The coming avalanche of autistic adults

USA Today | 1/22/16 | Godwin

[Thibodeaux]

perhaps they need to be rejected and placed on the scrap heap

[UCANSEE2]

Thanks. I didn’t think of that, and you are absolutely correct.

[PAR35]

When did I call names?

Well, if you consider " asinine " a term of endearment, you might have a point.

[usurper]

I came to this thread hoping that someone might have some ideas as to what we are going to do with these people as they age.

I have a 24 year old step son who is autistic and has the mental and emotional capacity of a 6 year old.

I am not surprised no one has any ideas I been living with this for years and I still don't know what we are going to do when we can no longer care for him.

The situation just sucks and there is no end in sight. His disability payments are a laughable joke and would not even cover a group home when the time comes.

[discostu]

Autism was much more narrowly defined when I was growing up. I did a research paper on it in jr high, there was no “high functioning autism” back then. Which doesn’t necessarily mean they’re wrong now, but it certainly plays into the rise in autism rates.

[uncitizen]

Most of the Time they were said to be “shy”. So much of the spectrum is BS. IMHO.

[Hot Tabasco]

Yep. I never heard of anybody that had a peanut allergy until my early 40’s.

Decades ago it wasn't such a problem since there were only basic food additives that never included peanut based ingredients. In other words, peanuts were peanuts and those with allergies could easily avoid them.

One of my best friend's wife is a nurse and when their daughter, who is allergic to peanuts entered school, she personally went to each of the child's teachers and provided them with the drug necessary to treat the child should she have a reaction and taught them how to administer it.

[bgill]

I worked with a special ed kid who was “normal” when his meds ran out but was a zombie when his parents got the bottles filled. Night and day difference. His brain was being fried. What a shame and a wasted life.

Back in the day, I’d help out in the spec ed room. The one and only spec ed room for K-12. There were maybe a dozen kids. Today, there’s that many or more for each grade. No way is that from medical advancement. Most is follow the money. Parents can get a check and they get special attention aka MEEEEE!. Schools have eliminated recess, art and other creative outlets so kids get hyper having to sit all day. Teachers don’t want to deal with hyper kids, so instead of sending them outside to run off their energy, they slap a disability label on them and kick them out of their classroom. The school district then collects their check. If the school knows a kid is going to do badly on the state test, the kid is placed in spec ed so he doesn’t have to take the test and doesn’t lower the school’s ranking (and the school gets a check).

Back to the parents craving attention through their special needs children. I read an article this morning with a mother complaining her special little snowflake didn’t get to eat the birthday cake another mother brought to class. Snowflake had to eat grapes because his mama told the teacher he had food allergies. Snort. Now, mama gets to holler at the teacher. If Snowflake had eaten the cake and become ill, mama would have hollered at the teacher. Bottom line, mama gets to holler no matter what.

That said, no one, and I do mean no one I ever knew growing up in peanut land ever had peanut allergies. Twenty years ago when little one was in preschool, they grew peanut plants in Styrofoam cups and no one died. Fine, everyone is likely allergic to something but something has caused an explosion for actual peanut allergies or make believe peanut allergies. Just like gluten allergies. No way are there so many with gluten allergies just in the last 5 or 6 years. IMO, 99% of them are parents wanting the attention of oooooh, extra special snowflake has the latest hip and trending allergy and handicap!!!

[gbscott1954]

We have a 38 year old son with asbergers and I assure you it is not “Medical Imperialism.” Have you had experience with any autistic kids?

[NorthMountain]

I strongly suspect that if the conditions prevailing in school today had prevailed when I was a child, I would have been “diagnosed” with something. As is, I escaped formal education with two university degrees in science and engineering, and have a successful and prosperous career ... which might have been hindered by being stuck in the ‘special ed’ track.

[gbscott1954]

I would give anything I had if our son did not have autism.

[HandyDandy]

"Autism has become an epidemic. Twenty-five years ago, 35 years ago, you look at the statistics, not even close. It has gotten totally out of control," Trump said. "I am totally in favor of vaccines. But I want smaller doses over a longer period of time. Same exact amount, but you take this little beautiful baby, and you pump—I mean, it looks just like it's meant for a horse, not for a child, and we've had so many instances, people that work for me."

Donald Trump

[Brian Griffin]

The problem might actually be that genetic defects build up the longer people wait to have children.

By age 40 an egg might have ten times the number of defects it had when it was 20 years old.

If a woman waits too long to find Mr. Right, the child that results may be very wrong.

Similar things might be said for men and sperm generating cells.

Perhaps legal changes should be made:
1. Social Security survivor benefits to spouses shouldn’t be paid unless the partners married before age 30 and had all children before age 30.
2. No disability benefits payable to children so the diagnosis isn’t profitable
3. federal income tax capped at 10% after the first birth for five years if both parents between age 22 and age 28 when the child was born
4. child care tax credit not issued if a parent is unknown or above age 28

[savagesusie]

Nope-—we have never had such generations of children filled with toxins. It became “normal” to drug millions of boys and quadruple the number of “vaccines” by the 80s—all with known toxins, given to little “healthy” bodies, which are unable to eject toxins efficiently. It is simply an overload of their little systems by an avalanche of toxins—administered in unnatural methods which destroy the natural function of the body and make it attack itself—or completely break down....a deliberate poisoning by the Malthusian satanists.

I knew teachers in the 90s who had been teaching for 40 years saying they had NEVER had “autistic” children until the 80s—NOT ONE.

By the 90s it was not only common—it became obscene. (But shhhh—don’t say anything or the Nazis Pharmaceutical companies will come after you and destroy you-—like any non- “PC” uttered thing).

Repeat after me, sheeple, over and over, “There is NO correlation between vaccines and autism” (although billions of dollars have been paid out for vaccine-caused autism). Just an Inconvenient Truth! Who would EVER “think” injecting known toxins into day old babies and two year olds would do ANY harm!!! We all KNOW crony “capitalists” would NEVER do anything evil for billions of dollars, (never, Machiavelli and Sir Acton, aside), although we know of monkey-viruses intentionally put in vaccines (as fetal cells) causing cancer, and vaccine-caused sterilization in Africa have been PROVEN in court.

Tsk tsk. PC brainwashed people don’t observe facts or Reality or Truth and they follow the programmed “doctors” orders (like in Nazi Germany). No different than the parents putting their children into the “Hitler Youth” because “every” decent German does it......and are told it is “Good” over and over until the Lie becomes the truth.

[Hot Tabasco]

Humans, though similar basically, also have many differences in physiology and body chemistry. What may be helpful, or at least harmless, in one individual may be toxic in another.

I would also add that with each progressive generation, any dormant genes relevant to mental illness will likely surface and be more apparent in the offspring.

I have a friend whose father often had bouts with depression and he himself suffered likewise. As for the father, well, the explanation was people got depressed and nothing was ever done about it.

As for my friend his depression would often include thoughts of suicide but with counseling and occasional medication, he was ok.

Then he had two children, a son and a daughter. Both the children were diagnosed as being bipolar and on much needed medication. The son ultimately committed suicide at the age of about 31. The daughter, who is still alive, has extreme mental problems that can only be controlled with medication. Since she is married to an individual who is also bipolar, they can not have children due extreme likelihood that their children will inherit the bad genes but only worse.

Lots of our ancestors were given a pass as being a little strange or crazy when in reality they really did suffer from some form of inherited mental illness........

[Brian Griffin]

Churchill had bouts of depression.

Mental illness has been around a long time.

I do agree with another poster that the lack of physical activity among children is a big problem.

My neighbor got a new dog about six years years ago. It took a few years for it to calm down.

[Brian Griffin]

Sugar and the like is far more common in food.

That might be causing kids to cross the line more often.

Fat might also be a factor. fat calms people down. Low fat food is more common now.

[Brian Griffin]

Toys are more plentiful nowadays.

My neighbor’s daughter was impossible to play with when she was very young, she switched quickly from toy to toy.

[Uversabound]

Yeah everyone is told they are *Special*

I call them Spesh for short.

UGH PC UGH!

[savagesusie]

You are actually saying that children “learn” bahaviors from their parents. which is true—unless their parents don’t parent and allow TV or others to “raise” them.

Children will normally pick up any behaviors of their parents-—depressed parents will create depressed, suicidal kids in most cases. Take the child as an infant and put them with healthy God-fearing parents, who love life, and have meaning and direction, and the children will be the same, despite parents. Genes aside-—shy monkeys raise shy monkey-—even if no such thing as a “shy” gene.

It always amazes me how people will comment on how on earth did I raise so many good, productive, great children to be responsible “good” well-liked people, devoted to raising their children. It is NOT a trick-—it is NATURAL for good parents to instill virtue and love for self, others and Life, into their children. (Today’s parents don’t bother to instill any type of virtue-—they allow children to learn to be controlled by environment which destroys virtue formation and autonomy: the I can conquer the world outlook-—Life is Fun-—Life is Good—God and His Creation is Good.

It is worldview. Christian v. all other irrational faiths/atheism/nihilism /materialism, etc. No meaning if no God. Dostoevsky knew that and more.

The little secret has been KNOWN since Aristotle when he wrote the Nicomachean Ethics-—simply Common Sense. Virtue comes from INNER CONTROL of emotions-—not environmental control. We have been intentionally (and unintentionally) destroying virtue formation in our children by hyper-sexualization and dumping 10 times the amt. of toxins into their little bodies to overload the system, and by putting them into systems which destroy self-initiative and love for “Knowing” by
literally wasting their time with garbage and mush so they couldn’t master real life mastery/skills. They need to learn how to control inner emotions by interactions with real human beings and manipulation of worthwhile things (life skills) in an parent-CONTROLLED environment which instills self-worth, identity, Traditions, meaning, and moral direction.

Now, can “good” people raise evil kids-—yes-—but only if they are ignorant and allow outside, evil forces to control the worldview of their children or trust untrustworthy people who abuse that child. Child trauma and drugs can destroy the emotional health of any child.