Ten Things of Thankful

Ran across this idea while doing some exploratory research.  The gist is that it's a challenge to look at your life and find at least ten things to be thankful for.  There's some kind of networking component I'm not sure I'll opt into, because I have limited energy, but it seems like a good idea.  

Relatedly, there is a literal boatload of studies (that would actually fill a boat if you printed them out) on how gratitude and taking time to be thankful is good for your health, so here's my list (in no particular order).  

1. Positive People.  This includes my friends, who are few, but each is an incredibly worthwhile person.  It includes my spouse and some of my family, especially my parents.  It also includes various online acquaintances and content creators.  Basically, any person I can think of and immediately have a positive reaction to.  
2. The Internet.  It is, by definition, a mix of truth and lies, but in these  interesting times, it's what's made the difference between people staying home and people ignoring quarantine because they're bored out of their minds.  It's where I met my first friend.  It's what makes it possible for me to spend time with family and friends, even now.  
3. My Bicycle. Which I expect to be using as soon as the weather stops being rainy.  I put air in the tires a few days ago and hopped on for the first time in months... it seems I still remember how to ride, but am hilariously out of shape.  Still, with care, my bike will provide medium range transport to various places, including the local grocery store and some slightly-further-away foraging locations.  
4. Video Games. For some of the same reasons as the Internet, but more personally.  In World of Warcraft, I regularly interact with a workgroup of 10-20 people.  I mostly don't know what they look like, but I'm able to spend time with them in and out of game, and that helps with the isolation.  There's also Animal Crossing, which has a whole world-spanning community around it.  And Ring Fit Adventure, which is literally an exercise game.
5. The Various Therapies That Support My Wellbeing.  These include my supplements, which are mostly vitamins and minerals (but also some brain chemicals), my biweekly trip to see my therapist and have LENS done, and various dietary modifications.  I avoid dairy and high histamine foods, which means I tend to eat things like sunflower seed butter instead of peanut butter, or pseudocheese products instead of regular cheese.  
6. My Neighbor the Great Blue Heron. Picture below because it wouldn't attach without messing up my list.
7. Foraging. Giving me a reason to ditch my house while still social distancing.  I like trying new things (to some extent).  Trying new foods, knowing they're packed full of nutrients the store produce can't hope to match, is a great bonus.  It also makes me feel a bit less anxious about whether there will be food in the future, because while the grocery store is unlikely to run out of food, knowing you can supplement your diet with wild foraged food is invaluable.  It's also a great reason to go outside.  
8. My Spouse.  He's technically been mentioned, but he deserves his own listing.  While our relationship is still a work in progress (which is normal, as I understand it), he's willing to put in the work to make our communication better and more successful.  Since I'm autistic and don't work on the same wavelength as he does, this is a very valuable choice he's made, and continues to make every day.  We have a lot of things in common, but where I've become bitter and crabby over the years, he's still somewhat innately joyful and playful.  
9. Good Food.  The one constant pleasure in my life, which sounds horrible until you consider how bad it might have been if I'd had none at all.  One of the ways my parents showed their love was by making or buying us food.  Mom typically handled most of the cooking, but sometimes Dad would grill chicken, steaks, or shrimp.  On Sundays we'd sometimes eat at a restaurant.
10. The Quietness of My Home.  I have fairly sharp hearing and unfortunately my brain doesn't filter out extraneous noise.  So right now I can hear the faint hum of my computer running, as well as the air conditioner, refrigerator, the sound of my chair and keyboard, etc.  However, what I don't have to hear is noises from outside.  I used to live in places where people would blare music from stereos, lean on their car horns, yell at each other, and tromp up and down the public stairs at all hours.  It was very distracting and unpleasant.  I now live somewhere significantly quieter, and am much happier for it.  

Growing up, I became accustomed to ducks (especially mallards) and Canada geese.  Herons, however, are a special treat, and this fellow (or lady) comes by every now and then.

Young dandelion greens salad, sheep sorrel, and shagbark hickory nuts awaiting shelling and consumption.  

Reading the Research: Talking Depression and Self-Care

Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects, then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and observations.

Today's article is on depression, which plagues up to 85% of autistic people depending on which statistics you're looking at.  We tend to suffer higher stress levels due to being different than the norm.  It might be the experience of being quietly excluded from groups in church, school, or work, or camouflaging one's autistic features so as to better fit in at the expense of one's energy and sanity.  Or it might be a chronic biological issue that leads to increased stress and suffering, such as gastro-intestinal dysfunction or food allergies.  It might simply be chronic sensory overstimulation.  

Most likely, it's a combination of these things, plus more I haven't named.  The autistic experience is rarely a simple one.  Regardless of what causes it, autistic people suffer higher rates of depression.  I am no exception.  My diagnosis was dysthymia, which is a low grade, but long lasting, depression.  It can last your whole life, and... in my case, mostly has.  I can look back upon at least 20 years of my life and say, "yeah, I was probably depressed."  There were several periods in college where I am fairly certain I dropped into major depression instead of my typical dysthymia.  Between these facts and my degree in psychology, I consider myself a valid source on the subject.

There are a lot of factors to depression, both factors you control and ones you don't.  The article talks about a factor you do control: mood regulation via choice of activity.  It's Oxford, so their unnecessarily fancy word for it is "mood homeostasis."

In plainspeak, they're talking about self-care.  When people feel sad or lonely, the typical response is to do something comforting or pleasant to help counter that mood.  That something might be reading a favorite book, going for a walk in the sunshine, calling a friend or family member, lying in front of a warm fire, or something else entirely.  

Now, I say "the typical response," but self-care is actually only somewhat innate.  It makes logical sense to do something nice for yourself when you're feeling down, but not everyone takes these actions.  This is possibly because they never learned how to practice self-care, or were even actively taught that it was a waste of time.  But another explanation might apply, too.  

You see, depression can leech the enjoyment out of things you previously enjoyed.  Major depression does this.  So you might go to read a favorite book and find the experience hollow and unenjoyable.  As a result, you might be disheartened from trying that activity again, even though it might be enjoyable the next time.  With enough repetitions of that phenomenon, across many activities you used to find fun, you might simply stop trying at all.  

And that might explain me. I spent a large portion of my life not really knowing what things were likely to make me happy.  I would sometimes ask, somewhat sarcastically, "what's fun?"  Even now, I don't really have things I wholeheartedly consider fun.  Tasty food is about the only reliable pleasure in my life, which is likely part of why it's so hard for me to lose weight.  Reading books, taking hot baths, sitting in front of a fire, spending time with friends, playing video games, listening to music... all of these can be wonderful, but so often aren't.  

Self-care skills can be taught, and lists made of activities to try when feeling depressed.  This can help overcome the lack of instinct to engage in self-supportive activities.  But of course, with the coronavirus threatening our safety and wellbeing, options may be limited.  Where I live in the US, there are no options to go to a sit-down restaurant with a friend for lunch.  Most public parks have closed off their parking lots.  Some people may not even feel safe going outside.  

So there are external factors as well as potential internal ones, when it comes to self-care.  

(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)

Book Review: Special-Needs Kids Go Pharm-Free

Special-Needs Kids Go Pharm-Free: Nutrition-Focused Tools to Help Minimize Meds and Maximize Health and Well-Being, by Judy Converse (MPH, RD, LD), is, in the main, a guidebook to special needs child nutrition and feeding. 

This is a book that covers more than autism, but as most parents with autistic loved ones know, you don't usually just get "autism and no other problems."  There's usually gasto-intestinal issues, food allergies, intolerance of food dyes, and sleep difficulties.  This book covers all of those things.  The title is a bit deceptive, in that the author doesn't necessarily think it's reasonable for every child to cut pharmaceuticals out of their lives. 

However, what she does say is that many conditions which are typically treated with pharmaceuticals, like depression, inability to focus, hyperactivity, and digestive issues... can be treated more effectively with better nutrition and possibly dietary changes.  Instead of treating the symptoms, you can eliminate the cause of the problem itself, which might be something like a zinc deficiency or magnesium deficiency.  The end result, naturally, is a happier, healthier child.

I personally suffered from both of those deficiencies, and it seems I also have some form of allergy to dairy.  And possibly gluten, but I'm studiously ignoring that right now because the idea of trying to go gluten-free is painful to contemplate.  As I understand it, this is a common dread for parents of autistic people.  Good news!  This book has resources to help. 

Actually, on the subject of nutrition and food allergies, this book has something I've never seen anywhere else: DIY infant formula.  Babies can be allergic to foods, and if the mother eats those foods or the infant formula contains them, the baby can suffer those allergies.  But because they're babies, they can't really communicate the specifics of their distress.  My spouse's mother eventually had to cut cow milk and dairy out of her diet when breast-feeding him, because he was apparently lactose intolerant from birth.

While removing cow dairy from a diet might be complicated, at least it was just one factor.  For some people on the autism spectrum, it's more than one thing.  The author talks about her struggles with feeding her son, who had a lot of food allergies and eventually, despite all her efforts, could not be breast-fed.  The authors talks about how to test for these sorts of things in children of all ages, as well as reasonable coping strategies for managing meals.

I say "reasonable" because high-needs people can test positive for allergies to dozens of foods, and trying to cut all of those foods out of a diet is exhausting at best.  The author quite rightly points out that it can also lead to malnutrition.  So she suggests (repeated throughout the book, so as to really get the point across) that you should get the tests done, and then choose the 2-4 strongest reactions to eliminate from the person's diet.  The rest should be cycled, or eaten sparingly once or twice a week.  This method limits the amount of exhaustion a parent faces when trying to provide meals and appropriate nutrition for their loved one.

The book also discusses specific supplements, from fish oil to amino acids to brain chemicals like GABA.  There were things I'd heard of, like magnesium and zinc, and things I hadn't, like tyrosine and glutathione.  Each comes with the sort of educated advice and symptoms list you would expect when visiting a specialist doctor... which is the author's credentials, of course.  It's just usual to have put into a book, when this advice will typically run you hundreds to thousands of dollars. 

Naturally, you shouldn't simply pick up this book and try the things in it without any form of professional guidance.  While I found this book astonishingly accessible and thorough about its information, there's always interactions between pharmaceuticals and supplements.  Some of those are covered in this book, but for your loved one's safety, consult a trained professional before adding things. 

Overall, this was an excellent read.  High quality information, significant but not overwhelming resources, written in an accessible-to-all style.  While I don't agree with absolutely every recommendation in the book, the author seems quite knowledgeable and in-tune with this subject.  I might consider buying a copy of this book and having it on hand to give to parents who come to the parent support group.  The kinds of symptoms they complain about, including unusual things like the "white diet" where the child will only eat milk, cheese, pasta, etc, are addressed in these pages.

Read This Book If

You're a parent of a special-needs person, especially if they're younger than 18.  Seriously, this is basically essential reading.  This book does cover autism but it also covers much of the rest of the alphabet soup that often plagues special-needs kids: depression, anxiety, ADHD, allergies, asthma, learning problems, epilepsy, etc.  The author provides clear, accessible suggestions for complete nutrition, from covering specific supplements to which tests to ask for from your doctor.  Sleep, growth patterns, allergies (including dietary allergies), and gut bacteria are covered.  The resources offered are excellent.  And it's the only book I've ever seen that's included a literal recipe for a hypoallergenic infant formula. 

Reading the Research: Gene Therapy

Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects, then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and observations.

Today's article is likely a glimpse into future of medical treatments.  We know various conditions, such as depression, have risk factors directly in our genes.  These can be flipped on and off by the environment, which has been demonstrated in various studies on identical twins.  

The classical example is identical twins separated at birth for some reason.  They found each other later in life, having had different lives and family situations. One twin might have developed depression, while the other hadn't, despite being genetically identical.  When their genes were studied, they differed slightly despite beginning 100% identically.  

A person might have a predisposition to developing depression, but when put in a very healthy environment, may never develop it.  In a less healthy environment, they would become depressed. The idea with gene promoters like the kind in this study is, "what if we could turn those depression genes back off?"  

The researchers hope to do the same thing with neurological diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.  I guarantee the question will come, "what about autism?"  

The answer is that autism isn't a single gene, or even a dozen.  It's hundreds.  And even if you tweaked all of them, the genes aren't really where the difference lies: it's the brain.  You can't so easily eugenicize autism out of a person (and that's ignoring the question of whether you should).  

What you could do instead, is ease the person's suffering.  Reduce that person's susceptibility to gut issues, depression, anxiety, or even epilepsy.  The damage done to our genetics by eating junk food full of herbicides and pesticides, breathing stale air pollution, not exercising, and trapping ourselves in sterile cubicles might not be entirely reversible... but gene therapy could help.

(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)

Book Review: Engaging Autism

Engaging Autism: Using the Floortime Approach to Help Children Relate, Communicate, and Think, by Stanley Greenspan and Serena Wieder, is a guidebook and near-instructional manual on the DIR/Floortime method of therapy.

I'm typically cautious to the point of pessimistic skepticism when reading about specific therapies and how they're supposed to "improve" autistic people.  This is possibly because Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) is the biggest of these therapies, and it is all-too-often abusive.  But I'd heard good things about the Floortime method, so despite this book being 400+ pages, I gave it a read.

I was not disappointed.  While the book is dense and not written in a way that's easily accessible to a frazzled parent, the approach it's trying to communicate is excellent.

Unlike ABA, which typically just tries to elbow autistic people into "normal behavior" via bribery, Floortime instructs parents and caregivers to enter the autistic person's world.  Instead of invalidating our experiences and existences in pursuit of some imagined norm, the aim is to develop connection, warmth, stability, and then, communication and reasoning skills.

Floortime recognizes the autistic person as a person.  Perhaps a person with difficulties, sensory or biological or emotional, but a person deserving of kindness, care, and attention.  A person with autonomy and feelings, regardless of what level of apparent functioning they've reached.

Floortime also refuses to assume a limit on how far an autistic person can develop.  It lays out the developmental steps for communication and reasoning, but then says on page 125: "Never assume a ceiling on a child's abilities.  Always assume you can get to one more level, and after that, one more level."

The writers are aware that people may have limits, and may only be able to develop to a certain point, but they prefer to err on the side of assuming competence and assuming potential rather than possibly limit a person's growth and development.  Since that kind of assumed limitation is so common and crippling, and people with limited speech are so typically ignored, this philosophy is what all people should strive for.

It doesn't pretend the process will be easy, nor does it ignore biological, sensory, and processing differences.  These have their own chapters devoted to them, and while I could wish for much more to be said on the subject, it's a bit outside the scope of the book.

I can't stress enough how unusual Floortime's philosophy is.  Or how badly it's needed.  This is the therapy that should have been subsidized by insurance companies, not ABA.  Rather than teaching robotic compliance, it teaches proactive communication, self-regulation, and connection.  It recognizes that humans, all humans, are social and desire positive relationships with others.

It makes me wish, in all honesty, I'd had the opportunity to benefit from this therapy.  As an autistic adult who is markedly leery about behavioral therapies, that's probably the highest compliment I can give.

I could probably continue showering Floortime and its creators in compliments and appreciation for some time, but there are some other things that should be said.

First, Floortime is not a "follow directions, receive child with improved functioning" sort of deal.  It's a significantly effortful, complicated, time-intensive method, which is why it took them 400 pages or so to explain it.  It requires you spend at least 15 minutes per session with the autistic person, and suggests 8 sessions a day.  As such, it is not a therapy that is easily practicable by every parent in the current world.  Single parents, or even two parents near or under the poverty line, may have difficulty finding the time and energy for the sessions.

The authors specifically state that interventions and therapy need to be built on a stable base: a healthy, safe environment with adequate food, shelter, and medical care (pg. 255).  In an ideal world, that would be true of every family.  In reality, it is not.

Money worries can strain spouse relationships, and communication issues may exist beyond the actual autistic person.  Family relationships in a household with an autistic person can be significantly unhealthy.  If the autistic person is to develop in a healthy way, family counseling may be required.  And of course, not all families can afford counseling.

Second, this book is not the most approachable for a busy parent.  The style of writing seems more akin to scientific writing than it does to plainspeak.  The word choice isn't overly elaborate, thankfully, but I found the writing dense and difficult to digest in large chunks.  The authors do not get to the point quickly or efficiently.  This is maybe understandable since they're trying to convey a philosophy and a state of mind, rather than simple facts or bullet points.

Finally, like basically every other "here's this method to help autistic people!" guide, this book is geared towards helping children.  Most references in the book speak about developmental levels and abilities typically involved in childhood, and the book stresses beginning Floortime as soon as possible.

However, Floortime can also be used with adults, and chapters 17 and 18 specifically talk about how that can be done.  They also share the results of a few cases where it has been done, and the positive results that followed.  So while I'd personally appreciate more emphasis on it never being too late to start, the authors didn't entirely miss this point.

Read This Book If

You're a parent, professional, or caretaker for an autistic child, adolescent, or adult.  If you're looking for a therapy to help your loved one connect with the world and improve their communication, this is it.  Seriously.  I can't recommend the method highly enough.  The book itself may be a slow read, but the ideas are sound, and even backed up with research at the end of the book.  

Reading the Research: Pets

Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects, then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and observations.

Today's article directs stressed parents and autistic people towards a method of support that might, at first glance, seem counterproductive.  It seems to me as though many people are actually taking this route to help with the quarantine: adopting a pet.  

Cats and dogs can provide companionship and support where other humans fail to do so, and they're non-judgmental in terms of a human's social intuition.  So for autistic people, they can be excellent companions.  As I understand it, though, most people can benefit from petting a cat or spending time with a dog.  This study seems to suggest that even with the additional responsibilities and costs of owning a pet, it was a boon to the parents as well.

It can be difficult, in a household that already has higher expenses due to autistic support needs, to afford a pet.  Still, it seems like it's worth the cost, if the cost is feasible.  Pets can also help teach responsibility and the necessity of daily chores to children, providing a built-in opportunity for learning.  

I didn't, growing up, have cats or dogs around the house.  Between family member allergies and one member just generally disliking pets, it simply was never an option.  I did have a pet corn snake and a pair of gerbils.  I did love my corn snake, but it wasn't soft and fluffy and it wasn't terribly affectionate.  So while I probably reaped some of the benefits involved in having pets, I'm not sure I got the full effect.

A final note: the article cautions people from just swooping down and adopting the first thing they see.  Choosing a pet that suits the autistic person (ie: a quiet one if the autistic person has sensory sensitivities, one that needs regular walks if the autistic person loves being outdoors, etc) is extremely important.  

To this warning I would add: pets are living creatures.  When you adopt one, you are promising to take care of it for the rest of its life.  When the quarantine tapers off and eventually ends, your promise remains.  If you adopt a kitten or a puppy, it's cruel and evil to get rid of it when it stops being cute.  If you adopt a pet at all, you've promised to care for it and support it through its lifetime.  Think about what you're signing up for, before you adopt.  

If you can't commit to taking care of a pet for its whole life, DO NOT ADOPT ONE.  Instead, volunteer at your local pet shelter.  They always need help.  There are lots of dogs that need walks and love, and lots of cats that need affection and playtime.  You should prepare to clean cages, fill food dishes, and help veterinarians as well.  

(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)

Autism Friendly Homes/Business Audit Sheet

About a year ago, I audited a local grocery store, testing to see how autism-friendly or -unfriendly it was.  I'm well suited for this sort of audit, because I have sensory sensitivities in plenty but I'm usually able to quantify and express what I experience in an understandable way.  Your typical autistic child or even adult may suffer similarly, but lack the vocabulary or even the understanding of what in particular is hurting them.

At the time, I developed an audit template sheet.  It's very much a work in progress, and I'm sure actual auditors would be able to improve it.  I tried to make my criteria reasonable for a business, but this isn't the kind of audit sheet most commercial businesses could score 100% on, even if they're dedicated to being accessible.

The sheet is here, and should be publicly available.  Rather than rehash what I've already written on the subject, I thought it might be worthwhile to discuss how these criteria could apply to a home.  We're stuck at home during this quarantine, it makes sense to make your home as comfortable and accessible as possible for the autistics in your life.  After all, a supportive environment means fewer meltdowns and less tension and unpleasantness.

Lighting

Lighting is complicated issue in the commercial use,  but thankfully simpler at home.  Fluorescent lights are basically the standard in institutions and commercial buildings because of how cheap they are to run.  You literally turn them on at the beginning of the day, and thereafter they cost pennies to keep lit for hours.  Incandescent lights are far more expensive.  Natural light is beholden to the eccentricities of the weather and the day and night cycles.  The choice, in terms of saving money, is painfully clear.

From an accessibility standpoint, however, fluorescents are awful.  They flicker, even when working properly.  Some autistic people can see that flicker, and it's immensely distracting, or even painful.  Allistic/neurotypical people may relate if they've ever been stuck in a room with a malfunctioning, flickering fluorescent light.  Multiply that irritation by at least 3, and you're in the ballpark for the autistic people who are less affected by this issue.  It goes up from there, to the point where some autistic people can't be in the same room as fluorescent lights.  You can mute the flicker by shading them, or having a mix of light types.

Thankfully, most homes I've been in don't bother with fluorescent lights except in laundry rooms.  If there are any rooms in your house that do have them, check with your loved one about those areas of the house.  If the autistic person doesn't speak, consider whether they typically avoid those areas of the house, or whether meltdowns seem to happen more frequently in those areas.

Also a plus, most homes don't have those horrid blue-white LED light strips, or little flashing TVs to hawk products at you.  Most homes are also not lit to commercial standards, and are darker and easier on the eyes.  Additionally, homes tend to be lit with warmer colored bulbs.  Where industrial settings and some commercial settings use blue-white (or "outdoor") lights, homes use "indoor" warm yellow-white lights.  These are less piercing and painful than the alternative.

Sounds

Sounds are a different kind of problem.  There are some places (one restaurant in particular that shall be nameless) that I simply can't be in comfortably, because the noise level is too high.  Having a reasonable noise level, including the ambient noise or music, and the noises the other residents make, shouldn't be too much to ask in a home.

What's reasonable may vary by the person.  I typically have a very quiet home, so quiet you can actually hear the HVAC system and water in the pipes.  But depending on your culture, it may be normal to have at least one stereo blaring music, or a TV on all the time.  Keep in mind that there's a difference to autistic people between sounds we don't control (like someone else's stereo or TV) and ones we do (like banging on a drum, our own music or TV, etc).

Overall volume is only one facet of this problem, though.  You also need to factor in how complex the environment is.  If, like Seaworld, you have competing music in certain areas, that is unpleasant to people with sensory sensitivities. Consider the things that make noise in your home.  This might be something as simple as the refrigerator droning, or the washer/dryer clunking or banging.  Perhaps the heating/cooling system clicks or bangs when it turns on.  Or maybe some of your lights hum when they're on.  I have a dimmer switch on the dining room that hums and snaps a bit when it's in use.

If you can, ask your loved one about these things.  If that's not an option, spend a few minutes in each room of the house, and just listen carefully.  What do you hear?  Keep in mind that younger people can often hear higher frequencies than older people can, so even if you hear nothing of note, there may still be noise you can't hear.  Or sounds you would normally tune out, like the buzzing or notification sounds of others' phones, that aren't as predictable.

Finally, emergency alarms need to be considered.  This includes fire alarms as well as carbon monoxide detectors.  Most fire alarms I've had the misfortune of experiencing were blindingly painful.  They are the typical high-pitched, grating, painfully loud shrieks that are designed to wake people out of a cold sleep and send them shambling down the stairs and out the door in a stupor.  These are widespread, but they're not the only kind of fire alarm in existence.  When my second high school remodeled their library, they installed a talking alarm that made lower pitched booping noises and informed people in English that there was an emergency, and to please leave in an orderly fashion (I forget the exact directions).

In 2004, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission put out a document on home fire alarms.  While dense, this document is informative on the various options for alarms, including ones that don't rely on sound.  In short, there are many options, but in general most places have stuck with the most sensory-unfriendly ones.

Smells

Smells might be the easiest of the three to address, in most business settings.  Usually you don't want to overwhelm a person's senses with a cacophony of odors.  There are exceptions, like scented candle shops or places that sell soap and bath products.  Other places, like bakeries and grocery stores, will pump in manufactured smells to mess with your brain for a more positive impression of the store.  Or there may be ripe trash areas, bottle returns full of old beer stink, etc.  That's a no-no for being accessible.  Restricting scented items to their own sections is pretty basic, and should be doable for almost every business.

In homes, the situation is much less predictable.  People may burn scented candles or wear perfume or cologne with no thought towards others' comfort.  But these overtly scented items aren't the only way excessive smells can infect an environment.  Every class of cleaning product, from hand soap to floor cleaners to laundry detergent, comes in scented varieties.  Typically these aren't too overwhelmingly powerful, but exceptions exist... and sensitivities vary.  I know of one woman that has to buy all her products in unscented, or she will suffer immensely.

Keep your scented product choices in mind when considering the environment for an autistic person.  Do they tend to complain about or avoid areas that have recently been cleaned?  Or do they prefer the smell?  Keep in mind, too, that even common unscented cleaners, like bleach or vinegar, can have strong odors that can upset a sensory-sensitive person.

Cooking smells can also be a minefield, depending on the person.  Some smells, like cabbage or onions, can bother even neurotypical people.  This is especially true in smaller areas.  So if your autistic loved one typically melts down when you're frying fish, that's a pretty clear sign.  Maybe skip the fish, or at least try a different kind of fish.

And So

That's what the sheet covers.  What I didn't get to when I originally made this, and what's definitely the least easy to make audit criteria for, is store policies.  For stores, this is fairly basic: be predictable, label your sections, don't have socially invasive policies (like demanding your employees greet the customers throughout the store), maybe implement sensory-friendly hours and have a recovery room, that sort of thing.

For a home, it's significantly more complicated.  I still think a recovery room or somewhere quiet and comfortable the autistic person can retreat to, to cool down, is very important.  For me, growing up, that was my room.  I wasn't made to share a room with my brother, so the space was always mine, and it was always safe to return to.  For larger families and families without the option to give their autistic children separate rooms, a closet might serve this purpose, or a space outside.

The problem with trying to make a one-size-fits-all sheet for autism-friendliness is that autistic people are very NOT one-size-fits-all.  Because the diagnosis is such a trash bin, all kinds of people with all kinds of needs get thrown into it.  So you really need to look carefully at what your autistic loved one needs, what they're good at, and what they struggle with.  If they have executive function difficulties (issues planning their day, breaking a task into smaller tasks, organizing themselves), then setting up a calendar and rewards would be a good plan.  If they don't, those things might help, but they won't have as major of an impact.

In general, be clear and upfront about expectations, whether they're social expectations ("you will sit at the table until everyone is finished eating") or chores ("you will take out the trash on Wednesday evenings").  Spell this out on a schedule if this is possible.  I make use of Google Calendar in my household, and my spouse and I have shared our calendars with each other so there are relatively few surprises.

Finally, try to keep positive things available in the house.  This also varies widely by the autistic person.  Perhaps a favorite food can be kept in stock, or a favorite scented product, or a toy.  Perhaps the person loves watching bicycle tires spin, or a particular TV show.  Whatever it is, consider it like self-care for the autistic person... because it is!  Some neurotypical people swear by the soul-restoring benefits of drinking tea, or reading a book, or listening to favorite music.  Autistic people can enjoy these activities too, but they may also enjoy watching lava lamps, staring into bright lights, or putting objects into lines.  Just because these activities fall outside the norm doesn't make them any less valid.  Make sure these soul-restoring things are reliably available to your loved one!

I hope this helps you make your home a friendlier, happier environment for everyone.  We're all stuck inside at the moment, so the more positive "inside" is, the better!

Reading the Research: TMS for Autistic Depression

Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects, then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and observations.

Today's article further expands on the usefulness of trans-cranial magnetic stimulation.  It also makes me wonder whether autism researchers ever talk to autistic people.  

The gist of this study is that TMS (trans-cranial magnetic stimulation) has been shown to be effective in treating depression.  So these researchers decided to try it on depressed autistics, because why not?  Autistic people are prone to much higher rates of depression, and there's always the hope that "maybe this time we'll find a cure."  Also, we don't tend to respond well to antidepressants, because our neurologies and biologies are already so sensitive.  Medications are essentially treatment via blunt-force trauma, so if your system is already sensitive, it's typically not going to go well.  Hence, other treatment options, like TMS, are necessary.  

Unsurprisingly, the TMS treated the autistics' depression.  Not everyone in this small study could tolerate the treatment, which doesn't surprise me given our tendency toward sensory issues.   Still, 70% of the 13 participants had improvements in their depressive symptoms.  So, promising!  

The bit that makes me shake my head is the researchers' excitement about the reduction in repetitive behaviors, hyperactivity, and irritability.  Why yes, if you reduce the amount of suffering a person experiences every day, they WILL tend to act more "normal."  Repetitive behaviors can serve a number of purposes, but especially they tend to be a coping mechanism for handling suffering.  Shocking, I know. 

Most members of the autism community could have told the researchers this would happen, but I guess, like most research on autism, we weren't consulted.  Oh boy. 

At any rate, ignorant researchers or no, this is a promising step forward.  It's the most basic of clinical trials, and they'll need to do additional ones that include double-blind and sham treatments.  Hopefully, given these results, funding will come for those additional studies soon. 

(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)

The Autism Community Presents: Resources for These Interesting Times

http://www.thinkingautismguide.com/2020/04/tpgas-resources-for-coping-with-covid.html

I did my own version of this a few weeks ago, but as is typical, you get more and better information when more people contribute.  

This list covers a lot of topics, including:

• Strategies and tips from autistic people on how to manage this crisis.
• Coronavirus (COVID-19) information, to help counter the misinformation that's out there.
• Plain language guides so everyone can understand the coronavirus situation.
• Resources, such as emergency planning forms, instructions for face masks and hand sanitizer, and suggestions for how to keep connected socially while social distancing.
• Links to advocacy organizations and their COVID-19 resources.
• Guides to self-advocating in medical settings.
• Homeschooling and "learn something new while you're home!" resources.
• Links to legitimate charities that will actually use your money to help others instead of their CEOs' yacht funds.  

There's a lot here and I'll probably work through it slowly, picking and choosing the most relevant-sounding links in each category.  What I've gotten through has been very helpful, though.