Tag: Autism …

Pond in pots …

Apprehension and fear of the unknown are very real for a person living with autism. Often, they rely on strict routines and need to understand exactly what is happening or going to happen. Failure to grasp this can lead to their increased anxiety, and because of delayed processing abilities, attempting to comprehend these changes quickly—which are typical of the condition—can result in a cognitive meltdown. This meltdown may leave deeply embedded fears that resurface whenever anything similar occurs.

            I learnt this lesson when I tried to include our son, Marc, in creating a pond in a pot for him to look out upon from his favourite window. I encouraged him to fill the pot with rainwater from the water butt. He eagerly grasped the watering can and filled it, covering everything and everyone else as he did!

Then I asked him to place a couple of bricks into the pot, onto which we would stand the plants. He froze. What I had not realised was that the water he had just filled now reflected the sky and the surrounding scene like a mirror, and he could not see into the pot. Filled with fear of what was now hidden from him, he would do nothing else until I placed the first brick into the water, and my doing so broke the reflection on the water, and he could once again see into the pot.

           Calmed by this simple act, Marc continued to help me create his pot, happy that there were no hidden terrors. No meltdown, but an absolute lesson in understanding how autism can impact a person through everyday activities.

I have written about this example of supporting our son who has autism, among other conditions, and explain various interventions in my debut memoir, Marc’s Garden.

World Autism Acceptance Week 2nd – 8th April 2024

“Share, connect and engage with supporters to help increase autism acceptance and awareness. Join the online conversation.” National Autistic Society

This week, there is a focus on fundraising to raise vital funds and help create a society that works for autistic people. That much is true, but in my experience, the focus this week and every week needs to be on creating awareness of what autism is, how it affects the individual with the condition, and how it impacts those around them.

There remains a widespread media focus on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum, with individuals explaining how they navigate the world, their relationships, their attention to detail and how they work with their condition. 

There remains an absence of media coverage of the more severe aspect of the spectrum. An estimated 60% of individuals with autism are imprisoned or in trouble with the police, not through anything done wrong but more a misunderstanding of words used: Echolalia, sensory-triggered meltdowns, and a lack of social interaction skills.

Similar aspects of autism lead to isolation, depression, and anxiety—a sense of futility and worthlessness. A person with autism, suffering from sensory overload, cannot walk the length of a shopping mall without either curling up in a corner somewhere, trying desperately to hide from all the stimuli or falling into a rage triggered in defence of the sensory attack.

A person at this end of the autism spectrum can suck the life and optimism out of their souls and that of those who are around them and fall into a spiral of misery akin to Dante’s Inferno.

Awareness and understanding of these conditions can help people recover their minds and well-being and bring peace to their world.