Elijah's Cup A Family's Journey into the Community and Culture of High-Functioning Autism and Asperger's Syndrome

by Paradiz, Valerie

• ISBN13: 9781416567769
• ISBN10: 1416567763
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-06-25
• Publisher: Free Press

Summary

Faced with her two-year-old toddler's precipitous bout with epilepsy and his puzzling behaviors, Valerie Paradiz took a bold and unusual path, coming to terms with and ultimately embracing the strange beauty of her son Elijah's special neurological disorder, which was diagnosed as Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism.InElijah's Cup,Paradiz tells the powerful story of her family's struggle with her son's disease, one characterized by social awkwardness, literal-mindedness, and a fixation with particular subjects and interests. Like attention deficit disorder (ADD), dyslexia, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, Asperger's has exploded in diagnosis in the last decade, reconfiguring the known incidence of autism in the population with estimates as high as one in fifty people.Ever since autism was "discovered" by researchers in the 1940s, the disability has been under the strict purview of professionals in medicine, psychiatry, and education. Like the deaf community, autistics themselves have had little voice in expressing their real experience and needs. They were framed as too "sick" to be conscious of their own internal lives, too "mentally ill" to possess an identity. All this has changed.Today there is a blossoming movement of autistic self-advocacy groups and alliances that pose challenging questions to the medical status quo. A fascinating, independent expression of another way of life, full of quirkiness, hardship, and humor, has emerged.Elijah's Cupis a provocative and pioneering book that pushes the envelope of what we know about autism. Were Andy Warhol, Albert Einstein, and the comedian Andy Kaufman, whom we usually think of as brilliant eccentrics, autistic? Can these figures serve as role models to this community?Elijah's Cupoffers a refreshing take on mental disability from the perspective of civil rights, history, and the arts. From encounters with the founders of the first civil rights organizations for autistics, who guide Paradiz and her son toward a sense of community and self-respect, and with visual artists, who share with Elijah their special ability to "think in pictures," Elijah reaches extraordinary heights in his sociability and emotional well-being.In this utterly absorbing and inspiring narrative, Paradiz also reveals her own shadow syndrome, which afflicts many family members of autistics. She is a "cousin," a genetic link to her son's autism. Standing as she does on this cultural borderline, Paradiz is a sensitive translator between two worlds, revealing a groundbreaking insider's view of the beauty of minds hidden in the shadows of autism.

Author Biography

Valerie Paradiz was born in Colorado and has lived and worked in Germany and Japan. For several years she has taught literature and writing at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson. She lives with her son in Woodstock, New York.

Table of Contents

Preface

Elijah's Cup

The Gift of Loss

Perfect Strangers

The Coincidence of Sharron Loree

Nietzsche in the Bathtub

My Father Was a Yakker

Echolalia Fun Fun Fun

Balloon Days

Cartoons Don't Get Hurt

Life Under Glass

Playground Comedian

Cracking Code

Web Sites by and for Autistic People and for Autistic Advocacy

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index cts of other drugs on the family

Children of Dysfunctional Families

Typical roles: Hero (Responsible One), Scapegoat (Acting Out), Adjuster (Lost Child), Placater (Mascot)

Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACoA): a high-risk group

Special Groups

Women

Youth

The elderly

Minority races

The military

Skid road

Professionals, dual diagnosed, other groups

Prevention and Intervention

Prevention

Primary, secondary, tertiary prevention

Information versus attitudes and values

Decision-making skills

Eap -- Occupational Programs

Alcohol and other drugs in business and industry

Policy versus program

Roles of labor and management

Training of supervisors

Referral and Intervention

Diagnosis

Counseling into treatment

Knowing and using various facilities

Treatment and Rehabilitation

Overview of Treatments

Continuum of care

Variety of therapies

Detoxification

Intensive treatment

Therapies for other drug addictions

Rehabilitation

After intensive care: importance of long-term followup

Phases of recovery, relapses, the dry drunk

Alcoholics Anonymous and Other Twelve-Step Groups

Development of AA philosophy

The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

The three legacies

Twelve-Step groups for other addicts: NA, CA, and others

Al-Anon and Alateen

The Twelve Steps as used by spouse and children of the alcoholic

Special traditions and problems

Spiritual and Moral Aspects

Progression of addiction as a spiritual disease

Spiritual recovery

False guilt

Moralistic attitudes

Responsibility for drug-related behavior

Drugs and the Law

Liability

Discrimination

Regulation of sale

Alcohol and traffic laws

The Uniform Act: drunk in public no longer a crime, legal responsibility not eliminated, problems of implementation

The New Profession

Ethics: confidentiality, education, certification

The addiction professional

Dual role of AA member

Staff burnout

Appendix: Sources for Literature on Alcoholism and Other Addictions

General Bibliography

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.