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Why Do Autistics Drone and *** Their Heads?
I have autism, and my life has been shaped around discovering what hurts the symptoms
of autism, what helps the symptoms of autism, and why.
In this video, I explain why autistics do one of sixteen different types of behaviours.
Then I'll let you know how to get more information, if you want it. This is one of a series of
16 different videos which I hope will make it easier for you to explain autism behaviours
to extended family, colleagues, educators, friends, or anyone who might be working with
or supporting someone with an autistic spectrum condition.
I'm Jackie McMillan of Thrive With Autism. I help parents, educators, health practitioners,
and adult autistics to reduce or eliminate the symptoms of autistic spectrum disorders,
so that autism no longer defines their lives, or limits their opportunities.
So, why do autistics drone and *** their heads? Well, first I'll explain what droning
is. Droning is, when you're, um, staying on one note for long periods of time. So it,
it sounds something like this, "Ahhhh", and you just keep going on that note forever and
ever and ever. Now, um, we do this as a form of white noise, and think about how other
people use white noise. When you're on an airplane, ah, you'll have
noise-cancelling headphones that will, um, make a waveform that will cover over the noise
of the airplane so that you can focus on what you want to focus on, or so you can sleep,
if you want to sleep. When, ah, droning is a way of creating your own white noise, your
own background noise to drown out other things so that you can focus on what you want to
focus on. And it really, really helps, uh, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's an aide to paying
attention. Now, you wouldn't think that banging your
head has much in common with that, but really, it's, it's the same thing. Uh, it's just that
it, it's drowning out a much, much louder signal. And the signal it's usually drowning
out is pain, either emotional pain or physical pain, whether it's got external causes, or
internal causes. And that, ah, when you're, when you're banging
your head, and you know, some people do it forward, and some people, I did it backward.
I would, I would hit myself on things go -- moving back. When you're head-banging, what you're
doing is, you're using pain that you control to drown out pain that you cannot control.
Now, why would it be better to *** your head than not to, to just, you know, deal with
the pain that you're feeling? Well if you, if you look at research from the Holocaust,
from after the Holocaust, actually, when we were trying to figure out why people could
do such horrible things to each other, um, one of the things that they discovered is
that when, ah, when someone else is in control of, ah, how much pain you're feeling, and
how long that pain lasts, you have a lot less tolerance for that pain than when you have
control over how, how much pain you're experiencing, and how long it lasts.
And the, the difference is quite startling. So when we're banging our heads, we are drowning
out pain that we, ah, with, with... pain that we have no control over with pain that we
do have control over. Believe it or not, from the inside, head-banging feels very empowering
and protective. If you want more information, some free webinars
are coming up. Autism Essentials gives you the keys to help
the autistics you love at home, school, and work.
The Five Root Causes of Autism helps you find the unique blend at the root of your particular
autistic challenges. Thank you for caring about someone with autism.