Severe Autism Spectrum Disorder or Aspergers and fear of people

What is it like to be afraid of people? Its like having a spider phobia or a bee phobia except instead of avoiding those insects, you are forced to have them near you en mass every second of every day except when you sleep or can stay in your room. When in your room, you might hear those spiders or bees and this can scare you. Knowing that tomorrow, you will have to go out and face your phobia again is like facing hell. They become the enemy because you are so afraid of them, and because they never go away. They are always there, doing things you do not understand. They talk, they move and have body language that is foreign.

Imagine yourself kidnapped and put in the middle of a Muslim Extremists Camp. You are the only American. They have you surrounded as they go about their business. They make movements with their arms and hands but you do not understand what they are doing or saying. This is a rough idea of what it feels like to have a fear of people and be forced to move amongst them. The only difference is that the spoken and written language is often understood to a point. Its the body language that is often misunderstood. The finer points of language - the idioms, metaphors and ironies - can be missed or misunderstood by those with Autistic Spectrum disorders. Combine this with a mind that sees people as "the enemy" who is out to get you and you can have a recipe for disaster.

Another example is this. Putting a person who is afraid of people in a school, and making them mainstream and walk around at the same time as those people are walking around is the same as tossing a child into the middle of a lake and yelling at them to swim to shore without teaching them how to swim.

What is the solution then? With Severe Autism, they will use a circle rope and have the students hang on to the rope. They will slowly force the students to go a little closer to the inner circle and then bring them out, just so they get used to getting closer to people.

Hypnotism I am against on principle. However, I do wonder if it would have any long term effects on those with irrational fears. It might be cheaper then the method I personally prefer - Behavioral Therapy that includes 1 on 1 for forty hours per week, fifty weeks per year. This would be the type of therapy they use with severe OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) cases, but would have the procedure tailored specifically to the needs of the client. The therapist would go every wheres with the client and would act as an interpreter. They would also teach the client how to act and help them see the truth about someone else and about themselves. This therapy would happen at home to begin with. The client would not be forced into school until they are ready for school. They would slowly learn to get used to more people.

The client would not graduate into "being mainstreamed" ASAP. Instead, the goal would be to get the client comfortable with society as individuals and as a whole. Some of these clients have the problem that they see every cell in every leaf, and in every bark in every tree. These cells are everything a person says and does. These cells are every little minute detail in society. Imagine millions of these cells in every individual. You will see these cells as a person. The person who is afraid of people, sees the millions cells doing something other million cells. They then see billions of cells and do not always understand people as a person here and a different person there.  Their brain sees all the body language and speech at one time. This in turn becomes a blank wall. This wall contains so much data, that it is black and not readable. The text on that wall is black and looks like someone attempted to write the entire Bible on 1 sheet of paper and when they ran out of space, they started over from the top of the sheet. This is what it is like to have Severe Autism or Severe Aspergers and have a fear of people. This is how communication looks to me, in my brain.

It is hard to see peace, when you have an inability to sort through these cells, and piece them together to form a cohesive whole, and see one person only, and not all the other people and their cells. The Behavioral Therapist would help them sort through those cells and see the forest and then the trees, instead of seeing only the cells of that forest.

The client would write in some fashion stories that reflect their reality and the reality around them. They would read thousands of scripts that each contain the portion of dialogue to be understood that day. Role playing where they play the characters in those scripts would be apart of the therapy. They would learn how to act through acting classes that are strictly one on one, or two on one. More people will only be added to that class as the client is ready. The people added should include people who are like them and their teachers. Thus, if client A-One has graduated to having two teachers and client B-Two has graduated to having two teachers, then all 6 people would be apart of the class. However, the clients would be introduced to the new people one at a time and only when they are ready will the have all 6 in the same class at the same  time. The Six people includes the clients, of course.

The focus would be on life skills and living skills. Academics would be taught differently. A homeschooling method that included Sociological and Cultural approach to History, Maths, English, Grammar, and Science would be used. Specific techniques needed to help client overcome specific signs of a Learning Disability would also be included. For example, if the client has a cognitive disorder, meaning that they have Dyslexic Spectrum signs, but no one sign dominates, then they would have several Trainings that is specifically used on Auditory Dyslexics, Visual Dyslexics, Dyscalculia, and so on, as if they only had 1 of those signs instead of all of them. They would not be treated how Cognitive Disorders are currently treated as that method assumes an incapability of achieving anything great. This is does Cognitive Disorder Clients a disservice. I should know, I am one of them. My area of Savantness is in Social Science - Sociology. This is what I learned through personal life experiences and in my many classes I took at two Universities. I graduated from the latter, when they were registered as a college. They are becoming a University and are still deciding on their new name. I was an over-achiever who lacks the ability to pass the GRE so I can get my masters in the subject I was well versed in.

This is all I can say for now on this subject. The coffee shop I post at is busy and I am leaving.