In 1998, I saw the action thriller, Mercury Rising. Although this movie received some negative reviews and low ratings, it is one of the movies that made quite a lasting impression to me. From that movie, my take-away item is how to raise my son, Gordon to be like Simon.
In the movie, Simon is a nine year old boy with autism. His life is quite structured. Upon coming home, he changes, grabs some cookies from the jar, and fixes himself toast for snacks. Then, he goes to his room and ‘plays’ on the computer. In one computer game, he accidentally cracked a cryptic code, called Mercury, created by the National Security Agency. From then on, his life was in danger. In one episode, while on the run, he directed the undercover FBI agent, played by Bruce Willis the way to his home. The agent was naturally amazed that despite his lack of verbal communication, he was very much aware of his environment.
At the time I saw that movie, Gordon was four and a half years old. Then, he did not have any form of communication, gestural or verbal. Babbling was the only sound he would do. He kept babbling all day just like how one would whistle to oneself while doing a chore. He was not toilet trained. And he was throwing things, like plates and glasses, when he seemed upset, for reasons we could never understand.
If baby photos are indicators of Gordon’s personality, we could have predicted that he would be a vibrant, bubbly, fun loving kid possessing a great sense of humor. There has not been a single baby photo where he was not interacting with us or responding to the frolics of adult
funny faces.
But, the promises of those baby photos started to fade around eighteen months. The babble that started at ten months old did not progress to any distinguishable, even baby, language. He had not learned to call me ‘Mom’ or any of our names and labels. He did not understand ‘NO’. By the time he was three years old, all drinking glasses were shattered to pieces from the throwing he would do. Even Corelle plates’cracked pieces, that merchants vowed are unbreakable, became a common sight on our kitchen tiles.
At our repeated insistence to our family doctor, he finally referred us to child psychiatrist. It took the child psychiatrist less than a fifteen minutes to pronounce the ‘autism’ sentence. And in his nonchalant manner, he hastily recommended that Gordon see a speech therapist, behavior therapist and attend a daycare with a worker from a support agency that offers services for persons with intellectual disabilities. And so, we complied to all of his prescriptions.
After a year and a half being in all these ‘prescribed’ activities, we didn’t see much improvement in Gordon. Nevertheless, I still brought him to the same child psychiatrist, in the hopes that from a professional’s perspective, he would see some progress. Instead, he said, “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see him as autistic”.
The next day when I bumped into Gordon’s behavior therapist, I asked if Gord will ever learn to talk or at least call me ‘Mom’. She said, “Quite honestly, you need to brace yourself for reality. Either he will never gain speech or not be able to communicate or if he does, he will speak in a very robotic manner.” And that response, I thought, is what the diagnosis of ‘severe autism’ is all about.
Admittedly, when Gordon got his diagnosis, I didn’t really exercise much due diligence in researching any information about autism. Just like any illness, I thought I could just leave his care in the hands of the capable doctor and the therapists he recommended. I thought I didn’t have to do anything other than provide him a safe and healthy home. I was very much wrong. I’ve come to realize that there are a lot of those professionals who work on their regularly scheduled time merely to earn a living. They do not carry their work with a passion of helping another human being. We are all machines to them; and they run their day like assembly line workers. The professionals we saw then did not care about Gordon’s development or seeing him improve.
The professionals’ prognosis of Gord can be paralleled to declaring that all individuals with autism are destined to be institutionalized. The movie, however, provided me some hope. It was very refreshing to see a non-verbal Simon function independently. It was very encouraging to see that though he didn’t have language, he is very well oriented in any place. To see him comply to the agent’s instructions implied that Simon’s receptive skills is not as limited as his expressive skills.
Maybe too late for a movie review eleven years after it hit the screen. In relation to the story line, the title choice may seem stale. The movie itself may have disappointed viewers who were expecting some pulse-pounding moments on some exciting scenes. My focus in watching the movie is on Simon. With all published works on autism in abundance these days, I often think if the producers were aware of the fact that Mercury has been blamed for the many neurological deficits in children these days. Vaccines contain Thimerasol which is 49% Mercury. ‘Mercury Rising’ therefore denotes the increase of the autism incidence. The movie’s title is very fitting.
Better late than never but here, I thank the directors and actors of the movie for a realistic portrayal of Simon as a boy with autism. I see Simon in Gord, fearless and calm oblivious to the commotion around him. Like Simon, Gord has become independent. As our GPS, ‘Gordon Positioning System’, he is our trusted guide. Unlike Simon, he is verbal and can communicate.
(Guess, this is getting too long for an initial post. I just have so much to share – my experience and thoughts. Stay tuned.)
In the movie, Simon is a nine year old boy with autism. His life is quite structured. Upon coming home, he changes, grabs some cookies from the jar, and fixes himself toast for snacks. Then, he goes to his room and ‘plays’ on the computer. In one computer game, he accidentally cracked a cryptic code, called Mercury, created by the National Security Agency. From then on, his life was in danger. In one episode, while on the run, he directed the undercover FBI agent, played by Bruce Willis the way to his home. The agent was naturally amazed that despite his lack of verbal communication, he was very much aware of his environment.
At the time I saw that movie, Gordon was four and a half years old. Then, he did not have any form of communication, gestural or verbal. Babbling was the only sound he would do. He kept babbling all day just like how one would whistle to oneself while doing a chore. He was not toilet trained. And he was throwing things, like plates and glasses, when he seemed upset, for reasons we could never understand.
If baby photos are indicators of Gordon’s personality, we could have predicted that he would be a vibrant, bubbly, fun loving kid possessing a great sense of humor. There has not been a single baby photo where he was not interacting with us or responding to the frolics of adult
funny faces.But, the promises of those baby photos started to fade around eighteen months. The babble that started at ten months old did not progress to any distinguishable, even baby, language. He had not learned to call me ‘Mom’ or any of our names and labels. He did not understand ‘NO’. By the time he was three years old, all drinking glasses were shattered to pieces from the throwing he would do. Even Corelle plates’cracked pieces, that merchants vowed are unbreakable, became a common sight on our kitchen tiles.
At our repeated insistence to our family doctor, he finally referred us to child psychiatrist. It took the child psychiatrist less than a fifteen minutes to pronounce the ‘autism’ sentence. And in his nonchalant manner, he hastily recommended that Gordon see a speech therapist, behavior therapist and attend a daycare with a worker from a support agency that offers services for persons with intellectual disabilities. And so, we complied to all of his prescriptions.
After a year and a half being in all these ‘prescribed’ activities, we didn’t see much improvement in Gordon. Nevertheless, I still brought him to the same child psychiatrist, in the hopes that from a professional’s perspective, he would see some progress. Instead, he said, “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see him as autistic”.
The next day when I bumped into Gordon’s behavior therapist, I asked if Gord will ever learn to talk or at least call me ‘Mom’. She said, “Quite honestly, you need to brace yourself for reality. Either he will never gain speech or not be able to communicate or if he does, he will speak in a very robotic manner.” And that response, I thought, is what the diagnosis of ‘severe autism’ is all about.
Admittedly, when Gordon got his diagnosis, I didn’t really exercise much due diligence in researching any information about autism. Just like any illness, I thought I could just leave his care in the hands of the capable doctor and the therapists he recommended. I thought I didn’t have to do anything other than provide him a safe and healthy home. I was very much wrong. I’ve come to realize that there are a lot of those professionals who work on their regularly scheduled time merely to earn a living. They do not carry their work with a passion of helping another human being. We are all machines to them; and they run their day like assembly line workers. The professionals we saw then did not care about Gordon’s development or seeing him improve.
The professionals’ prognosis of Gord can be paralleled to declaring that all individuals with autism are destined to be institutionalized. The movie, however, provided me some hope. It was very refreshing to see a non-verbal Simon function independently. It was very encouraging to see that though he didn’t have language, he is very well oriented in any place. To see him comply to the agent’s instructions implied that Simon’s receptive skills is not as limited as his expressive skills.
Maybe too late for a movie review eleven years after it hit the screen. In relation to the story line, the title choice may seem stale. The movie itself may have disappointed viewers who were expecting some pulse-pounding moments on some exciting scenes. My focus in watching the movie is on Simon. With all published works on autism in abundance these days, I often think if the producers were aware of the fact that Mercury has been blamed for the many neurological deficits in children these days. Vaccines contain Thimerasol which is 49% Mercury. ‘Mercury Rising’ therefore denotes the increase of the autism incidence. The movie’s title is very fitting.
Better late than never but here, I thank the directors and actors of the movie for a realistic portrayal of Simon as a boy with autism. I see Simon in Gord, fearless and calm oblivious to the commotion around him. Like Simon, Gord has become independent. As our GPS, ‘Gordon Positioning System’, he is our trusted guide. Unlike Simon, he is verbal and can communicate.
(Guess, this is getting too long for an initial post. I just have so much to share – my experience and thoughts. Stay tuned.)
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