Welcome back to Reading the Research! I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects to share with you. Along the way I discuss the findings with bits from my own life, research, and observations.
Today’s article explains, at least in part, why autistic people can have such trouble reading facial expressions. In Kindergarten or other early education, they teach that certain expressions mean certain things. Unfortunately, that is simply not how it works. The fact is, expressions are contextual. They don’t always mean the same thing.
Up to Interpretation
An exercise in reading facial expressions. One possibility: from top left to bottom right, surprised happiness, alarm, thoughtfulness, shock, a warm welcoming smile, and disbelief. But you might also read it feigned enthusiasm, fear, concentration, hiding a socially impolite smile/laughter, joy, and passing negative judgment. Note how many of these interpretations aren’t simple “happy, sad, angry” designations.
The fact is, expressions are complicated. People don’t simply swap between a palette of 8 basic expressions. If they did, most autistic people would have no issue learning those 8 expressions and then it would be metaphorical smooth sailing from then on.
No, the problem that instead of 8 basic expressions, there are dozens. They vary by the situation, by the person, and even by the culture. Because of all that variation, you have to use context to interpret any given expression. The better you understand the situation and know the person making the expression, the easier it is to figure out what the expression might mean.
Complicating matters, by the way, is how different autistic minds can be from neurotypical ones. When you go to interpret an expression in a situation, you’re performing predictive calculations using theory of mind. The more different you are from the person you’re trying to interpret, the harder that calculation is going to be.
Not Just Emotions
Adding to the difficulty of reading facial expressions, by the way? We’re taught that facial expressions are for conveying a person’s mood. This isn’t entirely wrong, but it’s not right either. Facial expressions also convey what we want people to see. Even if that’s a lie.
That’s actually something LENS and therapy have made possible for me. I can now lie with my face. That wasn’t possible before, which made things harder for me when it came to photography, formal occasions, interviews, and distant relatives. I can now choose to smile reasonably convincingly even if I’m feeling terrible. And often do, though my effectiveness at conveying the expression may be undermined by how bad I’m feeling.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter! There are links and comments on studies that were interesting, but didn’t get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
How to Be Human: An Autistic Man’s Guide to Life, by Jory Fleming with Lyric Winik, is an exploration of Fleming’s rather unique mind and perspective. Despite Fleming’s listing as the main author, Winik seems to be the organizing force behind the book. Through his eyes, and through his questions, we meet and see through the eyes of Fleming.
The cover of How to Be Human: An Autistic Man’s Guide to Life
It’s an interesting journey. The book is not quite stream of consciousness, but it is the product of many interviews and time spent together with Fleming. Winik tries to arrange the topics in a coherent flow, and you’re sort of drawn along in the experience. It starts out with more concrete subjects, but by the end the biographical subjects have ceased and you’re listening to the two authors talk philosophy and the value of human life.
What This Book Is Not
The book is not, I should point out, any kind of guide to autistic life. While I’m somewhat disappointed about that fact, I’m not overly surprised. Every autistic experience is different. Some autistic people, like Jory Fleming, seem to be more divorced from their emotions. I certainly was for a good chunk of my childhood.
This book is also not a “story of my life” tale, as is so often typical for autistic adults to write. Instead, it’s of a much smaller category. This book is one of the very few “see through my eyes at this very moment” types. Other books of this type include The Reason I Jump and How Can I Talk If My Lips Don’t Move? I’d say both of those have more “this was my childhood” built into them than How to Be Human. But that’s in part because Jory Fleming simply doesn’t remember much of his childhood.
He also isn’t typically affected by his emotions, and views most things exceptionally logically. One interesting caveat to that is that he doesn’t seem to understand shared cultures based on geographical area. So the idea of regional accents, shared beliefs about the world because that’s how everyone thinks, etc, those are all alien to him.
Bright Points
I had to laugh at one particular section in the book, where Winik and Fleming discuss art. I laugh, because I’ve finally found a fellow modern art critic with my exact same complaint:
LW: What are things you like and don’t like to look at?
Jory: I hate to say it, but really artsy stuff I don’t get. Like modern art or that art where it’s abstract and you’re supposed to bring meanings from something. My nephew could probably do that if we gave him some paint. I’ve looked at art exhibits and London and Paris, and sometimes I think the work is terrible.
How to Be Human, page 140-141
Jory Fleming describes himself as a relentless optimist. He’s very logical and reasonable about why he chooses to be that way. But it strikes me as rather unusual, because he had a reasonably difficult childhood from the small bits mentioned in the book. He didn’t start talking in the usual way of children. His mother homeschooled him and became an expert in how to communicate in “Joryspeak.” The most common example in the book is Fleming saying, “It’s a cold night” to her to ask her to turn on music for them to listen to. Because that was apparently something she’d sometimes say before turning on the music.
Also interestingly for a person that’s exceptional logical, Fleming is a person of faith. The discussion of that apparent contradiction is near the back of the book, and I found it both interesting and helpful.
Read This Book If
You’d like to explore an exceptionally unique autistic person’s mind and viewpoint on life. Parents, professionals, teachers, and fellow autistics might find commonalities in reading this book. Jory Fleming is eloquent in his way, and Winik guides you through the topics, flowing one into the next. It makes you think. I enjoyed it.
Welcome back to Reading the Research! I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects to share with you. Along the way I discuss the findings with bits from my own life, research, and observations.
Today’s article about processed food is horrifying to me on multiple levels. Just recently I wrote a piece on eating well to look and feel better. Autistic people often have fragile internal body processes. So what you put into your body as fuel makes a huge difference in how well you feel. If you eat poorly, it can cause depression, anxiety, difficulty focusing or sitting still, low or spiky energy levels, tiredness, malaise, etc. Or it can make those things much worse if you’re already prone to them.
I had an unpleasant object lesson in the importance of avoiding processed food about a week ago. I ate a friend’s homemade bready-cakey thing as a test. I’m honestly unsure of precisely what went into it, but I’m going to assume at least white flour and white sugar, because I developed a headache that lasted 24 hours, my depression worsened (and I started having boomerang memories), I had trouble focusing and kept missing things in my daily life, and I felt tired and vaguely ill. It was really horrible. The symptoms slowly went away as I went back to eating my usual diet of whole foods and vegetables, thankfully.
Defining
So what is processed food? Especially, our main offender in this article, what is ultraprocessed food?
Mostly, they’re ready-to-eat items, like fast food, desserts, most breakfast cereal, candy, TV dinners, and pastries. Pop/soda/Coke and juice also count. You could also define processed food as, “stuff that doesn’t look like the food it’s made from.” These foods have no nutritional content to speak of. They’re simply vehicles for calories, with little or no fiber, vitamins, or minerals. And they’re often loaded with sugar, salt, and saturated fat. No wonder obesity is such a problem. And no wonder sugar addiction plagues most of the US population.
As the article points out, processing is not necessarily an evil. And you don’t necessarily have to stop eating all processed foods to feel better. But having them be more then 2/3s of your diet is definitely bad. And, I will point out that while this article focuses on children, those children will grow up to be adults who will then choose foods based on what they like. While many of my friends have opted to eat healthier now that their bodies punish them for eating poorly, it’s a much harder transition than if they’d been eating well to begin with.
Generally speaking, it’s best to minimize eating processed foods and instead choose whole grains, whole fruits, and fresh or frozen vegetables. I’ve spent the last few months trying that diet, and I think I’ve never been healthier in my life. My skin has never been softer and nicer. My brain has never been so clear and easy to live in. And I’ve never been so well emotionally and mentally balanced.
It’s really nice. And exceptionally important because I’ve been having some rather difficult life circumstances that necessitated getting new jobs and handling some difficult changes in life.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter! There are links and comments on studies that were interesting, but didn’t get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
This post about autism and exercise/movement is part of a series on thriving as an autistic person. We live in a world that is not always kind or accommodating for people who are different. Not only that, but autistic and other neurodiverse people can have very fragile health and specific medical needs. Finding out what works for you is a significant endeavor. This week I’ll be focusing on movement and exercise so you (or your loved one) can live your best life. The first post, which prompted this series, is here. The second post, on food and supplementation, is here.
As you read this series, please remember autistic people can have very different experiences. I’ll tell you what works for me, and do my best to explain other things I’ve heard of. But in the end, you are your own best resource. Try things. Find what works for you. Find doctors and specialists that will help you explore your options intelligently and safely. How good or bad you feel every day is, in some very important ways, up to you.
Why Movement?
I’ve talked about this before, but movement is incredibly important. Chief among the reasons for me is that movement seems to burn off excess energy. If I don’t take time to move my body, the energy turns into anxiety and nervous habits. My depression gets worse. It’s harder for me to focus. And my thoughts feel murkier. It’s kind of like I’m missing every other frame in a movie. Things just slip by me.
Physically, this means I stim more and don’t handle social situations as gracefully. So when I don’t exercise, my autism sticks out more. Then I have to juggle more neurotypical unease, and the whole thing becomes a downward spiral of anxiety. Keeping movement in my life stops that downward spiral before it can begin.
Another thing I notice is that my physical body seems happier when I have movement in my life. Bodies are made to move. In the past, my lifestyle (both work and leisure) mainly involved sitting at a computer all day, which kind of isn’t great. My past hobbies were all indoors, sedentary ones (reading and video games).
Now, this may be an artifact of my age (I haven’t been in my 20s for years now…), but I notice my back, neck, and legs work and feel better when I move. I’m prone to having tension build up in my shoulders and neck, which can result in some truly horrific tension headaches. Chiropractic work helped change that, but movement in the form of yoga is what made it stick. I used to get tension headaches 2-4 times a month. Now it’s maybe once or twice a year.
Finally, I’m (paradoxically) less tired when I have movement in my life. Because of that energy burnoff, I sleep better. Which means my body repairs itself, stores memories, detoxifies itself, and recuperates better. Basically, I function much better on pretty much every facet when I have movement in my life.
Movement (not Exercise)
When I talk about movement, by the way, I don’t mean exercise.
Exercise as we typically understand it- lifting weights, jogging, using various gym machines- can fill this need. But a lot of people find running on a treadmill excruciatingly boring and unfun. The idea of dragging yourself or your child on the autism spectrum to exercise at the gym might seem impossible. If any of this describes you, that’s normal.
Don’t push yourself to do something you find boring or frustrating. It’s self-defeating and will most likely only make you miserable.
Consider how many people say, “I’m going to get in shape” for their New Year’s resolution. And maybe for a month or so, they’re very good about going to the gym. But then the monotony gets to them or other things in life happen, and they start missing days. Then they stop going at all. This happens over and over, to people who otherwise show no signs of being “lazy” or whatever.
The gym, while a fine institution for some folks, is not really what people are designed for. We’re made to be outside, running or walking or hiking or exploring. But if “going for a jog” in your neighborhood doesn’t sound like fun, take heart. That isn’t your only option either.
Choosing What You Love
Instead, think about the things you like to do. People with autism often have a few hobbies (“special interests”) we’re quite fond of. Are there things you can do with those hobbies that can include movement?
If you like video games, for example, you might consider trying Ring Fit Adventure, Dance Dance Revolution (or any of its clones), or Beat Saber. All of these games will get you moving, either to various kinds of music or to progress in an RPG world. The movement is part of the game, but the game itself is the focus.
If you like eating food or cooking, consider learning how to forage for wild food, or gardening. There’s some really tasty delicacies that might be growing in your own back yard, or just around the corner. The care for your own plants, too, can be surprisingly rewarding. Having fresh herbs available, or growing your own zucchini or tomatoes, can be a really wonderful addition to any meal. The search for hidden wild food gems can build in hiking trips and time spent outdoors into your life. No expensive trips to the gym required!
Perhaps you enjoy birdsong, exploring, or taking walks. Geocaching might be something to try, and it can be done anywhere: city, country, or suburbia, no problem. If you love stories or music, consider trying Zombies, Run! You become the main character is a post-zombie-apocalypse world, where all is not as it seems… The story unfolds while you listen to your favorite music. (Also you can use the app while biking or walking the dog, you don’t have to run. I personally verified this.)
All these activities can be really fun, and they all involve movement… but the movement is typically not the point. It’s simply part of the experience. Choose something you love, and find a way to do it with movement.
Movement/Exercise at Work
Finally, consider that a job can be a reliable way to put movement into your life. People with autism thrive on schedules, and jobs that incorporate exercise can be a perfect match. Whether volunteer or paid jobs, it all factors in.
I currently work at UPS as a person that unloads truck trailers. That means I pick up a lot of boxes and load them onto conveyer belts. It doesn’t sound too tiring until you realize I’m standing for the entire shift, they want us moving as fast as possible, and some of the boxes weigh upwards of 70 pounds. The weight adds up fast. Also, the workplace isn’t air conditioned, and it’s summer. My clothes are almost invariably soaked through by the time my shift is done.
It doesn’t have to be quite that exhausting. Local pet shelters often need help caring for and walking their dogs. Stocking shelves at a local retail store can have you bending high and low while carrying things- which is movement. Landscaping, factory work, construction, and other jobs can involve a decent amount of movement.
It all counts, and it’s another way you can potentially bring your hobbies or special interests into making your life better.
One Caveat: Histamines
I don’t believe this is common, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention it. Sometime autism comes with unusual biological differences that can make exercise harder. For most of my life, moderate to high intensity cardio exercise, like running, made me miserable. It still does, because while there are solutions, I haven’t figured out one that works for me yet.
Exercise makes me miserable. It’s not a laziness thing. Or a muscular malfunction. It’s not a heart problem. It doesn’t even appear to be an oxygen processing issue. I explored every one of these avenues while trying to figure out why typical exercise was such a bad experience for me.
To put it simply, exercise made me psychologically miserable. The misery would creep up on me while I was pushing myself, and nothing but stopping would make it go away. I assumed for years that I was just lazy and bad at exercise.
Apparently that was a lie. Apparently, I was experiencing an allergy attack every time I would exercise. Histamines are released when you exercise. But the misery and difficulty breathing was my only sign. My nose wouldn’t plug up, and my eyes wouldn’t water (unless I was crying because of the misery). There were no classical allergic symptoms to help me realize what was going on.
An exercise question answered
Instead, on the advice of my doctor, I took an antihistamine before doing some moderate-intensity exercise. The results were stunning. I got tired, sure. I could tell I was exerting myself and working hard. But I did not get miserable. On one of my tests, I ran a mile and a quarter with no ill effects. After years of dreading the mile run at school, it was a really strange experience.
Apparently, my body simply doesn’t flush out histamines the way it’s supposed to. Most peoples’ bodies clear out the histamines before they get to misery-inducing levels. Mine doesn’t. This hindered me for years as I tried to be more active.
There are solutions to this problem. Taking antihistamines is one, though it’s a bit overkill. Supplementing with extra vitamin C is another. There are also herbal supplements that can help, and reducing your intake of foods that are high in histamines is a good idea as well. My body doesn’t like the herbal supplements and the vitamin C doesn’t help enough, so I’m still looking for a solution that works for me.
Still, I’m glad to know what’s going on. I can declare to the world that I’m not lazy, I’m just disabled. It’s important to know what limitations your body has when considering lifestyle changes. Change is already hard for people on the autism spectrum sometimes; when adding exercise into your life, it’s best to be sure it’ll be workable for you.
TL;DR Movement/Exercise and Autism
Movement (not exercise) is a very important part of a person with autism’s life. It can help manage our moods, anxiety and stress levels, and improve our sleep and physical health. I have personally experienced all these benefits and strongly recommend having movement in your life.
When I say movement, I do not mean exercise. I do not mean going to the gym (unless you really like that). I mean doing things you already love, and having movement in them. Think about your hobbies (special interests) and how you might add movement into them.
Lovers of video games might play Ring Fit Adventure on the Nintendo Switch. You play the game by moving, but the point is the game. People who like food might try gardening or foraging for wild food, both of which involve being outside and moving your body. There are tons of ways to incorporate movement into your life, and paying for a gym membership needn’t be involved.
A job can be an easy solution, whether it’s a volunteer job or a paid one. People on the autism spectrum thrive on routines, which jobs often provide in addition to the exercise. An active job can provide the movement you need as well as time out of the house and the ability to pay your bills.
One thing to keep in mind. When it comes to exercise, autism can come with physical or biological hurdles. One of mine was that exercise made me miserable. This was because of histamines, which are released when you exercise. My body doesn’t flush them out the way everyone else’s bodies do.
Keep your specific body and its needs in mind when you plan your lifestyle changes. Movement and exercise are incredibly important, but part of autism is finding what works for you.
Welcome back to Reading the Research! I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects to share with you. Along the way I discuss the findings with bits from my own life, research, and observations.
The old chestnut of a saying goes, “You can’t teach old dogs new tricks.” The fundamental thinking about people has been in line with this saying: that once you grow up, you’re pretty much stuck like that. It’s a lie. Old dogs can learn new tricks. Older people can learn new things, and do all the time. It may be harder to find the motivation to learn as you age, but the capability remains. In psychology, we call this ability of the brain to grow and change “neuroplasticity.”
Train Metaphor
Interestingly, it seems that depression reduces the ability to grow and change. You can get stuck, mentally and emotionally. Like a train on a track, but there’s a great pile of rubble across the tracks so you can’t go forward.
Movement, it seems, acts as metaphorical rubble-clearing equipment for the train. Without it you might have been revving your metaphorical engine in the same thought processes, hoping to push through the rubble. As you exercise, you reduce the size of the metaphorical depression rubble pile. But your brain also becomes more able to find new paths through it or around it.
Maybe it’s just me being a nerd, but I think that’s really cool. You can literally become better at adapting to the changes life throws at you, just by going for a walk. Or picking up Ring Fit Adventure and playing it every day. Or going geocaching or playing frisbee. For me, it’s foraging for wild food and flowers. Movement (or exercise) can be as varied as your interests, and all of it fights depression and anxiety. No pills needed.
As a lifelong sufferer of depression, that’s news I love.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter! There are links and comments on studies that were interesting, but didn’t get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
I dreamt, this morning just before I woke, of a superficial world. A world where deep thought and meaning were prohibited. Interactions were always superficial. Small talk only. No exploration of a subject or how someone felt about it was permitted. And no one really cared or listened to the answers others gave. All smiles were fake, and all people making conversation were just biding time until it was their turn to speak.
You proceeded from one area to the next in this world, solving problems that didn’t matter. Like making your car finish slightly faster on a short race course than another car. But a clever solution, like modifying your car to be faster, wasn’t allowed. The only way you could solve the problem was by shoving your car forward a couple feet before the race started. All tasks were busywork with boring solutions.
When you finished at one place, you moved on to the next. All problems were small, piddling things that had to be solved, or you couldn’t move on. Yet there was no joy or satisfaction in solving them, because they were so meaningless. The solutions were never difficult, challenging, clever, or fun. They were just time consuming.
The people of this world flitted from one distraction to the next. Gossip and small time news were the distractions of choice. TV screens were everywhere, so no one would ever be out of the loop.
Sex was sometimes offered on the spot as a reward for finishing tasks, if the person was so inclined based on your appearance. But no actual intimacy, excitement, sharing, or closeness was ever involved in the experience. It was literally just a bland “you look good, and solved this problem, want to hop in bed?” deal.
Nothing truly changed in this world. The tasks you completed reset as you walked away, ready for the next person to pass by. The people in the world didn’t work towards a better life or future for themselves or their children. I couldn’t tell whether it was because they didn’t care, or they did but were too distracted by the TV, the gossip, and the news.
And in all this, there was me. Hiding in this superficial world, still thinking my deep thoughts and caring about the answers to small talk. Feeling my emotions. All alone.
I spent some time on a conveyer belt, pretending to be zoned out mindlessly as the system demanded. Like an object. But it was just a cover so I could live, think, and feel as myself, with all the depth I possess, without alarming anyone or being reported. Being on the conveyer belt was a refreshing experience, a break from the constant distractions of this superficial world. But it was also sad, because I was all alone.
Meaning
I don’t typically dream. I’m not honestly sure why. It may be that I simply don’t typically get enough quality sleep, or that my anxiety is normally too high to let me experience such things. All this to say that when I do dream, I try to pay attention to it.
In all honesty, this dream feels like an exaggerated version of reality. I dreamt of TVs, not smartphones and computer screens, but the never-ending stream of distracting information is a reality. There’s news services, there’s social media, there’s other people… You could spend a whole life doing nothing but looking out for yourself and barely experiencing other people in their depth and complexity. And I’m afraid some people do.
Generally speaking, I don’t think people really listen to or care about the answers to small talk. If they do, it’s because it’s a form of connection, rather than a legitimate exchange of ideas or information. I’ve always thought that was strange. If you ask about someone’s wife and kids, shouldn’t you care about the answer? If you care about that person, shouldn’t the wellbeing of their dog or kids or family matter to you? Or the weather. If it’s good weather, shouldn’t you take a moment to exult in the sunshine? And if it’s bad, isn’t it relevant to appreciate raincoats or air conditioning or roofs?
Maybe what was most depressing about this dream, to me, was how nothing changed. Nothing you did really mattered. Nothing you said to people made a lasting impression. Everything you did was automatically reset back to where it was before you arrived. Every day went by for people, the same as the one before.
The real world isn’t like that, but sometimes it really feels like it is. Police continue to brutalize marginalized humans, and no one holds them accountable. Corrupt people in power get richer and richer while most of us scramble to make ends meet. Systems become soulless machinery, uncaring of the people they’re meant to serve and the higher purpose for which they were created.
I know that in some ways, I’m very different than the people around me. It’s not just the autism. I spent a lot of my childhood without friends, and as a result, spent a lot of time thinking about the rules and systems we live in. Most people do that to some extent as teenagers, but not usually, it seems, with the intensity and specificity that I did. Maybe most people don’t have the kind of pattern-seeking brain I do. Or maybe having friends shifts your priorities to other things, at least some of the time. I don’t honestly know.
I wasn’t really sad in the dream. Or at least not the kind of sad where you cry. It was more the old lonely melancholy, the feeling I had in high school where I was just putting one foot in front of the other. Surviving as myself, but always, always alone.
This dream, it wasn’t real… but like a caricature represents a person, it feels to me like the dream represented reality. I don’t want to live in that kind of superficial world. But I don’t know how to reverse the patterns we find ourselves trapped in.
Welcome back to Reading the Research! I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects to share with you. Along the way I discuss the findings with bits from my own life, research, and observations.
Today’s article presents a theory about the meaning of depression. I’ll personally limit it to the kind of depression people typically experience for a few weeks or months. This type of depression only receives a diagnosis sometimes. It’d be major depressive disorder, typically. It’s common for normal people to have a few bouts of it in their lifetime. It’s a normal emotional pain reaction to major life changes or significant conflicts. For the theory, this type of depression fits the bill. But once you move out of that realm and into chronic issues and modern toxic lifestyles, the theory falls apart.
The main focus of this article is on the ills of anti-depressants. That’s a pretty typical topic for Mad In America. This theory outlines a fairly minor aspect of the ways anti-depressants can screw you over. Other articles have described the complex biochemical malfunctions they can cause, the withdrawal problems, the increased risk of being suicidal, or their frequent ineffectiveness for treating depressive disorders. This article suggests something different for the meaning of depression: that it serves an evolutionary purpose, and removing the pain also removes the incentive to deal with what’s causing the pain.
The Theory
I’ve previously heard depression described as mental/emotional pain, so this theory wasn’t as surprising to me as it might be to a general audience. And again, I have to stress: we’re talking about the kind of depression that happens due to life circumstances: situations like losing a job you were really invested in, a major conflict with your life partner, or losing a family member you were close to. These events cause significant emotional distress and pain, and depression is a reasonable and normal response.
This kind of depression has a triggering event. Think of it like breaking a bone. As the body processes the injury and begins healing, you’ll experience a lot of pain. You might go to a doctor to have the bone set. Perhaps you get a cast, to keep everything still so it heals properly. The healing might take weeks or months. For this kind of depression, seeing a therapist and taking the time to process the event is roughly the same. And again, healing might take weeks or months. In both cases, this is quite normal.
But what if, when you broke the bone, you went to the doctor and they handed you an opioid prescription? They don’t give you a cast or set the bone. You simply complain of pain and they give you something to dull the pain so you don’t have to feel it. That’s more or less what this theory suggests: that professionals are anesthetizing mental/emotional broken bones instead of treating them.
We could extend the metaphor and suggest that some forms of chronic depression are caused by a person hobbling around with crookedly-healed metaphorical mental/emotional bones. Frankly, it wouldn’t surprise me.
Limitations
But I’m not willing to say “this is the only explanation for depression.” We live in a world that peddles nutrition-less food to us at every opportunity. Plastics, which are used everywhere, harbor bacteria and toxins that get into our bloodstreams and accumulate over time. The air is choked with pollution. Our lifestyles have become sedentary rather than active. Lazy and corrupt industries dump their waste chemicals into our drinking water. The fact is, our environment is toxic.
Living in a toxic environment also causes distress and malfunction. But, it’s not an emotional problem. It’s a biochemical problem. Your body isn’t designed to live in the mess we find ourselves in. But sometimes we experience bodily suffering as depression and anxiety disorders.
Saying “well if you’d just deal with your emotional problems you’d be fine!” is far, far too simplistic to be correct. Not in the world we live in. But it’s an interesting theory for the meaning of depression, and it might be correct in some circumstances. I do strongly recommend finding a therapist you can trust and be honest with, if you’re depressed. From personal experience, it’s exceptionally helpful.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter! There are links and comments on studies that were interesting, but didn’t get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
This post about autism and food is part of a series on thriving as an autistic person. We live in a world that is not always kind or accommodating for people who are different. Not only that, but autistic and other neurodiverse people can have very fragile health and specific medical needs. Finding out what works for you is a significant endeavor. This week I’ll be focusing on food and supplementation so you (or your loved one) can live your best life. The first post, which prompted this series, is here.
As you read this series, please remember autistic people can have very different experiences. I’ll tell you what works for me, and do my best to explain other things I’ve heard of. But in the end, you are your own best resource. Find what works for you. Find doctors and specialists that will help you explore your options intelligently and safely. How good or bad you feel every day is up to you.
Eating Better Food
Nutrition is the first category I’m going to highlight in this series. Why? Well, you know that saying, “You are what you eat,” right? A literal-minded person may start imagining being constructed from pizza slices, loaves of bread, and chicken wings.
Which of course isn’t literally how it works… but. What we put in our bodies is turned into fuel. If we put good quality nutritious food into our bodies, it makes good fuel and we do well. We can handle bad situations better, manage ourselves and our lives easier, and overall be happier. If we put bad food into our bodies, we don’t do so well and we don’t feel as good. New things and changes become harder to handle. Depression and anxiety plague our thoughts. Fogginess shrouds our mental landscape, making it hard to focus. Food can make autism feel far better or far worse. It just depends on what you eat.
Choosing Nutritious Food
A great deal of the food sold in grocery stores today tastes good, but effectively makes you sick if you eat it. Sugary foods, like candy, cookies, pop/soda, and cereal (yes, cereal) are big offenders here. So are ultra-processed foods like TV dinners, white bread, pasta, pizza, and most sweets. I did a walkthrough of my local grocery store a year ago where I talked about how much of the store I end up skipping- it was most of the store.
There’s a whole fad industry around telling you what to eat and why. In any given year, eggs might be considered healthy or unhealthy. Ignore all that mess. It’s mainly a scam to make money on gullible people. You won’t find actual good information about nutrition there. The actual food science is found in peer-reviewed articles, not pop science snippets and magazines.
What you want to aim for here is eating whole foods. Whole grains, fruit, vegetables, leaner meats (and less meat overall). A good rule of thumb is to have half your plate be fruits and vegetables. This is actually just basic better eating so far, but it’s a good base for the rest. You’ll get more vitamins and minerals, which help your brain and body function and repair itself. And that means feeling better overall.
I can’t stress enough how much this matters, and how much of a difference it makes in my daily life. We’re told from a pretty early age that it’s good to eat healthy. And then, over time, it becomes just background noise that no one really pays attention to, save for an occasional flash of guilt. That’s how we miss out on one of the easiest ways to feel better every day.
Transitioning to Better Eating
You don’t have to stop eating your favorite foods. People on the autism spectrum often have certain foods as part of our routines. Changing them can be very hard. But starting to choose whole foods options will definitely help your brain and body work better, which translates to you feeling better too. If you love mac’n’cheese, for example, try making it with whole grain noodles. You can also throw in greens, finely chopped broccoli or riced cauliflower, or zucchini slices to lend some fiber and nutrition to the meal.
Pizza can be made from scratch, or you can buy a premade whole grain crust at some grocery stores. I actually like using whole grain English muffins as the base and loading them up with toppings and sauce. They have a nice crunch to them when baked properly. Plus you can always make whatever type you want. If you’re craving like 3 different pizza types, you can just make a couple of each and call it a day. A seasoned salad (with olive or avocado oil as the dressing) and a hand fruit (like an apple or peach) works great to balance out this meal.
Find modifications and substitutions that work for you. Try roasting your vegetables in the oven with a savory spice blend. I have a friend that swears by roast zucchini as a snack. This doesn’t need to be a fast process. I’ve personally only come to my current patterns after years of trying things. It’s okay if it takes that long. Find what works for you, at your own pace.
Dietary and Food Allergies
These are best explored with a knowledgeable doctor’s help. While autism and food don’t necessarily need professional guidance, the subject of allergies gets complicated fast. There are all kinds of sensitivities and allergies. None of mine show up on a typical allergy test, because they’re a different type of allergic reaction. There’s some complicated language around it, and more than one kind. It gets messy fast. I’ll just talk about two major concerns here.
Dairy
I specifically avoid dairy. So cow milk, cheese, ice cream, sour cream, etc. Dairy is an inflammatory substance in the gut, which means it lowkey upsets your body when you eat it. Typically this isn’t a huge issue for most people, especially if you eat it in moderation. But for me, it effectively poisons my brain and clogs up my intestines.
I once went for a week without eating any dairy, then drank a glass of milk. I’d been feeling fine, but within 15 minutes I was in a foul mood. Doing what I did is called an elimination diet, and it’s a typical way to test whether a food is bad for you. You cut the food in question out of your diet entirely for an appropriate period of time (a week or two is usually enough), then try a small portion of it and watch for reactions. If you get no reaction or a positive one, the food is probably okay to add back in.
I tend to consume almond milk products and Follow Your Heart nondairy cheese products. There are a decent number of nondairy products out there at this point. If you find that you also react poorly to dairy after an elimination diet test, it might be worth trying some to see how you like the taste and texture.
Gluten
Gluten is another common dietary issue many autistic people do better without. It’s not a Celiac’s disease thing, necessarily, although that is also a good reason to avoid gluten. It’s just that gluten also lowkey upsets your body the same way milk does. In some cases, the body can end up treating it like an opioid, which can really, really wreck your ability to focus, self-regulate, and be happy.
If you opt to do an elimination test for gluten, keep in mind you’ll need to avoid eating it for at least a month. Gluten sticks around in the system for quite a while.
I personally haven’t gone gluten-free, but I do mainly eat sprouted grain products. There are a lot more options for eating gluten-free than ever before, which is good. When eating gluten-free, keep in mind the first thing I mentioned: eat whole foods. Eating gluten-free won’t help you much if you’re just eating tons of snack food and convenience products.
Vitamin Pills and Supplements
In theory, a person would be to get all their vitamins, minerals, and amino acids from food. A varied, balanced diet made of whole foods helps immensely with this.
However, between food allergies, special diets, and specific biomedical needs, this is not always possible. Autism can come with one or more of these factors, plus a limited tolerance for tastes and textures. That’s where supplements can come in.
On the surface this is pretty simple. Most people are familiar with taking a daily multivitamin, for example. But there’s two problems. One, the quality of the stuff put into most of those daily multivitamins isn’t great, and you don’t necessarily absorb it. And two, autistic biologies can be very unique. A typical multivitamin simply won’t cover it. There is also a major issue with quality. I’ll come back to that in a second.
Tests
When you get into specific nutrition needs, you really need a doctor. Even if it’s just your primary care practitioner. Because the way I found out most of what I needed to address was by blood tests. This gets complicated in a hurry, with all kinds of medical names and such. Some of my tests included a Complete Blood Count (CBC), a Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (CMP), which are measures of whether your blood and metabolism are working as intended. If they’re not, that’s something you A) really want to know, and B) really want to address ASAP.
There were also some specific ones that tested my iron, zinc, vitamin B12, vitamin D, copper, and magnesium levels. The idea with these is finding whether you’re deficient or overdosing with any particular vitamin or mineral. I was deficient in zinc, iron, and vitamin D. So I now take separate supplements of those, to be sure I get enough in my diet. The zinc and vitamin D deficiencies made me more tired and low-energy every day. Addressing those problems helped me feel better. It was a slow improvement, because the nutrients needed to build up in my body. But a very important one.
There were also a couple to test whether my thyroid gland (which regulates your metabolism among other things) was functioning properly. In some people, the thyroid can go into overdrive. Like overclocking a computer, kind of, except never a good idea. Or it can go the other way, and be so sluggish that the person goes through life in a fog. This is also not uncommon in autistic people, and while blood tests aren’t my definition of fun, they’re excellent for figuring this stuff out.
Where and How
Most of my blood tests have been ordered through my primary care practitioner. Because the health care industry is stupid, we needed to give a not-the-real-reason reason to bill insurance for these tests. I think “fatigue” is the one we mostly used. Which, while accurate, was not why we wanted this information.
It’s generally best to get your tests through insurance, because they can get rather pricy. Plus then your doctor is immediately involved to help you understand the results. However, if you don’t have insurance, you aren’t necessarily out of luck. Ulta Lab Tests exists. They’re pretty much a “buy the test, go get it done at one of our locations, receive results online” business, and they’ve done well by me when insurance simply wouldn’t pay for a particular test. You will pay entirely out of pocket, and some of these tests can get expensive in a hurry. Especially specialized genetic testing, which can easily run hundreds of dollars.
Choosing Good Supplements for Autism
Once you’ve identified specific deficiencies, such as vitamin D, you can then start choosing things to address that need. Maybe that’s eating better. But it can also be taking supplements as a backup. For Vitamin D, specifically, it’s not always possible to go outside and get your daily free dose of sunshine.
Do not simply go to the store and pick a random brand of whatever off the shelves. Instead, check with your doctor about good quality brands. Supplements are unregulated by the FDA, meaning false advertising and fillers and additives are the order of the day. Like food, if you put junk in, you’ll get junk out.
I can say my doctor tended to recommend Designs for Health (sold out of her own office and used by herself and her own family), Nordic Naturals, and Master Supplements. If your doctor has no suggestions for good brands, try Labdoor. It’s a free service that ranks the purity, accuracy, and safety of supplements. Here’s the list of Vitamin D options, for example.
My own list of supplements has 11 things on it. Among them, Vitamins C and D, zinc, iron (chelated, so I’ll actually absorb it), magnesium (as magnesium malate), a broad spectrum multivitamin, fish oil, a couple refrigerated probiotics, and a supplement that helps my body purge allergen by-products. I also take a very low dose of melatonin to help me sleep and stay asleep.
TL;DR: Autism and Food
When I eat well, I feel better. My depression and anxiety go way, way down. My brain focuses and organizes better. I’m able to manage events, social situations, and enjoy my favorite things more. “You are what you eat” isn’t literally true, but if you feed your body good food, it makes good fuel and your brain and body work better.
Eating whole foods, and making my plate half fruits and vegetables, is the key to this. You don’t have to stop eating your favorite foods to feel better every day. Modifying them to add vegetables and fruits, or using whole grain options when making them, is a great step to feeling better. Try different ways of making vegetables, too. Oven-roasted and seasoned zucchini or broccoli has become a favorite of several of my friends.
Knowing whether you have dietary allergies or intolerances, like dairy, tree nuts, or gluten, is important to feeding yourself well. Until I cut dairy out of my diet, I suffered much deeper depression and had more significant intestinal problems. Find what works for you.
It’s also good to know if you have specialized dietary needs. Your doctor can help you order blood tests to check whether you’re deficient in anything. Vitamin D is a very common deficiency. It’s not expensive to fix, but don’t simply buy things off store shelves. Supplements are unregulated, meaning no one oversees or tests their production to check for false advertising. Check with your doctor for brand recommendations, or use Labdoor.
What you put in your body determines how good you feel each day. If you put junk food in, you’ll get a junk performance from your brain and body. Feeling better starts with eating better.
Welcome back to Reading the Research! I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects to share with you. Along the way I discuss the findings with bits from my own life, research, and observations.
Today’s article is paywalled, but the highlights and abstract tell all you need to know: depression reduces motivation. Depression is a common issue for autistic and other neurodiverse people. Also, I read those sections and immediately said, “Oh look, it’s me.” So here we go.
This article is the results of a research review. In this case, the researchers looked over 43 studies done by others in the past. The hope of these research reviews is to find an overall pattern in the results. If they do find one, they can then say “this thing is (probably) true.” So they did in fact find a pattern. According to the results, people with depression, especially the specific symptom of anhedonia, were less interested in working toward rewards. Or more succinctly, depression reduces motivation.
Anhedonia is a complicated medical word that basically means “the inability (or reduced ability) to feel pleasure.” It’s a common side effect with some forms of depression, and it’s something that typically describes me. Imagine something you love doing. Maybe it’s eating a favorite food, or reading a favorite book, or rock climbing, or writing fanfiction. Now imagine being excited to do that thing, getting everything ready to do it, looking forward to how good you’ll feel while you do it… and feeling nothing as you do this thing you love. It’s still the same delicious food, or the same wonderful book, the rock wall is just as high and challenging as it always is, and the characters are still exactly as you remember them. You just feel… nothing.
Imagine feeling nothing every time you do that favorite activity. Or feeling sad because nothing’s stopping you from doing the activity, it’s just not fun anymore. You’d stop caring so much about that activity, right? Because the enjoyment isn’t there, it’s just not as important to you. Kind of sad, isn’t it?
Now imagine that’s how you feel whenever you do things you love. Or used to love. That’s anhedonia. It’s also my life.
Understanding that, it’s probably easier to see why depressed people are less likely to try new things, or work towards rewards or positive changes in their lives. The intrinsic (internal) motivation just isn’t there. The accomplishment you feel on completing a task isn’t there. So why try? Why sacrifice your already limited energy for an outcome you know won’t make you happy?
That’s the reality for people like me. Depression reduces motivation. The specifics may vary. A person might experience pleasure while eating sweets, but not when biking (despite that they used to love biking). Or some days biking might make them happy, and other days it doesn’t. It’s different for every person.
This is, by the way, why I’m overweight. Food is still pleasurable, but most other things are not. Therefore, snacks! And typically junk food, unfortunately. I’m doing a lot better about it now, and I feel better as a result, but the anhedonia is still a reality I live with.
It can be hard to want to try a new organizational system, or put up with changes to my routine, or simply handle daily life when everything is so joyless. This is part of why. I hope this makes sense to you.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter! There are links and comments on studies that were interesting, but didn’t get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
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