Sunlight: Revisited

Last December, I wrote a blog about how much I didn't like Summer sunlight. In that article, I also pondered any possible significance of my really light skin and northern european ancestry in relation to sunlight. Only a few days after I wrote that blog, I realized I was probably wrong, and began a new theory, a theory which, I realized, I should get around to telling you.

In researching some hormone imbalances I naturally have, I learned that deficiency in Vitamin D and D3, which are hormones created through exposure to sunlight, can actually create hormone imbalances. Now, you might think this would mean my hormones are only off balance in the winter, and for people with Seasonal Affective Disorder, this is true. However, for me, it's been different. I was raised in the beautiful, but very hot, deserts of NW Tucson, Arizona. One time, when I was a teenager, I flew to Utah to visit a friend. It was some summer month, such as August, and when I arrived to Utah, there were people outside, everywhere! They were playing sports in the middle of the afternoon, they were walking around, they were okay being outside. I'd never seen this in my life during the afternoon in a summer month (of which Tucson has about 7). In Tucson, we only went outside in the afternoon from about October (or September when it is raining) to April. From about May to September, it's too hot to be outside any more than necessary. I wondered if this lack of outdoor exercise was affecting this Tucsonan's health and hormone balances. I did go hiking whenever the temperature allowed, when it was below 95, which excludes about 4 or 5 months of the year. Anyway, there was another consequence of the desert heat and sun that I didn't realize until now. Us Tucsonans, me, my sisters, my parents, my husband, his sister, and all of our friends, all learned that outside and sunlight is bad. Light meant heat, and vice versa. The heat was too much, and the sun can just give you cancer, and it can do that more quickly than anywhere else in the world besides Australia. We learned these things were bad.

Now I've been in Texas for coming up on 8 years. And I'm finally starting to realize that the sun isn't bad. And that being outside in the summer is sometimes possible. It's winter now, so we don't get a lot of sun, so I've been testing this theory. I've been outside for at least 30 minutes on each day when there is sunlight. And sure enough, the sun makes me feel happier, more balanced, and more full of energy.

At first glance, I'm realizing that it's also possible that my initial aversion to sunlight is just like anyone's initial love of candy and/or chocolate. Your senses tell you it's wonderful, but it's not actually good for your body and you have to pace yourself. Maybe it's the opposite with sunlight, that at first it's uncomfortable, but in reality, that's because it's so good for you.

I've also been wondering the significance of my really light skin. I thought it meant I could gather Vitamin D more quickly because where my ancestors come from there isn't much sunlight. And while that is true, there are other people, such as Eskimos and Siberians, who lived at the same northern latitudes as my ancestors who don't look like me. So, I'm postulating, what if I have light skin because I NEED more Vitamin D than others? Not only that I can get it more easily than Sub-Saharans, who are exposed to more, and maybe that's true, but what if, in addition to that, I need more than they do? Or, that I need to be extra sure that I get enough Vitamin D, in order to balance my hormones! Because maybe my body is more sensitive to hormone mishaps when the sunlight stops coming. It's an exciting theory that happily gets me outdoors a lot more lately.

My hormone doctor thinks I might be low on Vitamin D3 anyway, and since it's hard to supplement it just right, I'm trying to get more sunlight to see if it helps. I didn't used to feel any compulsion to get any sunlight, ever, so this is an exciting change for me. I'm finally starting to see why people like to just lay around at the beach and soak up the sun. I'm just glad it's winter now, though, so I can take baby steps.

The other advantage to it being winter right now, with fewer hours of sunlight and more indirect rays of light, is that I can't get sunburned like I could after 20 minutes of sun exposure in the summer, even in Texas. I'm going to try to prove a theory.....

Please excuse me if I make a geology analogy. Lakes shouldn't exist in normal geology. The existence of a lake is an anomaly. This is because water naturally falls from a cloud, to the ground, then flows down to the ocean. A lake means it was stopped in this process. And eventually, when enough geologic time passes, the lake will turn into a stream to get that water back to the ocean in a more efficient manner. Same with waterfalls, they are the earth's temporary way of creating a river. With Niagara Falls, for example, the falls are a result of the river adjusting to the massive heigh differences between Lakes Ontario and Erie. Erie is much higher than Ontario, which it flows to, so the water falls to get to it, and then on to the ocean. But, the falls are moving backward, upward towards Lake Erie. Eventually, when the falls back up to their mother lake, a beautiful, and probably devastating deluge will come as Lake Erie spills into the lower river that the falls have created. After the deluge, the waterfall will be gone, and the Great Lakes will be much more efficient at draining to the ocean. Eventually, they will finish their job, and no longer be lakes. Because lakes shouldn't exist in normal geology.

My point is that God, and thereby Nature, finds a way for everything to work. I'm wondering lately if a sunburn shouldn't exist in normal human behavior. What if you are outside every day for several hours every day from the beginning of spring on to summer? Is it possible that you will acclimate to the sun, that you will tan, and be properly protected from the sunlight when the peak of summer hits? I'm not saying I'm going to outdoors all day each summer day to prove this, I do still know that sunburns and skin cancer can happen, but I'm going to try to be outdoors a lot more than I used to throughout this coming spring. I will not stay out any longer if my skin starts getting pink. I'm just talking about being in the sun during that time prior to the skin turning pink. Please don't take this and overdo it and get burned or worse.

I always like to figure out how people were intended to live. And one thing's for sure, until recently, they definitely didn't spend 90% of their time indoors.

In this modern life I lead, it's quite possible that other than walking to and from the car, if I don't go on walks outside, if I don't work in my garden, and if I don't take my kids to the park, all of which are tempting, I'd never be outside! It must be even harder for people who work indoors every day to see the sun. I'm not saying it's wrong, it's what I've done my whole life. But maybe, my body is trying to tell me that I need more sunlight than I've been getting.

It can't be such a bad thing anyway, I'll get more exercise, my yard will look great, I'll feel better, my skin (hopefully) will be darker and my hair will be lighter. So, I'll look good. I'm all in favor of that!

The following is an excerpt from Mitt Romney's Presidencial Announcement from this morning, as posted on Drudge Report. This part is about focusing on families, which I really like. I wanted to share it with all of you.

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GOVERNOR MITT ROMNEY'S PRESIDENTIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
Tue Feb 13 2007 08:31:33 ET

"At America's core are millions of individual families: families of children and parents, aunts and uncles and cousins, grandparents, foster parents. There is no work more important for our nation's future than the work done in the home.

"But the work done in the home isn't getting easier. Values and morals that have long shaped the development of our children are under constant attack. In too many cases, schools are failing. For some, healthcare is inadequate. Family expenses and government taxes take a larger and larger bite. America cannot continue to lead the family of nations if we fail the families at home.

"How is the American family made stronger? With marriage before children. With a mother and a father in the life of every child. With healthcare that is affordable and portable. With schools that succeed. With taxes that are lower. And with leaders who strive to demonstrate enduring values and morality. "This was the agenda I pursued as Governor of Massachusetts. This is the agenda I will pursue if elected President.

"When I was a boy, the American dream meant a house in the suburbs. The American dream today must mean more than a house. The new American dream should include a strong family, enduring values, excellence in education, dependable and affordable healthcare, secure employment and secure retirement, and a safe and prosperous homeland. It's time to build a new American dream for all of America's families.

"How will this new American dream be built? Our hopes and dreams will inspire us, for we are an optimistic people. But hope alone is just crossing fingers, when what we need is industrious hands. It is time for hope and action. It is time to do, as well as to dream!"

Pictures: Ice Storm and B&B

Here are pictures of the Famous Ice Storm from last month. Here you can see the icicles from our plants, and lining our trees.

See the top of the picture here for long icicles.

Here are some pictures from our trip to Fredericksburg at the end of December. The first picture is from a Christmas display they had out in the city.

Here the kids are looking around a garden / store area that focused on herbs.


This is the Bed & Breakfast we stayed at. Rose Hill Manor. It was very nice. Our room was the top three windows on the right. You can almost see our side windows, on the far right, that we left open. The bottom floor seen here is the restaurant.

This is the view driving away from Rose Hill Manor. Beautiful land! We got to walk around and look at the deer.

Wrong Planet post

The following is from a post I left on the Wrong Planet forum: http://www.wrongplanet.net/asperger.html?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=24760
in which the question was raised about how much an Aspie (person with Austism/Asperger's syndrome) can learn to act like a normal (NT) person.... by the way, my name on the site is an abbreviated form of my middle name: Laynie.


Kensho, I think this is a great question you brought up. I am also an adult aspie with a high IQ, undiagnosed as a child, who spent her entire life learning to mimic NT behavior. I call it acting, and I've learned that this "acting" I do is the best way to translate me to everyone else. Since there's more of them than me, I have trained myself to talk their language, so to speak. I also like learning languages, so I guess that's why I relate the two.

I have come to feel that if I want people to understand me, it's my job to translate myself. For example, my normal internally-driven response to a lady saying hi to me would be to either say nothing and not even look at her, or to start talking about whatever was on my mind, such as maps or weather patterns. If I were to talk to her at all it would be because I wanted to socialize, even though I wouldn't know how to acheive that socialization I wanted. However, I learned in elementary school that this response does not garner a continued conversation. It makes people walk away and not say hi to you next time. So, over the course of my 33 years, I've learned what to do instead. When a woman says hi to me, and I feel like socializing (not always, but much of the time) I will stop and put all my focus into watching her mouth to see what she says. I will then use some of my stored reponses to create the "feeling" she was going for, such as "how are you?" or "great weather" or that's a nice shirt (that one goes over well). In my early 20's I found this to be incredibly insulting, and I thought that acting was lying. However, lately, in my older age, I realize that these things are important ways of helping others feel accepted and happy. So I happily adopt the "language" to translate my good feelings of friendship into words that the other person will interpret as "she's nice and she's being nice to me", which is, after all, my goal. Then, when the other person says similar things back to me, I will run it through my "translator" which will tell me that the other person is nice, and that she's trying to be nice to me. After the translation, these things make me very happy. Therefore, communication has been achieved.

Apparently, I have practically mastered this plan. I was a complete social outcast for the first 26 or so years of my life. And now, at 33, I've completely fooled everyone I know into thinking I'm not only normal, but very nice and (some people even think) very social. They just don't know how hard I work at it. And that every three days or so I need a major break from humans in order to "recharge" my translator. When I'm wound down, I can't translate at all, which is very difficult for all parties involved, because even though I may feel happy and want to express appreciation for the other person, none comes out. They think I'm mad at them, and they get mad at me, which makes me actually mad. So, when I'm too worn out to translate, it's best to rest from people until I can do it properly again.

Sometimes I impress myself. Yesterday, I socialized at a high level of good translating for a total of 5 hours yesterday, which is incredibly good. Usually, my total is 2 hours a day. The trick is that today I have meetings and such, and it will total about 4 hours of socializing and communicating today, so by tomorrow I'll probably need to stay home with my kids all day and rest from any human who is not my child or my husband. And even then I won't be talking too much. But, if I do that, then by Friday I'll be recharged again and can go run lots of errands and negotiate the traffic and the crowds just fine.

I'm so good at this, that occasionally, when conversation turns to concern about how the neighborhood Aspie children are being treated by their parents as practical invalids, I get so upset about the limits that are being placed on these kids' potentials that, in order to make my point of what an Aspie's potential really is, I go ahead and tell the person that I, too am an Aspie, just like that kid. They NEVER believe me. I have become quite the actress!

So, to answer your question, yes I believe it's possible to "learn" NT behavior. Your question about if it relates to IQ and fight or drive is a good one. I have plenty of both, so all I can do is confirm your theory that those things are helpful or essential to gain this skill.

I have also been wondering about upbringing lately. Like I said, I see many children now who are diagnosed and whose parents are walking on eggshells around them. All the parents talk about is the child's disorders, they don't talk about the child. They tell me (not knowing I'm an Aspie) all the things the child won't be able to do in life -- all things that I have done. And I'm becoming quite enraged about it of late. I was treated like a completely normal child, because there was no diagnosis in those years. Same with all adult Aspies. If I had known I had an excuse, and if I had known how much damn harder it was for me to learn those things compared to others, there's no way I would have worked so hard. It was hard! But I did it because I honestly thought I was normal and that hiding my "tendencies" was essential to the life I wanted to lead. Well, it turns out I was absolutely correct about the latter.

So, I would like to add this question to Kensho's... are psychologists and therefore parents (who obey their doctors) doing younger Aspie's a huge disfavor by allowing them to know they are different and by exempting them from normal social events in life, such as playtime, Cub Scouts, overnight trips with Youth organizations, and the opportunity of being treated like a person with unlimited potential?

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Then, Kensho said some really good things, including this: "Seems to me that AS kids should be "mainstreamed" as much as possible. Yes, give them extra help to cope with social or whatever other issues they might have, but don't treat them like they are disabled. Bump up their self-esteem by giving them enrichment classes in things they are good at. Just give them some "tools" and turn them loose."

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To which I responded:

Yes, I totally agree Kensho. Looks like we're on the same page about this. Aspie children should be mainstreamed as much as possible. Now, I do homeschool, and I think that's partically because I like to teach and partially because public school was so hard on me. I choose to homeschool before I knew I was an Aspie. I thought everyone hated classrooms and loved to learn from books like me. So, after I was diagnosed, I had to be sure I was homeschooling for the right reasons. We determined that we could do a better job of teaching them than public school could, so that means I still get to homeschool, even though I realize now that my children wouldn't have hated the classroom environment as much as I did. But, now that I believe in mainstreaming socially more than I used to, now that I know all the benefits it actually gave me, that I didn't appreciate at the time, I'm actively keeping my kids involved with other kids. We go to group park days, violin lessons, Cub Scouts, church activities, and have friends who come over to play, such that they are at social events 4-5 days per school week. It's very hard on me, since I don't need that much socialization, but I know it's important and the right thing to do. My kids are NTs, normal, but I know I would treat them the same whether they were Aspies or not. The only difference is that I would be more direct in teaching rules of social behavior if I had an Aspie child. I would expect all of the same high standards. Indeed, if they were like me, I would expect the child to excel highly in one or two subjects as well.

My 7 year old son has an Aspie girlfriend (one of his 2 girlfriends, 7 year olds are so cute!), who seems normal to me (but my husband says it makes sense that I see Aspie's as being normal), and that poor girl's mom will not LET her be normal. They homeschool too, and we met them at a homeschoolers' park day. But that mom told us (again, not knowing I'm an Aspie) that they do 4 hours of therapy a day! And that most days they only do 30 minutes or zero actual homeschooling. This poor girl is actually giving up her education over it!

Another family I know has two Austistic kids. One Aspie and one very low IQ Autist. They won't let those kids do anything. I'm the leader of the large children's organization in our church. There are about 100 kids and adult leaders under me. One organization I'm over is Cub Scouts, and that family won't LET their boys be in Cub Scouts. The mom says "well, they can't keep up physically, so I don't want them to be let down." We keep telling them that their child won't be left behind, that the leaders are very sensitive and that he doesn't even have to keep up with the requirements, he'll have an exception. They won't do it. It's so heartbreaking to me. Especially for the high IQ Aspie boy, because I know his potential! I keep wanting to yell at the top of my lungs: Look! I'm the leader of this entire organization, and I'm an Aspie. Look how much I learned, look how much I can do. I organize people, and take care of them emotionally, I lead meetings, I decide many things to take care of all of those people. Surely your boy can figure out how to attend a Scout Meeting!!!

Then I saw this video on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_R_CUxrZ8I&mode=related&search= in which a dad of an Aspie boy, who seems at first to be a nice man, literally lists, for several minutes, all the things his boy will never do. And it's a ridiculous list, beginning around 4:20 in the video, saying he would never have best friends, participate in sports, have girlfriends, fall in love, kiss, have acedemic achievements, graduate from college, get into medical school, get married, or get a job. Made me crazy!!! I had all those things, well, except medical school, but that was by choice. I could have if I had wanted to. I learned so much about medicine on my own that I voluntarily gave birth to my 2nd son at home, alone, with just my husband and my 1st son here, because I learned everything a person needs to know for every possible birth complication.

For anyone that wants to help me on this Crusade, look at this depressing and pathetic video. They show pictures of their boy, and play pensive music, as if he's dead. It's so sad. After hearing these parents, I can't believe that the boy and I have the same types of brains. I just praise the Lord that I had different parents. My mom just kept teaching me my whole childhood, both things I wanted to learn, like the sciences I was interested in, and things I needed to learn, like social rules. My mom gave me endless support and encouragement. That's what an Aspie child needs, not a parent who's decided early on all the lists of things that the child will never be able to do.

Wow, sorry that's so negative. I'm really in a good mood today, it's just this topic has been developing in my mind this past week and I really needed to get it out. Thanks so much for your posts today, Kensho.