With April’s "Autism Awareness Month" observance ending, it seems appropriate to close the observance with a story on a very positive note, especially for families affected by autism and the related disorder called Asperger Syndrome.

Eric Sissom is scheduled to graduate this coming December with a bachelor’s degree in information technology from Middle Tennessee State University.

Perhaps this seems a little ordinary, except for the fact that 13 years ago Eric was diagnosed with autism. On Thursday, he and his mother, Marilyn, spoke at the Autism/Asperger Support Network’s monthly meeting at the D.W. Wilson Community Center in Tullahoma.

Both spoke from their own perspective, as mother of an autistic child and as an autistic man.

He was 14 years old when he and his family received the news. At first he says he thought it was "a lot of crap" and didn’t believe the doctors.

When he was four, his family was told that Eric was developmentally and verbally impaired. The word autism was mentioned, but it didn’t come up in conversation again for another 10 years. At that time his family like many others had no idea what autism even was.

Due to the fact that the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck when he was born Marilyn thought that he was a little slow because of the lack of oxygen to his brain during labor, and that he was just moving at his own pace.

When he began kindergarten, she says Eric was two years older than other kids in his class. In school, he always had trouble concentrating and understanding concepts. He also had rough relationships with many of his teachers. Marilyn said she received many, many phone calls saying that he was acting up in school, either being hyperactive or violent.

"Your courage goes up as the years go on," Marilyn assured.

Eric’s talk to the group came in two forms, and many in the crowd commented on how well he spoke. He showed a video of two speeches he made earlier, and afterwards he answered questions. The first was an educational speech he made on the history and effects of autism.

He said autism was "once thought to be caused by bad parenting." Later, he said, it was discovered that autism was caused by a genetic predisposition.

Some autistic persons are what is termed a savant, he said, such as Dennis Hoffman portrayed in "Rain Man," the film based on a real life autistic savant. Savants can be extremely intelligent in the areas of mathematics, music and memorization. Famous men in history suspected of being savants, he said, include Albert Einstein, Sir Isaac Newton, Thomas Jefferson and even Bill Gates.

He also talked about the growth of autism diagnosis. He said just 10 or 15 years ago one out of 10,000 were diagnosed with autism. Each year autism diagnosis grows by 10 to 17 percent.

Now it is more common than Down Syndrome, Eric said. Diagnosis is four times more common with boys and girls. Signs of autism include lack of verbal communication and eye contact, he explained.

"Everybody has their own challenge," he said..

Speaking of his own challenge, Eric explained that he had a mild form, also known as high functioning, of Asperger. Some children with autism talk too much about their favorite subject, others not at all. He said that personally he was an extremely fussy baby, and in school was teased for laughing at inappropriate times.

The next speech on the video was one that Eric made to members of the church he attends. The subject was on the diet he found 10 years ago that helped him function better.

In February of 1998, Eric began taking prescription medication. In June of the same year he began a diet free of dairy and wheat products. He no longer takes the medication.

"I felt like my mind was going to explode. I felt suicidal and had crazy thoughts and crazy fantasies," Eric said about the prescriptions. Now that is he off the medications he says he is more proactive.

However he attributes his diet to helping make a great change in his concentration, behavior and better grades.

"After I started the diet I was like a different person," he said.

He described the feeling as intoxicating and jokes that as a child he was often drunk.

Many with autism have a bad reaction to casein in dairy foods and gluten in wheat, he said. Eric says the affects of these two substances interacting with the brain are similar to the affects of heroin.

His father did some research on the Internet and found this phenomenon. The family sent off a sample of Eric’s urine. It was tested and his peptide levels of casein and dairy were high.

He was against the diet at first, because he would have to give up dairy and wheat. Now, Eric is a strong proponent of the gluten/casein free diet. His Web site is full of information and links on the subject.

"There is no cure for autism, but diet can help," Eric explained.

He is now well on his way to graduating with a bachelor’s degree, and has already earned an associate’s applied science degree in information technology from Motlow College.

After graduating, Eric, a young man who has come a long way, intends to look for a job in the world of computers.