Welcome to Autism The Wright Way

A Journey Through Autism

About Me

Hello, I am Zachary Wright. I am an autistic and I have created this blog to spread awareness of autism and to share my experience.

Autism is a complex mental disorder which is inherited. It’s my understanding that the gene responsible for autism is called the MTHFR gene. You can have four mutations of it. For a while, vaccines were thought responsible for autism, but this has already been debunked. It is unknown why or what causes the MTHFR gene to “switch” on or mutate.

How autism develops and is diagnosed

The first signs of autism are different for everyone. Typically, a diagnosis can be made around 18 months of age when behaviours and symptoms are evident. Progression of autism may be gradual, while other’s progression is more apparent like mine. Autism typically presents with sensory difficulties. I experience these. Its as if an imaginary lever in my brain is permanently set to extreme. e.g, the volume level is set too high, at rock concert level constantly. To deal with this, I choose to wear soft earplugs all the time. This helps me focus and enables me to use my social skills, which usually fly out the window, as loud noises trigger the flight or fight instinct.

How my sensory issues affect me

When I was a child, I didn’t like eating bickies (biscuits/cookies), as the crumbs/texture felt like a mouthful of gravel. This is due to tactile hypersensitivity in the mouth. I was unable to understand that this was not the situation for everyone else. Even today as an adult I still have hypersensitivity in the mouth, although it has improved. I do not eat hard or crunchy foods due to the gravelly feel.

Another area of hypersensitivity is smell. Some smells are far too strong, like paint and petroleum. I feel the need to physically remove myself from these.

The light usually is brighter to my eyes than a person without autism. I have light sensitivity, which can cause physical pain in the eyes (example: intense sunlight). Flashing lights do not bother me nor does the movement of light, like an aurorae, just the intensity of it’s brightness. It’s a hot, metallic burning sensation within the eyes and forehead.

I also experience skin hypersensitivity, particularly oversensitivity to wool, because it is scratchy, and denim is too heavy in weight to wear, and nylon because it sparks. I prefer to wear light cotton t-shirts, and light shorts all year round. As a young child, I would scream in pain, if I had to stand on the sand in bare feet at the beach, because it felt like many tiny metal nails. I’m better now, and am alright with sand touching my skin.

Princess Lilli Lilac

Introducing my therapy cat Princess Lilli Lilac! She is a lilac bicolour Ragdoll cat and helps keep me calm. We have been inseparable since the arrival of her as an 8 week old kitten. 💜

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