After years of struggling with physical, social and emotional challenges she didn’t understand, Amber Black was diagnosed with autism at the age of 37.
Photo - Clay Hammerly, The Hammer Photo

By Judy Latta

Turning a surprise diagnosis into a life’s mission

Amber Black never felt like she fit in. As a child, she always felt like an outsider, struggling both socially and academically, and as she grew into a young adult, Amber grew increasingly isolated and overwhelmed with self-doubt.

“Throughout my early life, I felt different, and being different brought many challenges for me personally as my feelings were not always acknowledged in constructive ways,” she explains. “I didn’t understand life or the concept of how to maneuver through it, and people around me kept trying to push me in ways I didn’t understand.” As a result, Amber became estranged from her family, and without a strong support system or solid foundation of basic life skills, she moved from one abusive relationship to another. Suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder from the abuse, she says she lived her life in a chronic state of “fight or flight,” and her health began to decline.

“I didn’t understand what harm was or how to protect myself, and I didn’t have anyone who protected me either,” she says.

Amber repeatedly sought professional advice regarding her difficulties, but nothing seemed to help. Finally, after years of medical testing and numerous unsuccessful treatments, at 37 she was diagnosed with autism. “It was a complete shock to me because the discussion on autism centers on children and not so much, if at all, on adults,” she says.

Amber researched autism spectrum disorder and realized that the indicators had been there all along; it just took an open-minded physician who understood that autism is not just a childhood condition to make the connection. “I had to really take in the reality of the diagnosis and find acceptance in it,” she says. “This was a reality that was frightening, yet comforting too.” Suddenly, the past three decades of her life made sense and she finally knew what she was up against. Having a diagnosis at last was liberating.

Learning to Cope

Amber is a reserved, high functioning autistic on the autism spectrum. This is a blessing, but at the same time high functioning adults with autism face unique challenges. Studies show that, contrary to widely held belief, adults with mild autism often aren’t more successful in life than those with severe forms. One reason is that most autism services are focused on the support of children and teens, or adults whose symptoms are severe. According to Spec­trum­News.org, a clearinghouse for news and research on autism spectrum disorder, young adults with high functioning autism tend to struggle because their disorder is not physically obvious, so they have all the expectations of adulthood but little or none of the support that is available to children or the severely disabled.

With the recognition that she would need to make major lifestyle changes to cope with her diagnosis, Amber turned once again to research, and like most other conditions, she learned that there are varied schools of thought on best practices for treatment. Always health conscious even at her lowest points, and a competitive pro-figure athlete and body builder, Amber applied what she learned to her understanding of her own life and began to focus on how a healthy lifestyle can play a key role in autism treatment outcomes. She says, “I took on my autism through self-education, nutrition, exercise, dietary supplements and a combination of traditional and alternative medicine.”

Once she took control and devoted herself to getting and staying well, Amber really began to flourish. She worked hard, strengthening both her body and her mind to manage her condition. In addition to building a thriving career as a fitness expert and personal trainer, in 2012 she returned to competing on the International Natural Body­building Federation circuit and in Fitness Universe shows around the world, and she began racking up awards.

Amber’s diagnosis did not take away the challenges she had faced throughout her life; rather it armed her with the recognition of their root causes, so she could be proactive in dealing with them in effective ways. “It took many mental, physical and emotional hardships to eventually come to understand, accept and embrace the uniqueness that makes me into the woman that I am today,” she says.

Over the years Amber began to understand how her brain and nervous system work, and she pushed herself to learn the social and life skills needed to finally fit in and develop healthy relationships. “Now I have friends who surround me that care about me. This is a new experience for me and a refreshing part that helps me feel safe in vulnerability.”

Austisticfit Society

Happy and healthy, Amber realized how positively her life had been impacted by her holistic treatment plan, lifestyle and hard work, and she decided that it would be her life’s mission to inspire and share this knowledge with others. She recalls, “I have a good friend who said to me, ‘Amber, you can help so many people who have autism with nutrition and fitness and inspire them to overcome challenges to be their best.’ ”

So, in 2014, Amber launched the Autis­ticfit Society, a support and fellowship network that focuses on addressing the condition of autism by managing symptoms through physical fitness and nutritional awareness. The organization’s website says, “Autisticfit Society does not categorize autism as a disease, abnormality or deficiency to be addressed exclusively with pharmaceutical, institutionalization or other interventive ‘remedies.’ Rather, we see autism as a complex condition that prevents the affected person from fully realizing his/her physical, emotional and intellectual potential.”

The mission of Autisticfit Society “is to enable affected individuals to realize more of their full potential through a complete integration of the individual’s physical and mental capabilities.” This is accomplished through a holistic regimen of individualized fitness paired with environmental and nutritional lifestyle adjustments.

Specifically, Austisticfit Society provides programming in fitness for boosting brain and cognitive ability, detoxification, immunity-building, nutrition and appropriate supplementation, as well as programming in youth bullying prevention and women’s self-defense. Amber is certified by the American Association of Drugless Prac­titioners, and she speaks around the Houston area on fitness, health and autism, and on the role inflammation plays in complicating not only autism, but almost all medical conditions.

“I am on a personal mission to significantly improve the lives of both those directly affected by autism and those whose lives are touched indirectly by this condition,” she explains. “I intend to leverage everything I’ve learned in my own trip out of the cloud of autism to improve the futures of others, and I am dedicating the rest of my life to leading a new and unconventional attack on autism and to lifting those affected by the condition to new lives that they cannot presently imagine.”

For more information on the Au­tisticfit Society, please visit autisticfitsociety.org. To learn more about Amber and her journey, visit officialamberblack.com and amberblackfitness.com.

Amber Black is on a mission to improve the lives of autistic individuals. Photo - Clay Hammerly, The Hammer Photo