Can sexual abuse as a child cause ASD?

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I stand corrected.

IMO the most likely scenario was that it was related to both--you were on the autism spectrum to begin with, which made speech harder for you, which made it more likely that when you got really stressed out, you dropped that skill. When people with ASDs lose speech to the point of having to relearn it, it usually comes at a stressful time in life--early childhood, when demands on speech and behavior suddenly increase and the autistic child typically falls noticeably behind. I've also seen some reports of it happening at puberty, which is also a pretty hectic time, physically and mentally.

I'd still say PDD-NOS because of your history of loss of speech, because there is no way of knowing whether it would have happened if your source of stress had been something more benign and more expected to be a part of an average child's life, for example, a move or a new sibling. Since there's no way to tell, and no knowing whether you had comorbid selective mutism, PDD-NOS is close enough. Anyway, when it comes to ASDs, the specific diagnosis is often unimportant so long as it gets you whatever services/accommodations you need. The specific ASD label doesn't give professionals any more information than just "autism spectrum disorder" does. Sometimes it's even worse, if the specific ASD involves stereotypes that aren't true about you, like getting labeled Asperger's and then having your self-care or executive functioning difficulties completely ignored. I wouldn't worry about it; the diagnostic labels are pretty messed up the way they are. Just plain "autistic" is good enough for me.

I'm sorry this topic makes me really angry!

I normally don't hate people but the people who do this to children (espcially vulnerable children) deserve to be isolated from society forever.

I'm more a fan of letting them choose between life in prison/death in more serious cases and castration in exchange for having their criminal record wiped clean or imprisonment for 20 years + release and castration for the most serious cases.

This would allow them to potentially repent and be rehabilitated. It's constitutional and not cruel and unusual punishment if it's chosen voluntarily as an alternative to death or a prison sentence.

The current system of release and then letting communities stigmatize them is both ineffective and inhumane. A system that involves voluntary castration + sex hormone gland removal would be far superior. In addition, these things are partially genetic, so castration or execution of all sex offenders, and perhaps complicit family members, would cause the genes to die out.

Last edited by Tyri0n on 25 Feb 2013, 1:30 am, edited 1 time in total.

I had no idea what a condom was for until I saw Deep Throat as a freshman in college.