AMA Considers Changing Its Position On ABA Therapy

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Great news for all who oppose ABA:

AMA Considers Changing Its Position On ABA Therapy

Removal of AMA Support for Applied Behavior Analysis

This is probably good. There definitely needs to be a scaling back on that type of therapy to just situations where patients aren't likely to respond to less problematic treatments or as a means of establishing a method of communicating. I personally do recognize that some people really do need ABA style treatment, just not the extreme stuff like shocks and the like.It seems particularly problematic that this is the type of treatment that gets funding, whether the particular person really benefits from it more than other options or not.

That being said, I am painfully aware of what happens when the ASD symptoms get plastered over in response to stimulus. That appears to be what happened to me by accident, and as much as I love my life, I would not wish it on my worst enemy. The amount of abuse and neglect that it took to take me from likely ASD support level 1 to a weird schizoid-autistic hybrid was not something that I could in good conscience endorse.

That being said, an even bigger crime is the way in which it uses threats of personal bankruptcy to pressure parents into signing their kids up for treatments that aren't well-suited to them, while ignoring the possibility that higher support needs autistic people may not uniformly benefit from it across their entire life.

This is excellent news! I imagine if the AMA is changing its position, insurance companies will eventually start paying for actually helpful treatment.

Great news

This is very positive news. We need the world to be a kinder place for our younger autistic brothers and sisters. We have been abused in this way as children for too many years. Children are Sweet Peas and they shouldn't have to go through the hours of abuse that ABA places on them.

Glad to hear it, hope it happens. The world needs better understanding and less abuse.

That is great news!