Comments on: It’s what they train us into, not just how they train us.

By: Rachel Hibberd

Rachel Hibberd — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 07:00:29 +0000

I think a huge problem here is that psychologists and psychiatrists and especially techs and nurses and managers really have no idea what helps people when it comes to inpatient units. This is probably especially true for long-term care, where the person isn’t just there for a month to get stabilized but has to make some kind of a life there. I bet if more of us would start listening to people who have a good set of instincts about what’s best for them, we wouldn’t harm people so much. After all, I’ve assumed too that my schizophrenic clients are benefitting from me asking them to stay around other clients whenever possible. But I have no data for this (though it may exist.) It’s just based on my extroverted NT experience of life, which tells me that that for ME when I’m feeling awful it helps to be around others. It doesn’t really make sense for me to project that onto other people, especially other people who may have a different brain structure than I have in many ways.

Thanks for this post.

By: andreashettle

andreashettle — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 17:55:21 +0000

I know I’m replying to this a year late (I’m very slowly reading through the archives on this site), but wanted to chime in as another non-autistic who happens to be introverted. Even though I love snuggling with my sweetie and occasionally spending time with friends, I also tend to need a lot of “down time” on my own. And I think it would be really hard on me if I couldn’t have much of that. I was at summer camp once for a week where our schedule was very rigidly scheduled with group activities (or group meals) literally every waking hour, except for a single hour of “flat on our back” time that was supposed to be used for resting in our bunk beds. Even reading or writing in journals wasn’t allowed then. I really hated it.

By: Clay

Clay — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 09:54:30 +0000

We have a room in hour house dedicated to Edith Rose. A place where she can go and be alone. It’s not completely finished, but the plan is to have bubble lamps, music that she likes, and maybe even soothing scents. We call the room her “Happy Room”, a place that she can wander in and out of whenever she wants.

By: M

Tue, 31 Jan 2006 06:43:00 +0000

Your posts terrify me; the idea of being treated like that scares me. I’m ‘NT’ but a happy introvert – the idea of not being allowed time alone to wind down, to think is terrible.

I hope people are learning. I was at an autism conference recently where they had a ‘quiet room’ – not space alone, but probably a good start.

By: Camille

Camille — Sat, 28 Jan 2006 06:15:00 +0000

Thanks. To me, quiet and solitude is as valuable as gold. People are surprised at how little my ASD child and I interact when we are at home together for hours at a time. We both like it when we can each be totally alone at home, though.

I’m sorry that ignorant people robbed you of your needed solitude.