Autism: Forrest Gump Essay

Almost everyone of us at least once in life had to deal with a general lack of understanding. Only a few can boast of a cloudless childhood, in which there was no place for various ridicules, machinations and abuse, that were arranged by our peers. Some of us were victims of children offenses because of small stature, someone was suffering because of his red hair and his freckles, and someone was mocked because of his ridiculous names. It is terrible even to imagine how much mentally disabled children suffer in childhood, and when they get older. This children would prefer to suffer from their short stature, but not from dementia. But little Forrest Gump had no choice, he had to live being mentally disabled from birth, and he was always teased by his peers.
In the film, the story is told on behalf of the Forest, where he tells the story of his life. Forrest is incredibly lucky in all things that he faces in his everyday life. His innocence and naivete only make things to be even more successful. Forrest is an incredibly fast runner and for the majority of students, he becomes a favorite player of the university football team. He achieves incredible success in the military service, while staying at a hospital Forrest opens for him self on more talent, a talent in ping-pong, also Forrest was invited to the White House to meet the President of the United States of America. In short, not everyone is a wise guy on the shoulder. But on his life path Forrest will have to face a lot of difficulties to be overcame by a good guy with a childish spontaneity.
In regard to Winston Groom’s book «Forrest Gump», the original character of Forrest was depicted as a young man who was ill with savant syndrome. But in the movie of the same name, that is an adaption of the Groom’s book by Robert Zemeckis, the character of Forrest Gump is more likely to be a person with intellectual development disability rather than a person with savant syndrome.
Intellectual development disability is a disease, the main condition of which is either congenital or acquired intellectual impairment. As a rule a person with intellectual development disability has reduced ability to abstract thinking, that it is the basis of mathematical abilities, logic, and even creativity. At the same time, person’s emotional sphere is not affected. Patients with mental retardation experience feelings of sympathy and antipathy, pleasure and sorrow, sadness and joy, perhaps the emotions of mentally retarded people are not so multi-faceted and complex, as the emotions of people with normal intelligence. It is important to note that mental retardation has no tendency to progression, that means that the level of underdevelopment of intelligence is stable, and sometimes the level of intelligence can even increase under the influence of trainings and life experience of a person with intellectual development disability.
The examination and treatment of children and adults with mental retardation should be comprehensive and consider his individual learning, working, and also his relationships with other people. Therapeutic options include a wide range of interventions: individual, group, family, behavioral, physical, labor and other forms of therapy. Pharmacotherapy is one of the most important components of the treatment.
In order to control behavior in the long term, persons with mental retardation are commonly prescribed to use psychotropic drugs, and often a combination of psychotropic drugs, it is very important to consider the short-term and long-term effects of these medications, in order to choose the most secure one. Combined treatment with neuroleptics, anticonvulsants, antidepressants and mood stabilizers is fraught with problems related to pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic interaction. Therefore, before you assign a combination of drugs, the physician should inquire about the possibility of drug interactions in directories or other sources of information. It should be emphasized that very often patients take unnecessary drugs for a long period of time, cancellation of which has no adverse effect on their condition, but avoids the adverse effects of these drugs.
Very important role in the treatment of intellectual development disability takes social rehabilitation. Rehabilitation programs are primarily aimed at the improvement of patients in special schools, where children can learn by adopting to special programs.
Many examples prove that if the treat of mild forms of intellectual development disability is started timely and properly, it is possible to achieve very good results in treatment. There are many patients who have a mild degree of the disease and at the same time they have a job, own family. Relatively moderate and severe forms of mental retardation, the social and medical assistance is to provide supervision and care, and if there is a need, then monitor the health of the patient.