Stress Overload = strange headache

This weekend I got a very bizarre headache, that has not entirely gone away (it comes and goes, with little corrolation to much of anything). The only cause I can think of that makes any sense is stress overload. Now, why is the headache 'bizarre' and why can stress be the only cause? The headache is bizarre because, for the most part, it is not painful. It is like feeling light-headed and wozy, but, instead of the room spinning, my vision going black, or lossing my hearing, is feels like different parts of my brain are on a variety of little boats on a stormy sea. Yes, it feels like my brain is beginning to feel seasick. Such an unusual headache is generally generated entirely by one's imagination and little else could be the cause, besides stress overload.

My bizarre headache prompted my to think about the mechanisms that probably over-react to cause a negative physical reaction to stress. Are they evolutionarily sound when not exaggerated? Were they once usful, and now remain only because humans have learned how to cope? Or was the negative physical reaction to stress selected itself?

I thought about all that yesterday, but today I was reminded, looking through my readings, that a similar question can be posed about autism? Was autism itself selected for? Were less eccentric versions selected for and autism is the unfortunate extreme? This, in turn, relates to society's view of autism and its 'usefulness'. There appears to be a debate now over whether or not to try to rid the world of autism, to remove the autism gene(s), if it becomes possible. The very fact that there even is a debate shows a shift in attitude towards autism. Before, it was nothing but a horrid disease; now, it could be something highly useful to keep in the gene pool.

More Focused...Finally!

At last, I have a better sense of what I am doing for my Junior Theme (I still hate refering to it as a Junior Theme, it has sucha negative connotation).

Why has society's attitude towards autism changed since the syndrome was first identified?

My research so far has already shown me that America has had a great shift in the last fifty or sixty years; from institutionalizing autistics to the creating of the School Support Program-Autism Spectrum Disorder by the Ministry of Children and Youth Services (Autism Spectrum Disorder and the Inclusive classroom).

I would like to try and research possible societal motivators to explain the drastic change over a mere few decades. Perhaps there was some anti-Instituionalization movement that I have yet to read about. Changes never come about without cause.

Junior Theme Blog?

I'm not sure how we are supposed to blog about our Junior Themes, so I guess I'll figure it out as I go.

I am, and have been for a while, very interested in Autism Spectrum Disorder; especially in how people react to it. Let me explain what I mean. I am interested both in trying to understand how an autistic's mind is different from my own, how they cope with being autistic, and how they see themselves and others and in understanding how others, nonautistics, react to those with autism and how they themselves are affected by these autistic people in their lives. Using famous autistics as a focus of my paper seems, to me, to be a good way to be able to fulfill requirements and research what I am interested in.

I have already read a long article on the "do vaccines cause autism?" controversy and the last chapter of Oliver Sacks's An Anthropologist on Mars, which focuses on Temple Grandin, a high-functioning autistic woman who is famous in her own fields. perhaps the most interesting thing I have learned through my reading so far is that it is quite likely that the majority of people with autism have far more visual thinking than a nonautistic does. As of yet, I am not entirely sure what this means for one's thought processes, but it sounds fascinating.