- 5 hours ago
CTP (S3EAprSpecial1) What If We Stopped Treating Autism Like One Story
[A VERY SERIOUS EPISODE, RELEASED ON OFTEN FOOLISH DAY, APRIL 1st]
Exploring more of the fascinating intersection of Activism, Community Engagement, Faith / Religion, Human Nature, Politics, Social Issues, and beyond
We talk honestly about what adulthood looks like across the autism spectrum, from high-masking independence to round-the-clock care needs. We also wrestle with misconceptions, co-occurring diagnoses, and the hard ethical gray areas families face when support drops off after childhood.
• April Ratchford’s background as an occupational therapist and as an autistic adult and parent
• Why the autism spectrum includes very different support needs across level 1 to level 3
• What happens as caregivers age and why long-term planning matters
• Autism alongside other conditions such as ADHD, OCD, anxiety, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and spina bifida
• Autism as a neurological disorder and how that differs from mental health diagnoses
• Late diagnosis, masking, and why “you don’t look autistic” misses the point
• The vaccines question framed through correlation vs causation and environmental factors
• Ethical tradeoffs around future interventions and parental choice
• A practical way to support families who are overwhelmed
https://tinyurl.com/SubscribeToCTP
CTP Audios: https://tinyurl.com/CTPonBuzzsprout
CTP Videos: https://tinyurl.com/JLDonBITCHUTE
https://tinyurl.com/CTPgear
[A VERY SERIOUS EPISODE, RELEASED ON OFTEN FOOLISH DAY, APRIL 1st]
Exploring more of the fascinating intersection of Activism, Community Engagement, Faith / Religion, Human Nature, Politics, Social Issues, and beyond
We talk honestly about what adulthood looks like across the autism spectrum, from high-masking independence to round-the-clock care needs. We also wrestle with misconceptions, co-occurring diagnoses, and the hard ethical gray areas families face when support drops off after childhood.
• April Ratchford’s background as an occupational therapist and as an autistic adult and parent
• Why the autism spectrum includes very different support needs across level 1 to level 3
• What happens as caregivers age and why long-term planning matters
• Autism alongside other conditions such as ADHD, OCD, anxiety, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and spina bifida
• Autism as a neurological disorder and how that differs from mental health diagnoses
• Late diagnosis, masking, and why “you don’t look autistic” misses the point
• The vaccines question framed through correlation vs causation and environmental factors
• Ethical tradeoffs around future interventions and parental choice
• A practical way to support families who are overwhelmed
https://tinyurl.com/SubscribeToCTP
CTP Audios: https://tinyurl.com/CTPonBuzzsprout
CTP Videos: https://tinyurl.com/JLDonBITCHUTE
https://tinyurl.com/CTPgear
Category
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hello, welcome to another episode of Perstitutionalist Podcast.
00:06I am your host, Joseph M. Leonard.
00:09That's L-E-N-A-R-D, it's the French, it's not, it's Leonard without an O.
00:17Thank you for tuning in, as Graham Norton used to say, on his show.
00:24Let's get on with the show!
00:27Hello, just a brief intro here.
00:31I've got to run to do an interview, but I realized April 1st, April Fool's Day, is a Wednesday.
00:40So, Wednesday guest drop, not April Fool's.
00:45This is a serious episode you're about to see.
00:49So, without further ado, let's get to it.
00:54Joining me today is April, see now I can't talk.
01:01April, try to say it slowly, get it out.
01:05April Ratchford, yes, welcome.
01:11And she is here today to talk about adulting with autism.
01:18A little background, just so happens, one of those cosmic coincidences, I just ran into
01:28someone two days ago at the local deli, someone's family friends who has an autistic child and got an update
01:40on him.
01:42And, unfortunately, he's now slipped into dementia.
01:48So, she couldn't handle her own failing health and able to help him anymore.
01:57He had to be put into a senior center.
02:01I don't want to use that word.
02:02You know what I mean, right?
02:04Yeah.
02:04My brain ain't working right now.
02:08It's a common thing when they grow older and there's really nowhere for them to go.
02:16And parents don't know that you can leave, like, trusts.
02:21And then the trusts are expensive.
02:22So, they end up either in group homes or they end up in long-term care centers.
02:31There's the term, a long-care health center.
02:35That's the nice term to use.
02:40But let's back up and do first, where were you born and raised and where are you now kind of,
02:48you know, personal kind of question first.
02:53So, I was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky.
02:57I have a sibling who is also autistic and she's two years younger.
03:05I've been in Kentucky all my life except for six months I lived in Nuremberg, Germany with my kiddo.
03:12Interesting.
03:14Wow, that was a distance away.
03:17It's like, oh, I was in the next state over.
03:20No, you're halfway around the world, huh?
03:24Yeah, that's me.
03:26Graduated high school.
03:28Didn't do so well in college my first time around.
03:32So, my mom signed me up for nursing school.
03:35And I was a nurse for, like, 12 years.
03:38Had my son in 2002.
03:41And while I was going back to school, he was diagnosed with autism.
03:46He was also born with spina bifida, but that's not a problem.
03:50And then my sister, who is an occupational therapist as well, she's like, you can do what I do.
03:56Just do what I do.
03:57I switched my major, graduated from Spalding University with my master's in occupational therapy.
04:04And here I am, 13 years later.
04:08I don't have Netflix, so I never saw it.
04:12But I know there was a show, Love on the Spectrum.
04:16Yeah.
04:16Which raises the question.
04:18Try to define, as best possible, that spectrum.
04:24Because there are, indeed, very capable on the spectrum, but have it, versus those on the other end who need
04:34constant help and care and attention.
04:37Did that definition change over the last couple decades?
04:42I think it has, yes?
04:44It has.
04:45It used to be different ones.
04:47It used to be pervasive personality disorder.
04:51It used to be otherwise not specified.
04:56And then the kids that were a higher level were, they just were, like, missed because they didn't hit those
05:05key markers.
05:07Then we come into another form where they call it the autism spectrum.
05:13They had different levels.
05:15And now we do it again, because now we have a level one where they're mostly can be independent on
05:22their own.
05:23But that's a spectrum on itself.
05:25Then we have level two that's going to need supervision.
05:28And they have their own spectrum.
05:30And then we have the level threes who are going to always need 24-7 care.
05:34Corey is his name I was just defining.
05:39He was always going to need help and care.
05:44And unfortunately, Shirley is at a point in her life with her own health issues, isn't able, doesn't have the
05:51body strength.
05:52He was a bigger male, had to go somewhere where he could have now with dementia issues, 24-7 constant
06:04care should things arise.
06:07There's also, I want to be careful and cautious how I say this.
06:13I want to word it friendly if I can.
06:17But a lot of people, when they think autism, they think a DNA defect or genetic disorder entirely.
06:28There is often a physical appearance similarity to that condition.
06:38Yes, no, not always true, correct?
06:41Not always true.
06:42Those that have autism could have another diagnosis.
06:45Like my son is spina bifida in autism.
06:49They can be Down syndrome in autism.
06:51They can be cerebral palsy in autism.
06:54So it's not necessarily it's the autism itself.
06:58Somebody may have a physical defect that's a genetic.
07:02And then autism just compounds it right on top.
07:06I think we're coming a long way in the better understanding of these things.
07:14And exactly why I wanted to have you to talk about these differentiations and distinctions.
07:22Because certainly 40 years ago, it was look at that person.
07:29They look a certain way.
07:32There's that, again, genetic, physical trait kind of thing.
07:37Well, they are autistic.
07:40But indeed, as we're discussing here, based on the spectrum, there doesn't necessarily have to be that look.
07:50And that's actually generally, as you said, a secondary, like a Down syndrome condition that's really different from the autism
08:02itself.
08:02Correct.
08:03It can be two medical diagnoses just interacting together.
08:08But it seems like autism a lot of times is indeed a secondary condition to other things.
08:19A lot of times they go together.
08:22Yes?
08:23Yes.
08:24Sometimes happens to fall that way.
08:26A lot of people who have autism can also have, like, mental disorders as well.
08:33Autism can be right there, their main diagnosis.
08:36But they can also have mental disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety, or OCD.
08:46It just all depends.
08:49Because the autism can be present there when they're young or late diagnosed, and then other things just compound it.
08:57I've always thought of it.
08:58Is autism technically considered diagnosis under mental disorder?
09:08No, it is actually a neurological disorder.
09:10They have done studies that have shown the brains of people with autism are completely different from neurotypical people.
09:19So they list it as a neurological disorder, whereas some people who are autistic are ADHD.
09:28But that's still a psychological disorder.
09:31I'm glad we're making these distinctions because, again, 40 years ago...
09:35It was all lumped together.
09:37It was all lumped together, and, indeed, autism thought as strictly a mental disorder, and we've come a long way.
09:46And hence now the newer terminology, neurodivergent.
09:52Correct.
09:53Yeah.
09:53And really, neurodivergent is more of a social kind of definition for people with autism because everybody's neurodivergent by definition
10:05because everybody's brain is different.
10:07But for those with autism, it's like more of a social thing because we are different from the other population.
10:15And it's like a spectrum.
10:18Just depending on who you meet, it's all different.
10:21I've said several times now already.
10:23I'm going to repeat it again.
10:24Again, we've come a long way from where we were 40 years ago, 2,000 years on from the time
10:31of Christ.
10:31We're still a long way from understanding that thing in our head.
10:37We understand more than we did, but we're probably a long way from where we could be in understanding that
10:45brain and all the different divergencies, to use that word.
10:51Full disclosure, I myself am a degree on the lower end of the OCD scale myself.
11:00I have issues.
11:01In fact, last night I was up till four in the morning because, you know, those obtrusive, intrusive, obsessive thoughts
11:13just wouldn't go away and let my brain shut down so I could sleep.
11:17So I created a song about it called Wired, OCD Issues Anthem.
11:26So I'm going to tack that on to the end of this episode just to be able to share that.
11:35But again, I'm nowhere near that too as a scale to like a Howie Mandel, who famously is a spokesperson
11:44for OCD issues.
11:47So OCD, autism, Downs, a lot of times these things all interconnect and interweave for whatever reason.
11:59And we're nowhere close to understanding the how or why yet.
12:04That is correct because we can't tell if it's all genetic or all environmental.
12:11Now, in my family, it's genetic or a little of both, but I know for my family, it's all genetic.
12:19So my mom is undiagnosed.
12:21My late mom is undiagnosed.
12:23Then I was late diagnosed in my 40s.
12:26My sister, both ADHD and autistic.
12:30My son is autistic.
12:31Her two oldest kids are autistic.
12:33And the youngest is autistic and ADHD.
12:36So we have a genetic component.
12:38That's part of the issue here, too.
12:41Again, this is something I want to be careful how I say it.
12:46Martin Luther King Jr.'s content of character.
12:49To look at a person, you might look at me and I look healthy, but I've got a ton of
12:56health issues.
12:57I'm on disability due to them.
12:59I can't work a normal job.
13:01For me to look at you, I would in no way, shape, or form suspect you are on the autism
13:10scale at all.
13:12And the looks can be deceiving.
13:15And to some people, though, and again, I want to be so careful with this, but with so much medical
13:23fraud that's come up,
13:25the expansion of the autism spectrum, tell them I think, indeed, like I have chronic fatigue, immune dysfunction.
13:35I know others are using it, since there's no real test for it, to scam the system.
13:45And I'm concerned.
13:47I know there's probably some out there I want you to address, maybe thinking, well, clearly this person doesn't look
13:56autistic, doesn't sound autistic.
13:59What about those?
14:01And no doubt there are always people trying to scam any system.
14:06Those who are indeed scamming the broadened definition of the scale.
14:12You get where I'm coming from here?
14:14I'm trying to be so careful in how I ask this question.
14:20It's very common that people look at me and they're like, you don't look or sound autistic.
14:26And I'm like, but I didn't speak until I was two and a half.
14:30And I had a speech therapist.
14:33I also remember, too, culturally, like Black people just looked at their kids and it was like, go find your
14:40cousin and you just mimic after your cousin.
14:44And that's how I, everybody just thought, oh, she's just really shy.
14:49No, I have autism.
14:51I'm glad you said that.
14:54I wouldn't have thought to put it that way, but yes, now that you vocalize that, that makes a lot
15:02of sense.
15:03It's a misattributation to a personal characteristic of shyness that it might get missed.
15:13And indeed, as you're suggesting, if it's caught soon enough, like I've had someone else on who dealt with autism
15:22and dyslexia.
15:23If you catch the dyslexia, there are tips and tricks and things.
15:30If it's caught early enough, you might be able to help put them in the better end of the spectrum.
15:39Again, I don't know how to phrase this, but you as an example, it was caught.
15:46But it was dealt with, which helped you become a more functional person while still on the spectrum.
15:54Am I making sense?
15:56Yes, you make perfect sense.
15:58And that's how a lot of families just deal with it.
16:01It's so slight that you wouldn't know.
16:04I remember being in middle school, having anxiety so bad that I was giving myself ulcers.
16:10The doctor was like, oh, she just needs this.
16:12She just has too much stomach acid.
16:14I'm like, and now that I'm older, I was like, what kid has that bad of anxiety that they're giving
16:21themselves ulcers?
16:22And I was perfectly fine just being by myself in my room, pulled up, not being social.
16:30And they slipped through the cracks.
16:31Like, my sister didn't get her son diagnosed because he was born in the late 90s.
16:37She was like, I'm just not going to do it because we're not far enough along.
16:40He'll just get a label and then it'll hold him back.
16:43So she never got him diagnosed in school.
16:47He sailed.
16:48He got his bachelor's degree in computer, cyber computer, something, cyber technology.
16:56Okay.
16:57Cybersecurity, maybe?
16:59Yes.
17:00Usually the word cyber, you use the word cyber in conjunction with that.
17:05I'm a former IT guy myself.
17:07So I want to go again, ask another, oh, I've been losing my train of thought, difficult angle.
17:16If I can remember what it was.
17:19Oh, I know what.
17:21Thank you for, thank you both for reminding me what it was.
17:25I would be remiss.
17:27Now, you're, you deal with the autism stuff, but you're not a neuroscientist, certainly nor am I.
17:36So I want to get your best opinion and I would be remiss if I didn't go here.
17:43The paranoia of vaccines and autism.
17:49The expansion of autism and those who blame vaccines.
17:54Now, I think it's important to say causation and correlation aren't always one and the same.
18:01And I'll personally say, I think we're pushing.
18:05I'm not anti-vax.
18:07No one I know is.
18:09But we believe we should spread these out over time.
18:13There's no sense giving a sexually transmitted disease vaccine to a six-month-old.
18:22That can wait.
18:24So if too many vaccines, and it's not the vaccine itself, it's potentially the mercury and other additives in it,
18:34that might be a contributing factor.
18:39And for the benefit of the transcription and the audio only, I'm doing that in air quotes.
18:45Again, I'm not a scientist.
18:47I'm just asking the question.
18:49It could be a contributing factor.
18:52There's a lot we don't know yet.
18:55What are your thoughts on that hodgepodge of big questions?
19:02So, yeah, I was like, oh, that's the big question.
19:05So, I'm an occupational therapist by training, but my personal, now this is personal.
19:12This is nowhere professional.
19:14Both can be true at the same time.
19:15Is it really the vaccines, or is it the timing of the vaccines, or is it the environment?
19:24Because our environment now is completely different prior to the Industrial Revolution.
19:32People were growing their own food.
19:34So, which is it?
19:37Because, really, I...
19:38That's why I tried to put in quotes, contributing factor.
19:43There are so many other potential contributing factors here.
19:48But my whole point, and you can agree or disagree, again, we're all entitled to the opinion.
19:56If there's no need to push that many on a young child, why do we keep even taking that chance?
20:06Again, a sexually transmitted disease-type vaccine doesn't need to be pushed on a child until middle school, even, when
20:18there's a remote chance that they would become sexually active.
20:23Your thoughts?
20:25I'm like, well, I thought that, too.
20:28I was like, are we giving this to a baby?
20:30But, you know, it could be money.
20:34It could be...
20:35It could also be these kids also are in these...
20:38If they're in hospitals, they're going to be around people who deal with other people that have that.
20:47So, is it really a protection for them so they don't accidentally get it?
20:52When people want to say, it's got to be the vaccines, but I'm like, it can't just be the vaccines
20:59because there are people that have never vaccinated their kids and they have autism.
21:03It's really a catch-22.
21:05Yeah.
21:05It's one of those things that you have to decide what you're going to do.
21:09Now, I do know parents that space it out, but it gets so hard when you enter the school system
21:17because it used to be, when I was going to school, you had your shots and you didn't get shots
21:21again until, like, high school, maybe.
21:24Yeah.
21:25Now, you can't even enter school without all those vaccinations all at once.
21:31And I'm like, is that really necessary?
21:34That's the rub, and that's what I was getting at.
21:38And this is personal to me, too, because I know someone who just had a child, and indeed, the hospital
21:45was pushing them to have, like, 10 vaccines.
21:49And they're like, no, this, this, this, and this, you know, measles, mumps, tuberculosis, things that are a danger that
22:02seem to be coming back, you might need an immune boost for.
22:07It makes sense.
22:08But, again, that particular vaccine doesn't seem to apply before they're even close, you know, just leaving the hospital.
22:18They're nowhere close to going to daycare or preschool or kindergarten yet.
22:25Some of these can wait.
22:26And, again, I am of the position, not anti-vax, but why do we take the chance?
22:33If it's not absolutely 100% necessary now, let's indeed spread them out.
22:41It seems like we're kind of on the same page in our opinion of it, and opinions do vary.
22:49Now, my son had to have all of them just simply because he had spina bifida, so he had part
22:55of a spinal cord out.
22:57So I was like, well, we're just going to just...
23:00That's an extra exposure, yes.
23:03So, but a normal, healthy baby, I'm like, give them what they need that we can eliminate, like, the measles,
23:11mumps, rubella, whooping cough, the things that are so easy to catch for kids and kill them.
23:18That's doable.
23:20Stuff like the HPV, I was like, wait, what?
23:24That's exactly one of them I'm referring to.
23:28Yes, a newborn infant does not need that.
23:35But yet they're pushing them right at birth.
23:39And because, as you alluded to, I'm 63.
23:42I was born in 62.
23:45There were only like a dozen vaccinations while I was growing up.
23:52Now there's four or five dozen they want to try to push on people.
23:58And just the sheer number, what bothers me the most, and I don't mean to turn this into a vaccine
24:05talk episode,
24:07how can we not all agree in this modern day and age, mercury may have had its place in a
24:16vaccine as a preservative 100 years ago.
24:21But today's modern preservatives, there is absolutely, positively, zero reason to have a toxin-like mercury in any amount in
24:36a vaccine.
24:38That is very correct, because they also tell you don't eat a bunch of tuna because the mercury levels are
24:44so high.
24:45I don't know why we would, like, decide that mercury is still a good thing.
24:49Yeah, it's not like arsenic.
24:52Like, I did not choose this hairdo for the people viewing on video.
24:57I have no hair.
24:58It came out during chemo when I had leukemia in 2010, thankfully still in remission.
25:05But my point being, arsenic.
25:09You don't give arsenic to people except under certain controls and no other alternatives.
25:19Like, I was given arsenic as part of my cancer treatment in low doses, right?
25:27It's a known toxin.
25:29It's a poison.
25:31It should never be used unless if you're desperate, like I was dying.
25:39So, you know, let's try this.
25:42It's better than you're going to die for sure.
25:45But with mercury, there is, in this day and age, zero benefit.
25:51But again, I've turned this into a vaccine episode, and I didn't mean to do that.
25:58My apologies.
26:00Back to the point of what you're here for.
26:04What else would you like to say regarding autism misconceptions?
26:09Where you think we might find these things going?
26:16Do you hold out that there is a hope for, like, back to vaccines, mRNA?
26:25Do you think manipulative things that can manipulate the DNA might hold a future for at least relief, if not
26:37a cure?
26:38Well, now that's a catch.
26:40That's, like, that's a hot topic now because it's part of my neural makeup.
26:45This is my brain.
26:47This is how I am.
26:48I just roll with it.
26:50Granted, I know there are parents out there that have level three kids, and they're like, it's overwhelming because the
26:57divorce rate for parents with autistic kids is astronomical.
27:02And then once they get through school, well, what happens now?
27:07Because now they have no structure because there's no supports once they turn 18.
27:13A lot of them are still unemployed.
27:17There's still 85% of autistic people are still unemployed.
27:22And some of them are the brightest people.
27:24You just got to give them some tips and learning.
27:28Like, a lot of people don't understand.
27:31They don't have that type of body language, and they're very direct.
27:37So if you ask them a question, they're going to give you the answer.
27:41Especially end of the spectrum.
27:43They seem to have no filter, is what you're alluding to, right?
27:47Like, they're honest to a fault.
27:51They don't understand the concept of sometimes a little white lie or saying nothing at all.
27:57But no, what's on their mind tends to come out their mouth.
28:02And if you want that answer, I should talk to my son and say, do you want the truth?
28:07Or do you want me to lie to you?
28:09Because he's just going to say it.
28:11But a lot of autistic people have learned to mask.
28:14Like, I go to work and people have no idea that I'm autistic.
28:20Unless they work with me when I'm spinning in a chair, stimming.
28:24So, or blowing across, you know, in a stool.
28:31When a kind of a side effect of it makes it physically visible in you, you're saying, yes.
28:38Right.
28:39Or now my...
28:41Physically manifests, is the phrase I would look for.
28:45I have a habit of leaving lights on wherever I go.
28:48It drives my fiance nuts.
28:50When I was little, I used to leave cabinet doors open.
28:53And my mom would be like, why can't you close the cabinet?
28:57I'm like, I don't know.
28:58There is no explanation for why.
29:02Why is that?
29:03Again, as far as we think we've come as a species, we are a long way from understanding our own
29:12species.
29:12And why certain things are the way they are.
29:16You said catch-22 a few times.
29:19So, I want to go back to the mRNA thing.
29:22The very guy who invented the concept was against the mRNA shots for COVID because he didn't think it was
29:33appropriate or ready.
29:35He believes mRNA may in the future hold out great hopes.
29:42But as you alluded in a way, you are who you are.
29:47You are the way you are.
29:48If they come up with some supposed miracle mRNA shot that might alter you to, I hate to use this,
29:58but I'm going to be better.
30:00Right.
30:00I'm putting that in quote.
30:03Again, I don't even like the phraseology I'm using, but I'm using it.
30:10But yeah, an mRNA miracle that might make one thing better, the catch-22 is a lot of times there
30:18are side effects and may make something else worse.
30:22This is true.
30:24Like, I can understand where people would want something that would prevent autism because it's so just one of those
30:34things that is such a spectrum and it's the unknown.
30:38But on the other end, I'm like, well, are you going to do this with everybody, like with Down syndrome,
30:44cerebral palsy, spina bifida?
30:47I'm like, this is a wide gap because you can't do for one and not do for the others because
30:54they suffer just as well.
30:56And their parents have to deal with them growing up, doctor's appointments and such.
31:01That becomes that moral, in a way, catch-22 of, well, we can help.
31:09Yeah, yeah, the slippery slope thing.
31:11Absolutely.
31:12Now, I'm also all for right to try.
31:16And if there's something experimental, now, like for you, I agree.
31:22I think you're so high-levelly functional, it wouldn't probably be worth the risk or chance of messing with something
31:32that would supposedly, in one respect, make you better, but again, that risk of making something worse.
31:40But at the same time, I could see someone who has someone on the more non-functional end of the
31:49spectrum saying, let's take this chance.
31:52If it could get them closer to self-sufficiently functional when they're older, it might be worth the reward and
32:04risk factors.
32:05Again, my phraseology, I just am not getting the words I want here, but I think you understand what I'm
32:15saying, yes?
32:17It's all according to, like, parents.
32:21Parental rights.
32:23Right.
32:23Do what you need to do to help your kid.
32:26And there's no right or wrong answer to that.
32:30Like, some people.
32:30Unfortunately, a lot of times, that's true.
32:33Things aren't always black and white.
32:35There's a lot of, I got two shows called Gray Areas 1 and 2.
32:40About things aren't always yes, no, black, white, 100% right or 100% wrong.
32:47A lot of gray area in between.
32:49It's called be tolerant and don't judge.
32:52Like, you can't judge those parents for wanting their kid to have the best life as possible.
32:58Because it's going to be hard.
33:00Not everyone wants to do that.
33:02And they celebrate their autism.
33:05And they're like, this is me.
33:07So.
33:08Respecting that choice.
33:10Yes.
33:11Sides.
33:12This is a difficult topic, which is why I'm having such a hard time.
33:19Trying to decide what to say, what not to say, and how to say it, and how to phrase a
33:26question or a statement.
33:28This is difficult.
33:30And this isn't the only difficult topic, of course, there is.
33:35Morals and ethics are gray areas to a lot of people.
33:42Correct.
33:43It's like, well, my morals and your morals could be completely different.
33:48We're in a world today that everybody is offended and everybody wants to be right.
33:52And I'm like, you know, not everybody has to be right.
33:56But you have to be tolerant of somebody's choice.
33:59Everybody has the right to make their own choice, good or bad.
34:02As a society, for a society to function and survive, we have to agree on certain degrees of moral acceptances,
34:14like thou shalt not murder, whether you're Christian or not.
34:20And even the Bible, though, makes exceptions to the rule, like Exodus 22.2.
34:28There's a difference between killing and murder of innocents.
34:33And yet some won't even agree on that, that, oh, you know, if they want to kill somebody or a
34:42child in the womb, they just can do it and have no compunction of afterthought about doing it.
34:51People have to be able to say, yes, this is what I believe, and I'm not going to change it.
34:58But then they have to also understand the other side.
35:03And we've just lost the plot in the middle.
35:06We're just all swimming in the sea of nuts.
35:11Yeah.
35:12Well, my apologies.
35:14I kind of took us.
35:16I never script shows.
35:17I never know what rabbit holes will open to go down.
35:21But an extra difficult episode for me to be able to stay on track, as you could see.
35:28Do you have a website where people can find you?
35:32So people, if they want to find all my socials or where I do my podcast, I have Linktree forward
35:40slash adulting with autism.
35:42And when you put in Linktree, it's L-I-N-K-T-R dot E-E.
35:47For whatever reason, they did that.
35:49Yeah.
35:51We're adulting with autism together.
35:54Yeah.
35:55I use Linktree also.
35:57So, yeah, I know that weird L-I-N-K-T-R dot E-E slash whatever.
36:06And in your case, adulting with autism.
36:09In my case, it's J. Leonard Detroit.
36:12But, yeah, somehow they got their own dot E-E extension.
36:17Right.
36:17A special carve-out, which is, you know, there's always goods and bads, pros and cons to everything.
36:26So, thank you, April Ratchford, for coming on.
36:30I hope you feel you've got something.
36:33So, let me ask one last question.
36:37I don't feel I've given you sufficient.
36:40So, let me just ask one last very broad, open-ended question.
36:46What else would you like to say to address this audience?
36:51If you see somebody that has an autistic child, just ask them, can I help you?
36:57May I help you?
36:59Because they're drowning.
37:01It's hard.
37:04Especially if that autistic person is on the lower functionality part of the scale.
37:13Yes, exactly.
37:14Again, growing up around and knowing friends of the family, Corey, them, and everyone they know,
37:23the sweetest person you would have ever met.
37:27But now, we've seen dementia with our mother, mine, and my sister,
37:32where sometimes dementia somehow puts a mean streak in people.
37:37Now, I didn't have enough time to talk with Shirley to see if that unfortunate spied problem of dementia
37:47ever reared its head with Corey or not.
37:49And that became part of the issue why he needed to be somewhere with 24-7 on-call care or
37:58not,
37:59as we discussed.
38:01The spectrum is broad and wide.
38:04You're very functional.
38:07Others are next to completely unfunctional.
38:11Goes back to Martin Luther King Jr.
38:14Don't judge a book by its cover.
38:16You cannot group and lump everyone into one bucket.
38:23This is very true.
38:25All right.
38:26Well, I'm worn out.
38:31This was difficult for me because, again, knowing someone with autism, but also knowing there's that wide spectrum.
38:41I can't judge all autism based on that example.
38:45And an important reason why I felt I had to talk to you today.
38:52So, again, thank you, April Ratchford, for coming on.
38:55Maybe in the future, we'll have you back again for an update.
38:59We'll see what happens.
39:01Take care.
39:02God bless.
39:02Bye.
39:03I just wanted to record, now that April's gone, an additional segment on this episode.
39:13First and foremost, I want to thank April Ratchford again for being a guest here.
39:19Secondly, apologize to her and to you, my audience, as if you've listened through this, you heard me struggle for
39:31knowing what I wanted to say, what I wanted to address, but uncertain on some things that could strike a
39:40nerve for some, how to phrase it, a statement or asking a question.
39:49And April was so gracious in putting up with my confusion.
39:55As kind of discussed without directly and implicitly saying that, I want to do that here.
40:04Autism, as we found, as we discussed, is often a companion issue.
40:14And again, I put companion in air quotes.
40:18It's not the best word, not the best term.
40:22Again, for lack of a better way to put it, it is a companion disease that often is piggybacked on
40:35or accompanied by other conditions that may directly or indirectly or not directly or in any way, shape, or form.
40:48Form, relate.
40:50It is part of our lack of understanding.
40:54Again, we've come a long way, but we've got a long way to go to understanding a lot of these
41:01things, the way our body and brains work.
41:04We're a long way off of understanding why does autism often accompany downs and OCD accompany downs and autism or
41:20ADHD or a blend of the two or stress, I think is a pretty easy one to understand.
41:29And anyone with any kind of health condition, stress of dealing with that becomes a sub-issue in and of
41:40itself brought on by the other condition.
41:44But causation and correlation, as I said, does one cause the other, does vice versa, do they not cause, have
41:55any causation or correlation with the other, but just happenstance?
42:00We like to think all things are interconnected.
42:05It may or may not be discovered in the future, they are or not.
42:10And how we can approach dealing with someone with multiple conditions, treating it as one overall singular condition as a
42:25collective versus then trying to deal with each of the sub-conditions in and of themselves.
42:33And what potential, as I said to April, you might fix one thing but break another when we're talking drugs,
42:42side effects, the pros, the cons, the good, the bad, and the ugly of it all.
42:48I just wanted to also close out with that, and I mentioned I would play the OCD song that I
42:58created last night.
43:00Warning!
43:02It is loud, it is obnoxious, it's like thrash metal, but it is recorded that way on purpose.
43:13To portray indeed OCD, the obsessive compulsive disorder, or as Howie Mandel says, the music's meant to be loud and
43:26noisy and to make the point about OCD sufferers indeed having those thoughts, often loud, unwanted, and can we quiet
43:38this all down?
43:40I try to capture that sentiment in the song with the way the song is so down loud and overpowering,
43:50in a sense.
43:51If you don't think you can handle that kind of a song, you can tune out.
43:57I hope you will give it a listen.
43:59Point of this issue at issue.
44:02This episode is the word I'm looking for.
44:05Of course, was autism.
44:08But as we discussed, I'm going to say it again, autism usually isn't a thing alone and of itself.
44:17Other conditions usually, for whatever reason, we don't know.
44:23And hopefully we can find out and learn to deal with why other issues tend to pile on.
44:30It just so happens that I did the song about OCD called Wired OCD Issues Anthem last night.
44:42So since it came up during the episode, I'm going to tack it on here.
44:48Nothing to do necessarily with autism, unless if someone on the scale also has the OCD issues.
44:57I just felt I needed to explain that.
45:00Again, thank you, April.
45:02And apologies to April and you, my audience.
45:05If this seemed a bit schizophrenic of an episode, certainly didn't start off intending to be that way.
45:16But it kind of went that way.
45:18Thank you all.
45:19Take care.
45:21God bless.
45:21And cue the song.
45:47Can't hit the off switch.
45:49Thoughts keep spinning like a glitch in the mix.
45:51Counting sheep, but the running track laps.
45:55Every number just snaps right back.
45:58Cut nails short so I don't pick skin.
46:02Check the door twice, then I check it again.
46:04Tiny wars in a tired head.
46:07Oh damn, I never leave the bed.
46:12Where's the off switch?
46:14I'm stuck in the loop again.
46:16Same three worries like my only friends.
46:19Scroll that list till the words all bend.
46:22I just want one quiet end.
46:24One quiet end.
46:26Where's the off switch?
46:27Brings the pride on red.
46:29Chasing thoughts till the dawn breaks dead.
46:31Sailor gold, but it grips instead.
46:33I just want one quiet end.
46:41Life's all dim, but the mind's on blast.
46:43Replay, remake, every moment that's past.
46:46If I breathe in four, then I breathe out eight.
46:49Maybe I can now count fate.
46:52Wash my hands till the doubt runs dry.
46:55Still here, what if?
46:56Coming under the tie line.
46:58I know the script, but I hit rewind.
47:00Same sharp scene every single time.
47:05Is it me or the fear of my lane?
47:11If I start to, I'll fall out of frame.
47:24Fill my brain.
47:27You don't run this show, but in love, what do you know?
47:39Where's the off switch?
47:41I'm stuck in the loop again.
47:43Same three worries like my only friend.
47:46Scroll that list till the words all bend.
47:49I just want one quiet end.
47:52One quiet end.
48:04Where's the off switch?
48:06I'm stuck in the loop again.
48:09Same three worries like my only friend.
48:11Scroll that list till the words all bend.
48:14I just want one quiet end.
48:17One quiet end.
48:18Where's the off switch?
48:19Brain stuck bright on red.
48:21Chasing thoughts till the dawn breaks dead.
48:24Say let go, but it grips instead.
48:26I just want one quiet end.
48:29One quiet end.
48:41OCD brain.
48:42She's wired, wired, can't hit the off switch.
48:47Thoughts keep spinning like a glitch in the mix.
48:50Counting sheep, but they're running track laps.
48:53Peace of mind I seem to forever lack.
48:55Like, like, and subscribe to the Constitutionalist Politics Podcast and share episodes.
49:02We need your help.
49:05Thank you for having tuned into another Constitutionalist Podcast show.
49:11I really appreciate that you stopped by.
49:15Again, please like, share, subscribe.
49:19We need you to help spread the Constitutionalist movement.
49:24Thank you again.
49:26Take care.
49:27God bless.
49:28Love you all.
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