (or at least some forms of it) work like I suspect, the problem is that things are too open, not too closed. Using a psychedelic to treat that could be problematic, since even if you were able to effectively gain the ability to write the normally read-only areas of the brain (like some hallucinogens are reported to assist in), the problem is what you really need to do is likely close parts of it off to each other so that it can perform coherent processing. Even if it's possible to do, it's a dangerous undertaking and I don't think anyone with even a shred of responsibility would want to attempt it regardless of their level of expertise. I think it's just something that remains beyond our capabilities for now.

Given how quick people are to throw prescription drugs at anyone who deviates from the norm these days, I worry that research in this area may have dangerous effects someday. I know people who genuinely have aspergers, and others who are merely antisocial and label themselves with it as an excuse to not alter their behavior. But it's difficult to draw actual lines because it's really all on the same spectrum. I've probably got worse tendencies than many of them but I refuse to label myself as afflicted simply to justify what I should be working to control or improve, and not throw in people's faces in an attempt to solicit pity or avoid scorn.

There have been some interesting molecules that are known to help with autism though. In particular, DMG (dimethylglycine) was popular in the 70s as a treatment for autism, and again in the 80s as one of the early attempts at slowing HIV. The mechanism it functions by is a significant increase in blood oxygen carrying capacity, which helps improve many things but in particular higher brain functions and immune response. It's one of the most underrated supplements in my opinion, and I often use it to treat problems caused by inhaled allergens (particularly smoke) and usually nausea (which it seems particularly good at relieving). Most vitamin/supplement stores carry it and it's not very expensive.

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

Here's another passage from Stan Grof's Psychology of the Future, pages 131-132:
[quote:1rkgsrdk]Autistic and Symbiotic Infantile Psychoses,
Narcissistic Personality, and Borderline States

Pioneers of ego psychology, Margaret Mahler, Otto Kernberg, Heinz Kohut, and others, contributed to the classical psychoanalytic classification several new diagnostic categories that, according to them, have their origin in the early disturbances of object relations. A healthy psychological development proceeds from the autistic and symbiotic stage of primary narcissism through the process of separation and individuation to the attainment of constant object relations. Severe interference with this process and lack of gratification of basic needs at these early stages can result in serious disorders. According to the degree of these adversities and their timing, these disturbances can lead to autistic and symbiotic infantile psychoses, narcissistic personality disturbance, or borderline personality disorders.

The analysis of the disturbances of object relationships underlying these disorders, found in the literature on ego psychology, is unusually detailed and refined. However, like classical psychoanalysts, ego psychologists fail to recognize that postnatal biographical events, in and of themselves, cannot adequately account for the symptomatology of emotional disorders.

Observations from holotropic states suggest that early traumas in infancy have a profound impact on the psychological life of the individual not only because they happen to a very immature organism and affect the very foundations of personality, but also because they interfere with the recovery from the birth trauma. They leave the access to the perinatal unconscious wide open.

The terms used in ego psychology for describing the postnatal dynamics of these disorders betray their underlying prenatal and perinatal dimensions. The symbiotic gratification, to which ego psychologists attribute great significance, applies not only to the quality of breast feeding and anaclitic satisfaction in infancy, but also to the quality of the prenatal state. The same is true for the detrimental effects of symbiotic deprivation. I will use here as an illustration Margaret Mahler’s description of the symbiotic phase: “During the symbiotic phase the infant behaves and functions as though he and his mother were an omnipotent system (a dual unity) within one common boundary – a symbiotic membrane as it were

 

[Ganesha]

How Freudian of Stan Grof to reduce everything to birth and childhood trauma. I guess we're lucky he doesn't Oedipalize the whole situation.

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

I don't think he reduces everything to the birth trauma.

The Transpersonal Domain of the Psyche

The second major domain that has to be added to mainstream psychiatry’s cartography of the human psyche when we work with holotropic states is now known under the name transpersonal. This term means literally “reaching beyond the personal

 

[Ganesha]

If I understand the wall of text correctly, it asserts the transpersonal states, but nowhere does it link psychological problems with these states, because, rather, they are teh solution to the problems. I was talking about what he sees as the origin of these problems, about which this text doesn't really say anything.

I'm not really interested in another 5 page reply, so if you can give your summary/interpretation of how Grof thinks it works, that would be great.

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

In several places he gives examples where the roots of certain emotional problems were seen to extend into the transpersonal domain (archetypal beings, past life experiences etc.). However, it doesn't seem one can link the various disorders to particular transpersonal realms or aspects of those realms, because this greatly varies from person to person.

 

[Ganesha]

:?

I'm not entirely sure if I can believe that.

 

[Psyolopher]

In several places he gives examples where the roots of certain emotional problems were seen to extend into the transpersonal domain (archetypal beings, past life experiences etc.). However, it doesn't seem one can link the various disorders to particular transpersonal realms or aspects of those realms, because this greatly varies from person to person.

Heard a saying that went something like this:
The line between genious and insane is often thin.....

Many cases thats true, myself one! MOAHAHAHAH!
(btw didnt read all the text, but i will with time and energy.) :P

 

[BrainEater]

life is defined by death, as death is defined by life so it does make sense reducing some traumas to birth traumas, as this is where they may oringinate from. however i also wonder with the archetypical and transpersonal realms/domains, but i don't really doubt that one can connect to these. i suppose tho that peace of mind, inner calmness, mental focus, mental "power" would be requirements, if it'd be possible.