no slides or refs.vienna

More documents

Recommendations

Info

N. was still at high school. She had an Individual Education Plan. but was many credits behind as she had significant disabilities, in great contrast to her mature, attractive appearance. Expectations were explored and adjusted. The daily manifestations of N’s disabilities were reviewed in the context of “stealing’, “lying” and inappropriate communications over the internet. The family understood that N would always require care and supervision. This was a concept that N. struggled with, a frequent scenario with FASD. It was on their twelfth visit. N’s mother said “as usual, she spends all her time playing video games” Immediately N said, “ I do that when I’m bored”. I realized, for the first time, that actually I did not understand why she played video games continuously when bored. So I asked her “what is being bored like?” Her answer was a revelation. ‘When I’m bored I have lots of thoughts in my head. It is uncomfortable. I don’t like it. So I play video games and it all goes away” She was never able to tell me what the thoughts were. She did make it clear that she had no control over them and the process was not nice. They were associated with uncontrolled changes in feeling good / bad. Since they have always been told that they are bored when in fact they are in a state of mental chaos, inevitably they will come to believe the two are the same. They describe different ways of controlling the mental chaos, but they all have one thing in common, it is a process of perseveration. Understandably, the cognitive, information and memory deficits of the individual also determine what they do for relief. Many parents are familiar with the intense texting and video game playing of their children, and how aggressive or violent they may be when this activity is taken from them. We need to ask ourselves how we would react if we suffered from violent migraines and had our pain medications taken from us with no other means of relief, we might then have some understanding of the role perseveration plays in the relief of such chaotic states. M. 27 years: diagnosed FASD at 23 years. “It is like a beehive full of bees buzzing around in my head..... when I get drunk it all goes away” Savanna Pietrantonio “Being bored- it is a state of restless irritable discontent that also manifests physically.
Heart rate goes up, cannot be still, I usually pace, I can’t focus. I feel impending doom. It is worst that being angry”. "this feels VERY uncomfortable when someone or the environment tries to distract me from my perseveration”. “Bored a lot, more thoughts, not nice, better with alcohol. Bored is worse than being angry”. “Perseveration can at times be a gift from the universe to FASD people. Perseveration can also be our worst enemy. The key is to understand our brain and how we can use it to our advantage”. There is no research re. PAE, FASD and Boredom. The research on boredom is made on the premise that boredom is the brain’s reaction to the inadequate environmental stimulation. While this is true for those with FASD the consequences are severe, uncomfortable and uncontrolled thoughts and emotions that can only be eliminated by the process of perseveration. However, in the research there are correlations of boredom with the primary and secondary disabilities of FASD, associated behaviors, mental illnesses, risk factors, and brain anatomy, function and circuits. [ bilateral ventromedial prefrontal cortex, precuneus, putamen, hipporcampus, amygdala, insula] Not surprisingly there are contradictions in the studies: studies which have not considered the influence of the neurodevelopmental disabilities of FASD on their findings. The distress described by those with FASD is similar to some descriptions in the various studies. The corollary in the non PAE brain may be the complex activity of the brain at “rest”. Punishment does not prevent recidivism for those with FASD. An understanding of the nature of stuck- in- set perseveration is necessary in order to correct the psychiatric and judicial injustices experienced by those with FASD. When we understand perseverance/perseveration, adaptive and executive functioning we can see that isolation and sensory deprivation are a gross challenge to our sanity. How much more is that the case for those with the complex chaotic functioning of FASD?. E.. was a teenager referred by a psychiatrist. She was a resident of a youth detentions
Page 1 and 2: XXXIVth International Congress on L
Page 3: The Stuck-in-set perseveration rela
Page 7 and 8: The diagnosis was eventually made.
Page 9: Yet isolation is still practiced in

no slides or refs.vienna

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?