Author: Elayne

                                                          Health

                   Are you being stereotypical when it comes to mental                  

                   disorders ?

                 “These stereotypes happen more often than you think.”

                                            By Elayne Susana Matos

                                                 December 3, 2019

   Most people just assume things all the time about anything. Imagine something complicated like a mental disorder. Let’s focus on autism, “ people with autism are retards”.  This is one of the most common stereotypes I’ve heard followed by “They don’t feel emotions”. There is always a stereotype for every group of people. It’s wrong but hey it’s true. Now how would you if you’re being stereotypical? Well, you would have to know the facts first. 

 The facts

   People with autism have trouble with acknowledging people’s feelings. According to the National Autistic Society, “ Autistic people often have difficulty ‘reading’ other people”. This means that they will know if you’re sad or happy eventually. It would just take them longer to process that you are feeling this way. Not knowing this information when interacting with a person with autism waiting for a quick reaction might be awkward and might make you assume things that are not true.

   Autism first and foremost has 4 different spectrums. Yes, there’s 4 different types of autism! According to Autism speaks,”In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association merged four distinct autism diagnoses into one umbrella diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder” (What is autism?). The different types are autistic disorder, childhood disintegrative disorder, pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) and Asperger syndrome. During my research I read about an autistic child who used typing as a way of communicating. I’ve also seen and read about others with photographic memory. Autistic people can range from solving the quadratic formula in seconds to struggling with just 2+2. They do not fall under one category. They come in many different shapes and sizes just like the majority of the population with no mental disabilities.

   Something interesting that most people don’t know about autistic people is that they carry a certain interest with them all the time. What do I mean by this? Okay so, as seen on the netflix show Atypical by Robvia Rashid the main character is let’s say obsessed with penguins. The penguins are his main interest. Now how does he carry this interest with him? When in a situation or before a situation happens in his regular life he thinks what would penguins do?When he developed a crush on his therapist. The main character followed the steps penguins make when finding a mate. These interests help them understand and deal with what is going on around them. 

    After reading these facts did you find yourself stereotypical to this group of people? Did one of these facts clear up something you had in your head about autistic people? When we read the facts we find our faults to the stereotypes in our heads.Next time please just even look up online instead of assuming. When interacting with someone with autism please remember these they have feelings too!

https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism

                                              Health

      Are you being stereotypical when it comes to mental                          disorders ?

                 “These stereotypes happen more often than you think.”

                                            By Elayne Susana Matos

                                                 December 3, 2019

   Most people just assume things all the time about anything. Imagine something complicated like a mental disorder. Let’s focus on autism, “ people with autism are retards”.  This is one of the most common stereotypes I’ve heard followed by “They don’t feel emotions”. There is always a stereotype for every group of people. It’s wrong but hey it’s true. Now how would you know if you’re being stereotypical? Well, you would have to know the facts first. 

 The facts

   People with autism have trouble with acknowledging people’s feelings. According to the National Autistic Society, “ Autistic people often have difficulty ‘reading’ other people”. This means that they will know if you’re sad or happy eventually. It would just take them longer to process that you are feeling this way. Not knowing this information when interacting with a person with autism waiting for a quick reaction might be awkward and might make you assume things that are not true.

  Autism first and foremost has 5 different spectrums. Yes, there’s 5 different types of autism! During my research I read about an autistic child who used typing as a way of communicating. I’ve also seen and read about others with photographic memory. Autistic people can range from solving the quadratic formula in seconds to struggling with just 2+2. They do not fall under one category. They come in many different shapes and sizes just like the majority of the population with no mental disabilities.

   Something interesting that most people don’t know about autistic people is that they carry a certain interest with them all the time. What do I mean by this? Okay so, as seen on the netflix show Atypical by Robvia Rashid the main character is lets say obsessed with penguins. The penguins are his main interest. Now how does he carry this interest with him? When in a situation or before a situation happens in his regular life he thinks what would penguins do?When he developed a crush on his therapist. The main character followed the steps penguins make when finding a mate. These interests help them understand and deal with what is going on around them. 

    After reading these facts did you find yourself stereotypical to this group of people? Did one of these facts clear up something you had in your head about autistic people? When we read the facts we find our faults to the stereotypes in our heads.Next time please just even look up online instead of assuming. When interacting with someone with autism please remember these they have feelings too!

1. My genre is writing a magazine article about autism. To be more specific, I will be doing an article for teen vogue. When writing a magazine article you want to catch the reader’s attention. Therefore you need a good hook! When looking at the articles teen vogue had to offer, I was amazed by the hooks. It made me want to read the article even if it was just about what Miley Cyrus thinks about green dresses. That’s when I realized one of the most important formula is a great and shocking hook to get people interested in reading your article and what you have to say. As I kept reading the other articles I saw there was suspense like they didn’t tell you what you were looking for right away. They just hit you with details and facts and feels like forever to get to the point but it is information that Honestly would be good to know. After noticing the hook and the suspense that comes right after I immediately compared it to my topic on autism and what type of Audience I’m seeking to grab attention with my hook right away. Since my topic is not about a celebrity or something trendy it is in fact something informative finding a catchy hook for that will be hard but it isn’t impossible! After finding my hook, I will ease my reader with information that’s not boring and too scientific but I will write it in a way they feel I’m speaking to them directly face to face. I think that is a good tactic to keep the reader engaged in the reading and actually taking something out from it. I do need to be careful with the information I share and not make it more interesting than what the actual hook. When I get to my main point of the article I will ask questions to help the reader relate to a person with autism and see where people with autism are coming from or dealing with on a daily basis. Finally, I will end my article with a little sentimental conclusion and one fact that will get them thinking more than they did throughout my article to care on with them in their daily life.

Elayne Susana Matos 

Professor Hall   

English 

      The world as we see it so simple and full of agendas to fulfill. Everyday things we are accustomed to like Asking another how you’re doing or acknowledging that someone is there, that comes so natural to us. Now might that be the case for everyone? The way we function and react since babies have impacted our social lives. A large majority of us don’t react and understand like the rest. These people are viewed differently and are misjudged. Which made me stop being selfish and actually want to understand the different perspectives of life. Instead of ignoring the facts I decided to learn about different disabilities one by one. Which brought me to my question “What is autism? How does a person with autism process information?” Let’s find out!

      Before we get into the specifics, as you should know autism is considered a disability and people with disabilities often get discriminated because they are not understood and are misjudged. “HR Hub“ a website where it’s insured employees are not being discriminated against by displaying news specifically on employees suing their jobs for violations and etc also showing ADA compliance guide. On this website cases from employers are displayed legitimely with details. A person with a mental disability at Chuck E Cheese in wisconsin was fired due to their disability of mental retardation. This is an example of disability discrimination. The EEOC which is an agency responsible for enforcing federal laws of applicants or employees such as harassment or discrimination brought Chuck E cheese to court, making EEOC plaintiffs and chuck E cheese the defendants. While the defendants argued “ it is highly unlikely that he experienced any significant distress as a result of his termination”(Jury Awards Record $13 Million in Disability Discrimination Case). Basically that because of this person’s mental state being fired didn’t significantly affect them. Opposing, the plaintiff’s argued that just because of a person’s mental state that does not mean they cannot acknowledge discriminations they do consider these feelings even if it’s not done in a traditional way. As a result the jury’s decision was a sum of 13 million dollars in punitive damages, 10,000 in back pay and 70,000 in compensatory. The jury also wanted this to be a message for employers to give equal opportunities to those with mental disabilities.

      When reading this case I felt disgusted by this employer’s actions. Having a mental disability does not mean you are vulnerable. The plaintiff’s brought a statement from the Chuck E Cheese manager stating “ Chuck E Cheese don’t hire those type of people” (Jury Awards Record $13 Million in Disability Discrimination Case). As the manager called it ‘those type of people’ are just people who view the word different than we do and that is okay, we shouldn’t fear that. The comments made about how the ex employer wouldn’t acknowledge the distress was very ignorant from their side. The jury did a great job with their decision and sending a message to employers across america.

      Social interactions for people with autism is a constant everyday battle. They are blind and/or immune into understanding that someone is sad. That sadness and happiness are two different things. They struggle with asking questions that come naturally to us like “how are you feeling today?”. The national autism society is the UK’s leading charity for autistic people. They are often getting involved in autistic cases which is why this is such a reliable source. In their article they stated “Autistic people often have difficulty ‘reading’ other people – recognising or understanding others’ feelings and intentions”(Autism).They have a hard time acknowledging people’s feelings. In addition, “This can make it very hard for them to navigate the social world”(Autism). Navigating everyday life is difficult. they tend to appear insensitive because of this and not seek comfort by other people.

       A big key to humanity in my opinion is feelings and social interactions. Feelings can often affect your actions and help people describe who you are in their eyes.It is import to acknowledge this about autistic people and take them into consideration. I actually find this very interesting because I think feelings are involved with passion. Something  autistic people have is passion and dedication. They have these feelings and they aren’t even aware of them. Which is something I’ve been learning about them and most people don’t know. Unfortunately, they don’t share that instinct with us instead they replace that skill into other skills we don’t acknowledge ourselves.

     Aside from having trouble with social interaction people with autism have different ways of communicating. The Time is known for their partnership with the new cast CNN. They did an article called “inside the autistc minds” written by Claudia Wallis. She is the managing editor of scientific minds and a health reporter. They focused on autistic kids and gathered evidence about them which made this such a reliable source. Hannah, a kid with autism, she communicates by typing. “ a girl thought to be incapable to read or write wrote I love mom”(Claudia Wallis). In this case the specialist were worried this girl couldn’t communicate but they found out that she can just in a different way. This girl was actually full with information inside of her head. The reason is “autistic children tend to have the brain of a 13 year old.”(Claudia Wallis). Later on she was asked, “ Do you have a photographic memory?’ and ‘Hannah typed “yes”(Claudia Wallis). These people have abilities we just can see it’s all inside their minds.  

     Do most autistic people have a photographic memory? I would like to know. Hannah was given a worksheet with 30 math problems and got all 30 right in an instance. This shows how she remembers everything she sees. As you can see autistic kids are very  quick. They are in tune with the world already full of knowledge with everything they see and they analyze it since a young age. Which is pretty amazing how rapid their brains grow.Now that we are getting deep into the brains of autistic children. Autistic kids brains start growing rapidly since the start. “ they experience rapid expansion since the age of 2” (Claudia Wallis). Since the age of 2 they start to analyze and process information. Which a regular person does not do. 

      People with autism always have an interest that is what they think about and relate every scenario to. Atypical a show on netflix produced by robia rashid a talented writer of hit shows was interested in kids growing into independence who are in the spectrum. When writing this show she did a lot of research and met with a lot of people asking what they thought about her main character who was on the spectrum. This is why this is a credible source .In the netflix show Atypical the main character is autistic and he is very interested in penguins and antártica. When he confronts situations in his everyday life he compares it to a penguin it relaxes him and helps him better understand the situation and what he should do. When he decided he was ready to start dating he compared himself to the penguin male and how they find a partner. He saw how penguins get attention from the female penguins and assert their dominance and so he did the same he changed his appearance. He even made desserts for the person he was trying to make his partner. He wasn’t doing it because of how he felt he did it because it was what penguins did when they are ready to mate.As you can see penguins take a big part in his life and is very important to him. I see this as a comfort zone for him.

      In this show, you get to see how and why he makes his every move. This autistic kid being the main character helped understand what might be going on inside an autistic person’s mind. When it comes to the interest we just don’t see that he likes penguins we see that he relates and helps him to cooperate with his everyday life. It shows how he is always thinking about it and it calms him down. This inside look helped understand what can be going on inside an autistic mind and of course how information might be processed in their head.

      After reading all these articles learning all these new things I still want to read more and if I’m lucky watch one more netflix show like the one I introduced. Did I answer my question for the most part yes but my question has an on going answer that keeps building on every month year or day as we speak. It is a question I have to keep my eyes on. The autistic mind could feel like a maze to people very hard to understand this is why I chose this question. There are still other things I did not get to discuss that I will research on my own. What is the process of helping people with autism with social interaction? And so does it help them in the real world?

“Autism – What Is It?” Autism Support – Leading UK Charity – National Autistic Society, www.autism.org.uk/about/what-is/asd.aspx.

“Jury Awards Record $13 Million in Disability Discrimination Case.” Www.hrhub.com, www.hrhub.com/doc/jury-awards-record-13-million-in-disability-d-0001.

Wallis, Claudia. “Inside the Autistic Mind.” Time, Time Inc., 7 May 2006, content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1191843,00.html.

Ramos, Dino-Ray. “’Atypical’ EP And Cast Discuss Authentic Representation Of Autism And The Casey-Izzie Romance – ATX.” Deadline, 10 June 2019, deadline.com/2019/06/atypical-mary-rohlich-brigette-lundy-paine-fivel-stewart-jenna-boyd-amy-okuda-robia-rashid-netflix-1202629867/.

      The world as we see it so simple and full of agendas to fulfill. Everyday things we are accustomed to like Asking another how you’re doing or acknowledging someone is there , it comes so natural to us like a machine. Most of our life is like a machine stamping labels on a cereal box repeatedly at a factory. Now is that the case for everyone? The way we function and react since babies is a way of life. How is that a way of life? Well because a large majority of us don’t have that luxury to react and understand like the rest. They are viewed differently and are misjudged. Which made me stop being selfish and actually want to understand where they are coming from and the different perspectives life has to offer instead of judging and labeling. Learning about different disabilities one by one.Which brings me to my question “What is autism? How does a person with autism process information?” Let’s find out!

  Before we get into the specifics, as you should know autism is considered a disability and people with disabilities often get discriminated because they are not understood and misjudged. “HR Hub“ a website were its insured employees are not being discriminated against. On this website answers are answered by professional and cases from past employers are displayed legitimely. A person with a mental disability at Chuck E Cheese in wisconsin was fired due to their disability of retardation. This is an example of disability discrimination. When brought to court Chuck E cheese had a large some to give back to this ex employee. “the jury returned its verdict on to damages awarding $10,000 in back pay, $70,000 compensatory and $13 million in punitive damages”. These are the charges that had to be paid back. In this case the fired employee was the plaintiff issuing the lawsuit while the the company Chuck E Cheese was the defendant. The judge request this large amount to be paid so employers would learn from this case and not discriminate against people with disabilities again. As you can see just by getting a job people with disabilities are being discriminated imagine in everyday life.

  When reading this case i felt disgusted by this employers actions. Having a mental disability does not mean you are vulnerable. I mean how do you think this person got the job if they were vulnerable. This was a big key to address for my question because it shows what people with autism encounter on a everyday basis. What we do everyday is a struggle for them already and being discriminated makes it even harder. 

    Social interactions for people with autism is a constant everyday battle. The are blind and/or immune into understanding that someone is sad. That sadness and happiness are two different things. They struggle with asking questions that come naturally to us like “how are you feeling today? ”The national autism society is the UK’s leading charity for autistic people.They are often getting involved in autistic cases which is why this is such a reliable source. In their article they stated “Autistic people often have difficulty ‘reading’ other people – recognising or understanding others’ feelings and intentions” Which is how I got my statement above. In addition, “This can make it very hard for them to navigate the social world”. Navigating everyday life is difficult they appear to be insensitive because of this and not seek comfort by other people.

       A big key to humanity in my opinion is feelings and social interactions. This often affects your actions and help people describe who you are in their eyes. I actually find this very interesting because I think feelings are involved with passion. This is something autistic people have is passion and dedication. They have these feelings and they aren’t even aware of them. Which is something I’ve been learning about them and most people don’t know.

         Aside from having trouble with social interaction people with autism have different ways of communicating. The times article is known for their partnership with the new cast CNN. They were doing an article called “inside the autistc minds”. They focused on autist kids and gathered evidence which made this such a reliable source. Hannah a kid with autism she communicates by typing. “ a girl though to be incapable to read of write wrote i love mom” In this case the specialist were worried this girl couldn’t communicate but what they found out was that she can just in a different way. This girl was stocked up on information. Later on she was asked, “ Do you have a photographic memory? Hannah typed yes”. These people have abilities we just can see it’s all inside their minds. How they think and process information like hannah she has a photographic memory. Do most autistic people have a photographic memory? I would like to know. Hannah was given a worksheet with 30 math problems and got all 30 right in an instance. This shows how she remembers everything she sees.The reason for this is that “ autistic children tend to have the brain of a 13 year old.” This shows how quick they are in tune with the world already full of knowledge with everything they see they analyze it.

         Now that we are getting deep into the brains of autistic children. Autistic kids brains start growing rapidly since the start. “ they experience rapid expansion since the age of 2” Since the age of 2 they start to analyze and process information. People with autism have high levels of anxiety. “High levels of anxiety seen is as many as 80% of people with autism.” their brains growing so rapidly processing and analyzing can be a reason for this anxiety. “ local areas tend to be over connected” Their brains function differently than ours. This means that when they are thinking their brain doesn’t really work together since it’s over powered.

      People with autism always have an interest that is what they think about and relate every scenario to.Atypical a show on netflix produced by the bestfriend of someone with autism. This person was very close and spent an abundance amount of time with this person with Autism. This is why this is a credible source even though it is not primary but it seems like it is,   In the netflix show Atypical the main character is autistic and he is very interested in penguins and antártica. When he confronts situations in his everyday life he compares it to a penguin it relaxes him and helps him better understand the situation and what he should do. When he decided he was ready to start dating he compared himself to the penguin male and how they find a partner. He saw how penguins get attention from the female penguins and assert their dominance and so he did the same he changed his appearance. He even made desserts for the person he was trying to make his partner. He wasn’t doing it because of how he felt he did it because it was what penguins did when they are ready to mate.As you can see penguins take a big part in his life and is very important to him. I see this as a comfort zone for him.

      In this show, you get to see how and why he makes his every move. This autistic kid being the main character helped understand what might be going on inside an autistic person’s mind. When it comes to the interest we just don’t see that he likes penguins we see that he relates and helps him to cooperate with his everyday life. It shows how he is always thinking about it and it calms him down. 

  After reading all these articles learning all these new things I still want to read more and if I’m lucky more netflix shows like the one I introduced. Did I answer my question for the most part yes but my question has an on going answer that keeps building on every month year or day as we speak. It is a question I have to keep my eyes on. I learned a lot special about the brain part with the electrons it was very interesting but difficult to understand.

   People with autism always have an interest that is what they think about and relate every scenario to. In the netflix show Atypical the main character is autistic and he is very interested in penguins and antártica. When he confronts situations in his everyday life he compares it to a penguin it relaxes him and helps him better understand the situation and what he should do. When he decided he was ready to start dating he compared himself to the penguin male and how they find a partner. He saw how penguins get attention from the female penguins and assert their dominance and so he did the same he changed his appearance. He even made desserts for the person he was trying to make his partner. He wasn’t doing it because of how he felt he did it because it was what penguins did when they are ready to mate.As you can see penguins take a big part in his life and is very important to him. I see this as a comfort zone for him.

 In this show, you get to see how and why he makes his every move. This autistic kid being the main character helped understand what might be going on inside an autistic person’s mind. When it comes to the interest we just don’t see that he likes penguins we see that he relates and helps him to cooperate with his everyday life. It shows how he is always thinking about it and it calms him down.

     Aside from having trouble with social interaction people with autism have different ways of communicating. In this article hannah a kid with autism she communicates by typing. “ a girl though to be incapable to read of write wrote i love mom” In this case the specialist were worried this girl couldn’t communicate but what they found out was that she can just in a different way. This girl was stocked up on information. Later on she was asked, “ Do you have a photographic memory? Hannah typed yes”. These people have abilities we just can see it’s all inside their minds. How they think and process information like hannah she has a photographic memory. Do most autistic people have a photographic memory? I would like to know. Hannah was given a worksheet with 30 math problems and got all 30 right in an instance. This shows how she remembers everything she sees.The reason for this is that “ autistic children tend to have the brain of a 13 year old.” This shows how quick they are in tune with the world already full of knowledge with everything they see they analyze it.

Now that we are getting deep into the brains of autistic children. Autistic kids brains start growing rapidly since the start. “ they experience rapid expansion since the age of 2” Since the age of 2 they start to analyze and process information. People with autism have high levels of anxiety. “High levels of anxiety seen is as many as 80% of people with autism.” their brains growing so rapidly processing and analyzing can be a reason for this anxiety. “ local areas tend to be over connected” Their brains function differently than ours. This means that when they are thinking their brain doesn’t really work together since it’s over powered.

  Source one 

My question is what is autism and how do people with autism process information? Source number one is “ What is autism?” This source helps understand what autism is. The article itself is not complicated where you have to think about what it’s saying it has a brief and broad explanation. A fact that caught my attention from reading this was that 1 out of 59 kids in America have autism so as you can see autism is not even rare we encounter people with autism all the time and don’t even realize it.This source is very useful because it answered my first question with no problem and without me having to look at other articles to get a better understanding of what it is trying to say. Although this is a secondary source they focus on people with autism which can feel like they are a primary source since they know so much and done so much research on them. I don’t think this source is either left, right or center winged I don’t think it goes with this topic but I do think it’s for everyone to read and have an understanding what autism is which a lot of people don’t know or understand what it is this source is very useful on getting them to understand the meaning.

Source Two 

This second source answers the second part of my question which is how do people with autism process information. It gives me an initial overview on how they see things and process things in general. In this article I did see that autistic people “ may feel like their social differences mean people don’t understand them” It gave me a little peek into their minds on how they process information because I can already tell they do have realization to what is going on around them and that they do make sense of what’s going on. As I kept reading, I noticed this was a secondary source defining what a primary source would say. The reason I say this is because they are describing an everyday life for another person. Although this is great and valuable information because it gives you an idea of how their day might be this article made me want to find a primary source so I can really see how they go about in their everyday life. Another reason this source is valuable is because it has the most common questions you might have about autism layed out in different sections of course on how they process information for example there is a section called social interaction which talks about how people with autism have difficulty recognizing or understanding others feelings and intentions. This is very useful for my question because know I know autistic people don’t process feelings the way we do and that is a challenge they deal with on an everyday basis. There is a lot I learned from reading this source and I’m so happy I picked it.

How do people with autism operate ?( I want to find a different word for operate because I feel like this word is insensitive)