Post-traumatic stress disorder may mimic autism in some children

Would you be willing to connect outside of this thread to talk about your treatment? I'm writing a book centered on a framework for self programming I'm designing and would love to inform it with the experiences of others. I'm convinced we can mathematically define the human system in a computational/programmatic way and use computer science to figure out language constructs resulting in scripts to follow for achieving what we want our minds/bodies/brains to do (or configuring them however we want). I've been "programming" myself in this way for 2 years and have experienced a lot of rapid change, as a result. I'm hoping the book will help people do the same things you & I have accomplished, but in ways they can adapt to their daily lives so they don't have to take a break from life.

The book will only be sold if there's a structure in place such that one purchase funds several free copies or freely helping others in some financial way. I don't want to profit from its sale.

- domestic or family violence, dating violence

- community violence (shooting, mugging, burglary, assault, bullying)

- sexual or physical abuse natural disaster such as a hurricane, flood, fire or earthquake

- a serious car accident

-sudden unexpected or violent death of someone close (suicide, accident)

- serious injury (burns, dog attack)

- major surgery or life-threatening illness (childhood cancer)

- war or political violence (civil war, terrorism, refugee)

I'd add to this a few more:

- chronic negligence, either from the self, community, or family (if someone's treated like an outcast and/or isn't regularly meeting their needs)

- persistent threat to resources (food/job/housing insecurity)

- witnessing trauma

- psychosocial or cultural enslavement (choosing to hold and/or act on beliefs that don't contribute to making life more wonderful for all life, capitalism)

I'm sure there are others. I find it helpful to keep an open mind about trauma and how to define it. I personally consider being born into a capitalistic society without being given the explicit option to enjoy life without direct participation in capitalism to be traumatizing, to some degree. Same goes for being born into a government that doesn't allow for peacefully revoking consent to be governed at any time for any reason. Both can lead to automatic and largely unconscious complicity in violent systems. I think realizing my participation in such systems was traumatic, as well as the responses I get from people when I talk about it. Just today, our landlord told us that because we have a friend staying with us and helping out with our newborn, we need to pay an extra $50/month. Their reason for the added rent is explicitly and purely out of disagreement with how we live our lives and their projections on our friend as being homeless. We've already dealt with this sort of nonsense, so we've grown through the trauma of having loved ones (and, yes, we love our landlords) try to punish us for our way of life or shame us into changing. Most people haven't and this could've easily been an event that feeds into a cycle of housing insecurity or social exclusion.

Basically, did one or more of someone's need go unmet/denied in a big way or for a long time? Probably trauma.

I don't think there's harm in assuming trauma when there isn't any, as long as the reason for doing so is to heal from it, which includes forgiving all those involved and finding gratitude for the event because I learned to better identify & meet my needs from it. If assuming trauma to judge others, I'd stop and reflect on why that is; there's likely a different trauma in myself that's been activated leading me to want to lash out at others. Often times, like when I've realized ways I contributed to systems of violence, the prescription that helps with that kind of trauma is mourning/grieving.

I've also heard therapists say "It was trauma if you say it was," meaning it's up to the individual to determine the impact of something. Unfortunately, this can lead to denial when someone carries a default of judging others as good/bad. A friend grew up being whipped harshly by their dad and strapped into their bed at night against their will. This had a lasting impression on them emotionally & they wouldn't admit to it, possibly because they heavily subscribed to black-and-white thinking & viewing their parents as having traumatized them would've required labeling people they love as bad. I suspect this is one reason why so much trauma goes unreported: people have mindsets that promote denial. Acceptance is a key to healing from trauma for this reason.

My dad grew up on a farm. He lived for a time in a log cabin with a dirt floor.

When I moved home with my two teenaged sons during my divorce, my parents' house was much quieter than we were used to. My parents expected things to be quiet at night so they could sleep. No, they weren't going to buy a white noise machine or something.

No one ever suggested my parents had sensory issues or anything like that. They were merely old and grew up in quieter circumstances and no one acted like their expectations were maladapted or pathological or something.

I've arranged my life to be a lot quieter than it used to be. My sons are much more able to function "normally" now that our lives are quieter. I sometimes forget how poorly they handle noise and crowds because we are so rarely in such situations. Then we go to a restaurant or something and they can't deal and I'm reminded again of just how difficult they can be.

I have come to believe that the world has changed and human children weren't designed for the busy, noisy, crowded world full of sensory overload that is our new norm. But instead of recognizing that the world has changed, we label children as defective who don't deal well with this noisy, crowded, busy, crazy world that didn't exist when my father was growing up less than a hundred years ago when most people lived and worked on farms.

It is in the lifetimes of my children that this statistic changed and now most people live in cities. But that's very new. For the vast majority of the history of the human race, we were mostly tribal or agrarian. City dwellers were the exception, not the rule.

This has lead me to believe that sensory-motor differences may be the primary difference between autistic and neurotypical people.

It might be that I know enough to know that I know nothing.

I've worked in academia and Neuroscience, have studied Autism for my masters and created technology to teach people about Autism. Have volunteered in an adhd charity, worked around clinicians and neuropsychologists and had countless discussions on the topic of diagnosis.

All I can conclude, is even these guys can't establish the correct way to diagnose and it changes often.

I have no chance. PTSD and Autism are both extremely complex.

And, the new DSM-V is very controversial.

Can you elaborate on this? Some more information and/or references would be helpful.