**NEW QUESTION PG. 12** Autism: Yes, you may ask my opinion!

[Jena]

Quote:
Thank you.

I was not avoiding posting for fear of failure really, I just feel really useless lately, I have had some problems with arthritis, and some severe pain problems not associated directly with the arthritis.

You know sometimes you just feel like a whinger, which I am not doing, i am just really working on my latest puzzle which is me.... but I am concerned not to be seen as a moaning minnie, or someone looking for an excuse. I am really interested in your views.

It is interesting to read your reponse, and I thank you for that. lol.... I sat in bed last night thinking about my own reasoning.

I have anxiety based OCD as far as I am aware. I feel as if I have been anxious since birth. But that is not true. But yes I am a very anxious person. That is something that has always been there, but was mildin childhood, and has grown. lol.... as a child I had horrific nightmares, and also had secret plans for the future, probably because my parents were not happy. I lived out of a weekend case at one point where I kept clothes that I approved of, even making my own things, and also my poetry books. Things my mother bought I would hang in the wardrobe. I dreamed of escaping to an attic and living with tea chests and old stools.

I am not socially inept, I know how to behave and I am very conservative with a small c, I am really quite old fashioned in my outlook, but at the same time I am liberal when dealing with the world and with people. But social interactions invariably hurt.

I agree completely with Okiemommy:

"First, I feel especially in my own circumstances, that it is better to have a diagnosis, than to go through life wondering why in the world everyone else gets things, but I don't. It's a terribly confusing way to live, and the rammifications of "not getting it when everyone else does" are more than just not getting it. There can be a lot of shame and stigma attached to living life in a bubble of misunderstanding or just plain not getting social situations. It definitely was like that for me, and now that I know what is going on with me, I have measures that I can take to make life better. I have tools to use, to navigate social sitations, and in the times when I can't figure out what's going on, I don't feel ashamed because I know why I don't get it."

I do get really hurt when people I have known for a very long time clearly do not have a clue who I am or what I stand for. I care a great deal about people, will do all I can to help anyone, but because I AM obviously not able to clearly communicate properly, I am frequently misunderstood. This has resulted in my withdrawal from people.

I stay at home, communicate only with people online really, and I sometimes meet up with my friends from India, when I can finally feel like a real person.

I guess, yes I have a problem and I am trying to work it out here, tests are not that easily available for adults here, but having a diagnosis would maybe offer some explanations.

Reading so many of the posts here I can identify with what is being said about behaviour and responses, and mainly how people feel.

My inability to relate to people has caused a great deal of pain in the past and has led to me isolating myself. Knowing that I can relate to animals much easier that to people, I am happy with my dog and my chickens, but at some point I have to relate to the outside world.

So I am grateful to read your response, and thank you all for your honesty about what you have dealt with for yourselves and your children.

many thanks,

Jena.

 

[Jena]

Quote:
There may be environmental triggers, but I firmly believe autism comes about when the mother's body has an insufficient supply of vitamin D. This effects fetal brain growth.

I also have close friends from another culture, India, and they are the only people I have found that really have potential to understand me, my morals, my responses to the world.

Just a thought on this...

Many countries have VERY SPECIFIC rules of behavior and very well defined social strata and expectations of people in any given situation. I believe this structure is why many on the spectrum have an easier time dealing with other cultures. It also explains the entire SCA* http://www.sca.org/

(Yes, my HFA friend is in the SCA...LOL)​

Hi Wifezilla,

I don't know about vitamin D deficiency, my mother was the original nature girl. Long flowing red hard and a very ruddy complexion, she grew up during wartime in the countryside.

but I do know that I am affected a lot by Vitamin D. I really need to be outside in the sunshine as much as possible and to eat a good diet.

It could also be linked to my grandfather being half Indian, and as for the social structures of Asian society, I agree with you completely.

I know I find it easier to fit in a particularly Hindu social environment, I also get along with older british people.... lol... more formal too....lol.

I have specified the hindu social model as their pluralism is open to welcoming others. I have studied both hinduism and Islam, intellectually, and have worked with both communities, but I do not fit with a muslim society, especially as a western woman. I also have some issues with hindu diehards who have views on women, but I generally fit well with them. Fortunately my friends are well educated and very open to equality.

My closest friends are younger Hindus born in the UK. All about 10 years younger than me but I think there is a cultural link in there.

You views are really very intriguing. thank you..

Ohhh just to add that I love the idea of your friend's SCA, I would love that.

 

[okiemommy]

You are so welcome Jena

 

[ursusarctosana]

The intestinal issues are definitely an issue for my son and I. Tests, tests, tests. I've had some horribly bouts with it, particularly in my early twenties (the best time, eh?) I don't think my system works very well. I also have hypothyroid, which I read in a magazine, is often one of the issues for people with autism.

I don't like to move around a lot. It feels uncomfortable.

Last year I had an operation and my doctor told me that the idea that everyone has had about wearing sunscreen has come back to kick them in the bums. People are now suffering from bone loss due to lack of sunlight. My doctor encouraged me to get some son or I may suffer bone loss. My father, on the other hand, has osteoporosis and he's in his late fifties and he was in the sun all the time. Interesting, though, to consider something in the genes--a mutation--that causes Vitamin D deficiency. Even though my father's side of the family are all brown people, this seems to have nothing to do with Vitamin D deficiency within the body, so that's why "if" autism is, indeed, related to a Vitamin D issue that is why it is found in people who have different levels of melanoma regardless of spending time in the sun, or not.

 

[Wifezilla]

Here is one of the stories I found around the same time I stumbled on the vitamin D counsel website....

http://sfari.org/news/scientists-probe-reports-of-somali-autism-cluster
"Fernell and others say their observations could have a solid scientific hypothesis: lack of vitamin D, a hormone that’s essential for brain development and made predominantly in response to sun exposure.

Because dark-skinned people make vitamin D much more slowly than fair-skinned people, Somalis who move to northern latitudes — such as Sweden or Minnesota — would be especially susceptible to vitamin D deficiency, the theory goes. Somalis, who are predominantly Muslim, might be particularly susceptible because their clothes typically cover most of their skin.

Vitamin D is the chemical precursor of a steroid hormone that directly affects the expression of more than 2,000 human genes. The vast majority of vitamin D in the body is produced when the skin is exposed to ultraviolet light.

"Studies show that Africans need to stay six times longer in the sun compared to Caucasians to produce the same amount of vitamin D," says psychiatrist Mats Humble, who has suggested vitamin D deficiency as the explanation for higher numbers of autism among Somalis in Sweden.

John Cannell, a psychiatrist at Atascadero State Hospital in California and director of the nonprofit Vitamin D Council, in August also linked vitamin D deficiency to autism, arguing that the increase in autism prevalence in the past two decades correlates with the increasing recommendations from the medical community to avoid the sun2. “[The link] explains every known epidemiological fact that I'm aware of about autism," Cannell says.

Along with explaining apparent differences in ethnic populations, Cannell says, the theory explains why people with autism have reduced bone thickness3 (vitamin D plays a pivotal role in calcium production and bone growth); why they're often born in March4 (their mothers were exposed to less sun during a critical time of pregnancy); and even why autism is more prevalent in boys than girls (testosterone inhibits vitamin D production).

He also cites 2004 results from Australian researchers, who found that low vitamin D levels in a rat embryo lead to increased brain size — which is sometimes reported in children with autism — and cellular growth and an altered brain shape5.

The only way to test this hypothesis would be to test pregnant women’s blood for vitamin D levels, and then assess the prevalence of autism in their children. In October, Fernell's group plans to begin collecting blood samples from young children and their mothers, both from Somalia and from Sweden."

 

[Jena]

Hi Wifezilla,

This is one thing I can comment on. lol... I worked with Somalis and Yemenis, and many other people here in the Uk and there has been serious issues relating to Vitamin D deficiency.

Particularly the Yemeni community, because the women wear burka, and rarely go out they, and their children suffer. there has been a rise in the instance of ricketts amongst the community due to them lacking vitamin D and not being exposed to sunlight.

I worked as a Health Advocate for refugees and asylum seekers for 7years, so I was very involved in encouraging the community to get the women and children out in the sun, and raising awareness of the issues.

 

[Wifezilla]

The logical solution is to encourage people to get naked in the sunshine

 

[BarkerChickens]

 

[ursusarctosana]

Quote:
I am so laughing about this. I had to go tell my bf. I've always had this hypothesis that peoples who have lived in geography proximity to the equator have built up the melanin in their skin and actually NEED exposure to the sun. My father has dark skin and I've always believed I need exposure to sun so I don't wear sunscreen. Interesting!

 

[ursusarctosana]

But, in the U.S. it's probably illegal to "get naked" on one's own property even. We aren't allowed to be healthy.