Autism - Comments

I wish this article was written with a little more compassion. It's very cut and paste. People who suffer from Autism are still people and you have completely left that out. Yes they have a disability, but children who have autism are possibly some of the nicest you'll meet. I teach swimming to people with special needs, cerebral palsy, autism, Down's syndrome, and plataplegics. But I have never seen someone as imaginative as this five year old girl on Wednesday nights.

What you're missing is that autism is a spectrum. There are many different forms of autism and it seems to me you've labelled them all the same. I have a little brother with autism and an older sister with aspbergers. I think I know. I teach kids swimming. And I volunteer in the associated class at my highschool. I think I know.

Also, yes it is suspected that certain vaccines are causing autism. They haven't fully proven it yet. It's the same as cell phones gamma rays causing malignant tumors. There's no real evidence, because there's been no log term study, but it makes sense.

It was a good article. But I think you missed the big picture. Also, Wikipedia is not something to be proud of quoting.

At least people are talking about this. My little brother is 14 and suffers from this disorder and if only more people would understand it less people would be so rude to him when he asks them questions, such as which meat is chicken in the buffet line. I really hope people will take something from this and LEARN.

@Tre.

Just saying, weather your article is generating good or bad feedback and conversations, I see both as a good thing. I believe today we are in need of more Autism Awareness, and being aware is one of the first steps to accepting Autism and how it works. If everyone understand Autism, at least to a minimum, than perhaps for people with Autism, their daily lives might be easier? I can't really say if that's true, but just a thought.

Anyway i'm just glad you wrote the artical...

@sunshinexx

I think if the article was written with the same perspective you wrote your comment, it would have been perfect.
Thank you it did help.

This was really interesting and hlpul. My 8 year old cousin has Autism and I've always thought he was just antisocial and that was it. I'll be seeing him this summer, I think that know I understand his condition I'll be able to try and talk to him better instead of leaving that to my parents.

@ l0lita-
lol I know. Like I said, Autism makes me who I am. I just get mad at that word for a different reason. My friend is mentally-challenged and she's one of the most craziest people I've ever met. It makes me cringe when people use that word to mean badly of people like her. I love her to death, like a big sister... even if she bugs the shit out of me and can be emotional as hell. She's sweet and kind... and tries her best.

I've learned to work with most of my symptoms, except I have no social life offline because I'm afraid of socializing. I just don't know how to socialize. The only time I ever get out of the house to socialize is at anime convention once a year... or at a Simple Plan concert, which hasn't happened in nine years.

Also... THANK YOU. It's like saying cheese causes autism... or TV. People make up any excuse they can just to find something to blame for autism. TV or video games do cause problems for kids... but never Autism. I think it's all genetics. Both my parents have autistic traits. My dad is anti-social and very obsessive over certain interests and has outbursts. My mom also has outbursts, where it's like... she has no idea how angry she is. She just... explodes. She repeats herself a lot but... she is more PDD-NOS while my dad is more Aspie... and yet here I am, diagnosed with autism. See where I'm going? But that doesn't mean that all cases are genetic. It just means that some are and some aren't. Same with vaccines. There maybe a few cases where Autism was caused by them... but to say Autism causes all children that way isn't true. My autism is genetic, I know it is.

What I'm saying is that, It's possible some children reacted to the affects of vaccines... that might have caused autism. But that doesn't mean EVERY child got Autism because of them. That's like saying that because you and your friends ate raw food, that all of you got sick... maybe only a few got sick while the others were fine with it. Like I said, my autism is caused my genetics because both my parents have autistic traits. They both had such problems growing up with socializing correctly, learning difficulties and even ADHD traits. I also have ADHD as well... and I have depression... my dad has depression.

See where I'm going? You could have one group of autistic children with genetic autism... and another group with vaccine-induced autism. It doesn't mean that every child got autism because of vaccines, but that maybe a few did... while the rest might have genetic autism.

I don't think it's all genetics... but in my case, I speak for my Autism and say mine IS genetic. I've learned a lot about Autism over the years, I've read about it, researched it... everything. All because I wanted to know why I did this or why I did that... and each time, I learned something i didn't know and thought, "Oh I do that! it all makes sense now!". That's why, I've noticed how my parents react a lot to things, somewhat the same why I react. I have my share of massive outbursts (IE, throwing things, yelling and screaming) and even meltdowns (IE, sobbing over what someone said to me to panicking over things not going as I predicted.)

I've also had friends with Asperger Syndrome. Two, actually. And I've also met kids who had severe autism that were smart as hell. I knew one kid in the class next to me who was severly autistic. He couldn't speak well. He always loved going on the internet to play games. He would go on the computer, search for these online games BY HIMSELF NO HELP AT ALL. He knew what he was doing. He was very smart.

I had another friend with autism who was verbal but you could tell he was really different and had a form of autism. He was funny as hell. One time when our teacher left the room, he goes out of nowhere "Mr. Stone had to go take a dump." It was funny at the time. These kids are super sweet and adorable.

I did have autistic traits growing up. I was odd and eccentric and bullied a lot because of my differences. But i think, over the course of time, my autism has gotten worse while at the same time... better. I'm in therapy now... and I listen to music a lot. I also have to take a stimulant for ADHD and I'm on four or five different anxiety/depression medications. One is an anti-psychotic because I get depressive thoughts and emotions without it.

I also have comfort objects (IE my anime plushies, my bumble bee pouchy plush and my soft silky like scarf).

@ AutisticAlice
You're born with autism, correct? I'm a full-time nanny for a little girl with autism. She has a lot of the same symptoms as you. Her and her older brother (who's actually one of my good friends) both have high-functioning autism. And they're some of the brightest people I know. Just because you have autism, doesn't mean that you're not smart or "retarded".

@ VirgoAhtmah
If vaccines were proven to cause autism, they wouldn't give us them. You saying that "all vaccines" cause them, is almost as bad as Audrey Kiitching saying getting a HPV shot will kill you. Now people to have reactions to vaccines sometimes, but it doesn't cause autism. If that were the case, we'd all be autistic.

@ starbella
I work with autistic children every day in an ASD unit in a primary school. Due to this, I have seen all of the listed symptoms in reality. I work with children who have little imagination skills. It comes from them not having the skills to think outside of the box and not being able to express. Their thinking patterns are rigid. I also never said that if a baby doesn't do A.B.C by 6 months that they are definitely autistic, but it is one of the symptoms along with a lot of others. Obviously, when diagnosing autism, a range of symptoms need to be displayed. When reading certain theorists, they will put that 6 month smile as a milestones, where as others may not. I mentioned though that "...autism is called a spectrum disorder, as the problem presents itself in a wide variety of combinations and ranges." to show that no two children are the same, and that autism is different for every child.

And I have one more comment to make:

Ahtmah, you are offering all this support for your belief (that may or may not be accurate - I'M NOT DISPUTING IT), but you should read everything with a critical eye. It only took me 5 minutes to find that the main writer of Natural News is a white American man who has a degree in psychology, was an atheist, is a democrat, is a political activist, and is extremely conservative. Do any of these things indicate to you that he may be biased in his skepticism of vaccinations and be able to manipulate you into believing the same with his knowledge of psychology and sociology?

I'm not saying it isn't true or that sources like this are bad, but I'm saying you should know the bias of every article and author because that gives you insight into their motivation/purpose for writing it. Do not take everything you see or hear to be true, even if you've been practicing it your whole life.

And by the way, I skimmed through that Natural News article you suggested, which was written by the very Mike Adams, and found that everything he sites states that there MAY be a link between autism and vaccinations, but nothing says there is hard, explicit PROOF that autism is CAUSED by vaccinations. Language is very important.

Medical industry's lies? Are you saying that thousands of professionals are wrong?

I get my information from the CDC and Scientific American.

I didn't say it was taken out of all vaccines. Ethylmercury is not that harmful; methylmercury is.

From the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's FAQ on Ethylmercury/thimersal:

Thimerosal has a proven track record of being very safe. Data from many studies show no convincing evidence of harm caused by the low doses of thimerosal in vaccines.

Research does not show any link between thimerosal in vaccines and autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder. Although thimerosal was taken out of childhood vaccines in 2001, autism rates have gone up, which is the opposite of what would be expected if thimerosal caused autism.

Measles, Mumps, and Rubella vaccines, which were thought to be linked to autism have never contained ethylmercury and there is no proof of any of which have any connection to autism.

I don't know what other junk vaccines actually contain (you may/may not be right, Ahtmah), but that's not important to the point I'm about to make.

Like I said before - you can not, absolutely can not, say that ANYTHING causes autism. The only way to do this would be to find a few hundred people willing to hand over their newborns, give some of them vaccines and don't give others vaccines, raise them all together under the same conditions in the same room and control everything they do for their entire lives, and only then will you be able to say that vaccines CAUSE autism (and even then it's a little tough because you have to compare genetics - that's why twin studies are so valuable when looking at mental disorders). This is impossible due to ethical constraints.

What you mean to say is that there is a CORRELATION between being vaccinated and developing autistic symptoms. As far as I'm concerned you may be right, and I don't really have any interest in disputing that. My only interest is to maintain the integrity of science in this argument, and if you know anything about research, then you know that CAUSE is a very taboo verb.

(And while I'm talking about taboo words, PROOF is a big one too. You do not PROVE a hypothesis - your evidence only supports it (or doesn't). Even theories or big paradigms that we live by are not PROVED, there is just an overwhelming amount (and I mean A LOT) of evidence supporting them that we accept them to be "true". Which is fine, we have to take some things to be true in order to keep progressing. Don't talk about PROOF.)

Bullshit, bullshit, and more bullshit. How dare you say Vaccines do not cause Autism. They do Contain Mercury and I don't know where the fuck you are getting your information from Thylacine but you're wrong.

They DID NOT take out ethylmercury or thimerosal.

You want proof you ignorant fucks where here you go I'm tired of this ignorant shit. Do you guys watch Doctor Oz and Kiss his ass everyday or what?

PROOF that pretty much ALL Vaccines Contain Mercury and/or thimerosal:

http://www.naturalnews.com/027178_vaccines_autism_NaturalPedia.html

And look at you people, you are getting your information from Wikipedia? You gotta be the dumbest people I have ever known.

And a story from a man who has a 36 year old Autistic Child who KNOWS FOR A FACT THAT THE VACCINES THAT WERE GIVEN TO HIS CHILD CAUSED HIM TO GET AUTISM YOU IGNORANT FUCKS:

http://www.whale.to/v/aut88.html

And yes I will cuss because you people are beyond getting on my nerves with the Lies you are supporting with NO EVIDENCE WHAT SO FUCKING EVER to back up what you say.

And even our President Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Proved that Vaccines Caused Autism so shove your bullshit up your mouth and leave it there. Here is the proof:

http://www.ldonline.org/xarbb/printtopic/14780?theme=print

I will not go longer into this conversation because you people are ignorant as shit and I am tired of wasting my time with ignorant people who don't do their Research and Believe the Medical Industry's Lies so GoodBye....

starbella,
you make a fine point; however, I want to tell you that the symptoms listed in this article are simply a guide for diagnosis. No two people must display the same symptoms for anything - even something simple like the common cold; you may have a sore throat and a runny nose, and I may just have have a sore throat and a cough.

Many symptoms of abnormal behaviors (physical/psychological) are common across many illness. Symptoms are a collective source of possible behaviors we may exhibit during our period(s) of illness, and provide a means of easier identification of a potential condition. What that means is that some infants with autism may not smile by 6 months and some may. However, lack of smiling (or smiling even since people "fake smile") does not exclusively indicate emotion - they may feel happy but be unable to communicate this through the mechanism of smiling (remember, many with autism generally have impaired communication). Lack of smiling does not mean a state of unhappiness more than smiling means a state of happiness. Going along with this, lack of imagination may be a symptom but does not have to be.

Be wary of anyone who says something MUST be a certain way - nothing is ever precisely the same in any case, nor is there any way to determine cause in many behaviors. All these symptoms are gathered through correlational studies and only true experiments where things may be manipulated suggest a causal relationship! As a rule of thumb, some symptoms may or may not apply, and this is true of any condition.

I hope that eases your discomfort about what you've read here and what you may read in the future.

I can see I joined this conversation far too late, but...

@ starbella
I've always thought it had to do with the amygdala.

I do agree with the development point. I'm autistic, but I walked and talked by the time I was a year old (I've never had good social skills, however).

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@ VirgoAhtmah

A) There is no proof that vaccines cause autism b) thimerosal or ethylmercury, a type of mercury, which is found in some vaccines, has never been proven to cause autism: the amount in vaccines causes redness and swelling, at most, unless you're allergic to it and c) ethylmercury was taken out of children's vaccines in 2001.

@ starbella
I actually agree with this. I mean, I wasn't into imaginative play. But it wasn't because I 'lacked' the ability. I just didn't know how to pretend like most kids my age. I still get bothered by noises, but because I have ADHD, a stimulant medication actually helps my sensory overloads. (Though I still get minor ones) I listen to music a lot because it blocks out the things around me. I have no social life and spend every waking moment online. I'm resistant to change and trapped in routine. When I'm excited, I'll flap my arms and when I get upset over something, I'll have massive panic attacks.

I've been told I'm more on the high-functioning end... but my diagnosis is 'autistic disorder'. ._. I was a late speaker too. I had to be put in speech therapy, or I never would heave learned how to speak. I can be normal... when I want to be. But most of the time, I'm not normal at all.

I must ask, how much time have you spent with people with Autism, and what made you decide to write the article?
I feel as though many things in the article stated fact-like, are just myths in Autism.
Every sign and diagnosis of Autism is different, just as no two humans are the same. Austim is a spectrum, from very high functioning(aspergers) to very low. Every person with Autism is varies. Autism can not be cured, but is also not a problem. I know people who were not diagnosed until age 18.
Although most of the information of the article is very informative, two things inparticualy I did not believe in. I'm sorry but I found that "By 6 months: No big smiles or warm, joyful expressions." was bullshit. (pardon my french). Just because I baby has Autism, does not mean they do not have the ability to be happy.
The other thing that shocked me was "Lack of imagination." In no way does having Autism prevent someone from having a lack of imagination, perhaps they just lack the communication skills to show you. I know because a small boy very close to me has Autism, and you only have to be in his presence for about 5 minutes before you realize he has in fact more imagination then the average person.

Now what does AUTISM mean?
Auto -self, ism, locked, autism translates to being locked within the self. People with autism often have a hard time communicating with the exterior world.

People with autism have an over reactive amygdala, the part of the brain that controls the flight or fight response, releases cortisol, the stress hormone. The amydala can be triggered by sensory issues, such as strip lighting and loud man made noises. The best way to keep sensory issues to a minimum is to be outside in nature. there is a reason we all love to go to the beach. We are genetically programmed to, because that's were out ancestors evolved. That is where the best food and water supply was. To a child with autism their clothes can suddenly feel like 100 pounds, or the light feels like it's burning them on fire, and of course they can't communicate this because of of how hard it is to communicate with the exterior world

umm....wow....rant over?
-None of these opinions came from the interest, but from working with autistic kids and horses, following the child and seeing what does best for them.

@ VirgoAhtmah
Okay, now that I find offense. Don't ever call an autistic person a retard. That's where I draw the fucking line right there. Just because I learn differently and act differently does NOT make me a retard.

I have a friend who is mentally-challenged and what you said is very offending.

I'm not wasting my time with you two anymore cus I see this conversation getting nowhere so bye....

@ VirgoAhtmah
Your blatant disregard for rules on mibba regardeding abusive behavior make it difficult for me to believe that.

Its not that Autism is bad, you should embrace it, some people don't wanna be cured of it and thats fine but Vaccines are no solution, if you disagree that is your problem not mine.

And Tre. I am mature, far more mature then you retards.

I have Autistic friends who would tell you the same.