Proposed new criteria for diagnosing Autism:

       In the following link is the proposed new criteria that the DSM will use in diagnosing Autism: http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevision/Pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=94#
       I'm not sure what to think. Since I'm not a psychologist I can't say too much on the exact criteria but I do know I'm not comfortable with the way people are interpreting the DSM. The DSM has a difficult task of trying to absolutizing what is not absolute (or at least not a perfect science). I'm not implying that Autism is subjective, but such conditions are elusive to define. Some people seem to approach the DSM the same way a religious fundamentalist approaches Sacred Scripture except that the DSM is not even Divinely inspired. It also takes some intuition to properly apply the DSM. To me Autism does have a distinct pattern and while not all Autistic people may need the same level of services as those with severe symptoms, they still may be autistic. On the other hand there may be those with severe symptoms who might not be Autistic, but still need services since they have something. Now I may have some tendency towards bias since I am on the spectrum myself although as far as I know I will still meet the revised criteria. Either way I'm not going to lose my diagnosis but I am concerned to the future generations who may be affected by this. Like I said before I'm not implying that the DSM is wrong, I just think people need a more flexible attitude in interpreting it. I mean no matter how carefully something like this is worded if someone really wants to either obtain or avoid a certain diagnosis one can still find ways to manipulate their observations. Think of it this way, many people claim to go by the Bible and the Constitution of whatever country they live in, yet they still don't agree on how to interpret it and apply it to individual situations. Otherwise we wouldn't need theologians or a Supreme Court (and even the best theologians and judges don't agree on all the details).
       If you look at the link notice what it says in Category D: For something to be a "disorder" the symptoms together have to impair everyday life. This is the most important thing for every diagnosis. (I use the word "perhaps" a lot in this blog as a way to admitting that I'm not an authority on this.) Now perhaps, there are people who don't have Autistic Spectrum "Disorder" but they are nevertheless on the Autistic Spectrum. Such people may be some of the undiagnosed famous people who are commonly speculated about. Also one's environment and culture can determine whether or not the symptoms impair their daily life. For example a woman with Agoraphobia living in a culture or time when women rarely left the home may not get diagnosed since her symptoms don't impair their daily life anyway. Yet, the same woman in the modern world will then have it. Stuff like this is why why it's so easy to put a spin in news stories about Autism and other things. Facts aren't always truth. If a dying town has only one family left and a new family moves in for a specific reason, one can say the town's population doubled and it may make it the fastest growing town in a certain state. Should the town's mayor spin this to make it sound like it is now a boom town? Also it is important to note that many people have a trait or two of OCD, or a short attention span, a few mood swings... It doesn't mean they have OCD, ADD or Bipolar Disorder unless it messes up their lives. I'm using these above examples to show how important the "D" category is.
       One other thing to remember about the DSM... It is used mainly in the English speaking world. Maybe it is possible to be Autistic in one country but not in the US if the country has a different criteria, yet the person in question can travel from one country to the other and still be the same person. As far as I know the DSM is not universal. Until they come up with a "blood test" for Autism (hypothetically of course), I don't see there being a perfect, "one-size-fits-all" diagnostic criteria for it. The professional manuals will just keep revising and trying to do their job in identifying patterns and then clarifying them as research continues. It's a never-ending process.

Feedback Anyone?

       I mentioned previously that I wrote this blog to help people and not for commercial reasons. This is a free blog and I do not need any financial support but I wouldn't mind getting feedback from readers, this way I can help people better knowing who's reading this blog and what information they are looking for. Feel free to ask questions or make comments. I do however have to moderate comments first to make sure I keep this site "family friendly". I would like to make this site a little more interactive. I'm not that easily offended by direct questions- within reason of course. If people reading my stuff agree with me, that's great. If people disagree that's fine too and at least you are thinking. Sometimes people may even think they agree or disagree but may misunderstand something I write. This is another place where feedback helps me, remember I am on the Autistic spectrum, being taken the wrong way is a part of life for me. On top of that, written communication over the Internet visible worldwide to people of different cultures and different levels of understanding of each others languages it is important to use feedback and comments to make sure nothing is taken out of context. Saying Hello would be nice also...

Introversion or Shyness?

       I'm not implying that introversion and shyness are mutually exclusive but there is a difference between the two concepts. The article in the following link says it well: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-power-of-introverts
       I'd also like to add that these are also fuzzy categories since there are many individuals that can be both introverted, extroverted, and shy depending on the context of the situation. Also some people on the Autistic spectrum actually do like being around people only they don't have much success in doing so. These contradictions make terms like "people-person" hard to define.

Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas

       This Italian/Sicilian born Saint was once nicknamed "The Dumb Ox" by the people around him. He was certainly not "dumb" but his large size, awkward manner, and taciturn ways. He ended up being one of Christianity's most respected philosophers. "The Summa Theologica" was a famous work of his where he pretty much laid out the Theology of the Catholic Church in a rather scientific, methodical way. He also promoted Scholasticism which was influential in the philosophy of the Western World in general. "The Summa Theologica" had many interesting takes on the Christian religion. One of my favorites is that after the final judgment, God will restore our bodies in their perfect state. That's nothing new in Christianity but he also mentions that no matter how old one was when they died, everyone will be about 30 years old- and single. I say single because in Roman Catholic Theology, marriage is a worldly institution and won't exist in the "next world". The concept of "soul mates" is not generally accepted in Catholicism. When he died he was frustrated since he realized that God is not something one can fully describe in human words.
       Now I'm not one who likes to diagnose the dead, especially those who lived in the thirteenth century, therefore I will say that we will never know if he was somewhere on the Autistic spectrum or not. He did however seem to show some traits of Autism- and no, I'm not just saying this just because he was a well regarded intellectual. What makes him relevant to me in the context of this blog is that he was someone who appeared to be slow witted (and maybe he was I never met him so I don't know), yet he became one of the most famous theologians and philosophers in Western Christianity. I say Western since he was more controversial in the Eastern Churches. Personally, I find a lot of his work complicated and time consuming to digest. There are a few areas where I may disagree with him but I'm not even sure since what was written in the thirteenth century and translated many times can easily be taken out of context. Some of his teachings can come off as rather cold and stern but he was supposedly a gentle soul on a personal level.
       Another thing to remember when judging the work of someone who is long dead. It is easy for one to learn about them and decide if you like or dislike them, but many times the fans and foes of a past thinker can easily put their own spin on things. In other words his works are complicated. Many times a contemporary teacher will try to translate things to concepts the average lay person can understand. This is great but in the process they can unwittingly inject their own biases and make the person out to whatever they want them to be. Abraham Lincoln is an example, both "conservatives" and "liberals" seem to like claiming him as one of their own.
       For more facts on this guy (St. Thomas Aquinas) go here: http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=2530

Communicating Through Silence

       Pope Benedict XVI had made a statement recently on communication and the value of silence: http://www.zenit.org/article-34184?l=english

Old Man Winter in his youth...

       Winter seems to have a stronger mystique in the earlier part (which is technically the late Fall). Maybe it's because of the associations with Thanksgiving and Christmas- at least around here. Many times the first snowfall is a heavy wet snow that sticks to the trees and the grassy surfaces when there is still green poking through. I took this the weekend before Halloween 2011:

An example of how words can "change" things:

       This may seem to be a contradiction to past posts where I talk about how people get too caught up on words, euphemisms and semantics. But for balance I'll give an example of where words, labels, or titles do have power.
       Yesterday I was walking in the grocery store and somewhat in a hurry. I noticed a big rack of "tomato pies". I didn't have time to look close but I'm the type who wants to taste everything once. Also being Italian-American myself I would sure want to be able to say I tried tomato pie. I threw it in the basket to take home. When I tasted it I must say it wasn't bad, but if you look close it is nothing but a well made pizza with no cheese. There is a barely detectable sprinkle of Parmesan as a garnish but not enough to affect the flavor. There were no fillings or special surprises in the crust and the "pie" was not cheap (at least now I can say I tried tomato pie). Now lets say for example one orders a pizza somewhere and gets told they are out of cheese but they can still make a pizza only without the cheese. Even better they can compensate even more and offer to sell it for half price. I know I and many others might say "No thank you." and go for some Chinese instead. I mean I'm not usually a pizza person anyway but take away my favorite part (the cheese) and it would be as boring as a rice cake. Now on the other hand when you see a cheese-less pizza in front of a somewhat upscale grocery store and it is labeled "tomato pie" and kind of overpriced... all of a sudden it seems exotic and special. People see it in a different light. Now of course if I knew that's all it was I don't think I would have got it but I thought there might be something "new" about it that I couldn't see at first glance.
       This also shows the importance of presentation and first impressions. I mean once you hand someone a cheese-less pizza when they're not expecting it and tell them to just think of it as a ... "tomato pie" chances are you may end up wearing that so called "pie" over your head and could then think of it as an "Italian-American inspired hat".

Old Man Winter Over the Hill?

       Almost... At least where I live the 20's of January are the time when the average daily temperatures bottom out. They also reach a maxima roughly around the 20th of July. After this week, it's all up hill from here at least in terms of averages. Of course every year is a little different. A common question is that if the sun in the Northern Hemisphere reaches it's greatest angle around December 21 and the opposite around June 20th, than why does it take so long for the weather to respond. The answer is the seasonal lag. The sun doesn't heat the air, it heats things and then they heat the air. Water takes longer to heat and cool than land. For that reason areas that are inland tend to have earlier seasons while in coastal areas it tends to be later. This is just a generalization of course. Even where I live some of our worst snowstorms have been in February and even March, but at least the longer days and stronger sunlight can help clear the roads up a little faster.

Changing the way one looks at things:

       While I've mentioned how I can be rather jaded when it comes to self-help gurus and motivational speaker stuff, I can always make an exception. Dr. Wayne Dyer had some good stuff out years ago, particularly before he jumped on the New Age bandwagon. I remember him saying "Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change." (This website explains this perspective pretty well: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/creative-thinkering/201108/change-the-way-you-look-things-and-the-things-you-look-change)I can definitely agree with that, even though it may seem to contradict things I wrote in recent posts. It's just that sometimes the "self-help" or popular psychology community sometimes takes it too far. I believe in silver linings and seeing glasses as half full, but changing a definition doesn't change a dog into a cat. This is why we need to think carefully and critically instead of thinking in terms of just catchy slogans.

Visual-Spatial

       Here's another group of "categories". There are different patterns in learning styles. Just like many other labels these are probably valid patterns but may not be so cut-and-dry in real life. I was told several times as a result of standardized testing that I am a visual-spatial learner and on one test I remember seeing that is my biggest strength. From what I understand about learning styles I find this very believable even though I'm not 100% sure what it all entails.
       This website seems to explain it with a neat little comparison on the bottom of the page: http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/Visual_Spatial_Learner/vsl.htm. Wikipedia's take on this seems to be a little more objective: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_thinking. When I looked at the first website being a "visual thinker" myself I naturally went right to that nice (though a little simplistic) comparison chart I mentioned above that lists the traits of auditory and visual thinkers. For the most part the traits on the "visual" side sound like me but there are a few exceptions.
       Dr. Temple Grandin, the Autistic writer whom I have mentioned several times has a book called "Thinking in Pictures". Aside from a little skimming at Barnes and Nobles a long time ago I never read the book but thought I'd point it out. I don't necessarily see things the way Temple Grandin does either as we are all individuals. I also don't want to imply that everyone on the Autistic spectrum "thinks in pictures" or is a visual-spatial thinker. I just want to draw attention to different styles of learning.