Autism a Mental Illness

Autism is a brain development disorder that is defined by restricted and repetitive behavior, and by impaired social interaction and communication. Autism is a complicated disease having many signs and symptoms, myths, misconceptions, and different diagnoses and treatments. The environment of an autistic patient plays an important role in the treatment or therapy because it can help or impair the effectiveness of the treatment.

The severity of signs and symptoms vary between individuals who suffer from autism, but there are some core signs and symptoms that all autistic people share in the areas of social interactions and relationships, a lack of interests in play and activities and nonverbal and verbal communications. Some of these signs and symptoms include gazing, certain facial expressions and posturing, failure to establish friendship, lack of interest in sharing enjoyment, interests, empathy, delay or lack of learning to talk, repetitiveness, preoccupation with certain things, need for the same routines, rocking, hand flapping, or banging of the head. Signs and symptoms of autism are almost always noticed by parents first during their child's first three years. Parents often become aware that something is wrong with their child when the child does not seem to be interested in playing certain games or being held, when their child's hearing abilities change, and when the child does not begin to talk or suddenly loses his or her ability to talk.

The word autism goes back to 1911 when Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler used this term to describe certain adults that had different characteristics that were said to be suffering from schizophrenia. It was not until 1943 when Dr. Leo Kanner described autism for the first time. He based his discovery from eleven children he observed that had withdrawn from human contact as early as the age one. Unfortunately, until the 1960’s most medical professionals thought that children who had autism also had...