autism in and around my life.

hi all. i'm new here and i'm hoping to learn alot about the different spectrums to autism.
i have a soon to be 15 year old sister, who is autistic. i've been working with a man for a year now who's just turned 38 and i have my suspicions that he too is somewhat autistic. my mom has just recently told me that i was diagnosed with PDD when i was 12. and it's only been within the past 2 years that she has also suspected i have a mild case of Aspergers. that explains why i've always lined up my collection of hotwheels in a certain way on the shelves in my room. my OCD kicks in now and then. if one car is out of order on one row on just one shelf, the whole room gets redone. i'll spend hours upon hours in my room dusting the cars, the shelves, their cases, and the walls the shelves hang on until everything is just right. if it isn't right then it'll take me all night.
my sister is somewhere on the autism spectrum but we're not sure as to where that might be. she has fits here and there and every now and then a meltdown as well. she has been autistic since she was born but we didn't know for sure until she was diagnosed a few years ago. it would explain why she would constantly cry as a baby. there were nights i and the rest of the family wouldn't get much sleep. she was mis-diagnosed as bi-polar. she has here mood swings but not like an individual that has bipolar. i know this because her father is however bipolar. her mood swings would switch on and off like a light switch. one minute she'll be telling my mom and i to stay out of her life cuz she didn't get her way and the next she'll be lovin up on us both. over the years i've grown very used to it.
now the young man i work with is the same way as my sister, only he's the adult version of it. and what scares me is it seems to me that only a few of us understand him and that's just not enough. i work with a total of 15 to 20 people at my job and only 5 of us really know know him on a personal level. he's a good kid don't get me wrong, and he means well but the others just don't seem to cope well with him. they push him the breaking point sometimes and it usually takes one of us 5 to pull him away from the aggressor. it's when one of us is not there that he'll blow. i work amongst alot of customers on a daily basis, and they like the other co-workers do not understand him. when he blows it's like mount st. helens all over again. there's just no stopping him. it usually takes one of us 5 to calm him down. he'll throw merchandise, kick empty boxes around in the warehouse, and throw carts around the parking lot. in simple terms he goes into his own meltdown. but then he's again like my little sister. once he's been calmed down he's all buddy buddy with all of us and the customers again. like us 5, there a few regular customers that understand him. one of our regulars has a 12 year old full blown autistic daughter. she comes in with her now and then to shop and the little girl has a bad habit of wandering off from her mom. but the store personal have been told by us 5 that she is autistic and normally one of us is assigned to keep an eye on her and help her with any thing when her mom is off shopping through our store. she's a good kid, but it makes me angry to see how others stare at her when she's in the toy department making odd noises and singing at the top of her lungs. i'll be honest, i just want to haul off and sucker punch some of the people that come into our store for some of the remarks and gestures they make towards this darling little girl and her mother.
so, you see why i have said my title as i did. i want to understand it as much as i can. to help in the research as well and hopefully find a cure for it. i want to help put a stop to autism.

Hi hotrod,and welcome to IAN.

It certainly sounds as if, through your own life experience, you have become quite an advocate for people on the autism spectrum.

You were asking about learning more. We do have some good information on the autism spectrum disorders on our website, here at IAN.

Check out our "About ASDs" section: http://www.iancommunity.org/cs/about_asds/

Also our "Challenging Behaviors" section: http://www.iancommunity.org/cs/challenging_behavior/

As you work with other people who do not know much about people with ASD, and are trying to educate them, you may want to print out some of this information to share.

I do not know if your co-worker has a firm diagnosis or a mild, as yet undiagnosed case of ASD. It is always a dilemma for high functioning adults -- do they bother with a diagnosis or not (if they did not receive one in childhood)? Will it be more helpful to reveal a disability and ask for accommodations or to never reveal? That can depend on many things, from how well they are able to function without additional support, to whether they have a firm diagnosis, to how well the laws protecting individuals with disabilities in their country are being enforced in the work place.

I think it is safe to say that if someone is having frequent meltdowns at work, they are probably going to need to seek help to control their behavior in order to keep their job. (That might be medication, counseling, and/or a job coach of some kind to help them learn to manage their emotions and how they deal with people at work.) In any case, this person you described is fortunate to have a co-worker who understands.