www.aspie-editorial.com

 

Randy Dotinga

Those who do it appear to have difficulty coping in a positive way, researchers say

People who grind their teeth at night appear to be more likely to suffer from stress and also likely to use escapism to cope when things become difficult, new research out of Germany suggests.

Researchers led by Maria Giraki, of Heinrich-Heine-University in Dusseldorf, studied 48 people who were known to grind their teeth at night, a condition called “sleep bruxism,” and reported their findings online March 5 in the journal Head & Face Medicine.

Teeth grinding “can lead to abrasive tooth wear, looseness and sensitivity of teeth, and growth and pain in the muscles responsible for chewing,” Giraki said in a news release from the journal’s publisher. “Its causes are still relatively unknown, but stress has been implicated. We aimed to investigate whether different stress-factors, and different coping strategies, were more or less associated with these bruxism symptoms.”

The researchers measured the overnight grinding by placing thin plates in the mouths of the study participants. No particular age range, gender or education levels appeared to be at higher risk of teeth grinding, but those who did it reported more daily stress and stress at work.

“Our data support the assumption that people with the most problematic grinding do not seem to be able to deal with stress in an adequate way. They seem to prefer negative coping strategies like ‘escape,'” Giraki said. “This, in general, increases the feeling of stress, instead of looking at the stressor in a positive way.”

More information

The Nemours Foundation has more on bruxism.

Source: http://www.healthscout.com/news/1/636669/main.html

Writers’ block won’t be a problem for students at Watton’s Wayland High School, after they welcomed a visit from author Will Hadcroft.  The writer spoke to the pupils about how he writes a book, from the initial idea right through to getting a book published, and also how he experienced firsthand how he believes writing really can make a positive difference.  

Mr Hadcroft spent the day at the school talking to different year groups about his great passion for writing, explaining how something as simple as writing a letter had enabled him to win a competition, get a Blue Peter badge and also appear on television, as well as publish two novels and his autobiography.

He wrote his first ‘book’ aged 10 in an exercise book, after discovering how much his friends enjoyed reading his stories. He became determined to become an author, and now enjoys being able to get children interested in reading and writing for pleasure by visiting schools throughout the country.

He explained to the pupils how he developed his ideas for his children’s novels Anne Droyd and Century Lodge and Anne Droyd and the House of Shadows. They all received an insight into the processes involved in writing a novel and the excitement of seeing your own work in print.

“To me, writing is something that can really make a difference”, said Mr Hadcroft. I am always thrilled to be given the opportunity to inspire young people to have a go themselves. I hope the visit will encourage the students to believe they too can achieve something by writing.”

The pupils were also treated to an exclusive reading from Will’s latest novel The Blueprint, which he finished writing last month and hopes to publish later this year.  By the end of the day many pupils were keen to borrow the signed copies of Anne Droyd from the school library.

Source(Turn to Page 8): http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/launch.aspx?referral=other&refresh=8Qx1w20L51Xp&PBID=e0e2b611-edd0-4e51-adec-37f205aa2c66&skip

Will’s Blog: http://www.willhadcroft.com/

Related Articles

“Author Will Hadcroft Announces Release of Anne Droyd and the House of Shadows”:

 http://aspie-editorial.blog-city.com/author_will_hadcroft_announces_release_of_anne_droyd_and_the.htm

“Will Hadcroft – RBS World Magazine Interview”:

 http://aspie-editorial.blog-city.com/will_hadcroft__rbs_world_magazine_interview.htm

 

Article Date: 11 Mar 2010 – 1:00 PST

The Government announced Jobcentre Plus staff are to receive autism training in the adult autism strategy published on 3rd March. The National Autistic Society (NAS) celebrated the move, in response to their Don’t write me off campaign, along with a raft of new measures to tackle the routine isolation, ignorance and inequality routinely experienced by people with autism in England.

Source
The National Autistic Society  

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/181871.php

 

Beginning with the upcoming fifth edition, new versions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) will be identified with Arabic rather than Roman numerals, marking a change in how future updates will be created, according to the American Psychiatric Association.

Source
American Psychiatric Association
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/181714.php 

Billy McLean is the owner of Audrey II, which will appear in “Little Shop of Horrors” at St. Dunstan’s Theatre. (Charles V. Tines / The Detroit News)

March 11. 2010 8:12AM

Neal Rubin

There may be more sympathetic characters in “Little Shop of Horrors,” but I’m rooting for the bloodthirsty houseplant. He’s been through a lot.

“Little Shop” opens Friday night at St. Dunstan’s, a community theater on the Cranbrook campus in Bloomfield Hills. It’s a unique musical in several ways, including its five-year run off-Broadway and its dependence on a series of increasingly large and ravenous puppets.

The man behind the mayhem at St. Dunstan’s is actually a boy, Billy McLean of Rochester Hills. The Avondale High junior, 17, owns and operates the puppets, known collectively as Audrey II. He knows every word of the show, he’s immensely likeable, and doctors once had him so horrendously over-medicated that he wanted to kill himself.

A fourth-grader shouldn’t have to deal with that, but Billy got through it. He has Asperger syndrome, and he gets through that, too.

He even jokes about it. When his mom, Cindy Ness, called the director of “Little Shop” to pitch Billy’s puppets and expertise, Billy was standing next to her saying, “Exploit the autism! Cry!”

So I’m rooting for the houseplant.

Severity varies

Asperger syndrome falls on the autism spectrum, and like most autism-related conditions, the severity varies widely. Billy makes eye contact, which puts him ahead of a lot of people with the disorder, but he doesn’t make friends at school, which is typical.

He fixates on his own few interests — mostly theater and Disney World — which is also typical with Asperger. But he’s generous with his time and praise, he’s funny and he’s nice to his mom, who has to park her minivan in the driveway because the most enormous of the Audrey II puppets takes up the garage.

Billy flipped for “Little Shop” the first time he saw the movie version, back when he was 7. Now he can discuss casts, favorite lines and other nuances in enough detail that he says, “I could direct this show in pitch blackness.”

Two years ago, he operated Audrey II for the Avon Players of Rochester Hills. Then he talked his mom into paying $1,000 for it, on the theory that they could refurbish and improve it and then rent it out.

Almost immediately, two high schools booked Audrey II, whose size increases throughout the show as it slurps more blood. At first, it’s a hand puppet operated from beneath a counter. By the end on Friday, Billy will crawl in from behind to work a chomping craw that’s 7 feet long, engulfs entire actors and basically looks like the shark from “Jaws” would if it were colorful and leafy.

He keeps an eye out online for productions of “Little Shop,” and he found St. Dunstan’s director Sue Mancuso as she was about to blow her entire set budget of $5,000 for the rental and transport of an Audrey II from Milwaukee. Instead, she’s paying about $1,200 and she doesn’t have to train a puppeteer.

“If he’s not doing Audrey, he’s busy helping the costume lady or with the props,” Mancuso says. “He’s been terrific.”

Go, houseplant, go.

Teenage stuff

Billy has brown eyes, a mop of brown hair and a nice smile he mutes for cameras to hide his braces. He cracks his knuckles too much and worries about the college entrance exams he took this week.

It’s typical teenage stuff, except when it isn’t. Like, his grades are plenty good enough for Wayne State, but he’s steeling himself for community college because he can’t imagine WSU will let him in.

“I have low esteem issues,” he says, no matter how supportive his mom is or how smart she was to encourage a passion that could turn into a career.

At rehearsals, he’ll scold actors who aren’t paying attention: “Your director is talking to you!” If Mancuso gives him some minor correction — turn a little more here, open the mouth a little more there — she doesn’t even bother to write it in her notes, “because I know he’ll remember.”

Billy makes fun of his piece of the show, hunkered down in a series of hot, sweaty places: “Oh, the glamour of it!” But he cares enough to hand out flyers at Avondale, and he loves theater enough that when the school did “Beauty and the Beast,” he accepted a role as a fork.

He’s a character you can pull for, so good luck, kid. Or rather, break a twig.

 

Concerns over the support available to children with autism and their families in Suffolk have been raised in a report to the county’s health scrutiny panel.

The report by the National Autistic Society Suffolk (NASS) surveyed the views of parents in the county.

Families with autistic children said they found it hard to access NHS Suffolk’s child services as it has a narrow criteria for what is autism.

NHS Suffolk said it has invested more in the past year in autism care.

‘Growth in demand’

The NASS report found that parents believed Suffolk’s children and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) staff lacked training in the condition.

Parents are also concerned that CAMHS only sees autistic children if they show symptoms of anxiety or depression, and those with violent or aggressive symptoms are turned away.

Tracey Dowling, director of strategic commission with NHS Suffolk, says in a report that Suffolk has not in the past invested in autistic services to keep pace with the constant growth in demand.

She said the county has new guidelines in place and has been investing in the service over the past 12 months.

Ms Dowling said staff are working together to fill any gaps in the present service.

Source:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/suffolk/8558686.stm

 

Ellie McGuire, aged seven, of Melyn, Neath, with her mum Sarah McGuire.

A YOUNG singer from Neath who hopes to follow in the footsteps of Katherine Jenkins is well on her way after becoming a internet sensation.

Footage of seven-year-old Ellie McGuire, performing alongside former X Factor star Rhydian Roberts has been viewed 1,600 times since it was posted just four days ago.

The youngster took to the stage in her Welsh costume at a St David’s Day concert at the Brangwyn Hall in Swansea earlier this month.

“She thinks she is a mini-celebrity and is loving it,” said proud mum Sarah, who posted the clip on the YouTube website.

Ellie, a pupil at Melin Juniors, started singing from a young age.

TIN.adverts.adWriteDC(‘article-detail-impact-tile’, ‘452×118’);

When she was just five, Ellie met Katherine Jenkins through the Kidney Wales Foundation, as her brother Joshua has had a kidney transplant.

“She joined St David’s Choir which Katherine sang with and the man who taught Katherine is also teaching Ellie,” said Mrs McGuire.

She said the fact her daughter was diagnosed with autism a few years ago also appears to have given her more drive.

Below: Watch the YouTube clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKnuE6BbeNw

“I think it has made her more determined,” said Mrs McGuire. She said Ellie took Katherine’s instructions to “join a choir, practise and in the future we can sing a duet,” completely to heart.

“To someone else it could just be a passing phase but she is just so focused on it and has clung to Katherine’s words,” said Mrs McGuire, of St Catherine’s Close.

She said Ellie’s appearance at the concert alongside Rhydian had led his fans adopting Ellie as their mascot.

“They have been sending her things like T-shirts and we have had emails from Australia and Germany with people saying how much they love Rhydian and how they are now following my daughter’s singing.”

Mrs McGuire said a Facebook site has also been set up in recognition of her daughter’s abilities which attracted some 500 members within 12 hours.

Thanks to the response to her performance, little Ellie has a more packed diary than most seven year olds.

As well as singing at the 75th anniversary of Morriston Orpheus Choir in May, Ellie will also perform at a gala dinner for the Kidney Wales Foundation in June.

“She is so excited,” said Mrs McGuire.

“We have had so many emails from YouTube and Facebook with people saying Ellie is amazing and asking us to let them know when we will be posting more videos.” emma.denholm@swwmedia.co.uk

Source:  http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/neathporttalbot/news/Little-Ellie-YouTube-hit/article-1901001-detail/article.html

 

by Lawrence Cosentino

Talking about autism is like walking into a hall of mirrors. You can easily get turned around and bump into yourself.

At a Sunday reception at Lansing’s Absolute Gallery, I met Scott Fergus, a recent graduate of Okemos High School. Like many autistic people, Scott avoids eye contact, gives very short answers and speaks in a monotone that takes some getting used to.

Talking with Scott, I slipped easily into the narrow view of autism as a developmental disability that impairs communication.

Then I saw the fish on the wall.

Fergus’ pulsating art commands a bright swath in the gallery’s current exhibit of art by autistic students.

A craggy oak in Meridian Township’s Ferguson Park reaches into a stained-glass sky. Musicians toot strange horns from high windows in an undulating alleyway out of “The Arabian Nights,” by way of M.C. Escher.

Disability? I longed to see the world through his eyes.

Fergus said there was no model for the Arabian Nights painting.

“It was just a picture I made,” he said.

His dad, Ted, seemed in awe.

“Where do the colors come from?” Ted said. “As far as I know, he’s not dropping acid.”

In Scott Fergus’ favorite painting, a rainbow vibrates over Wardcliff Elementary in East Lansing.

“I made that a long time ago,” Scott said. It’s only been four years, but he looked almost wistful about the old school.

“I don’t think he feels he has a disability,” Ted said of Scott. “In some socalled primitive cultures, they would see him as the more enlightened person of all of us, because he’s seeing things we don’t see.”

Most gallery receptions have two kinds of wine, red and white. This one had a generous plate of chocolate chip cookies and a cavernous bowl of M&Ms.

Fighting the heady chocolate smell, Absolute Gallery owner Kathy Holcomb talked about “Autism: Communication Through Art,” now in its second year.

“You can’t go by a billboard without seeing autism,” Holcomb said. Many sources claim that one in 150 people have some form of autism.

“It’s a big thing,” Holcomb said, “but let’s show what people can do with it, not just talk about what they can’t do.”

Holcomb was inspired to do the show four years ago after showing art by an intern with autism. There are nine artists in this year’s show, and Holcomb already has people signed up for next year.

The show isn’t all rainbows. At Sunday’s reception, Ben Davis, a sophomore at Charlotte High School, stood proudly next to a display case of insectoid horrors made of ceramic, clay, wire and acrylic paint. Davis caught me looking into the blood-red mouth of a spidery thing with a lot of eyes.

“That’s just the baby,” he said, with suave glee. “You should see the mother.”

Davis, 16, has been into art since he was 4 years old.

He grew up watching horror movies, and always wanted to make his own creatures.

“I pulled them right out my head — design, color and everything,” he said.

Davis wants to bring the creatures to life in his own films some day.

“Violence, action, mindless horror — that’s what I’m into,” he said, grinning over a Goth goatee.

Autism is a “spectrum” condition, with almost infinite degrees of disability and super-ability.

Monster man Davis was so sly and gregarious you could see him pitching his beasties in Hollywood next week. By contrast, Charlie Worthington, a sophomore at East Lansing High School, sat quietly amid the buzz of the reception.

When I asked him about his work, he kept looking straight ahead.

“The still life is post-Impressionist,” he explained, pointing at a Cezanne-like tableau of wine, bread and fruit. The others weren’t still at all. “That’s T. Rex and nanotyrannus,” he said, pointing at two rampaging dinosaurs.

Charlie’s mother, Leslie, said art has given her son “a chance to have a special identity” at East Lansing High School, where he has created murals of woodland and underwater scenes. “When people see his talent they see him differently,” Leslie said.

Some of the art at Absolute will jump to the Lansing Center March 19 to augment an appearance by motherand-son California filmmakers Keri Bowers and Taylor Cross.

Bowers, a mainstay on the autism speaking circuit, called art “the key that unlocks the door” for many autistic young people.

At age 1, Bowers recalled, Cross couldn’t stand to be held. Out of desperation, she put paint on the tips of her son’s fingers and began to paint on paper with them.

“The person who he was meant to be emerged through the arts,” Bowers said.

Last year, Bowers and Cross finished a feature film about autism, “Normal People Scare Me.” Autism advocate Joey Travolta, brother of John Travolta, helped put the project together.

At the Lansing Center event, Bowers and Cross will talk about their adventures making the film and show a 20-minute clip. Later that day, Bowers will hold workshops for parents of autistic children.

In “Normal People Scare Me,” Cross interviews scores of autistic people, mostly children, to build a generous mosaic of diverse experiences and attitudes. But it’s not a heartwarming Movie of the Week, thanks largely to Cross’ tart personality.

“How do you think it feels?” he snaps when his mother asks him how he feels about being autistic.

“Normal people scare me when they think they’re normal,” a teenage girl says in the film. “Because in my opinion there’s no such thing as normal.”

Part of what makes autism such a hall of mirrors is that many of its colors blend into the common rainbow of human problems. Who hasn’t had dif ficulty relating to other people or sticking to a task? Who doesn’t have behavioral tics, obsessive hobbies or aversions to certain foods or clothes?

Is it normal to be a journalist, taking pictures of people and asking them questions?

One day last week, I went to Absolute Gallery to take some pictures of the artwork there, and heard a booming voice.

Anthony Stornant Collar, a 23-year-old student at Haslett High School, had arrived to restock and straighten a rack of greeting cards made from his cartoons.

Collar’s drawings feature whimsical people or animals, many of which sport exactly three hairs.

Michelle Angel, a job coach contracted from state rehab services, helps him get around.

I asked Angel what art does for Collar.

“It’s hard to know,” she said. “But see how he straightens up when he comes in.”

Anthony let me snap a few pictures of him arranging the cards, then abruptly turned the tables.

“Digital camera,” he said to Angel.

Angel went back to the car, came back with a camera, and handed it to Collar.

“First name,” Collar said to me. “Spell it. Last name. Spell it. Date of birth.”

So that’s what this feels like, I thought.

He aimed the camera at me. “Glasses off.” I obeyed.

“Ready? Smiling. Eyebrows up.”

He took a photo, then drew back for a full-body shot.

“Smiling, please. Hand.” He turned his right palm outward and fanned his fingers into a starfish shape until I did the same, then took the picture.

Angel explained that Anthony does this to almost everyone he meets.

“He has photos of hundreds of people in the exact same two poses,” she said. “I’m not sure what his plan is.”

“We go home, back to car,” Anthony said to Angel. “Front seat.”

 

“Autism: Communication through Art”

Through March 31 Absolute Gallery 307 E. Grand River Ave., Lansing MI (517) 482-8845

“Normal People Scare Me”

Keri Bowers and Taylor Cross, speakers 9:30 a.m. Friday, March 19 Lansing Center Free to public Workshops “Mapping Transitions to Your Child’s Future” 1 p.m.-2:30 p.m. “What Professionals Need to Know” 3-4 p.m. Lansing Center Contact Judy Hazel (517) 346-8238 or register for workshops at www.surveymonkey.com/s/5Y78VC5

Source:  http://www.lansingcitypulse.com/lansing/article-4075-rainbows-and-monsters.html

 

Article Date: 10 Mar 2010 – 4:00 PST

A new questionnaire and outcomes measurement scale developed by the department of psychiatry at Rhode Island Hospital has proven to be a reliable and valid measure of anxiety. The scale can easily be incorporated into routine clinical practice when treating psychiatric disorders. The study appears online ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Source:
Nancy Cawley Jean
Lifespan  

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/181799.php

 

by Amy Fries

Do you suffer from daymares? 

“Daymare” is an old-fashioned word straight out of Charles Dickens. The word is not in use much anymore, but it certainly captures the stressful aspect of frightening and worry-based visions that plague many people on a regular basis. Any parent knows this feeling well–a child is late arriving home and visions of car crashes and kidnappings appear in vivid glory. We live out the agony in our imagination and make ourselves sick with worry in the process.

Daydreams, mind wanderings, and fantasies have a powerful effect on our physical and psychological health and on our energy levels in general. They create within us emotional and physical sensations very similar to experiencing an actual event. If you have an angry-based daydream, you get the corresponding feelings of anger. If you daydream about delicious food, you start to salivate. If you fantasize about sex, you get aroused. And if you dream up some frightening catastrophe, you actually start living those emotions.

Fantasizing, for better or worse, is our own virtual-reality program. Many theorize that the mind can’t readily distinguish between real and imagined events–which is why positive visualizations work so well. But the converse is also true. You can put enormous stress on your psyche and body if you regularly have a default to fear-based or worry-based daydreams.

Some amount of negative daydreaming definitely serves problem-solving, planning, and risk-assessment purposes. When you imagine failing at something, you’ll probably work extra hard to avoid the imagined mistake. Or if you imagine what it might be like to be caught in a hotel fire, you’ll be more likely to notice the exits on your next visit. This fear-based planning undoubtedly has evolutionary roots. Author and fellow PT blogger Todd Kashdan, PhD, writes in his book Curious?: “Prehistoric men and women who worried a lot were more likely to survive than their carefree, positive-thinking peers. Thinking negatively served as an early warning system. It triggered the brain to recognize actual and potential threats in the moment, and it also aided the brain in imagining dangerous scenarios that didn’t exist. If people were prepared at all times, they were more apt to survive.”

Negative daydreams can also help you confront problems as opposed to denying or repressing them. For example, if you’re fired from a job or go through a bad breakup, a certain amount of your daydreams are going to be devoted to replaying and analyzing what went wrong, a process that will hopefully help you achieve a more successful outcome in the future. In that way, a certain amount of negative daydreaming is helpful and natural. It’s when negative daydreams start spinning their tires, reappearing over and over offering no better conclusions or understanding that they become a problem.

Some people seem to have a propensity for anxiety-producing daydreams, and that’s likely because they’re anxious by nature. If you suffer from more than your fair share of fearful daydreams, you can change the pattern by first noticing when frightening visions sweep down on you. Once you’re aware that you’re experiencing one, you can begin to challenge it.
Ask yourself:

• Do you really need to indulge in this particular vision right now?

• Do you really need to relive some horribly embarrassing memory and get all the assorted horrible feelings?

• Do you really need to relive an angry confrontation or imagine some unlikely catastrophic event?

• How could this negative daydream be helping you?

• How is it hurting you?

• How many times do you need to imagine it? Do you really need to imagine a hotel fire over and over again to be reminded to notice the exit signs?

If you can begin to understand that your frightening fantasies are no longer helping, you can learn to change gears and try to get them out of your mind. Just because a daydream flashes into your mind doesn’t mean you have to run with it until its conclusion. You can switch images or distract yourself with an activity. Simply becoming aware of negative daydreams and how they make you feel physically and psychologically can be the first step in moving away from them.

For more information, check out Daydreams at Work: Wake Up Your Creative Powers .

Source:  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-power-daydreaming/201003/dealing-worry-based-fantasies-and-daydreams