CTP (S3EAprSpecial1) What If We Stopped Treating Autism Like One Story

CTP (S3EAprSpecial1) What If We Stopped Treating Autism Like One Story
[A VERY SERIOUS EPISODE, RELEASED ON OFTEN FOOLISH DAY, APRIL 1st]
Exploring more of the fascinating intersection of Activism, Community Engagement, Faith / Religion, Human Nature, Politics, Social Issues, and beyond   
We talk honestly about what adulthood looks like across the autism spectrum, from high-masking independence to round-the-clock care needs. We also wrestle with misconceptions, co-occurring diagnoses, and the hard ethical gray areas families face when support drops off after childhood. 
• April Ratchford’s background as an occupational therapist and as an autistic adult and parent 
• Why the autism spectrum includes very different support needs across level 1 to level 3 
• What happens as caregivers age and why long-term planning matters 
• Autism alongside other conditions such as ADHD, OCD, anxiety, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and spina bifida 
• Autism as a neurological disorder and how that differs from mental health diagnoses 
• Late diagnosis, masking, and why “you don’t look autistic” misses the point 
• The vaccines question framed through correlation vs causation and environmental factors 
• Ethical tradeoffs around future interventions and parental choice 
• A practical way to support families who are overwhelmed 
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A Short Story: A Lasting Legacy? book Trailer

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Hello, welcome to another episode of Constitutionalist Podcast. I am your host,

Welcome And Guest Setup

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Joseph M. Werner. That's L-E-N-A-R-D. It looks French. It's not without an O. Thank you for tuning in. As Bram Norton used to say on his show, let's get on with the show. Hello, just a brief intro here. I've got to run to do an interview, but I realized April 1st, April Fool's Day is a Wednesday. So Wednesday guest drop, not April Fool's. This is a serious episode you're about to see. So without further ado, let's get to it. Joining me today is April A. See now I can't talk. April, well try to say it slowly, get it out. April Ratchford. Yes, welcome. Thank you. And she is here today to talk about adulting with autism. A little background, just so happens, one of those cosmic coincidences. I just ran into someone two days ago at the local deli, someone family friends who has an autistic child and got an update on him. And unfortunately, he's now slipped into dementia. So she couldn't handle her own failing health and able to help him anymore. He had to be put into a senior center. I don't want to use that word. You know what I mean, right? My brain ain't working right now.

Family Story Aging And Care

SPEAKER_06 2:16

It's a common thing when they grow older and there's really nowhere for them to go. And parents don't know that you can leave like trusts, and then the trusts are expensive. So they end up either in group homes or they end up in long-term care centers.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

There's the term as long care health center, right? That that's the nice term to use. Yes. Uh pull us back up and do first uh where were you born and raised and where are you now? Kind of, you know, personal kind of question first.

SPEAKER_06 3:01

So I was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. Um I have a sibling who is also autistic, and she's two years younger. Um, I've been in Kentucky all my life, except for six months I lived in Nuremberg, Germany with

Autism Spectrum Levels Explained

SPEAKER_06 3:19

my kiddo. Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

That's wow, that was a distance away. It's like, oh, I spent I was in the next state over. No, you're halfway around the world.

SPEAKER_06 3:32

Yeah, that's me. Um graduated high school, didn't do so well in college my first time around. So my mom signed me up for nursing school, and I was a nurse for like 12 years, had my son in 2002, and while I was going back to school, he was diagnosed with autism. He was also born with spina bifida, but that's not a problem. And then my sister, who is an occupational therapist as well, she's like, you can do what I do, just do what I do. I switched my major, graduated from Spaulding University with my master's in occupational therapy, and here I am 13 years later.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

I don't have Netflix, so I never saw it, but I know there was a show, Love on the Spectrum, which raises the question. Try to define as best possible that spectrum because there are indeed very capable on the spectrum, but have it, versus those on the other end who need constant help and care and attention. Did that definition change over the last couple decades? I think it has, yes.

SPEAKER_06 4:52

It has. It used to be different ones, it used to be pervasive personality disorder, it used to be otherwise not specified, and then the kids that were higher level were they just were like missed because they didn't hit those key markers. Then we come into another form where they call it the autism spectrum. They had different levels, and now we do it again because now we have a level one where they're mostly can be independent on their own, but that's a spectrum on itself. Then we have level two that's gonna need supervision, and they have their own spectrum, and then we have the level threes who are gonna always need 24-7 care.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Corey is his name. I was just defining he was always going to need help and care, and unfortunately, Shirley is at a point in her life with her own health issues, isn't able, doesn't have the body strength. He was a bigger male, had to go somewhere where he could have now with dementia issues, 24-7, constant care should things arise. There's also, I I want to be careful and cautious how I say this. I want to word it

Autism With Other Diagnoses

SPEAKER_01 6:23

friendly if I can, but a lot of people, when they think autism, they think a DNA defect or genetic disorder entirely. There is often a physical appearance similarity to that condition. Yes, no, not always true, correct? Not always true.

SPEAKER_06 6:50

Those that have autism could have another diagnosis. Like my son is spina bifida in autism. They can be Down syndrome in autism, they can be cerebral palsy in autism. So it's not necessarily it's the autism itself. Somebody may have a physical defect that's a genetic, and then autism just compounds it right on top.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

I think we're we're coming a long way in the better understanding of these things, and exactly why I wanted to have you to talk about these differentiations and distinctions, because certainly 40 years ago, it was look at that person, they look a certain way, there's that again, genetic physical trait kind of thing. Well, they're autistic, but indeed, as we're discussing here based on the spectrum, there doesn't necessarily have to be that look, and that's actually generally, as you said, a secondary, like a down syndrome condition that's really different from the autism itself. Correct. It can be two medical diagnoses just interacting together, but it seems like autism a lot of times is indeed a secondary condition to other things. A lot of times they go together, yes?

SPEAKER_06 8:31

Yes, sometimes happens to fall that way. A lot of people who have autism can also have like mental disorders as well. Autism can be right there, their main diagnosis, but they can also have mental disorders like schizophrenia, um, bipolar disorder, anxiety, or um OCD. It just all depends because the autism can be present there when they're young or late diagnosed, and then other things just compound it.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

Now I've always thought of it is is it is autism technically

Neurological Vs Mental Health Labels

SPEAKER_01 9:11

considered diagnosis under mental disorder?

SPEAKER_06 9:16

No, it is actually a neurological disorder. They have done studies that have shown the brains of people with autism are completely different from neurotypical people. So they list it as the neurological disorder, whereas some people who are autistic are ADHD, but that's still a psychological disorder.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

Glad we're making this distinction because again, 40 years ago, it was all lumped together, it was all lumped together, and indeed uh autism thought as strictly a mental disorder, and we've come a long way, and hence now the newer terminology neurodivergent, correct.

SPEAKER_06 10:01

Yeah, it's it and really neurodivergent can it's more of a social kind of definition for people with autism, because everybody's neurodivergent by definition, because everybody's brain is different, but for those with autism, it's like more of a social thing because we are different from the other population, with and it's like a spectrum, just depending on who you meet, it's all different.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

I've said several times now already, I'm gonna repeat it again. We've come a long way from where we were 40 years ago, 2000 years on from the time of Christ, we're still a long way from understanding that thing in our head. We understand more than we did, but we're probably a long way from where we could be in understanding that brain and all the different divergences to use that word. Full disclosure, I myself am a degree uh on the lower end of the OCD scale myself. I have issues.

Genetics Environment And Late Diagnosis

SPEAKER_01 11:10

In fact, last night I was up till four in the morning because you know, those obtrusive, intrusive, obsessive thoughts just wouldn't go away and let my brain shut down so I could sleep. So I created a song about it called Wired, uh, you know, OCD issues anthem. So I'm gonna tack that on to the end of this episode just to be able to share that. But again, I'm nowhere near that two as a scale to like a Howie Mandel, who famously is a spokesperson for OCD issues. So OCD, autism, downs, a lot of times these things all interconnect and interweave for whatever reason, and we're nowhere close to understanding the how or why yet.

SPEAKER_06 12:13

That is correct, because we can't tell if it's all genetic or all environmental. Now, in my family, it's genetic. Or a little of both. Or a little of both. But I know for my family, it's all genetic. So my mom is undiagnosed, my late mom is undiagnosed, then I was late diagnosed in my 40s, my sister both ADHD and autistic, my son is autistic, her two oldest kids are autistic, and the youngest is autistic and ADHD. So we have a genetic component.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

That's part of the issue here, too. Again, this is something I want to be careful how I say it. Martin Luther King Jr.'s content of character. To look at a person, you might look at me and I look healthy, but I've got a ton of health issues. I'm on disability due to them, I can't work a normal job. For me to look at you, I would in no way, shape, or form suspect you are on the

Masking And The “Looks Autistic” Myth

SPEAKER_01 13:18

autism scale at all. And that the looks can be deceiving. And to some people though, and again, I want to be so careful with this, but with so much medical fraud that's come up, the expansion of the autism spectrum, some I think indeed, like I have chronic fatigue immune dysfunction. I know others are using it, since there's no real test for it, to scam the system. And I'm concerned, I know there's probably some out there I want you to address, maybe thinking, well, clearly this person doesn't look autistic, doesn't sound autistic. What about those? And no doubt there are always people with trying to scam any system, those who are indeed scamming the broadened definition of the scale. You get where I'm coming from. I'm trying to be so careful in how I ask this question.

SPEAKER_06 14:29

It's very common that people look at me and they're like, you don't look or sound autistic. And I'm like, but I didn't speak until I was two and a half. I had a speech therapist. Also remembered too culturally, like black people just looked at their kids and was like, go find your cousin and you just mimic after your cousin. And that's how I everybody just thought, oh, she's just really shy. No. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

I'm glad you said that. I I wouldn't have thought to put it that way, but yes, now that you vocalize that, that makes a lot of sense. It's a misattributation to a personal characteristic of shyness that it might get mixed and indeed, as you're suggesting, if it's caught soon enough, like I've had someone else on who dealt with autism and dyslexia. If you catch the dyslexia, there are tips and tricks and things you can, if it's caught early enough, you might be able to help put them in the better end of the spectrum. Again, I I don't know how to phrase this, but you as an example, it was caught, it was dealt with, which help you become a more functional person while still on the spectrum. Am I making sense?

SPEAKER_06 16:04

Yes, you make perfect sense. And that's how a lot of families just deal with it. It's so slight that you wouldn't know. I remember being in middle school having anxiety so bad that I was giving myself ulcers. The doctor was like, Oh, she just needs this. She just has too much stomach acid. I'm like, and now that I'm older, I was like, what kid has that bad of anxiety that they're giving themselves ulcers? And I was perfectly fine just being by myself in my room, hold up, not being social. And they slip through the cracks. Like my sister didn't get her son diagnosed because he was born in the late 90s. She was like, I'm just not gonna do it because we're not far enough along. He'll just get a label and then it'll hold him back. So she never got him diagnosed in school. He sailed, he's got his bachelor's degree in computer, cyber computer something, cyber technology.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

Cybersecurity, maybe? Yes, usually the word cyber, you use the word cyber in conjunction with that. I'm a former IT guy myself, so I want to go again ask another. Oh, I've been losing my train of thought. Difficult angle. Uh, if I can remember what it was. Uh oh, I know what it was. Thank you for thank you both for reminding me what it was. I would be remiss. Now, you're you deal with the autism stuff, but you're not a neuroscientist, certainly, nor am I. So I want to get your best opinion, and I would be remiss if I didn't go here. The paranoia of vaccines and autism, the expansion of autism

Vaccines Timing And Hard Tradeoffs

SPEAKER_01 18:00

and those who blame vaccines. Now, I think it's important to say causation and correlation aren't always one and the same. And I'll personally say I think we're pushing, I'm not anti-vax, no one I know is, but we believe we should spread these out over time. There's no sense giving a sexually transmitted disease vaccine to a six-month-old. That can wait. So our if too many vaccines and the it's not the vaccine itself, it's potentially the mercury and other additives in it that might be a contributing factor. And for the benefit of the transcription and the audio only, I'm doing that in air quotes. Again, I'm not a scientist, I'm just asking the question. It could be a contributing factor. There's a lot we don't know yet. What are your thoughts on that hodgepodge of big questions?

SPEAKER_06 19:10

So yeah, I was like, oh, that's the big question. So I'm an occupational therapist by training, but my personal now, this is personal, this is nowhere professional. Both can be true at the same time. Is it really the vaccines, or is it the timing of the vaccines, or is it the environment? Because our environment now is completely different prior to the industrial revolution. People were growing their own food. So which is it?

SPEAKER_01 19:45

Because really, I that's why I tried to put in quotes contributing factor. There are so many other potential contributing factors here. But my my whole point, uh, and you can agree or disagree again, we're all entitled to the opinion. If there's no need to push that many on a young child, why do we keep even taking that chance? Again, a sexually transmitted disease type vaccine doesn't need to be pushed on a child until middle school, even when there's a remote chance that they would become sexually active. Your thoughts?

SPEAKER_06 20:33

I'm like, well, I know I thought that too. I was like, why are we giving this to a baby? But you know, I it could be money, it could be, it could also be these kids also are in these, if they're in hospitals, they're gonna be around people who deal with other people that have that. So is it really a protection for them for them so they don't accidentally get it? When people want to say it's gotta be the vaccines, but I'm like, it can't just be the vaccines because there are people that have never vaccinated their kids and they have autism. It's really a catch-22. It's like one of those things that you have to decide what you're gonna do. Now, I do know parents that space it out, but it gets so hard when you enter the school system because it used to be when I was going to school, you had your shots and you didn't get shots again until like high school, maybe.

SPEAKER_05 21:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 21:33

Now you can't even enter school without all those vaccinations all at once. And I'm like, is that really necessary?

SPEAKER_01 21:42

That that's that's the rub, and that's what I was getting at. This is personal to me too, because I know someone who just had a child, and indeed the hospital was pushing them to have like 10 vaccines, and they're like, no, this, this, this, and this make you know, measles, mumps, uh, tuberculosis. Things that are a danger that seem to be coming back, you might need an immune boost for makes sense. But again, that particular vaccine doesn't seem to apply before they're even close, you know, just leaving the hospital, they're nowhere close to going to daycare or preschool or kindergarten yet. Some of these can wait. And again, I am of the position, not anti-vax, but why do we take the chance? If it's not absolutely 100% necessary now, let's indeed spread them out. It seems like we're kind of on the same page in our opinion of it, and opinions do vary.

SPEAKER_06 22:57

Now, my son had to have all of them just simply because he had spina bifida. So he had part of a spinal cord out.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

So I was like, well, we're just gonna just that's an extra exposure, yes.

SPEAKER_06 23:11

Yeah, so but a normal healthy baby, I'm like, give them what they need that we can eliminate, like the measles, mom's rubella, whooping cough, the things that are so easy to catch for kids and kill them. That's doable. Stuff like the HPV, I was like, wait, what?

SPEAKER_01 23:33

That's exactly one of them I'm referring to. Yes, a newborn infant does not need that, but yet they're pushing them right at birth. And I because as you alluded to, I'm 63, I was born in 62. There were only like a dozen vaccinations while I was growing up. Now there's four or five dozen they want to try to push on people, and just the sheer number, what bothers me the most, and I don't mean to turn this into a vaccine talk episode. How can we not all agree in this modern day and age, Mercury may have had its place in a vaccine to put as a preservative a hundred years ago? But today's modern preservatives, there is absolutely positively zero reason to have a toxin like mercury in any amount in a vaccine.

SPEAKER_06 25:45

That is very correct, because they also tell you don't eat a bunch of tuna because the mercury levels are so hot. I don't know why we would like to decide that mercury is still a good thing. Yeah, it's not a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 25:58

It's not like arsenic. Like, I did not choose this hairdo for the people viewing on video. I have no hair, it came out during chemo when I had leukemia in 2010, thankfully, still in remission. But my point being, arsenic. You don't give arsenic to people except under certain controlled and no other alternatives, like I was given arsenic as part of my cancer treatment in low doses, right? It's a known toxin, it's a poison, should never be used unless if you're desperate, like I was dying. So, you know, let's try this. It's better than you're gonna die for sure. But with mercury, there is in this day and age zero benefit. But again, I've I again I've turned this into a vaccine episode and I didn't mean to do that. My apologies. Back uh to the point of what you're here for. What else would you like to say regarding autism misconceptions where you think we might find the things going? Do you hold out that there is a hope for uh like uh what

mRNA Ethics Cure Talk And Choice

SPEAKER_01 27:29

just back to vaccines? MRNA. Do you think manipulative things that can manipulate the DNA might hold a future for at least relief, if not a cure?

SPEAKER_06 27:46

Well, now that's a catch-that's like that's a hot topic now because it's part of my neural makeup. This is my brain, and this is how I am. I just roll with it. Granted, I know there are parents out there that have level three kids and they're like, it's overwhelming because the divorce rate for parents with autistic kids is astronomical. And then once they get through school, well, what happens now? Because now they have no structure because there's no supports once they turn 18. A lot of them are still unemployed. There's uh still 85% of autistic are people are still unemployed, and some of them are the brightest people that just gotta give them some tips and learning. Like a lot of people don't understand, they don't have that type of body language, and they're very direct. So if you ask them a question, they're gonna give you the answer.

SPEAKER_01 28:48

Especially end of the spectrum. They they have seem to have no filter, is what you're alluding to, right? They are honest to a fault, they don't understand the concept of sometimes a little white lie or saying nothing at all, but know that what's on their mind tends to come out their mouth.

SPEAKER_06 29:09

And if you want that answer, I taught my son to say, do you want the truth? Or do you want me to lie to you? Because he's just gonna say it. But a lot of autistic people have learned to mask. Like I go to work and people have no idea that I'm autistic unless they work with me when I'm spinning in a chair, spinning, so or blowing a glass uh you know in a stool.

SPEAKER_01 29:37

And what would it when a kind of a side effect of it makes it physically visible in you, you're saying, yes.

SPEAKER_06 29:46

Right. Or now my physically manifests is the phrase I was looking for. I have a habit of leaving lights on wherever I go, it drives my fiance nuts. When I was little, I used to leave cabinet doors open. And my mom would be like, What why can't you close the cabinet? I'm like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 30:06

There is no explanation for why. Why is that? Again, again, as far as we think we've come as a species, we are a long way from understanding our own species and why certain things are the way they are in our needs. You said catch 22 a few times, so I want to go back to the mRNA thing. The very guy who invented the concept was against the mRNA shots for COVID because he didn't think it was appropriate already. He believes mRNA may in the future hold out great hopes. But as you alluded in a way, you are who you are, you are the way you are. If they come up with some supposed miracle, mRNA shot that might alter you to, I hate to use this, but I'm gonna to be better, right? I'm putting that in quote. I I uh again, I I don't even like the phraseology I'm using, but I'm using it. But yeah, an mRNA miracle that might make one thing better. The catch 22 is a lot of times there are side effects and make something else worse.

SPEAKER_06 31:30

This is true. Like I can understand where people would want something that would prevent autism because it's so just one of those things that is such a spectrum and it's the unknown. But on the other end, I'm like, well, are you gonna do this with everybody? Like with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, spina bifida. I'm like, this is a wide gap because you can't do for one and not do for the others because they suffer just as well, and their parents have to deal with them growing up, doctor's appointments and such.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

That becomes that moral in a way, catch 22 of well, we can help. Yeah, yeah, the slippery slope thing. Absolutely. Now, I'm also all for right to try, and if there's something experimental now, like for you, I I I agree. I think you're so high-level functional, it wouldn't probably be worth the risk or chance of messing with something that would supposedly, in one respect, make you better, but again, that risk of making something worse. But I at the same time, I could see someone who has someone on the more non-functional end of the spectrum saying, let's take this chance. If it can get them closer to self-sufficiently functional when they're older, it might be worth the risk reward and risk factors. Again, I my my phraseology, I just am not getting the words I want here, but I I think you understand what I'm saying, yes?

SPEAKER_06 33:24

It's all according to like parents, like parents parental rights. Right. Do what you need to do to help your kid, and there's no right or wrong answer to that.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

Like some people unfortunately, a lot of times that's true. Things aren't always black and white. There's a lot of I got two shows called Gray Areas One and Two about the things aren't always yes, no, black, white, 100% right or 100% wrong, a lot of gray area in between.

SPEAKER_06 33:57

It's called be tolerant and don't judge. Like you can't judge those parents for wanting their kid to have the best life as possible because it's going to be hard. Not everyone wants to do that, and they celebrate their autism, and they're like, This is me. So respecting that choice, yes.

SPEAKER_01 35:03

This is a difficult topic, which is why I'm having such a hard time. Indeed, trying to decide what to say, what not to say, and how to say it, and how to phrase a question or a statement. Uh, this is difficult, and this isn't the only difficult topic. Of course, there is uh morals and ethics are gray areas to a lot of people.

SPEAKER_06 35:33

Correct. It's like, well, my morals and your morals could be completely different. We're in a world today that everybody is offended and everybody wants to be right. And I'm like, you know, not everybody has to be right, but you have to be tolerant of somebody's choice. Everybody has the right to make their own choice, good or bad.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

As a society, for a society to function and survive, we have to agree on certain degrees of moral acceptances, like thou shalt not murder, whether you're Christian or not. And uh, even the Bible, though, makes exceptions to the rule, like Exodus 22.2, there's a difference between killing and murder of innocence. And yet some won't even agree on that. That, oh, you know, if they want to kill somebody or a child in the womb, they just can do it and have no compunction of for uh afterthought about doing it.

SPEAKER_06 36:42

People have to be able to say, yes, this is what I believe, and I'm not gonna change it, but then they have to also understand the other side, and we've just lost the plot in the middle. We're just all swimming in the sea of nut.

SPEAKER_01 37:03

Well, my apologies, I kind of took us. I never script shows, I never know what rabbit holes will open to go down, but an extra difficult episode for me to be able to stay on track, as you could see. Do you have a website where people can find you?

SPEAKER_06 37:23

So, people, if they want to find all my socials or where I do my podcast, I have link tree forward slash adult team with autism. And when you put in Linktree, it's L-I-N-K-T-R dot E. For whatever reason they did that.

SPEAKER_05 37:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 37:42

Adulting with autism together.

Tolerance Morals And Social Friction

SPEAKER_01 37:45

Yeah, I I use Linktree also. So yeah, I know that that weird L-I-N-K-T-R dot E slash whatever. And in your case, adulting with uh autism with in my case it's J Leonard Detroit. But yeah, somehow they got their own dot EE extension of special carve out, which is you know, there's always goods and bads, pros and cons to everything. So thank you, April Ratchford, for coming on. I hope you feel you've got something. So let me ask one last question. I don't feel I've given you sufficient. So let me just ask one last very broad, open-ended question. What else would you like to say to address this audience?

SPEAKER_06 38:43

If you see somebody that has an autistic child, just ask them, can I help you? May I help you? Because they're drowning. It's hard.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

Especially if the if that autistic person is on the lower functionality part of the scale. Yes, exactly. Again, growing up around and knowing friends of the family, Corey, them, and everyone they know the sweetest person you would have ever met. But now we've seen dementia with our mother, mine, and my sisters, where sometimes dementia somehow puts a meme streak in people. Now, I I didn't have enough time to talk with Shirley to see if that unfortunate side problem of dementia ever reared its head with Corey or not. And that became part of the issue why he needed to be somewhere with 24-7 on call care or not, uh, as we discussed. The spectrum is broad and wide, you're very functional, others are next to completely unfunctional. Correct. Goes back to Martin Luther King Jr. Don't judge a book by its cover, you cannot group and lump everyone into one bucket.

SPEAKER_05 40:14

This is very true.

SPEAKER_01 40:16

All right. Well, uh, I'm worn out because this was difficult for me because again, knowing someone with autism, but also knowing there's that wide spectrum, I can't judge all autism based on that example, and an important reason why I felt I had to talk to you today. So, again, thank you, April Ratchford, for coming on. Maybe in the future we'll have you back again for an update. We'll see what happens. Thank you. Take care, God bless. Bye. I just wanted to record, now that April's gone, an additional segment on this episode. First and foremost, I want to thank April Ratchford again for being a guest here. Secondly, apologize to her and to you, my audience, as if you've listened through this, you heard me struggle for knowing what I wanted to say or what I want to address, but uncertain on some things that could strike a nerve for some, how to phrase it, uh a statement or asking a question. And April was so gracious in putting up with my confusion, as kind of discussed without directly and implicitly saying that I want to do that here. Autism, as we found, as we discussed, is often a companion issue. And again, I I put companion in air quotes. Again, for lack of a better way to put it, it is a companion disease that often is piggybacked on or accompanied by other conditions that may directly or indirectly or not directly or in any way, shape, or form relate. It is part of our lack of understanding. Again, we've come a long way, but we've got a long way to go to understanding a lot of these things the way our body and brains work. We're a long way off of understanding why does autism often accompany downs and OCD

Where To Find April And How To Help

SPEAKER_01 43:07

accompany downs and autism or ADHD or a blend of the two or stress, I think, is a pretty easy one to understand. Anyone with any kind of health condition, stress of dealing with that becomes a sub-issue in and of itself brought on by the other condition. But causation and correlation, as I said, does one cause the other? Does vice versa? Do they not cause have any causation or correlation with the other, but just happenstance? We like to think all things are interconnected. It may or may not be discovered in the future, they are or not, and how we can approach dealing with someone with multiple conditions, treating it as one overall singular condition as a collective versus then trying to deal with each of the sub-conditions in and of themselves, and what potential, as I said to April, you might fix one thing but break another when we're talking drugs, side effects, the pros, the cons, the good, the bad, and the ugly of it all. And I just wanted to also close out with that, and I mentioned I would play the OCD song that I created last night. Warning. It is loud, it is obnoxious, it is it's like thrash metal, but it is recorded that way on purpose, to portray indeed OCD, the obsessive compulsive disorder. Or as Howie Mendel says, the music's meant to be loud and noisy and to make the point about OCD sufferers indeed having those thoughts, often loud, unwanted, and can we quiet this all down? I try to capture that sentiment in the song with the way the song is so down loud and overpowering, in a sense. If you don't think you can handle that kind of a song, you can tune out. I hope you will give it a lesson.

Host Reflection And Companion Conditions

SPEAKER_01 47:09

Thank you all. Take care. And he was the song.

SPEAKER_02 47:27

Why? Can hit the off-switch. Thoughts keep spinning like a glitch in the mix. Count a sheep with the running track laps. Every number just snaps right back. We cutting nails short so I don't pick skin.

SPEAKER_04 47:52

Check the door twice, then I check it again. Tiny wars in the tired. Oh damn, I never left the bad Where's the off switch? I'm stuck in the loop again. Same favor is like my holy friend. Scroll that list till the words all fit. I just want one quiet. One quiet. Where's the up switch? Breaks the bright on red. Chasing thoughts till the dawn breaks. Dead, till it go, but it grips instead.

SPEAKER_03 48:25

I just want one quiet end Life's all dim, but the mind's on blast. Replay, remake every moment that's past. If I breathe in four, then I breathe out. A Maybe I can now count fade. Wash my hands till the doubt runs try still here.

SPEAKER_04 48:46

What if I'm in under that side? I know the script, but I hear rewind. Same start seen every single time to feel If it's dark do I fall to this What do you do?

unknown 49:30

Where's the switch I'm stuck in the loop again?

SPEAKER_03 49:34

Same three words like my only friend. Scroll down the list of the words I'll bend. I just wanna wan quiet.

SPEAKER_04 49:44

Quiet Where's the up? Split some stuff in the gate. Go there, words are bad. I just wanna quiet Walk quiet Where's the dog? Switch greens upright on the red. Chase and thoughts till the door breaks. Dead stay like over the grips.

SPEAKER_02 50:16

Instead, I just wanna

OCD Song And Closing CTA

SPEAKER_02 50:18

quiet and Why quiet OCD brain is she's white why I can't hit the off switch.

unknown 50:36

Be off switch.

SPEAKER_02 50:38

Thoughts keep spinning like a glitch in the mix. Telling she put the running track laps. Peace of mind I seem to forever lack.

SPEAKER_00 50:47

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SPEAKER_01 50:56

Thank you for having tuned into another Christitutionalist podcast show. I really appreciate that you stop by. Again, please like, share, subscribe. We need you to help spread the constitutionalist movement. Thank you again. Take care. God bless. Love you all.