Talk about Curing Autism

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http://www.talkaboutcuringautism.org/index.htm

I've never heard of these people...are they for or against curing Austism?

Just the fact that they would say "families and children with autism" would make me think they want a cure. The fact that they refer to it as a disease and that they talk about the federal government saying it's a serious health concern makes me sure that they want to eradicate us from the planet.

You can't cure Autism... It's like trying to "cure" a type A personality. The only way to "cure" an Autistic person is to drug him up so that he won't or can't exibit the traits (BAD.) It's part of who they* are. Nobody can change that.

*I say they because I myself am currently undiagnosed.

Last edited by Moony on 29 Dec 2009, 3:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Personally to me alot of the "we must find a cure for autism now" type propoganda comes off as parents not being able to accept their children. I'm not saying that providing the best possible chance for success in life isn't important. That's every parent's job. However alot of it to me just seems like "oh darn Jimmy's autistic, now he'll grow up and be one of those nerds I use to beat up instead of joining the football team... " Bah humbug.

Sorry if that came off a bit catty but the whole parents trying to relive their own childhood through their children thing pisses me off a bit. I've got cousins who are NT that had to deal with that kind of parenting and suffice to say it wasn't healthy for them.

Playing up a person's strength's usually does more to help them than picking at their faults. Nobody's perfect, making a point of saying just how imperfect and in need of fixing a kid is usually doesn't do much to create a healthy well balanced adult. Besides, loving someone because of their "faults" not inspite of them is healther in general IMO.

"I used to refer to autism as a dragon that I had to slay. My strategy was to continually weaken it by winning small battles – the same method that autism used to take my child" Quoted directly from- http://www.talkaboutcuringautism.org/su ... athers.htm

Again, Bah Humbug. Personally to litterally wage war against something so deeply ingrained in who a person is just seems unethical. Acceptance, understanding, and appreciation seems like a better aproach but again, that's all just my opinion and it's easy for me to have that opinion from where i'm sitting.

Either way, at the end of the day they seem to have good intentions regardless of how they express that or carry it out.

I took a look at the web site and I checked what I would consider to be my "curbie barometer" (Chelation).

When you search on the site on the subject of chelation they have a page which sings the praises of this treatment. It states how great Dr. Amy Holmes is.

It states "An important paper to read that discusses why chelation may be considered as an option is available from Dr. Amy S. Holmes. Dr. Holmes is part of the Defeat Autism Now! (DAN!) team and an early “think-tank” researcher on chelation protocols for children." (http://www.talkaboutcuringautism.org/me ... lation.htm)

I then did a search of the peer reviewed literature using the ISI web of knowlege, and only one paper on heay metals and autism with her name popped up. It is a paper which claims that the hair of children with autism has a lower mercury content than the hair of NT children.

But the web site states how important this woman is, if her "cure" was so important I think that it would get more than just one paper written on it.

Overall I am not impressed by the web site, and I would not trust it.

PS. I did a search on chelation and autism and a paper popped up which I think all parents considering chelation should read, it is about the death of a child caused by chelation with EDTA.

Baxter AJ and Krenzelok EP, Clinical Toxicology, 2008, vol 46, issue 10, pages 1083-1084.

http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10 ... 0701261488

Also a good paper to read is

Stangle DE et. al., Environmental Health Perspectives, 2007, volume 115, issue 2, pages 201 to 209

This states that chelation treatment can harm the brains of rats.

The word "cure" makes me nervous.

Despite the name, from what I could tell the aim of the site was more about ensuring families with an autistic child have access to intervention programs than scare tactics. I can't say I read every word on it though.

It seems to me that they are about providing a "support group" type of organization for families. That might be a comfort to parents with a fresh diagnosis for a child. As far as a cure I haven't seen anything that I would take serious. How can a cure be found without a known cause?

As for chelation I think that it is a very dangerous therapy and that there may be safer alternatives with the same intended results. See Dr. Lyn http://www.askdrlyn.com/. I don't believe toxins should reside in the human body whether AS or NT and I'm not saying that heavy metals are the cause of AS.

You took the words right out of my mouth, Fuzzy Elephant. I definately think that some NT parents are just unable to accept their autistic/AS children. Because it's much better to make your child feel isolated and inferior to their NT peers than to just love them for who they are!

Instead of curing autistics, why don't they cure themselves of their ignorance, instead. That would make the world a much happier place for those of us, who are on the spectrum, no matter if we're 1 or 99 years old.

It would make things a lot better for some parents as well. My wife doesn't handle it well when people stare or make faces when my son is stimming or having a meltdown. I generally ignore them and try to help him through it unless they say something rude. He's really the most loveable little guy if you are kind to him, no matter who you are.

These people suck. Here is a quote from USA TODAY:

USA TODAY
considering measles has the potential to sterilize males...see how much they care?

The trouble with this sort of comment, you seem to be equating autism with your own place on the spectrum. Yes many with autism are able to go to school and get beaten up. These though are high functioning. The vast majority if not all the members of WP I would think are able to function reasonably well. When pro cure, pro foetal, testing groups talk about autism, they are talking about LFA, your comment about parents not being able to cope, is probably very accurate. But I wonder how you or any of us would cope with such a person. I know that I could not.

There is a school in my local area that is specifically for kids with an intellectual disability. They naturally have autistic kids there. You know how they cope when one of these Auties goes off. They have to resort to handcuffs, seat restraints etc. And before you all start wailing how barbaric this is, just how do you think you would cope. This school has some very dedicated and caring staff -I know this because I know some of them- and trust me restraints are the last resort but they still have need of them on a all to regular basis.

So before you go criticising parents for 'not coping' or wanting a cure I suggest you go work in a school like this, and find out what living with LFA is really like.

This said, I agree that the present situation where the term Autism equates to LFA in most peoples mind, is an issue. More needs to be done in presenting Autism as a spectrum disorder and not just a bunch of people who can barely communicate and whose carers have a miserable life.

Carers is such an ungainly word.

My previous point was an attempt to say that nobody knows what goes on in the minds of LFA people. It used to be thought that they were mentally ret*d, but this is no longer thought to be always true. What they are lacking is appropriate mechanisms for communication, coupled with sensory problems.

And some of us got lucky in that we formed the connections needed to develop those mechanisms, though they are not natural. That is the essence of aspergers. We are autists that learned the tricks. We learned to act.

Take me for example. I was very quiet as a kid. Even to this day, though the amount I type in chat is no indicator of that.

As a kid my older brother and younger sister would complain endlessly about the foods that they hated and various other things. My mum said I was the good kid... though I hated many things too, I did not complain. I simply wouldnt eat it(or whatever). I could not fathom why they were acting as if it were poison... and then they ate it anyway. For them it was less about the item in question and more about... expressing themselves? Sharing opinions? I dont know to this day. They are still like that. I would say its attention seeking, but neither is really like that in other ways.

I can see that some LFA people just dont make the connection between noises and communication. And because they lack these things, they fall back on the hardwired flight/fear/fight responses. I dont have a problem with the restraints. They need to be managed in some fashion.

But most of them do learn to talk. And then they do contribute to society. As long as they are not institutionalized or euthanized.

There is a song I like that really sums up what aspergers is for me. I'll quote the lyrics and you'll suffer in forbearance, eh? Sometimes I wonder if I am HFA instead.



Here is the song on youtube
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-XtvR6-ckg[/youtube]

But the critical part is this line. "Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk". Every human being is confronted with that situation in childhood. And some do not catch it.

I could not agree more, what you are saying is entirely plausible, which is why those who vehemently oppose any notion of finding a cure or cause, are completely beyond my comprehension.

Good lyrics, Great message, below average Floyd music