Where do Severely Autistic Adults Go After Education Ends?

In Where do Autistic Adults Go After Special Education Ends? CDFoakley continues a series of courageously honest videos about the realities faced by persons with severe autism disorders and their families. This is a question asked by many parents of severely autistic children. The uncertainty  is a reality we must face.

Autistic Persons You Don't See on Sitcoms, Reality Shows or Hollywood Movies .... or in the DSM 5

The CDFoakely videos present the realities of severe autism that you don't see on television or movies.

Persons who are severely autistic do not attend colleges for gifted youths, intervene as "autistics" before the Supreme Court of Canada to oppose families seeking government funded ABA interventions for their own children, pose for interviews with CBC, CNN or the New Yorker Magazine or hob nob with Washington politicians and bureaucrats.

Their existence, if they survive snow storms in Nova Scotia, being lost in the woods of Northwestern Wisconsin for a week, being physically abused by  some staff members in a Long Island residential home, living on a hospital ward in New Brunswick Canada, or jumping from an ambulance in South Carolina , is not always pretty and does not usually attract beautiful Hollywood actresses to portray "autism" for the world.

It is the families of the severely autistic who know their realities and speak for them, not the very  igh functioning IT professionals, researchers and  politically vocal university students who declare that autism is a different way of thinking and should not be cured.  It is the families who, day in and day out, care for, and love, their severely autistic family members who know and understand  the realities of severe autism. 

Severe autism may ultimately be whitewashed entirely from the public consciousness by Hollywood movies and the DSM 5.  If severe autism is not obliterated entirely from  public awareness it will be because even the mainstream media, at least at the local level, does report the tragic consequences that sometimes strike the severely autistic.   And because courageous family members will tell the world, and keep telling the world,  the truth about severe autism.

CDFoakley videos continue that effort to courageously portray some severe autism realities. You can find them on Youtube. And they are featured on the sidebar here at Facing Autism in New Brunswick. From CDFoakley "Persons You Don't See on Sitcoms, Reality Shows or Hollywood Movies":

Up All Day and Night - Severe Autism Self Injurious Behavior Video From CDFoakley

The following video from CDFoakley is not easy to watch. The severely autistic youth featured is engaged in serious self injurious behavior. Those who love and care for him pay a huge price. The video talks of families struggling alone and government agencies that just don't help.

Maybe if the media would stop promoting the self indulgent agendas of the barely autistic and started focusing on the harsh realities of the severely autistic governments would get the message.Maybe they would understand the truth about severe autism realities and stop focusing on real autism issues.

Maybe media and government should watch this and other videos by CDFoakley and learn the truth about severe autism disorders.

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Severe Autism Videos from CDFoakley: Do Not Watch If You Can't Handle Reality

The following videos show some of the hard realities, some of the challenges facing those who are most severely affected by autism and the family members who love and care for them.

The autism reality of the young man in the first video is not the autism reality of someone who will excel in a difficult and complex post office work environment or go on to work as a researcher alongside a team of high functioning autism experts. This young man is unlikely to appear before a high appellate court, august political committees, or on national and international television as a self appointed spokesman for all "autistics". and opposing evidence based interventions for other people's autistic children.

This young man's voice will not be heard by public decision makers deciding whether research, therapies and treatments should be funded to help address the autism realities shown in this video. This young man is unlikely to attend at any college, let alone an esteemed college for gifted youths or appear in scripted, orchestrated videos promoting a nonsensical theory of stimming as language. This young man's autism realities are unlikely to be gushed over enthusiastically by bloggers celebrating the joy of autism or promoting autism as anything except what it is ... a neurological disorder with profound negative consequences for so many affected by its reach.

This first video, cal fire family and less glamorous side of autism, is posted on YouTube by CDFoakley with the following comment:

Rare educational footage of autistic person with a complex mix of seizure disorder and self injurious behaviors. Point: to show how to help children suffering from such a brutal and complex behavioral disorder. Not for people who can't handle REALITY. Or who don't understand this situation.

The second video Brother and sister help protect autistic brother from head punches shows the realities of self injurious behavior and some of the impact on families trying to help their autistic family members. The video is also posted on YouTube by CDFoakely; this time with the following comment:

Siblings helping protect autistic brother during self injurious meltdown. Disturbing side of autism you won't see in public broadcasts or charity events about autism. Nor will you hear people who think autism is "wonderful" or a "gift" talk about this level of autism....

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