Robert Moran

Michael Raven: A Tragic Loss

Michael Raven, 12, ‘bullied by girl gang for being autistic’ found hanged | Mail Online.

I wrote about my own experiences being bullied in recently in a post and upon seeing this article it immediately drew me back to it having been no stranger to bullying as a child. I can only imagine the taunting and bullying that Michael experienced that drove him to kill himself. I wonder if the girls responsible feel any remorse? I have to ask this again but when will the abuse stop? When will the ignorance end? When will autistics be fully accepted into society? Those are questions that I can’t answer, but hopefully someone can soon. No child should be made to feel ashamed or embarrassed because they are different. No child should feel that their only escape is to hang themselves. That is unacceptable.

X marks the spot: TBL1X gene involved in autism spectrum disorder

X marks the spot: TBL1X gene involved in autism spectrum disorder.

Well this is exciting news!

New research published in BioMed Central’s open access journal Molecular Autism used genome wide association study (GWAS) data to find a variation in the gene for transducin ß-like 1X-linked (TBL1X) which is associated with increased risk of ASD in boys.

Hopefully the study can be corroborated.

Autistic Brains Have More Brain Cells, Study Finds

Autistic Brains Have More Brain Cells, Study Finds – ABC News.
Thanks to my friend @RepetePro for sharing this with me. I don’t know if I like the idea of possibly having an abnormal number of brain cells. People already think I am strange. Now it is apparently at the cellular level. The study mentioned in the article did discover some interesting details.

They found that the brains of the autistic children had 67 percent more neurons in a region called the prefrontal cortex, an area linked to social, emotional, and communication processing — functions that are typically lacking in autism.

This discovery does bring us on step closer to discovering the causes of autism. I say causes because I believe there is more than one cause. Yet, knowing that the causes are as far down as the cellular level does not surprise me. I have long believed that there is a cellular component to the disorder and this study just proves it. Now if scientists can solve the greatest mystery of all that would be great: how people lose one white sock after they wash.

On Being Articulate (via Just Stimming…) via @octavianasr

@octavianasr shared this post with me and I identify with it alot. I am not very articulate and am often uncomfortable talking to people I don’t know. Said uncomfortability is a trait common to people with Asperger’s Syndrome.

They say I’m articulate. (I think about all the words that stay locked in my throat, and I give a small and terrified smile and look over their shoulder and into nothing at all.) I’m really quite lucky I have such a command of language. (There are maybe five people in the whole wide world I can talk to face-to-face without wanting to die, without having a panic attack, without needing to hurt myself or sleep for hours afterward. Two of them recei … Read More

via Just Stimming…

Good news! I am back at ABC News!

I will just be writing this brief post to let you know some of the good news that has been going on in my life. I got hired on as a Desk Assistant at ABC News. I could not be happier. My dream has come true.

The Best Few Weeks of My Life

Where do I begin?

After sending out my farewell letter, I received a message from one of my friends that Ben Sherwood the president of ABC News had read my farewell letter aloud during one of the morning production meetings. Not too long afterword he called me to talk and tell me had read my letter. I felt like I was literally on cloud 9.

My internship ended and during my break I travelled to New Orleans for the Excellence in Journalism Conference. It was a chance to reconnect and with some old friends and meet some new ones. New Orleans is an amazing city full of music and good food. I learned a lot attending the different workshops and met some of my fellow ABC News colleagues.

New Orleans is a city like no other. Music is almost on every corner and in every building and of course there is that famous street in New Orleans which is a required stop in the city:

What ABC News colleagues if my internship is over? My internship did end but I a week before I left for New Orleans I was offered a position as a desk assistant at ABC News. I was shocked and surprised by the offer, but readily accepted it. As I mentioned in my previous post, it had been my dream to work at ABC News. Now that dream has begun to come to fruition. I firmly believe that hard work does pay off and in my case it did. My dream is beginning to happen.

Asperger’s Syndrome and the Missing Edit Button

autism sucks: Facebook and the Aspergers Teen.

After reading the blog I have provided a link to above I felt I could relate to the situation described in various ways.

Having Aspergers, I can see both sides of this issue having engaged in this sort of behavior albeit minus the cursing online (I reserve that for real life) I can understand the desire to blow off steam at the person who has caused the anger especially when I was a teenager. As I grew older I realized that such behavior had repercussions mostly through ruined friendships and the like, so I learned to try and put a muzzle on things. Sometimes that does not always work and as you say the missing edit button is in full effect but once I calm down I quickly apologize and delete my comments. It took me a long time to learn this as I am now 32. I sometimes still do the explosive or cryptic status update but those too for the most part eventually get deleted.

People with Asperger’s as the writer of the linked blog have a missing edit button. The button that says perhaps we shouldn’t say such things. Too put it mildly people with Asperger’s are pretty f—cking blunt at times. And if upset we have no problem using pretty colorful and often insulting and derogatory language, which is never really appropriate and can sometimes be hurtful. As I mentioned earlier, I have learned to try and muzzle myself because I know that at least in online situations prospective employers may be watching what I do.

Stimming

For the non-autistic person this term may be unknown. Stimming is short for Self-Stiimulating Behavior. The primary reason an autistic stims is to cope with the environnment in which they live, much like a neurotypical person uses a stress ball to cope with stress. It produces the same effect as the stress ball because for some reason the movement of the body and the stimulation of the nerves distracts the brain from the dealing with emotions such as anxiety or joy or even sadness.

I made this video to show how I stim.

When the Light Ends

As time marches on

And the halls of majesty whisper nothing

And only the echoes of silence are all that remain

Even death seems like a fading memory

As everything and anything slowly slips away

Into the black hole of bliss

Yet only the light remains

Holding on as it resists the crushing forces of nothingness

That surround it

Swirling around it in a fury absent of passion

Which has dissipated into the nothingness that consumes everything

Try as it might the light fades away

And slowly is crushed by the eternal nothingness into blissful oblivion

Transcending everything and nothing

And transforming into the effervescence of emotion

And illuminating the nothingness so that only the absence of nothing remains

And only a dream of what once was can still be felt

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