Teenage and Autism: How to manage?

Teenage brings along with it a lot of physical and psychological problems. Your body undergoes a lot of changes, the way the world looks at you is changing and you are not in the position to accept all this. This way, teenage becomes one of the most painful periods in those suffering from autism spectrum disorder (also called as ‘autism’). For an autistic child, teenage can be compared to living a nightmare day in and day out.

Here is a look at the problems of teen-age from an autistic kid's point of view:

Social Interaction

The ability to interact socially is absent in autistic kids. They are loners who prefer to be left alone and undisturbed in their own worlds. Such a child is a natural target for bullying and ragging by other kids of his age group. At times even if the autistic child wants to come out and make friends, he is not able to do so due to lack of the required skills. Teenage is a period where you need at least one friend to confide in. It can be an extremely difficult phase when you are all alone.

Puberty

This is the dramatic time in life accompanied with hormones and emotions. Your body undergoes lots of changes and you are confused about so many things. You don't know whom to ask or whom to turn to for guidance. Autistic children do not have the maturity to understand this phase. Special issues for autistic teens and sexuality include:

• Knowledge of physical changes in body
• Knowledge of 'good' and 'bad' touch
• Ability to communicate about a 'bad' touch or action
• Keeping 'safe' distance from others
• Handling menstrual cycles
• Avoiding 'self-touch' in public

It can be a phase of emotional turmoil for the parents. They need to work closely with their child's special teachers to chalk out a plan that will be best suited to the child in handling puberty successfully.

Self-help skills

Simple self-help skills like hygiene can be a challenge for teenagers with autism spectrum disorder. Improper motor skills, compliance, and sensory problems may interfere with a teen's progress. The proper training of hygiene and grooming can help to add these elements into the daily routine. The right approach is to simplify each task into simple small steps. The positive reward system is a great source of encouragement, as positive motivation always helps the teenagers.

Higher Functions

Autistic teenagers are socially awkward. They lack the power to comprehend and process complex social cues which include sarcasm, body language, humor, emotional responses and facial expressions. What complicates the problem is that the autistic child lacks empathy and hence may appear rude. Such kids are likely to be teased a lot in school settings.

Helping autistic minds with the help of homeopathy

Autistic children should ideally be treated with homeopathy primarily for three reasons:

• First, conventional treatment with psychiatric drugs is meant to only calm the autistic child, not cure him/her
• Second, autism spectrum disorder is really a ‘spectrum’. It is caused by a variety of disorders, neurological, or biochemical. With precise homeopathic treatment, most cases could move in the right direction, although the degree of autism need not correspond with the degree of cure. In other words, some mild cases may experience only partial benefits whereas severe cases may benefit totally from homeopathic treatment
• Third, most adjuvant (that which enhances medical benefit) therapies, such as diet and nutrition, seem to work much better after homeopathic treatment. Besides, the benefits of sensory integration therapy, which seeks to treat sensory processing disorders, are amplified by the action of a suitable homeopathic remedy.

Homeopathic medicines do not merely act on any one particular organ of the individual but have a much deeper and central action on one’s psycho- endocrinological and psycho-immunological axis.

Homeopathy works well to correct the autistic child’s accentuated state of sensitivity. It helps to improve their fine motor skills as well as enhance their perceptual difficulties.

Behaviour modification through homeopathic medicines has been well-documented. Research suggests that carefully selected homeopathic medicines bring about a qualitative change for a wide range of symptoms in autistic children. It also helps in behaviour adjustment to reduce the child’s hyperactivity, irritability, or the urge for violence.