Belief And Autism Once Again
One of the things I wanted to talk about was something that happened to us this morning. It’s been something we have been dealing with for quite some time.and I will be speaking to the nurse about soon.
I really think that it relates to the black and white thinking of someone on the spectrum where they can’t see things another way. I know I have mentioned it before - where they think one thing or another, black or white etc.
It’s when he isn’t feeling 100% but he is up and bouncing and doing everything he normally does without a problem. Or when his poo doesn’t look 100% how he expects it to. At these points it is terribly difficult to persuade him he IS well enough to go to school.
Do you know, I was thinking about it and the fact that he isn’t 100% well that makes him believe he shouldn’t go to school? I had read, of course, how difficult it can be for autistic children to go to school and I am beginning to see different places as to where the troubles can come. It really isn’t as easy to get them to go to school.
You see, this is a point at where the black and white thinking is definitely unhelpful. It makes you see so clearly the difficulty involved in situations. But it can also make you see situations where this is an absolute joy. Think of chemists and pharmacists who discover different cures for many diseases in the world. Their options are yes it works, no it doesn’t. All their experiments were to find a solution to bring us out of isolation.
I guess I hadn’t really looked at or thought about this aspect of the way I (and Johnathan) think sometimes and it can cause so much distress with anxiety and sometimes depression as well. I suffer from both but Johnathan only from anxiety. But changing these ways of thinking is not easy because they have been done for so long.
Now I’m not telling you it’s impossible, because it isn’t, but it takes time and help from the right sort of person, to work out. And you have to be ready to get the help, too, so that you can understand where the thinking can be unhelpful make the changes necessary.
Black and white thinking is not confined to people on the spectrum, but because that is how their brain works, the good thing is when they can use it for the right reasons and can lead to mental health issues if they don’t understand where and when is a great time to use it.