Thinking In Pictures, My Life With Autism Analysis

The autobiography of Temple Grandin’s novel “Thinking in Pictures, My Life With Autism” provides an in depth view of Autism. It portrays a view on the variety of treatments and how they need to be individually based due to the vast spectrum of Autism. Understanding that autism is not identical from person to person and not all therapies and treatments will be effective for everyone, resulting in individualistic treatment. Additionally, it allows a team effort to work together to create a plan that is solely based on the client themselves. Thus, this paper will analyze different methods of treatments and therapies that have improved ones life living with autism. Autism is a “range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills,

Furthermore, autism is a large diagnosis under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), for the purpose of this paper, "high-functioning autism” is a term coined for people that can “speak, read, write and handle basic life skills” (Roy Benaroch, 2016, para. 2) and “low-functioning autism” is what is associated when autism is mentioned such as “speech impairments, self-injury, and unable to focus” (Lisa Millraney, 2016, para. 2). Being able to understand the difference in autism, allows therapy to be based on the needs of the client. Young autistic children are known to have difficulty speaking, thus restricting their conversations when prompted to speak. Grandin, growing up also had a difficult time speaking until she was “introduced to speech therapy, where she was then able to begin speaking at the age of three and a half” (Grandin, 1995, p38). Speech therapy focuses on encouraging autistic children to speak independently without aids. It was concluded by Batool and Ijaz,

Stress and anxiety are aspect of daily living, people with autism feel stress on a much greater level then an average person does. After taking medications especially antidepressants, Grandin found herself looking at herself in a whole new light (Grandin, 1995). She was able to maintain composure and react to things calmly. However, “medication is a part of a good autism program but should not be relied on” (Grandin, 1995, p. 131). As medications can be given in addition to other therapies, this does not give the chance to autistic people to learn who they are without medication and what they are truly able to cope with. There are various drug therapy options such as Atypical antipsychotics such as risperidone which are used to effectively treat self-harming behaviour in individuals with autism. However, using risperidone on children does have side effects such as weight gain within the first few weeks due to increased appetite. “children gain an average of six-eight pounds within the first 8 weights” (Emily Anthes, 2014, p. 8). In addition, antidepressants such as Prozac have been seen to work as per Grandin has mentioned (Gradin, 1995). As it does work for autistic people, it may not work for everyone especially children and young adults. However, antidepressants have effectively been working for people that are high functioning individuals, in addition to other