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warrier120
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21 Oct 2017, 5:17 pm

Now, I'm pretty sure some of you have heard of the puzzle piece. It is used frequently as a symbol of autism. Autism Speaks uses it. If you don't know what Autism Speaks actually is, it's an organization that intends to cure autism. Therefore, I would categorize it as a hate group. The puzzle piece shall no longer be associated with autism, for none of us is "missing." We are merely a whole picture, and not just a piece of it.

In addition, there are other things associated with Autism Speaks I strongly oppose. It uses propaganda to spread its message that autism is something that is nonhuman, much like terrorist organizations today. The fear forces us to hate ourselves, yet they don't care about who we even are. We're a minority, that's all. We should be treated no differently than left-handed people (hi to all of you left-handed aspies and autists out there). Light It Up Blue is terrible. It further spreads the Autism Speaks cause, which is absolutely horrible. The thing that is truly bad about it is that all of us can see it. They think we're like Helen Keller, blind and deaf to our surroundings. Neurodiversity can solve some of these issues, but it unfortunately will not be able to change Autism Speaks.

When I was young, I underwent ABA "therapy," which is not truly therapy. I may just be a teenager, but I can speak out, too. ABA just told me that my existence and individuality as an autistic person was redundant after treatment. Anti-vaxxers, I praise you for how you've been able to survive for so long destroying the autism community. Shows like "The Good Doctor" do not appeal to the autistic population. Mere stereotypes, they use.

Unfortunately, the way I have been treated is not an isolated case. So many children are being treated the same way, but it's particularly hard during adolescence. I, unfortunately, am not unknown to the police due to some arguments gone horribly wrong during my childhood. I'm not violent by nature, but at that time, they assessed my mental health to check my sanity (fortunately and unfortunately, I was ruled to be perfectly sane). Now I remember the reason why autism and police brutality are associated, but I digress. If only we would be remembered as a part of society and not merely robots.

Like I said, I'm just a teenager, but I have more on my mind than social media and the clothes I'm wearing. I will never tolerate any form of autism discrimination, whether the victim is yours truly or somebody else.


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EzraS
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21 Oct 2017, 6:36 pm

It seems to me that autism speaks is more about parents getting stuck with an autistic kid as in it sucks and it ruins their lives etc. "People should be able to enjoy being a parent. It's so inconvenient and embarrassing to have an autistic kid. Something needs to be done about it blah blah". I once called it mothers against autism (like mothers against drunk driving).

As far as the puzzle thing, that never bothered me. I just saw it as symbolizing that autism is puzzling, which it is.



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21 Oct 2017, 6:54 pm

warrier120 wrote:
When I was young, I underwent ABA "therapy," which is not truly therapy.


ABA has always sounded to me like torture. I mean, if someone wants to go through ABA, in hopes of fitting in better with NTs, feel free for all of me. But when it comes to parents imposing it on their kid, that's a whole different thing. I don't understand why it's even legal to do that.

EzraS wrote:
As far as the puzzle thing, that never bothered me. I just saw it as symbolizing that autism is puzzling, which it is.


I've always seen the puzzle piece as saying autistics are 'missing something' that medicine needs to put back, but your interpretation could be right I suppose.

Totally agree on the 'mothers against autism' thing. Not a fan.



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21 Oct 2017, 6:55 pm

I hate the puzzle piece.

As for Autism Speaks they took "cure" out of their mission statement, the founder CEO is no longer the CEO, and they added two Autistic people to their board of directors. They are still partnering with google on the #MSSNG gene database project. Calling us #MSSNG is offensive and eugenic elimination is still a concern. So they might be "less evil" than a few years ago.

I do not like at all that they are huge supporters of ABA. 15 years ago or so insurance companies would not cover Autism treatments and therapies but due in large part to Autism Speaks lobbying insurance companies by law must cover Autism treatments in all but very few states. The "treatments" are for the most part ABA due to their lobbying.

I have lived most of my life undiagnosed because there was no knowledge of anything but severe obvious autism. Being clueless about my autism caused many problems in my life. That said I am glad I grew up clueless back in the 60's and 70's rather than now with all the ABA. I think if I had to grow up with ABA I would have gone literally crazy and would probably be dead now. So I give you credit for surviving and not giving in.


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EzraS
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21 Oct 2017, 8:20 pm

I'm thinking more along the lines of the multi-colored puzzle ribbon.



warrier120
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21 Oct 2017, 10:25 pm

Surviving ABA was anything but easy. They used some rather colorful language with me, with one example being “tantrum” whenever I had a psychologically-induced meltdown. I can’t believe most autism and mental health services are not being covered by most insurance companies now. I developed some mental health problems from severe psychological trauma, and already had GAD while they were using ABA on me. You could not possibly imagine what happened. I almost always had meltdowns as a reaction to extreme psychological pain and suffering. My mental health is sound now, but there are sometimes a couple of bumps in the road such as depression resulting from an ABA-induced period of low self-esteem.

That MSSNG project is all sorts of awful. It dehumanizes autistics by claiming that they “went missing” and that curing them “brings them back.” Back to the cruel rules of the neurotypical population. It is hard to think why neurotypicals do not appreciate our strengths rather than our weaknesses. I know GAD can be associated with autism and prolonged or frequent periods of stress, so it’s possible that ABA itself may have caused my GAD.

I can’t believe ABA is the only thing most insurance companies cover now. It’s like they want us to die, both physically and emotionally. That follows the teachings of communism greatly, and America is not communist. By communism, I mean that I believe that it means total equality, even if it means that you should look and think the same. That’s like cloning people.

Too bad nothing seems to be changing anytime soon...


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22 Oct 2017, 1:52 am

warrier120 wrote:
Surviving ABA was anything but easy. They used some rather colorful language with me, with one example being “tantrum” whenever I had a psychologically-induced meltdown. I can’t believe most autism and mental health services are not being covered by most insurance companies now. I developed some mental health problems from severe psychological trauma, and already had GAD while they were using ABA on me. You could not possibly imagine what happened. I almost always had meltdowns as a reaction to extreme psychological pain and suffering. My mental health is sound now, but there are sometimes a couple of bumps in the road such as depression resulting from an ABA-induced period of low self-esteem.

That MSSNG project is all sorts of awful. It dehumanizes autistics by claiming that they “went missing” and that curing them “brings them back.” Back to the cruel rules of the neurotypical population. It is hard to think why neurotypicals do not appreciate our strengths rather than our weaknesses. I know GAD can be associated with autism and prolonged or frequent periods of stress, so it’s possible that ABA itself may have caused my GAD.

I can’t believe ABA is the only thing most insurance companies cover now. It’s like they want us to die, both physically and emotionally. That follows the teachings of communism greatly, and America is not communist. By communism, I mean that I believe that it means total equality, even if it means that you should look and think the same. That’s like cloning people.

Too bad nothing seems to be changing anytime soon...


I have read blogs and have read and participated in comment section discussions about ABA. What ABA defenders say is pretty predictable. I am sorry for your bad experience but you must have received ABA in the bad old days or received ABA from a quack. We are not trying to make our patients not autistic we are just trying to end destructive behaviors. ABA is the evidence-based gold standard of therapies with hundreds of peer reviewed studies to back it up. These are only a partial truths. ABA is much less about the harsh aversives such as electric shocks then it used to be. It is much more about rewards and there are plenty of quacks calling themselves ABA therapists. The quacks go where the money is and since the ABA industry has now monopolized autism therapy in Amerca that is where the money is. Like with all monopolies ABA stifles competition. it is hard to get money to do research for cheaper, less time-consuming therapies. So the ABA defenders can accurately say the alternative therapies have little or no proof that they work.

I find the claims that they do not want to eliminate autism spurious. If ABA is so wonderful why is it used primarily on Autistic children?

I noticed ABA'rs use the terms "tantrums" or "tantruming". Tantrums are willful defiance for the purpose manipulation which says a lot about how many ABA'rs view natural Autistic behaviors. Autistic meltdowns are caused by overload to people who by definition are poor at manipulating people. Behaviorists by definition do not care about why just "right" and "wrong" behaviors.


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warrier120
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09 Nov 2017, 9:11 pm

I’ve met quite a few other autistic teens my age in my life, but we don’t really “click”. I try to think from an autistic perspective regarding other autistic people, but sometimes my neurotypical perspective gets the better of me. I might stare at behavior considered unusual to neurotypicals, but I usually notice when I do this and will stop.

I cannot simply express full dislike for anti-vaxxers, for it is not scientific to have bias. I must praise them for how long they’ve been able to terrorize the autistic population without stopping. Anti-vaxxers are also anti-autistic people, meaning they hate autistic people and all that they stand for. It would be hard (if not impossible) to even talk about the diseases that vaccines prevent without autism being the main subject.

If ignorance is humanity’s fate, then no actual success will ever be made. I admonish you if you believe in all of the false and dangerous claims about autism.


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09 Nov 2017, 9:21 pm

Doctors have developed a more accurate test for Down’s syndrome.
Iceland is close to becoming the first country where no-one gives birth to a child with Down's syndrome.
How soon before an autism test?


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warrier120
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09 Nov 2017, 9:40 pm

SaveFerris wrote:
Doctors have developed a more accurate test for Down’s syndrome.
Iceland is close to becoming the first country where no-one gives birth to a child with Down's syndrome.
How soon before an autism test?

Unfortunately, the quest for an autism cure will not stop anytime soon. They want us to become extinct like the dinosaurs. They secretly want us to die. I believe in neurodiversity, but I’m not going to become a radical later in life. Therefore, I hate that they have a test to prevent babies with Down syndrome from ever existing.


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10 Nov 2017, 12:36 am

warrier120 wrote:
SaveFerris wrote:
Doctors have developed a more accurate test for Down’s syndrome.
Iceland is close to becoming the first country where no-one gives birth to a child with Down's syndrome.
How soon before an autism test?

Unfortunately, the quest for an autism cure will not stop anytime soon. They want us to become extinct like the dinosaurs. They secretly want us to die. I believe in neurodiversity, but I’m not going to become a radical later in life. Therefore, I hate that they have a test to prevent babies with Down syndrome from ever existing.


I also hate that those two things are happening. I feel that all genetic screening should be illegal. I've hated Autism Speaks from the beginning. As long as they keep up their pathetic quest, I will never support them.


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Omniel
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10 Nov 2017, 11:18 am

I guess I have a question, then. You say nothing is missing (referring to the puzzle piece "logo").

My brother is 48, he can only work part-time and cannot support himself. My mother supported him until she died and then he had to come and live with me.

To me, if I have to support him, yeah that does suck and obviously something is "missing" if he can't support himself.

He will not apply for disability (and I guess by your measure, he isn't disabled), but he cannot tolerate more than about 25 hours a week of work and he can only tolerate minimum wage stock work.

My mother left no inheritance and I certainly won't be leaving anything. What do you propose he do when I die?



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10 Nov 2017, 9:15 pm

The puzzle piece is so stupid and sad looking. It looks like it's about to cry. How about a tie-dyed sun with a huge smile as a symbol for autism.


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arachnids
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11 Nov 2017, 4:30 pm

Ha, NT parents sitting around bitching and whinging about how their stupid lives have been ruined by having an autistic kid. It’s the poor kid I feel sorry for.


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12 Nov 2017, 2:46 pm

Omniel wrote:
I guess I have a question, then. You say nothing is missing (referring to the puzzle piece "logo").

My brother is 48, he can only work part-time and cannot support himself. My mother supported him until she died and then he had to come and live with me.

To me, if I have to support him, yeah that does suck and obviously something is "missing" if he can't support himself.

He will not apply for disability (and I guess by your measure, he isn't disabled), but he cannot tolerate more than about 25 hours a week of work and he can only tolerate minimum wage stock work.

My mother left no inheritance and I certainly won't be leaving anything. What do you propose he do when I die?


I also have a question. Would you feel the same if your brother needed lifetime care because he was wheelchair bound with muscular dystrophy? My cousin was this way, never able to stand, bathe himself, walk, or get dressed without help. Of course he needed his parents to care for him for the 36 years he lived. Would it still suck then? Because some NTs do see our condition as something that will wear off at 18, or something that we do because we want to, or something that would be over if we would just make some easy lifestyle changes. Even if they know this is not true intellectually they still think it and act it on a subconscious level.

There are no telethons for people like us. We don't get that level of sympathy and charity because of the NT mindset that there is only one healthy neurotype and we are a half step removed from the likes of sociopaths and serial killers. Ive encountered online the parents of low functioning autistic children who have just come right out and told me direct that they should be legally allowed to kill the kid, because he or she has destroyed their happy lives. Groups like Autism Speaks, ASpartners, and Heartless Asipes are clearly hate groups, and I worry about what would happen if one of the people from a group like that moved into a neighborhood with an autistic child, or became the teacher of an autistic child, or worse yet had an autistic child.

Regarding your brothers job, is it that he cant cope with more than 25hrs a week, or that he just CANT GET MORE at his workplace? Retail is very busy destroying the gains of the labor movement of the last century, and they do this primarily with part time only jobs.

What I see in your attitude towards your brother is the selfishness and lack of empathy everyone accuses us of.



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12 Nov 2017, 3:16 pm

To everyone: A genetic test for autism is unlikely. Downs is easy to screen for because it results from a chromosomal nondisjunction. A simple karyotype will show it with 100% certainty. Autism, on the other hand, very probably is the result of a complex synergy of multiple genes acting in concert. This would make a simple genetic test for it a near impossibility with the methods we now have.