Aspiritech founder Brenda Weitzberg has a 30-year-old autistic son who, in spite of having a college degree, has been limited by his social skills to jobs like collecting carts for a grocery store.
"I am a friendly guy, and my co-workers like me," says Oran Weitzberg, "however, I have limited social skills and autism does make finding and keeping a job difficult. I have trouble interpreting nonverbal signals from others, and I had to learn to converse in order to be a good co-worker."
He says his retail work at Target, Trader Joe's and AMC Theatres has helped him learn to interact with others.
Both Brenda and Oran Weitzberg say he struggles with poor organizational skills. "He needs an executive secretary," says Brenda Weitzberg. "But I know a lot of men like that." She says seeing her son's struggles inspired her to try to "address the explosion of children with autism who are becoming adults."
Brix also admits to difficulty in multi-tasking and organizing, in addition to his poor social skills. "I tend to be distant and aloof," he says. "I do not do a good job at reading facial expressions, and I do like my solitude."
As the numbers of those with autism are on the rise, so is an understanding of the disorder, both in society and in the workplace. Anthropologist Dawn Prince, of Bellingham, Wash., has written books about using her Asperger syndrome as a prism for her work on gorillas. She applies her obsession for learning to understanding their social interactions.
Animal behavior expert Temple Grandin, who is autistic, says her says her intense attention to detail was an asset in designing effective cattle containment systems that are now widely used. Grandin, who will be portrayed by Claire Danes in an HBO biopic scheduled to air in early 2010, advocates for employing autistics.
"Society loses out if individuals with autism spectrum disorders are not involved in the world of work, or make other kinds of contributions to society," she wrote in her book "Developing Talents."
Unique challenges
Brenda Weitzberg is realistic about the challenges, though. Aspiritech is currently running on donations and volunteers, and is seeking grants, investors and more company contracts. A pilot program trained three software testers, including Oran Weitzberg, who is now teaching others. Aspiritech is now interviewing candidates for the next training round.
At Specialisterne, the company in Denmark that trains and employees people with autism, founder Sonne says, "I think there's a huge opportunity for people who want to run businesses based on freeing the resources of people with autism."
To start Specialisterne, Sonne quit his job in information technology and communications and took out a second mortgage on the family home. Last year, the company made a small profit. Their clients include the toy company LEGO and Microsoft. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC.)
Potential employees go through months of screening and training before they are sent as hourly consultants to clients who must understand that the specialists will work only part-time, and they cannot work in a chaotic environment with more than a few other people in the room. In return, Specialisterne assumes much more responsibility for their employees than most companies, with learning experts and social workers on staff.
Robert Austin, a professor at Copenhagen Business School, wrote about Specialisterne for the Harvard Business School and says, "there's no reason this couldn't work in the United States." He says that redefining conditions like autism as differences, rather than disabilities, is important for a developed economy.
"Innovation is where it's at," he says, "and you can't innovate without variation." Austin says we need to recognize special abilities in people, realize that these may come with challenges to working in a traditional workplace, and find a way to minimize disabilities and take advantage of differences.
Austin, Sonne and Weitzberg all say that if we can figure this out, we can activate and use a part of our population that we've been ignoring.
"My understanding of autism is a person has both great gifts and deficits," says Brix. "My whole career was based on skills that came as a result of, not despite, my autism."
Chris Tachibana, Ph.D., is a science writer based in Seattle and Copenhagen, Denmark.
© 2011 msnbc.com. Reprints
The title of the article ‘Autism seen as asset, not liability, in some jobs’, shows that Autism is liability in some or most jobs, however it expresses that to other jobs autism can be a benefit. This article shows two opposite views but leans towards the positive of autism. This quote’
‘It's often seen as a heartbreaking diagnosis, but now some revolutionary companies see autism as something else: a resource’, shows us that autistic people are given sympathy and often felt sorry for. But it also explains that autistic individuals have an advantage over others in the work place as there constant need to perfect, “intense attention to detail” and “single- minded focus” in their job allows them to give successful results which will therefore be “resourceful” for the company.
"The stuff we do is boring for [others], like going through a program looking at every detail, testing the same function over and over again in different situations, but it doesn't disturb those of us with autism, that's our strength."
This quote is from autistic individuals themselves, they show their view on how they also see autism as their strength and therefore, use their strength to be successful. Overall, this article is proving to the public and those who see autism as a weakness that it can be an advantage.
Symptoms
The symptoms of autism varies from person to person this is known as a wide spectrum disorder, as any two individuals with autism will not have exactly the same symptoms. Both the symptoms and the severity of the symptoms can vary for each autistic individual. Below is a description of possible symptoms an autistic individual could have.
Social symptoms:
People with autism tend to have problems with communication and their social interaction skills. Those with autism would rather have a set routine in their everyday life than come across any changes (both minor and major). If the individual does come across a situation, which is not in their ‘set routine’ then they will often refuse to go ahead with whatever they situation is. For example a health practitioner who gives the individual a choice of two different activities he/she would not have encountered in their ‘set routine’ approaches an autistic individual, therefore the autistic individual will refuse to do either of the activity and ask to do what he/she would do during their ‘set routine’.
However, when an autistic individual knows in advance a change will occur for example an outing, and then the individuals will have time to prepare themselves so that they do not become resistant at all or will be less resistant on the day of the outing.
Empathy:
Autism can cause an individual to be less unaware of the feelings of other people. They find it difficult to be empathic to others and therefore, often do not think about others feelings. However, if the autistic individual is often reminded about empathy towards than it can improve, and those who often practise empathy are likely to use empathy without being reminded.
The reason why autistic individuals find it difficult to create relationships bonds with others could be due to the conversations they have with another. Autistic individuals find it difficult to share thoughts, ideas and feelings with others and therefore the person the autistic individual is talking to may feel that they are being talked at rather than with. For example, it may feel like a lecture where the autistic individual is talking about a specific topic but is not expecting feedback. Its quite normal for people without autism to talk about themselves more than others however, those with autism tend to talk about themselves very often, as they do not understand the conversation concept or getting to know another person.
Physical contact:
Another possible symptom of autism is that autistic children dislike skin contact such as hugs whereas children without autism almost crave for the attention and love from hugs. However, according to the severity of this symptom some autistic children will want to receive hugs from a close relative, but this usually depends on the practise and understanding when the hugs will occur. For example when the autistic child’s mother returns home from an outing the child may then want to hug his mum when she enters through the door.
Sensory:
Some autistic individuals may find sudden loud noises, some smells and bright lights quite shocking. It is not clear whether it is the actually the noises, smells and light that gives the autistic individual the shock or whether it is the element of surprise. Again if the autistic individual is reminded that something can change then it gives the individual time to be prepared for it and therefore avoiding feeling shocked. The feeling of shock is also normal for people without autism however, non autistic individuals will find that when they are completely relaxed or occupied in something deeply that a loud bang or touch of another person they were not aware that was in the same room can also give the non autistic individual a shock, this would be an element of surprise. However, for an autistic individual the smallest change in the environment can shock them.
An autistic individual’s speaking skills are affected more if the severity of autism is higher. This is why some children with autism are not able to speak at all. Autistic individuals are likely to repeat words and lines they hear. It is also known that autistic individuals enjoy repetition from words to repetitive movements such as skipping from one part of a room to another; this could go on from 10 minutes and longer. All children enjoy repletion however; autistic children tend to use repletion a lot more and for a longer period.
Autistic children develop skills at an unbalanced rate where as children without autism will develop skills at a steady rate. For example an autistic child may develop his/her cognitive skills fast and then develop social and language skills a lot later. This however, can vary from child to child some autistic children may develop cognitive skills slower than the other skills. Autistic children have an unpredictable learning; they can learn things faster than non-autistic children in the same age group but then forget what they had learnt. They may also find that they are only able to learn certain things the hard way first before understanding how to learn it the easy way.
Another symptom, which is actually quite common, is tics, which are vibrations on the skin. Some autistic individuals are able to control the tics however some are incapable of controlling them. The tics can occur for a long time. People without autism can also have tics but this tends to be very rare and only for a short period of a few seconds. People with autism can also have obsessions, the obsession can be anything and it is dependent on the autistic individual him/herself.
Causes
There is no definite knowledge of what causes autism, however there are possible causes. Most people believe that autistic individuals are born with it and that the symptoms would have been there before the age of three. However other people believe that autism can be obtained later on in life.
There is quite a bit of evidence to suggest that Autism is genetic as it usually runs in the family.
Other possible causes include:
Viral infections in the womb, drugs used in pregnancy/childbirth, birth injury, environmental toxins, vaccines, measles, food intolerances/allergies, chronic yeast infections, meningitis as well as mercury poising. The causes of Autism can be due to multiple causes however it is unclear what causes autism.
Treatment- Health Needs (PIES)
There is no cure for autism but there are various health needs that can be provided for an autistic individual to help them. Autism affects each individual differently therefore it is difficult to say exactly what help and in what area of their development autistic people will need. Some autistic individuals are capable of living independently once they have been taught how to. However, others will find it almost impossible to live independently. In most autistic people more than one treatment method is most effective.
Physical Needs:
In order to help autistic people to cope with sensory stimulation, sensory integration therapy is usually used. This treatment is when the patients are given various textured materials or different sounds to listen to.
Intellectual needs:
Communication therapy is used on autistic children who cannot communicate verbally or start the use of language. Speech therapy is used to help the individuals begin to use verbal communication. Picture exchange communication systems are a treatment method used to help autistic individuals communicate via the use of pictures, which represent something. The autistic child can then use the images to communicate by passing it on to their career to show what they need for example if they are thirsty they will give a picture of a drink to their career. The picture can show items, events and ideas.
Emotional needs:
Play therapy is used on autistic individuals who have limited emotional development. This therapy is aimed to improve emotional development, which increases social skills and learning. The therapy involves adult and child interaction, which is controlled by the autistic child.
Social needs:
The behaviour of an autistic individual usually causes them to become less sociable. The behaviour modification is a treatment that aims to treat the repetitive, inappropriate and aggressive behaviour autistic individuals have, as well as teaching them skills to be able to fit into their society. This theory is called is applied behaviour analysis and works on the ground of rewarded behaviour is most likely to be repeated and inappropriate behaviour is ignored and less likely to be repeated. This treatment involves using activities based on the autistic individual themselves in order to treat their specific behaviour problems and to boost necessary social skills. One to one training with a therapist is usually needed.
2) Anorexia
Concept:
Anorexia is an eating disorder, which is a mental illness. Anorexia is extreme weight loss from the lack of food intake. It is a serious mental illness as it can result in death if it is not treated properly. Women are more likely to become anorexia compared to men because women tend to take more time thinking about the way they look.
Symptoms:
There are many symptoms of anorexia, as well as being a mental illness it can cause serious medical problems on an anorexic individual. The most obvious symptom of anorexia is loosing weight. Medical symptoms such as: Low blood pressure, slow heart beat, irregular hear beats, weakened heart muscle, risk of heart failure, low potassium/magnesium and sodium in body, anaemia, dehydration, hormonal imbalance, weak muscles, dizziness/fainting, kidney/liver disorder, gastro-intestinal problems and brittle bones. People with anorexia tend to obsessively exercise. When they do eat they want to get rid of the food in their body as fast as possible and may therefore take laxatives to help digest the food faster or take diuretics which helps remove the fluid in the body.
People with anorexia do feel hunger however, do not express their hunger and tend to show others they have eaten or make them selves believe they have by telling lies to others about what foods they have eaten, make up excuses about why they are not eating, pretend they have eaten already, tend to constantly think about food and also read a lot of cookery books. They tend to avoid all foods they think is fat and eat only low calorie foods, miss meals, count calories a lot, take weight loss pills and by cutting their food into smaller chunks to make it less obvious how little they have eaten. People with anorexia weigh and measure themselves a lot as well as constantly checking their body in the mirror. Anorexics often have low self-esteem or confidence.
Physical symptoms of anorexia can be having brittle hair and fine hair growing on their body and a lot more on their face. Also Anorexia can lead to infertility.
Causes:
One of the causes of anorexia is that individuals believe that they are fat when in actual fact they are severely underweight. This thought of being fat stops them from consuming food and drinks in order to be ‘thin’. Certain things can influence people to think twice about how they look and whether or not they are happy with their look. For example the way the media portrays models, can have a huge effect on individuals and they may then want to have a model figure and therefore, starve themselves in order to reach their goal, which tends to lead to anorexia.
Another influence can be that weight loss products are marked quite heavily which means more people have the opportunity to use the weight loss product, however, they may not understand the health risks of them and that the use of weight loss products can cause them to take it a step further after reaching their goal weight. It is much easier to loose weight with the help of weight loss products therefore more people are likely to use them.
There are many reasons in why people become anorexia it is usually caused by having bad experienced with the way they look for example being bullied for being overweight in the past can cause an individual to shred as much weight of as possible and as a result they could have gone too far because they constantly see themselves as fat or fear that others will see them as fat.
However, for a lot of men and women with anorexia there is no known cause but they can still be treated the same as those with a known cause.
Treatments:
Treating anorexia can be a long procedure as majority of individuals who seek help tend to be near death and are usually forced to seek help. They are usually forced because they will not be aware of their illness as they see them self as fat. As anorexia is both a psychological and medical problem, during treatment the medical problem has to be sorted out before the psychological problems and can be resolved. The medical treatments are usually carried out in a hospital. They are most likely to be fed through a tube until they are capable of eating what their body needs on their own. The food intake of the individual will constantly be monitored.
Once the individual has become physically healthy, they will then be taught about nutrition and how much they need to eat. They will go through psychotherapy both individually and as a group with others in their same situation. Each anorexic individual will have different causations for becoming anorexic and for each individual’s situation different techniques of the treatment will be adjusted. Even after the treatment the individuals will still need constant support so that they do not show any symptoms again.
Physical:
Food intake
Intellectual:
Understanding and knowledge
Emotional:
Therapy
Social:
Have support from friends and family after treatment.
Below is an article on Anorexia by a member of the public whom is expressing their view on Anorexia:
The Idiot’s Guide to Anorexia
Inspired by the claims of the now infamous (well done for that) Kenneth Tong, I thought I would use his inane drivel and his theory of “managed anorexia” to compile this, The Idiot’s Guide to Anorexia.
1. Anorexia is NOT a lifestyle choice.
Kenneth Tong claimed that he didn’t promote Anorexia, but “managed anorexia,” a term that “I coined and so I can define.” Not only is the notion of managed anorexia completely illogical and factually wrong, but so is his claim that it was his idea. For years, certain pro-ana websites have claimed that you can be super-thin, through self-starvation whilst being well enough to not get too sick – too look on the verge of being ill, but controlling (managing) anorexia in a way that allows you to look anorexic without being stuck in hospital. Not many pro-ana sites will accept that they encourage women to become ill, and therefore the myth that anorexia is a lifestyle has spread.
“Anorexia is all about control.” You hear that all the time when people try to explain simply why people become anorexic. In itself though, it is quite the opposite. You lose control of all rationality and logic. You don’t manage anorexia, it manages you. Far from a lifetsyle choice, it is a mental illness and a killer – 20% of people with anorexia will die as a result.
2. There is a perfect body.
“I realise that my body image isn’t quite perfect yet. It’s getting there though.” – Kenneth Tong on why he has been putting himself off food. Forget the ladies in red dresses on Special K adverts. Forget the ‘now’ pictures in those dreaded now and then pictures. There is no such thing as a perfect body although too many of us believe there is and aspire to be something that does not exist. We reach for the unachievable. Where anorexia is concerned, the perfect body is seen to be thin, very thin, sick. The problem is, once in that mindset, thin is never thin enough. You get to a goal weight and you know that you can push it that little bit further – it is never enough. Step inside an Eating Disorder unit and I can vouch for the fact that almost every patient in there will feel that they are the fattest person in there. Even without anorexia, so many people aim for something that just isn’t ‘them’ – there is no perfect body shape or weight and there never will be, no matter how hard we try or how many “naughty” desserts we skip.
3. If you skip meals you will lose weight.
“If you eat a bit less, you will lose weight.” True, but what he was actually telling his Twitter followers was that skipping one meal was a good try, but not enough. He promoted starvation. He encouraged girls to skip more and more meals, even to lose all concept of meal times. “Hunger hurts but starving works” and “Get thin or die trying.”
Skipping meals might make people think that they are saving calories. Research has proven though, that people who skip meals usually end up eating more later in the day or night to compensate – crucially, more than they would have had they just spread they’re eating throughout the day as usual. Skipping meals also slows down the metabolism, meaning that energy will be used up less efficiently, not to mention feelings of lethargy, headaches and possibly dizziness. If you try to fight against the body’s natural need for food (fuel), it will fight back and send signals to the brain to make you want to eat more, NOW. Often, this can cause a person to binge. In extreme cases, the body can go into starvation mode and the metabolism can shit down completely. Skipping meals is not the way to lose weight. It’s nothing more than stupid.
4. Anorexia is just a word.
We all know it isn’t just a word, but once again, Kenneth proves how far adjusted he is from reality. His point is worth consideration though, as the way the words ‘anorexia’ and ‘anorexic’ are thrown around are quite a bugbear of mine.
There is no such thing as Manorexia, Pregorexia or any other (insert word)-orexia. Just as you wouldn’t say Mancancer or Pregpolar Disorder. They may sound catchy, but they are illogical when broken down and fabricated by the media to make them sound – I don’t know – more attractive? I don’t even know, but it doesn’t make sense so just, just stop it.
I also hate it when – and I hear this a lot – anorexic is used as an adjective. An anorexic (or medically, an anoretic) is someone who has Anorexia Nervosa. It doesn’t describe the way someone looks, despite what you may think. You don’t have to resemble a skeleton to be anorexic and it certainly doesn’t help to have this myth perpetuated by magazines that display pictures of extremely emaciated people alongside every story on the subject. Why? One of the main reasons is that there are hundreds of thousands of people who live with anorexia who are underweight, but perhaps not visibly as ill as the images we are used to seeing in association with the word anorexia. Those people will often feel that they don’t deserve care or treatment because they don’t feel valid – this is probably a contributing factor to serious cases of anorexia; it is simply left too long before it can be treated. People need to understand that the media uses extremes. Anorexia is all around us, it just isn’t as obvious as they would have us believe.
5. You can snap out of Anorexia.
“An anorexic is not an anorexic for life, they could snap out of it at any moment they want.” Wrong again. Tong has the audacity to say that if David Beckham were to stroll into an anorexia clinic and tell a girl that she looked just fine, that she would believe him and no longer hate herself. So, someone would immediately stop destroying their body if “someone with credibility” told them so. This is just laughable. Even those people who jokingly tell me I need a burger or a pie or whatever, even they must know that there is more to anorexia than a simple choice to not eat. If the cure to anorexia was at all snappable in the least, thousands of lives would not be lost every year. I was offended reading this because I, and many others I know, have spent years of our lives wanting, trying, fighting to get better. We know more than anyone that there is no snapping to be done.
6. Girls in hospital simply “pushed it too far.”
When asked what he would say if he were to visit service users in an anorexia clinic, Tong replied: “It’s unnecessary to go to that extreme. We all know it doesn’t look right when you push it too hard. I’d say Size Zero, I didn’t say go anything thinner than that.” Ahh, see nobody told me that. There wasn’t a stop sign when I was starving myself. I should’ve known – if only Kenny was around back then, he could have saved me.
I have skipped many of his comments simply because when I began writing, I wanted to use his views to address some of the misconceptions about anorexia that are present in society and amongst the average Joe who simply doesn’t know much about the illness. Whilst reading though, it becomes obvious that Kenneth Tong is beyond that and that to pick up on some of the points to explain the truth would just be utterly patronizing. A waste of an hour then, perhaps, but I hope that some it it might mean something to some people. Back to pushing it. Yes, perhaps those of us who wind up in hospital may have pushed our bodies, and our minds, that bit too far. But a tiny minority of us chose to do that. There is no choice with anorexia. The brain shuts down, the illness takes over. Anorexia cannot be managed, controlled, limited or cured. It is a serious mental illness, it kills, and it deserves to be respected. The sooner we all understand that, the better.
The article above titled ‘The idiots guide to Anorexia’ explains that people think anorexia is controlled but really it is not as it is when individuals ‘lose control of all rationality and logic’. The article expresses that it is a mental health illness and not a life style choice as some may have thought. It explains that how a lot of us do aim to reach their perfect body and to people with anorexia the ‘perfect body’ is being extremely thin. The article also shows us that anorectics do not necessarily have to look dramatically thin in order to be underweight. The article expresses the view that anorexia is a serious mental illness that can kill and cannot be “ managed, controlled, limited or cured”. The article was sympathetic towards the illness itself and also, showed how others misunderstand Anorexia. The article on the other hand was ridiculing Kenneth Tong, on his opinions on anorexia and how he thinks that all women should be a size zero, and that they need to “get thin or die trying”.
3) Post natal depression
Concept:
Postnatal depression is a depressive illness that can happen to women after having a baby. It is usual for most women to feel a bit sad after childbirth however there is a severity range. From ‘baby blues’ a common mild form of feeling sad to post natal depression and then in most severe cases postnatal psychosis. Postnatal depression usually occurs within the first month after childbirth.
Symptoms:
Most of the symptoms of postnatal depression (PSD) is similar to normal depression. PSD can cause the mother to constantly feel sad and tearful for no reason, this tends to be the worst during the morning. They are not able to enjoy themselves or be able to appreciate their newborn. They tend to be irritable towards their partner, newborn and other children. They may also find that even when tired they cannot sleep. There could be a change in the mother’s appetite and they are less likely to be interested in food. It is often that they will feel anxiety and find it difficult to relax. Panic attacks can also be a problem; this is caused when the mother feels as though something awful is going to happen i.e. a heart attack or stroke, the panic attack tends to last about 7 minutes. Mothers with PSD tend to have a lack of self-esteem and feel worthless as they think they cannot cope with looking after their baby. They may also experience thoughts of suicide quite often as they think they cannot get away from their problems. In the most sever and rare cases of postnatal psychosis a mother will harm her baby because she is being delusion, as she may believe that her child is severely ill and therefore kill the baby and herself, as she will believe that it is best for both of them.
Causes:
Postnatal depression is common in women after childbirth. There is no known causation for postnatal depression. However, some suspected reasons are because of hormonal changes, stress of looking after a young baby and having sleep patterns changed. Postnatal depression is most likely to occur on women who have previously suffered from normal depression. Also those who have a family history of depression are likely to have PSD. Women who have suffered from a serious mental illness are likely to have postnatal psychosis.
Treatments:
Talking about the problem to a health visitor can treat postnatal depression. Also having extra support when looking after the baby can mean that the mother feels more at rest. Antidepressants are at times necessary, however some can be a problem for breast-feeding therefore, only some antidepressants can be used on the mother. Treatments for those with postnatal psychosis consist of talking to a psychiatrist.
Physical need:
Sleep, antidepressants
Intellectual need:
Understanding their illness and being aware of what they need to do.
Emotional need:
Talk
Social need:
Have time with partner
Below is an article on postnatal depression:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34047713/ns/health-mental_health/
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/01/14/the-idiots-guide-to-anorexia/