Initiation Challenges

Initiation of an activity is hard for those like me. Like a faulty remote control that stops working when you want to watch something widely anticipated, our body’s control system stops working at inopportune times. The result can potentially be our motivation coming into question and stereotypes about us perpetuated.

The main loss in all of this is one of trust. People stop trusting our abilities and we start questioning our life purpose. The effects can be very calamitous. No life possibilities present nicely in that state. Perhaps the mental state can even get into life long depression.

The best way to arrest this slide is for a paradigm shift in how our mind body disconnect is viewed. It should almost never be viewed as a motivation question.and there should always be an assumption of competence in our body’s abilities. Power of unconditional love and support cannot also be overstated in this case.

The understanding of all of this is still evolving in all the different professional areas. There are some approaches around coaching the body that help. It is very much a work in progress though. For now we probably need to rely on the art of human kindness and spirit while science catches up.

Swarit Gopalan

About the Author

I am an 11-yr old autistic, nonspeaker that uses letterboard to spell/keyboard to type to communicate.I live with my family in Florida and go to Invictus Academy for school.

I find a lot of solace in expressing myself through poetry. Music and nature also help me stay in the present, there is nothing better for me than to have my movement create a symphony with nature and to truly enjoy the sights and sounds. Living in harmony with nature is my life’s mission.

Right from the time of diagnosis, we are only told about all things we cannot or will not be able to do. Along with the check that is written to the doctor for the diagnosis, it often feels like our agency is written off too, especially without a reliable communication mechanism.

Time to change the paradigm with more non speaker voices. It has always been a dream to share my thoughts and perspectives with the world so that I can be one of the catalysts to creating a better understanding of non speakers in general.

My hope is that my words will help change the world from sympathy and pity for those like me to one of deeper understanding of our lives and allyship to ensure our rights.

Initiation Challenges