Book Review: The Autistic Brain

Posted on by Realistic Autistic
The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum, by Temple Grandin and Richard Panek, is a book that explains the research, progression of thought, and advancement of autistic people over the time the primary author, Temple Grandin, has been alive.  This book is about six years old, so while it doesn\’t have the latest research, it\’s still valuable in terms of the discussion and overview.

Dr. Grandin is a voracious reader and a scientist, so she\’s kept abreast of research as it\’s developed over time.  Fortunately for parents and non-scientists everywhere, she\’s been able to write in terms that laypeople can understand.  Rather than make her readers sort through overcomplicated word choice, abundant acronyms, and obfuscation of ideas, she simply outlines the major research focuses, discusses them, and then discusses the \”what next.\”

This is a two part book: past thinking and research is part 1.  It began with a summary of the history of autism, followed by a section on brain scans, then genetics and DNA, and then sensory sensitivities.  Each subject is discussed in enough detail to give you a clear picture of what\’s happened in that area.

The second half the book is more philosophy and building on the past research and ideas.  It\’s the \”now what?\” that followed the \”where we\’ve been.\”  Again, all of this is quite approachable and readable for a layperson, which I\’m particularly appreciating after having to read so many words in scientific writing style.

The most notable section to me in this book was near the end, where Grandin discusses autistic thinking and strengths.  In a past book, she theorized that autistic people think in pictures.  She herself does that, after all.  The thing is, I don\’t.  At least, I mostly don\’t.

I think in some absurd combination of concepts, music, flavors, pictures, patterns, and words.  Grandin revisits this idea in this book, and corrects her initial assumption.  She now theorizes at least three types of thinkers.  While I still don\’t think I\’m any of these theorized thinker types, I appreciate that she\’s willing to correct her mistake and rethink her ideas.

Mind you, I still think she has a ways to go, but in truth, I\’m not sure I\’d do much better in her place.

Read This Book If

You have an interest in learning the history and major research focal points of autism, without having to hunt down the research yourself.  Grandin and Panek do a fantastic job presenting that information to a wide audience.  They then build on the ideas presented to help answer the question of \”what do we do now,\” tackling subjects like inclusion, employment, and quality of life.  I appreciated the effort the authors put into trying to include the whole autism spectrum: speaking and nonspeaking, savants and non-savants, and thinkers of all kinds.

Legwork and Life, week of 10/2/19

Posted on by Realistic Autistic
This is Legwork and Life, where I track the legwork and opportunities in my career as an autistic advocate, and also describe parts of my adult autistic life, including my perspectives on everyday problems and situations.

\”Recovering\” is the word for this week.

The DC trip for the Autism Research Program went pretty well.  As in the last couple years, there were a few familiar faces as well as plenty of new ones.  I\’ll post about the program in more detail in an upcoming Friday post, along with the press release and such.  

The worst part of the trip was the travel, both to and from.  One of my flights home got canceled, in fact, due to nasty thunderstorms.  About the time I found this out, I also misplaced my driver\’s license, which nearly led to my having a meltdown in the airport.  Fortunately I was able to move myself off to a corner and upend my suitcase until I found it.  Thereafter an airline personnel was able to find me a later set of flights, which got me home about six hours later than I should\’ve gotten home, but at least I did get home.  

Of course, as soon as I got home, my period started.  So I then spent the next couple days miserable, pained, and exhausted.  My brain has flatly refused to work for almost the entire week so far.  I\’m really hoping this is temporary, because there\’s a lot of things I should be doing and haven\’t been able to.  It\’s kind of messing with me and making me feel like a failure.  

The histamine situation doesn\’t have a clear solution.  I\’m going to try adding extra vitamin C to my diet.  I guess there\’s a certain threshold you can normally add before you get unfortunate side effects, and we don\’t know what mine is right now.  It\’s possible that I\’m not at my vitamin C threshold, and adding more will help my body process all those histamines it\’s generating, which then make my attempts to exercise miserable.  

It\’s also possible that I\’ll need to try a DAO supplement, which is basically the substance your body is supposed to produce to prune down histamines on its own… but some people simply don\’t produce enough of it, so the histamines build up.  So that might be my problem also.  We simply don\’t have enough information.  

The vitamin C is the cheapest option, so I\’m starting with that and praying it works out.