Comments on: Autism, Meltdowns, and Sherlock Holmes

By: Corina Becker

Corina Becker — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:23:02 +0000

Aw, well thank you. I try very hard to be a help for people to understand autism. I can’t say that I always get it right, but I try to put myself in another autistic’s situation and think “what would I be experiencing right now? What am I trying to communicate by doing this?”

As I’ve said, sometimes I get it right, sometimes I don’t. I think that it’s worth it if I’m able to produce even just a little bit of understanding. I also really appreciate it when people are trying to figure out the autistic side of things, rather than just seeing a “bad autism” behaviour and trying to stop it.

The “getting things right” applies to many situations. I know that I had trouble (and still do) getting to sleep at night because of the shadows that things in my room made. Each night, I go around my room, tucking things in, rearranging items and making sure things are where they need to be. This has reduced a bit for me recently, because I’ve taken to using LED christmas lights as a nightlight, which produces an illuminating glow as opposed to harsh shadow-causing light, and because I’ve gotten laser eye surgery, so I can clearly see things instead of my mind imagining what things are.
But I still tidy before bed. It is comforting, anxiety-reducing, and not to mention, helps to keep my room a resemblance of clean.

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:17:24 +0000

@Corina – Really appreciate your insights. Wanted to say that I’ve learned a lot from your tweets and blog. (Y’all go follow @CorinaBecker on Twitter.) Your comment here helps affirm that we’re looking at this from the right perspective. We try very hard to put ourselves in his position and to see things as he might experience them, but obviously that’s very hard if not largely impossible to do. So we need all the input we can get! I had never really thought about the comfort of redoing until thinking about all this along with your comment. This really helps. Thanks!

@JoyMama – Thank you too! I’m thinking that pattern recognition is a more highly developed trait in many of our families for a reason. If nothing else, stubbornness counts for a lot. We’re slowly mending, but the coughs, cold, and runny noses still live on.

@Jay – There’s also a fair amount of discussion here and there about Sherlock Holmes being on the spectrum. Perhaps an interesting thought exercise, but I haven’t read any of those books in ages. I wish we were able to think through these things more analytically and systematically. This was more a blinding flash of insight I think than something arrived at as linearly as I may have implied. I guess all the thinking about it does at least pave the way for those insights to come than they otherwise would, though. Necessity is the mother of all kinds of things. We’re just so tired and emotional when things get like this that it’s often all reactive and very little proactive. And you rock too.

By: Jay

Jay — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:23:51 +0000

Sherlock Holmes indeed – and the physician who served as the role model for Holmes. A wonderful example of the diagnostic process, as well as the love and empathy and partnership that makes you such amazing parents.

By: JoyMama

JoyMama — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:18:43 +0000

Well done! What a wonderful example of careful attention and persistence sleuthing.

I hope everyone is feeling better soon.

By: Corina Becker

Corina Becker — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:51:19 +0000

without knowing all the details, and I’ve said this on twitter, I would never had guessed that it was the toothpaste. But then, I usually have a problem with too much toothpaste, which I just spit out.

There are times when things that haven’t “gone right” bother me enough for me to go back and redo in order to “get right”. Like making sure things are in the right spot and in the right position. It just feels right that things are in a certain way, and that’s comforting.

I applaud both of you for figuring this out by examining the details.