Autism Awareness

Autism Now: Meet Nick, Robert MacNeil’s Grandson
About a PBS reporter’s 6 year old grandson diagnosed with autism, and his family’s experiences. Includes a look at physical symptoms and how they interact with behaviour, and a touching interview with his 10 year old sister.

Quote of the day

 

"Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die." - Malachy McCourt

We are less anxious when we are thirsty a new study

Response to social anxiety better when our sodium levels are elevated and we are thirsty. The reason for this according the the article is that we have to search for water so we are less likely to be anxious.  Eric Krause, PhD from University of Cincinnati is quoted saying:

"When you're thirsty, you have to overcome some amount of fear and anxiety to approach a communal water source. And you want to facilitate those interactions - that way everyone can get to the water source."

Krause and his team dehydrated laboratory rats by giving them sodium chloride, then exposed them to stress. Compared with a control group, the rats that received the sodium chloride secreted fewer stress hormones and also displayed a reduced cardiovascular response to stress.

To read more follow this link:  http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/221485.php

Getting stuck in a vicious cycle

This an excellent excerpt from a book "PEACE from Broken Pieces. How to get through what you're going though" by Iyanla vanzant -- what it must be like to gets stuck in a vicious cycle of an abusive relationship, what its like to loose oneself and become possessed by a need to be loved,

"...your desire to know love will have a powerful impact on your life.  It will dredge up everything that is unloving within you and around you. The more I loved him, the more unlovable I felt.  The more unlovable I felt, the uglier I believed I was. The uglier I believed i was, the more unworthy I thought I was in my own mind. The more unworthy I thought I was, the harder I held on to what I thought I did not deserve.  It was painful; loving him and believing I didn't deserve to be loved. Back then, pain was my drug of choice.  It was a vicious cycle that had very little to do with him.   A friend said it was almost like I was possessed. And I was. I was possessed by him that I forgot, on many occasions, to possess myself; to honor me and love me. I was possessed enough to stay with him, knowing, as I did, that there were pieces of me that were badly broken or missing altogether." (Page 14)

Another great quote from page 10 in Iyanla Vanzant book

"When you have no positive pictures and, are unable to access the feelings those pictures would evoke, you have a tendency to make up what you want the pictures to be. More often than not, the pictures you create are not fully developed, causing you to live your life in the blur of false images."