Ivan Maisel's son missing

My cousin has Aspergers. In many ways it's more difficult to explain to people than regular autism. They can be extremely high-functioning. My cousin who has it graduated from Stanford. If he's not heavily medicated, you do not under any circumstances want to be around him. You could be the most secure/confident person in the world and he'll find some way to get to you. It's almost uncanny. There's no filter whatsoever.

 

Sad. Hope this brings complete closure.

 

Maisel wrote on the third anniversary of his son's death.

As noted in the story, you can just get so much about the young man from looking at that picture. I teared up reading this.

 

Hanging on every word, I was ...

 

Really well-written and heartfelt.

I'm probably on the really shallow end of the spectrum, struggling to make eye contact, often aloof when it comes to interactions that aren't professional. I can have panic attacks in crowds on my worst days. But I can always snap myself out of it. There's always a good day after a bad day.

So I try to imagine if I could never get out of that fearful state, that terror of being seen or interacting. Of never being able to have a good day to get around those bad days where a glazed-over stare into the distance can be used as a shield to avoid everyone and everything. What if you could never put the shield down? It's haunting.

 

That was a gripping read.

 

Is that what you think autism is?

 

We walk that breakwater a few times a year and think of Max with every step.

An unimaginable loss for the Maisels.