Pen in hand

Autism- the word came to me last year when I was adding a new friend to my list in face book, somehow I felt that she was too much into posting about this subject and every time you click to check on your latest feeds on face book to refresh your mind this word flashes anyhow I felt so annoyed that I ended up deleting her. Oh please! I am not heartless but the subject never touched me and more over I was not interested since I am not married.

Here comes 2014, another lady sent a friend request and I added her and she flushed out all the stories of how it is like having an autistic child. Come on, not again.  But if same thing keeps on coming to me quite often then I take it as a sign.

Recently, this same lady posted this “ pen in hand”  post, something inside me said that now the time has come that I must look into the subject as why people around me especially woman are so obsessed with this word. “Autistic”.

Here I started my Google search on this word, the word came out with a meaning which says that the condition is the result of a neurological disorder that has an effect on normal brain function, affecting development of the person’s communication and social interaction skills.

People with autism have issues with non-verbal communication, a wide range of social interactions, and activities that include an element of play and/or banter.

Okay , I wanted to read symptoms of an autistic child, what if I came across such a child how would I know that he / she is an Autistic then I again searched symptoms of an autistic  child and what should I be doing to make him/ her feel comfortable to be around me and I carried my search on the following subject, the most interesting one which stuck to me was that socially the interaction of  autistic people  with another individual is quite different compared to how the rest of the population behaves. If the symptoms are not severe, the person with ASD may seem socially clumsy, sometimes offensive in his/her comments, or out of synch with everyone else. If the symptoms are more severe, the person may seem not to be interested in other people at all. Well, I am too socially clumsy and I am too not interested in other people at all ha! Would you call me autistic then??  Now, I was more interested in knowing about the subject and I kept on reading and actually while reading about it I recalled a movie of Shahrukh Khan “My name is KHAN” he played a role of an autistic child in the movie. So, those who are like me who are not aware of what Autistic people are must watch this movie. It is an eye opener

 

Since I am single, I was more interested in searching what symptoms  in a woman would have to know whether she is pregnant with autistic child I came across few symptoms:

• Influenza during pregnancy – doubles autism risk for the child
• Persistent fever during pregnancy – that lasted for at least one week triples autism risk for the child
• Antibiotic usage during pregnancy – slightly raises autism risk for the child
• Parents with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia – a child whose parent, brother, or sister has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia has a higher risk of being diagnosed with an ASD,
• Older fathers – if the father is older during conception, there is a greater risk of autism for the baby. Scientists explained in the journal Nature that an older father has a greater chance of passing on new mutations to his babies than older mothers.
• Immune system irregularities – Caltech (California Institute of Technology) researchers reported in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) (July 2012) that certain changes in an overactive immune system can contribute to autism-like behaviors in mice. In some cases, this activation may be related to how a fetus develops while in the womb.
• Specific gene mutations – scientists from the Seattle Children’s Research Institute found new gene mutations which were linked to the development of autism, epilepsy, hydrocephalus and cancer. The mutations were in the following genes – AKT3, PIK3R2 and PIK3CA. Their study was published in Nature Genetics (July 2012).
• Air traffic pollution during pregnancy and autism link – if a pregnant mother is exposed to air traffic pollution during her pregnancy, the risk of autism in her offspring is greater, researchers from the University of Southern California and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles reported in Archives of General Psychiatry (November 2012 issue).
• The investigators wrote “Exposures to traffic-related air pollution, PM (particulate matter) and nitrogen dioxide were associated with an increased risk of autism. These effects were observed using measures of air pollution with variation on both local and regional levels, suggesting the need for further study to understand both individual pollutant contributions and the effects of pollutant mixtures on disease.”

 

Well, that actually acted as an eye opener,  I kept on reading further about them and I came across a very positive thing about an Autistic child i.e. A person with autism feels love, happiness, sadness and pain just like everyone else. Just because some of them may not express their feelings in the same way others do, does not mean at all that they do not have feelings – THEY DO!! It is crucial that the Myth – Autistic people have no feelings – is destroyed. The myth is a result of ignorance, not some conspiracy. Therefore, it is important that you educate people who carry this myth in a helpful and informative way.

Not all people with autism have an incredible gift or savantism for numbers or music. However, a sizeable proportion of people with an ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) have high IQs and a unique talent for computer science. German software company SAP AG has become aware of this and announced in May 2013 that it planned to employ hundreds of people with autism as software testers, programmers and data quality assurance specialists.

 

Being a spiritualist, an astrologer I had to find out the reasons after all,  what stars are responsible for the autism and I consulted my books for that:-

To my surprise, the astonishing rise of the prevalence of autism since the early 1990s suggests a link to the Uranus-Neptune conjunction that began in 1991 and continued through 1994.  The combination of Uranus to Neptune opened all kinds of doorways and dissolved the boundaries of reason and old paradigms of thinking.  The children that were born during this period carry this archetype within them, and they are a new breed entirely.  It is during this time that the concept of the “Indigo Children” began, as it was apparent that these new children were very different than the generations that preceded them, and it is in these children that we see the dramatic increase in autism rates.

But the astrological connection actually goes further and is closely tied to the Saturn/Uranus cycle. Saturn rules order and structure and Uranus is the rebel and radical influence that destroys the status quo, so the cycle of Saturn and Uranus is often found during periods of radical change.  Many of the baby boomers who were active during the cultural upheaval of the 1960s have Saturn squared to Uranus in their charts. Autism was first described in 1910 by Swiss psychiatrist Eugene Bleuler as he was defining symptoms of schizophrenia.  At the time, Saturn in Aries was exactly square to Uranus in Capricorn.   Well, it is a vast study but I prefer to give you a glimpse of what and how it was recognized in astrology.

My next thought was of schools for such kids where they can be healed I came across a school called MIRACLES. I am attaching a link just in case: – http://www.miraclespecialschool.com/contact-us.html

 Then comes the part of helping an autistic child, I came across a charitable organization for which again I am giving a link: – it is good to support and to donate amount if you are working and does not have time to help but you wish to help- http://www.tcischool.org/help_children_with_autism

I hope you enjoyed my research on this and from now I decide to help an autistic child through donations and if I ever come across a child which the symptoms I read I know how to be friends with them with just a smile…….