Autism Speaks #MSSNG campaign. Google involved - Thoughts?

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What's the rolleyes for? Many of us do have symptoms that we actually find pleasant. And if you have any severe symptoms you wouldn't be rolling your eyes. In fact I don't believe half the people on this forum even have Autism. Their only mission in life is to TROLL and you are getting off to a good start. So try to understand instead of putting such smilies on here. It is people like you that cause me to leave this forum in the first place.

The wasn't at whether people "suffer" from their symptoms or not. It was at the email campaign against Autism Speaks donors, because it sums up my thoughts about that quite concisely.

Just as you don't suffer from your symptoms and see no need for treatment R&D by the likes of Autism Speaks, others do suffer from their symptoms and value the progress Autism Speaks is making. Just because you're not interested in what they have to offer does not mean that others aren't or shouldn't be. Your email campaign may be offensive or insulting to those who prefer treatment or a potential cure.

Personally, I've already managed to figure out how to successfully treat my symptoms (which I DID suffer from, FYI.) via diet/herbal cleansing/probiotics & am living a second life for it. I've shared all of this on the forums over the last year. That's why I am all for Autism Speaks as their research department is continuing studies on probiotic treatments beyond the mice experiment that was published last year.

As for pleasant symptoms, yes, I've had & still have those, too. But pretty much all of the ones I suffered from are gone or minimized while I still get to retain and utilize some I appreciate. I'm living a second life for having done this, and am a lot less "idiot" and a little more "savant" which I can deal with a whole heck of a lot better than suffering from symptoms that drastically interfered with my ability to cope with life and work. YMMV & that's just fine. Just don't expect that everyone is going to have your opinion and want to join your email campaign. Some of us just want to roll our eyes at you and carry on living our, in our opinions, better lives with treatment.

People like me didn't cause you to leave this forum. You can only do that yourself via your own actions. If you don't like my opinion or points of view enough to not want to post here, that's your choice, not one that I can make for you.

Thanks for clarifying the Rolleyes. However, there are a lot of Autistic people out there who thinks this organization is a vile piece of crap that needs to be put out of business. If you want to be considered as a drain on society, part of an Autism Tsunami, An Autism Alarm, an unhealthy cig habit, compared to a leper and a disease it is your prerogative. But, for me I see us as having a neurodevelopmental disorder. Visit You Tube and type in Suzanne Wright (founder of Autism $peak$). You will get your ears full of the nasty things she says about Autism. I found this petition after I left my comment. So I'm far from being alone in this fight against Autism $peak$. And I hope you can see the same things everyone else sees.

Sponsors for Autism Speaks

You're free to dislike them and not consume any of their products or services, but who are you to decide they should be shut down so that those who do appreciate their services cannot have them?

I have never seen anything from Autism Speaks comparing Autistics to unhealthy cig habits or lepers etc. Link?

I also haven't seen anything from Autism Speaks with nasty things to say about Autism. As close as that ever got was some advertisement people were debating on the forums. It was a video showing the challenges and difficulties families with Autistic kids face & stated that Autism Speaks was trying to help these people. There was nothing nasty about it.

Try this then, it's a verbatim quote:

“Autism is forcing parents and caregivers to slow down the frenetic pace of our modern world and look into the eyes of our (autistic) loved ones…as Saint Francis did with the leper.” Suzanne Wright, speaking at the Vatican

Ok. And what else was said around this? Perhaps what she said before or after might give a little more info as to context. If nothing else was said, then I'd have to be familiar with the story of Saint Francis and lepers - which I am not. My assumption is that Saint Francis, being a Saint, helped lepers. Is that correct?

Regardless, there is truth in the statement that Autism forces parents and caregivers to slow down their busy lives in order to care for Autistic loved ones.. and also in that if Autism is successfully treated that it becomes much easier for parents and caregivers to care for Autistic children/loved ones. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is how I interpret the above quote. I don't view it as a statement that Autistic people should be put into "leper colonies" in order to prevent the spread of a communicable disease. My POV is that she's saying effective treatments for Autism will not only improve the lives of Autistics, but also their families.

This isn't just my point of view, FYI. This is also my reality. Over the last couple of years I've managed to treat my own ASD & comorbid symptoms so successfully that I'm living a second life for it - and it's also benefitted everyone around me. My parents/friends - people who I relied on for various types of support (housing/financial etc), people who I frustrated or stressed with my thoughts/actions/behaviours etc. They've all noticed a dramatic improvement in me & no longer have to "deal with" me in the state that I was. It's only now with my new "second life" perspective that I can look back in hindsight and realize just how challenging and difficult I made things for them with the state I was in. I think they realize it was never my intent, and that it was even more frustrating and stressful for me to Be that way.. but I fully get & respect just how hard it was on them, too, and I appreciate just how good they've all been to me despite how difficult I was to be around. Others who haven't lived and experienced what I have won't be able to fully comprehend my perspective & I realize there are going to be some who don't like it.. and I'm okay with that. It is what it is.

You can easily find the whole thing on the net. There is positivity in her speech but it is not about nor for the autists:

Direct quote Suzanne Wright:-

Let us all be honest: autism is like nothing we have ever experienced before and there are a tremendous amount of suffering in our autism families. It reminds me of the words of his Holiness in his writing last year, The Joy of the Gospel, “There are Christians whose lives seem like Lent without Easter.” Many parents and caregivers are tired. They’re confused and angry. We’ve been there. Their joy can be overshadowed by long days with children in need of constant care. They may not know what to do to help. They may not know the word “autism” at all. And if, like my grandson Christian, their loved one has little language to help communicate, they may be a bit lost. Autism is making us look at our whole world in a very different way. End quote.

The message could hardly be clearer that parents of children on the spectrum are all suffering martyrs whose lives are lived in perpetual deprivation.

There's something really wrong with this Goldfish, and I know you are intelligent enough to see that. Imagine straight parents talking about living with their gay adolescent children like that - that it is a state of continuous martyrdom, that the affliction makes their lives so terrible.. it would be outrageous, wouldn't it?

Her statement seems to be one of mere facts as she perceives them. There's nothing particularly nasty or negative about it, nor hateful towards Autistics. Nowhere in her statement does she say that parents of children on the spectrum are all suffering martyrs who's lives are lived in perpetual deprivation. Those are your words - words that likely stem from a depressed state of mind & your own pessimistic perceptions of reality. All she's said is that Autism makes life difficult/challenging/stressful for many parents/families - and IMO she's correct in stating so.

Apples to Oranges. Sexual orientation does not present with any of the behavioural/other difficulties as Autism does. Parents do not have to deal with anything remotely comparable to Autism when it comes to their children's sexual orientation. I'm very well aware of this because I'm gay & my being gay has had zero impact on my parents' or family's lives while raising me - especially since they weren't aware of the fact until just a couple of years ago when I was 30 years old. While I wasn't even self aware of my own ASD until approximately age 30, and as such neither were they, they still had to deal with my symptoms/traits/behaviours as they presented themselves throughout my life just as Suzanne Wright described above.

I think you're intelligent enough to see the difference and that your comparison is not a valid comparison at all.

T.J. Maxx is also a sponsor.

That's not the experience of everyone in the LGBT community. Besides, pointing out a few differences does not invalidate a comparison.

Depends on the differences. In this case, they're night and day different.. so IMO it does invalidate the comparison. A sexual orientation is not comparable to a set of behavioural traits, sensory processing symptoms, anxiety, depression, social awkwardness, & other very visible outward Autism symptoms.

They are both innate. That's the comparison.

The similarities don't end there. For both, there's people saying it can and should be cured. There's Christian fundamentalists saying both are a result of Adam's sin and the fallen world. Both are said to destory families/the sanctity of marriage (alleged high divorced rates of parents of autistic kids). Members of both communities sometimes have a closet metaphor. If someone said they're exactly the same, that's absurd, but they are similar in deserving acceptance and equal rights.

Obviously we have very different experiences.

Autism symptoms are treatable. Maybe not curable, but definitely treatable - I know, I've done it for myself whether the people on this forum believe me or not. Anyone else who's symptoms are exacerbated by antibiotic induced intestinal dysbiosis will be able to treat their ASD symptoms in the same way I've managed to.

Homosexuality, IMO, is 100% hardwired & not something that can or should be treated.

Religious extremists of all types say all kinds of crazy things. This is nothing new. How homophobic people treat gay people destroys some families, yes. No one else' marriage is affected whatsoever by two gay people getting married. Yeah, the closeted thing is comparable for those who hide either.

While some things about ASD are deserving of acceptance, not everything is. Basically, unacceptable social behaviour is unacceptable for a reason. People need to either learn to consciously control themselves or treat their ASD symptoms in whatever ways work best for them in order to better fit into the world around them and not be perceived as portraying unacceptable behaviour. It really is that simple, IMO.

I am wondering what defines the unacceptable behaviour. Or is it an I'll know it when I see it sort of thing? goldfish, could you be more specific?

Social norms define what is acceptable. There are many common rules, but acceptable behaviour is going to change somewhat from group to group. i.e. People often behave differently at home vs. at work or school as there are different acceptable norms at each.

Unacceptable behaviour is whatever goes against the acceptable norms in any given setting with any given group. There are many common ones, but there will be some groups where people can get away with a lot more or a lot less, depending on whatever the acceptable norms are for the group. Commonly unacceptable behaviours would be things like interrupting, yelling, losing your temper, being rude to someone (highly subjective & I know it's often difficult for those on the spectrum to realize they're being perceived as rude), causing a confrontation or a fight, bullying or being mean etc etc. There are countless ways people can misbehave in public or social settings, those are just a few examples.

As for knowing it when you see it… yeah, sometimes, unfortunately, that's going to happen. You'll likely be going about doing or saying something and thinking nothing of it.. and then you piss someone off and you can tell by their reaction that whatever it is you've said or done was obviously unacceptable. If you're lucky you'll realize why right away so that you can learn from it and correct your behaviour. But you might not realize right away, or ever, in some cases.