This second workshop is an expansion of autisms using Donna William’s “fruit salad” analogy as the basis. I shall be adding links to expanding on some of the aspects which I spoke about.
Further Reading and Links
Autism & Social Emotional Agnosia
Autism & Auto-immune Disorders
Autism & Language Processing Disorders
Autism & Communication Disorders
Autism & Self and Other Integration & System of Sensing
Paul Isaacs 2020
My autism dances with my personhood… and my personhood must also dance with my autism yet whilst not separable, nor are they interchangeable with each other.
Autism, Identity First Language, and Identity Blog 2014
When someone is diagnosed with autism? Are there other aspects we have to consider?
So for example if someone sees there whole being as “Autistic” is that accurate? helpful? Should we be allowing this to happen?
Paul Isaacs 2020
This workshop is an an introduction and overview of autism using Donna William’s “fruit salad” analogy as the basis. I shall be adding links to expanding on some of the aspects which I spoke about.
Autism “Fruit Salad” Expanded
Autism and Personality Types
Autism and Personality Types? Why Aren’t They Looked Into?
Autism, Personality & Identity
Autism and Visual Perception
Autism, Visual Agnosias And Making Connections
Agnosia, Sensory Perception & Autism
Autism and Exposure Anxiety
A Diagnostic Criteria For Exposure Anxiety?
Further Links
Differences Between Aspergers & Autism “Fruit Salads?”
Paul Isaacs 2020
It’s a very lonely road at times with my autism work and advocacy and here is why, I know as I type things will make more clarity as I continue to type.
Since Donna Williams’ passing in 2017 I have tried to advocate for her fruit salad analogy of autism (please checkout previous posts, links and images etc). I know that over her years of advocacy and consultancy she had her fair share of problems and challenges.
Militant autism advocates (on and off the autism spectrum) attacking her online for daring to challenge the status quo, rhetoric and internalised problems within the autism community.
Misunderstandings in her non- soft language terminology and her ability to supply “what if” scenarios etc.
This can a does become tiring on both a mental and physical level as to supply knowledge, it isn’t always easy however I try various different formats and medias to do so.
I believe that the ethical and moral thing to do is to supply with empathy and candour the multi-faceted nature of autism, the presentations, the mechanics and personhood.
Why? Because empowerment in this context means giving people tools to make good in life, to find themselves and be ultimately the best version of themselves. So many people cherry pick what autism “is and isn’t” and that is completely understandable because knowledge is not on the table to be supplied.
So anybody interested in finding out more?
Take time in ingest the knowledge and please know as with Polly my heart is in the right place.
Thank you Paul 😉👍 2020
mde
Note this is from a personal perspective on Exposure Anxiety
I have written about Exposure Anxiety for many years, some people do not know they have this condition, some people they come out of it, for others they live in the invisible cage both in a prison and in sanctuary, hiding and residing in faux comfort and fear.
For some it is the involuntary compulsive, involuntary and self-protective responses that render the person sabotaging social situations when “self” has been aware of.
It’s pre-conscious act in which the person cannot control the nervous-system’s knee jerk reaction.
Although I still have a residual presentation of EA. I have come a long way, through self education, self awareness and self-advocacy. 😊👍
Paul Isaacs 2020
Failure are friends, mistakes are mountains climbed, errors are conversations of change
I have learnt the more grounded you are the journey to this frame of mindscapes becomes clearer and more opaque. Take ownership of yourself, your life, your autonomy.
Before people tell you who you are, think of who you are and assume you are, make sure you have a healthy foundation of self-awareness.
It helped me over the years deal and manage other people’s projection. A lot of people who project have low self confidence, self-esteem for a multitude of differing reasons, personality disorders, anxiety, mood, attachment and/or dissociative disorders.
Poor parental and environmental underpinnings can then cause a fracture sense of core beliefs which then in turn cause a dissonance between actual (perceived) and real self, not many know who they are and project what they think they should be. The gnarled backbone of unhappiness.
So in many ways I feel empathy for people whom are angry at the world and at its perceived and very real misgivings.
However boundaries have to be out in place listen not always to the words but the patterns in which the words form. I have learnt that distance and cutting off is a very needed and that is fine.
Paul Isaacs 2020
Haha love this blog about autism and splinter skills and were one skill set can baffle and be up for contradiction in another.
Bathing, Temperature & No Sense of Time or Body
It took me until sixteen onwards to understand the concept of bathing as a tool to wash your body in prior to this I would urinate in the bath, smear bubble bath liquid on the tiles along with shaving foam.
A lot of times bathing the water would be too hot, too deep and would cause me to get light headed. I would sometimes lay in the bath for hours (until the water was cold), get lost dissociate, disconnect and focus on a fixed point and/or using the bath products.
The Art Of Toothbrushing
Tooth brushing I have yet to master, I have bouts of mild gingivitis, and a recent salivary gland infection which has “switched off” my left salivary gland. (I lose the patterns of how to brush my teeth for how long, the amount of pressure etc.) Dentists kindly remind me each time of how to do it.
The Delicacy of Shaving
Shaving my face I find odd too most of the hair density is below my jaw line, as such I am still so disconnected from body (so again losing patterns, strategies, movement and motion.) Leaving me with a blotchy and blood ridden skin at times.
Toilet Trouble
Toileting is a lot about were my body is in relation to the toilet and pan, knowing the internal reasonings, feelings and sensations that go with it. This is secondary to shy bladder and bowel syndrome.
Mop Maintenance
Hair brushing is a trial I have long thick curly hair and I have days and moments in which struggle to obtain and use right brushes and the stratagems to untangle.
Learning, Context & Conclusion
Context and meaning blindness, the inability to visually mentalise, visual perception, motion perception and body agnosias mean I rely on placement, position and associated contexts.
I suppose I did it my way.😉✨👍
Paul Isaacs 2020
Humility, Humanity, and Rhetorics
Laura Corker thank you for sharing sadly this treatment very common (common does not mean right, moral, acceptable) and nor should time be used as a reason or excuse.
Historical Accounts
This open, honest and saddening blog I feel helps explain my reasonings, for it is when people are reduced to being seen as one thing that the wheels of injustice begin to turn.
Autism, Identity and Historical Underpinnings
Frames of reference change from centuries to decades etc. People wonder why as person on the autism spectrum why I want to be seen as a person first and foremost.
To seen as a person, to be seen as a human being, to have healthy acknowledgment of one’s abilities and disabilities.
Conclusion
If we strip militancy and autism politics then I feel more realities will be touched with the depthful knowledge of shared realities.
Echoed within the eternal halls of telling that the mind scriptures do not become dust but are laid bare for futures to come.
Paul Isaacs 2020
Manipulation Of Facts & Events
Some people whom commit sexual abuse on other people which includes rape, sadly may project innocence to the point in which they believe their own story and present it to the world.
Molestation and touching without consent is also not only a breach of trust, it’s a selfish, egotistical and narcissistic, it’s putting a person’s needs before another.
“Normalisation” Of Events
The fallout for the victim could well be forced “normalisation” of the event, through false apologies, gaslighting and manipulation of the facts.
An overall disregard for the emotional impact by the predator will no doubt have an impact on the victim.
Mental Health Conditions Related to Sexual Abuse
Dissociation, PTSD, detachment from sexual organs and an unhealthy distortions in identity, sexuality, gender, intercourse and masturbation will have lingering and serious consequences.
So of course a predators nature should be accounted for, however the catch 22 will be if they are willing to admit to themselves what they have done.
Boundaries Are Needed
I have a personal peeve with people who disrespect other people’s bodies, a body should be touched only when their is a connected agreement between both parties. If there isn’t one must stop, if it continues then that is breaking boundaries, trust and seeing the person as a lust is not true connection.
Paul Isaacs 2020
Definition Of White Privilege
Accepting white privilege is not enough, acknowledging it is not enough, saying racism happens with indifference and apathy is not enough.
Acts of apathy and indifference is compounding the problem can imagine being told your reality was not “real”? Or that your reality was something that “just happened” and was met with almost chronic indifference from a social and systematic perspective?
The British Empire Was Driven By Racist Ideology
White privilege is happening and it’s warped hierarchy has been happening for well over 400 years, when the British Empire stole land, resettled and uprooted the gears of this machine did start to turn.
It is irresponsible and insufficient to view the separation of family units in the Caribbean through a lens that ignores the massive legacy of slavery – which is how most those families came to live there in the first place – and its relationship with the Commonwealth.
Kemi Alemoru – It’s Time Britain Confronted It’s Racist & Oppresive Past, No Half-Truths Blog 2018
Changing Facts To Fit Narratives?
It’s seeped into our “British Culture” as “normal”, in education, in employment, in media, in books and in movies etc.
“Before, people had to hide their racism. If you felt something bad about about black people, about Muslims, you had to shut up. Now these people have the confidence to come out in public to say everything. This is scary to me, that scares the shit out of me.”
Stormzy – Musician – The Guardian Article 2019 UK is ‘definitely racist’ an
It’s time for white people to know what is happening from the other side, not just acknowledge as a point of interest
No person’s reality should traded as insignificant to another’s.
Paul Isaacs 2020
