What to do for Sprains, Strains, Backache, Bruises

Boericke & Tafel

Arniflora Arnica Gel

This stuff is the best thing in my medicine cabinet. Next to Tylenol, it is the best thing for a sprained ankle. I once sprained my ankle in the middle of moving our home to a new flat. I was able to finish moving.

This stuff is a clear gel, with no real odor (if you really try, it kinda smells like green tea.) It doesn't stain clothing, and doesn't burn or cause any kind of side effect. I put it on about twice a day by rubbing it into the swollen areas around my ankle. I spent 3 more days packing, and moving and carrying boxes with no trouble.

I have recommended it to a person who had whiplash from a car accident, and it helped within 3 days. I recommended it to someone who had a back injury that was 4 years old, and had recently gotten much worse so that the person couldn't work (lifting 50lbs was part of the job.) That person was able to go back to work within a week.

You can't take it internally or put it on a cut or open wound. But its good for ankle, knee, hip, back and neck strains, sprains and bruises. It seems to help with inflammation, and is somewhat antibacterial, and also promotes healing.

It's non-prescription, and doesn't interfere with other medications you might need.

I was thinking about this when we were watching the Olympics last night. I hope all the athletes have at least tried it or know about it. I have used it for over 20 years, and it has always worked.

Emotional Integrity

Say What You Mean
~
Mean What You Say


A lot of the misunderstandings that happen around people with Autism could be prevented if people could follow this. Both the neuro-typical people and the people with Autism.

The say what you mean part includes:

No sarcasm -- because often even when a person with Autism "gets it" they have a much harder time with decoding sarcasm when anxious or over-stimulated.

No slang -- people with Autism tend to be way behind their peers in learning slang terms, partly from having spent less time with peers in casual settings, and partly from lack of paying attention to things not in their area of interest.

No innuendo -- "wink, wink" people with Autism often miss the body language that modifies a supposedly "absurd" bit of dialogue, to make it meaningful.

No exaggeration -- Autistic people often don't need the exaggeration to get your point, because they take everything at face value, and very literally. They either "get it" or they don't. Exaggeration only works if you explain your comment as being a metaphor or exaggeration up front.

For instance, when a child says; "I hate you!" when you insist on a chore, you don't take it personal (hopefully.) You know it is just an immature way of exaggerating a point that they are trying to make (extreme frustration.) However, saying a similar thing to an Autistic person will tend to backfire, since it is often used in a very heated, emotional exchange, and this is when the Autistic person is at their worst in decoding what is happening in their world socially.

No Double-Meanings -- Often someone will ask a question or bring up a topic to get a completely different point across. For instance; imagine if you went to visit a friend on the spur of the moment, and they made a comment like: "Gee, I hate it when my relatives drop in unexpectedly without calling first." You might call before coming over the next time. An Autistic person would not get the hint, no matter how obvious it was, because they aren't ever looking for hints, unless they have been specifically taught this, and were calm enough to remember to do it in a variety of social settings.

Of course, all these things listed above are the perfect material for comedians, comedy shows, and close friends who already have their personal vocabularies, and social styles memorized. These are the social things that make life interesting. However, in reality, they are much more fun to watch ("I Love Lucy" or "The Simpsons" comes to mind) than to experience in your own family life.

In fact, all of the above things are what constitutes "drama" in relationships. In a boring relationship, it might spice things up, but a steady diet of drama can deteriorate a relationship when one or both of the members is under stress, tired, is insecure about the relationship or anxious.

At one point, we put these things into a list that was posted on the wall in our house, until the Autistic person grew older and wiser and we were able to teach some of these things to him in a calm setting. We still have the "No Sarcasm" rule, in our house, but it gets broken regularly, when we are having fun on a playful, casual, low stress day.


The Mean What You Say part includes:

Never promise what you can't be sure you can deliver. If you are constantly using threats that you can't follow up on, you are eventually going to make whatever you say irrelevant to people.

If you can't be sure, say so. If you don't know the answer, say so.

This removes the verbal/behavioral "static" that people with Autism have a hard time filtering out. For instance, if Dad always says: "If you don't stop horsing around in the car we aren't going to the movie." But then everyone gets upset because the movie was planned for a week as a reward for doing homework, and the family goes to the movie anyway. What Dad says is then "static" -- irrelevant information, that is simply noisy.

Dad could have said that he would stop the car and not move it until everyone was quiet. This might have been more realistic as to what was eventually going to be followed through on.

Choose carefuly what to say so that everything you say has a practical meaning in the real world, with useful information about what is happening or is going to happen.

If you consistently do this, your words will mean more, and matter more to those you speak to. If you do this inconsistently, then people will always be waiting for the next shoe to drop, so to speak. For instance, if you only act when you have first threatened to act for 3 or 4 times, then no one will start listening to you until the 4 th time you say something. If you only get roused enough to interrupt what you are doing when you are yelling at the top of your voice, then no one will start listening to you until you are yelling at the top of your voice.

Consistency.
Be Extremely consistent. If your words reflect your actions accurately, this helps the Autistic person make better choices about what to do and what not to do, when their behavior is within their control.

Live your Values
If you value something, spell it out, write it down, speak it out loud in concrete terms. Be specific. Then live what you have spelled out. This is better than any lecture, or angry diatribe. Discuss values when you are all calm and focused--not when a situation is tense.

Imagine Who You Want to Be, Then Set Your Intention, And Live to What You Want to Be
Don't react. Act.
Be the person you want to be regardless of what is happening around you, to you, or because of you. If you want to be the kind of person who doesn't scream or yell, then don't. Don't let yourself get egged on into being who you are not. Nobody can force you to behave a certain way. If an Autistic person is loosing it, falling to the floor kicking and screaming it is OK to just stand there and wait for it to end. You don't have to yell to show others you are "taking this seriously." If there is nothing you can do about it, then don't make it worse by doing things just to look like you are trying to do something. You don't have to let guilt make you do stuff. Decide that if it is the right thing to do, you will do it, whether you are feeling guilty or not. Decide this ahead of time.

You don't help a person because of who they are, you help a person because of who you are.
Mother Theresa didn't question the dying people she helped to determine if they had led a deserving life first. She had made a decision to help the dying ahead of time, because she felt that no one should die alone--not because of who they were, but because of who she was.

If the person uses this against you, then that is manipulation, and that is a different situation. This is where you set boundaries and are careful who to help and how to help, and for what reasons.

A good resource for dealing with meltdowns is the book:
"Asperger Syndrome and Difficult Moments, Practical Solutions for Tantrums, Rage and Meltdowns" by Brenda Smith Myles, and Jack Southwick