The
chapter that struck me the most in Daniel Bor’s The Ravenous Brain was chapter 8. In this chapter, Bor discusses
autism and the over consciousness.
He points out that “autistics have an overabundance of awareness, and
all their symptoms are merely their way of dealing with this supercharged
consciousness”(Bor 239). I thought
to myself what it would be like to have a supercharged consciousness and how
would I be able to deal with this.
There have not been a lot of successful drugs developed for treating
autism. Bor does point out one drug called arbaclofen that seemed to have shown
results dealing with the autistics consciousness.
I
came across an article in Time magazine
that discussed a study that was done with arbaclofen to see if there would be improvements
with common symptoms of autism such as social withdrawal. So how does this drug work? “The drug works by
acting on the brain’s GABA-B receptors and decreasing elevated activity of a
neurotransmitter called glutamate”(Szalavitz). As Bor mentioned autistics have
a high level of glutamate flowing through their brain that prevents the
gamma-amino butyric acid from firing. You might ask yourself why is this
important? If there is an overabundance of glutamate in the brain this can
cause tissue damage in the brain, as well as provoke an “overwhelming sense of
consciousness”(Bor 242). This over consciousness prevents a lot of autistics
from maintaining social interactions with others. The study that was done with
arbaclofen showed improvements in the social behaviors of the participants with
Fragile X syndrome. This new drug
can help pave the future for those with a supercharged consciousness.
Resources:
Bor, Daniel. The Ravenous Brain: How the New Science of Consciousness Explains Our Insatiable Search for Meaning. New York: Basic, 2012. Print.
Szalavitz, Maia, and Maia Szalavitz. "The First Drug That Could Help Social Withdrawal in Autism." Time. Time, n.d.
As I read through the aforementioned chapter of Bor's book I was really intrigued by his take on autism as an overabundance of awareness. It is a not a common way of thinking about autism, but it makes so much sense! In our society there is a lot more controversy, stigma, and just plain confusion surrounding autism than there really should be. As soon as someone, like Bor, gives it some rational thought it become easier to understand AND we begin to understand it more correctly. While there are serious impairments and remaining mysteries about autism, it becomes clear that autistic individuals simply aren't as "stupid", unaware, or incapable as so many people make them out to be. Perhaps this viewpoint isn't as new or uncommon as it sounded to me in more educated circles, but unfortunately most of the world doesn't seem to be on the right page. It is so nice to see that drug companies are responding to this view of autism and creating drugs that will help the real problem: overconsciousness. Hopefully popular opinion will soon catch up with drug companies in the way that it treats autistic individuals.
ReplyDeleteI also found this chapter to be of great interest as Bor spoke about the topic of mental illness as being more than just a series of symptoms and more of an underlying dysfunction in consciousness that causes difficulty with being able to interact with the outside world in what most would consider "normally." Hopefully, this approach will encourage those that work in the mental health profession to incorporate other methods in treating mental illnesses alongside medication.
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