Heard A Story Yesterday

Just call him Billy. A staff person in same building where Billy was kept described him as aggressive, loud and trying to break out away from his caring caregivers. While not saying so, she implied that he was dangerous and unpredicable. After all, he tries to butt his caregiven when forced to stay somewhere/anywhere he does not wish to stay. Oh, beware when he is forced to stare you right in the eyeballs for more than fifteen seconds.

Now, look at this picture. What would you do if faced with the same or similar situation? Please review the following realities...

• You are forced to leave a place-like-home and go somewhere else.
• Your thoughts and concerns about change are ignored or at best trivialized.
• If you try to return to your confort zone your efforts are described as if you were a criminal trying to breakout of prison. Well, at least they got that right.
• You are forced to say what you want, when really they want you to say what they want you to say you want.
• You are not asked to identify what hurts or pleases you. Who cares anyway, as long as you are good.
• Imagine a fly in your eye or any thing else, and if you swat it away you are labled aggressive and violent.
• Consider, your choice of friends, teachers and lovers is never considered or respected.
• What about people who try to help you that never enlist your active, conscious acceptance and support in learning so called life skills.
• What about a minimum of forty hours a week dealing with caregivers that intentionally try to fool and manipulate you?
• And when you desperatly try to push, shove, and use your body to bang away at unwanted stimulus imposed on you from well wishers you are called violent, a mortal danger to yourself and others and need to be institualized.
• Finally, prison seems a better place to be.

Any autistic persons reading this blog post are invited to add their own thoughts...

By: Bert J. Wainwright, M.Ed