Posted on 03/26/2016 9:47:13 AM PDT by Kaslin
During July 2008, nationally syndicated talk show host Michael Savage ignited a firestorm with his comments about autism, calling it "a fraud, a racket."
In follow-up statements, Savage explained his views as being "meant to boldly awaken parents and children to the medical community's attempt to label too many children or adults as 'autistic.'"
While Savage's language was blunt, his concerns over the gross over-diagnosis of autism are valid.
Of course, the U.K. banned Savage from entry, in no small part because of his controversial views on autism, proving -- yet again -- that British governments, both Labour and Conservative alike, are incapable of tolerating serious critical and controversial thoughts.
The autism lobby is very vocal, and their intimidation of politicians -- especially in the center of the political spectrum, which is always most susceptible by manipulation from pseudoscience -- has been intense. But when a lobby is so hysterical, that is reason to question its motives and validity.
In Canada, the province of Saskatchewan is having an election, and financial assistance for parents of autistic children has become one of the key policy platforms for the governing party that is seeking a renewed mandate:
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I actually AM autistic, and I got none of these special treatments.
Actually, I’d probably be so cheesed off if anyone tried to offer them to me that I’d yell right in their faces.
And when the option of going on welfare was brought up, I recoiled in disgust.
Just because my brain is different than those of many other people doesn’t mean that I don’t live here on Earth. It’s MY responsibility to train myself to overcome the difficulties that autism brings, not everyone else’s responsibility to cater to me.
The only thing that I ever ask of anyone else is to be a little bit understanding of my quirks, but not to give me any special treatment.
when I was in school, there were always kids that were a little different...they were not segregated...they were accepted for whom they were...
I dislike my fellow FReepers on threads like this. It hurts.
If you could see preschool classes these days, and look at a group of 15-20 kids, you’d see that in nearly every class there will be a child who shows strong symptoms of autism. They are too young for it to be anything other than natural and fully blameless.
Autism is being correctly diagnosed. However, there are kids who might not meet every necessary symptom who still get a dx because they need the help. These kids have very similar brain damage but just might not meet every criteria.
Autism, being an epidemic today, is environmental in origin. The environment can be prenatal. It can be epigenetic in that the uterine conditions choose which genes to express. young women’s uteri contain a lot of plastic - BPA and others - that are serious neuro disrupters. It can be post natal, from chemicals all around, in the fabrics and bedding, furniture, air, water, breast milk, diapers, and especially the products injected into the new baby in the first year off life.
It makes me sad that intelligent FReepers pooh pooh an epidemic affecting their own children or grandchildren.
ADHD is vastly overdiagnosed and many children are just immature, say scientists
You may be right there. In fact, I believe I’ve seenthe reverse, where the “autistic” person has his/her acquaintances “trained” to cater to him/her, rather than vice versa.
I think that the answer is a little bit of both of the above.
I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 23 years old. I would have LOVED to have a little bit of extra help learning how to socialize with people, but because I was scoring straight As without even trying throughout high school, no one really cared that I spent most of my day curled up in the corner with a good book.
Alternately, I’ve met many people who claim to be autistic who are total jackasses, who just use the title in order to take money from the government and be jerks to everyone else around them.
But as I said upthread, it’s also my responsibility to face the difficulties and overcome them, especially at my age. And I really loathe the people who use this as an excuse to get away with anything.
You were bookish and socially awkward. Many people who could have been described thusly have gone on to great things in life. Expanding autism into pathologizing fully functional people does no good, not for society and especially not for such individuals, in my opinion. You have your gifts and you have your challenges, just as we all do. Different from most, but there’s no sin in just being different.
My son has a medical diagnosis of autism. A medical diagnosis is different from a mom, counselor, even pediatrician, saying that they think that they have autism. In his case a group of medical professionals (psychiatrist, pediatrician, psychologist, and social worker) evaluated him over a few days and determined the diagnosis. He has been homeschooled from the beginning.
Many of you clearly don’t know what autism is. It isn’t misbehavior. In fact, autistic kids like having clear rules and are often avoid breaking rules. As part of his therapy, the therapists would make rules ambiguous and try to get him to break the rules.
With autism, the cortisol (hormone that triggers the flight or fight response) increases more and stays increased for a longer period of time for the autistic person than for a person without autism. As a result, people with autism avoid stressors (tend to be introverted, have a difficult time making and maintaining eye contact, etc.), avoid breaking rules, and have behaviors that appear to be irrational when they are stressed. The behaviors are referred to as “stimming”-a common one is flapping hands but can also be things like stuttering, tapping, or fidgeting. The increased levels of cortisol negatively impact the immune system and the ability to process information. I refer to it as being chased by a bear. Consider how you would respond if you were to look up and see a bear charging at you.
I think that the increased diagnosis of autism isn’t because it is more prevalent, but because we’ve moved from an agrarian society, in which people who wanted to avoid stress could find solitary work, to a service-information based society in which the ability to interact with people constantly is almost required.
Keeping your response on file for those usual anti-vaccine types I run into.
I agree that we need to adjust our social help for adults on the spectrum to give lives purpose. There are so many jobs and even careers that would work depending on the person. Some of those handouts are hurting, not helping. But there are people who truly can never be independent and we need to do MORE for them. Including our brain damaged seniors with Alzheimer’s. We need to focus aid $ on our most helpless, from birth to death.
I like your attitude. There is no one on the world who doesn’t have obstacles. We all do. Some are harder than others. I have some very close to me on the spectrum and I see the enormous strain parts of life creates for them. Good luck to you.
Bookish and socially awkward, yes.
I was professionally diagnosed at age 22, and that was me trying to make myself seem normal, because getting that diagnosis would have put me back a good 5 years on my chosen career path.
Which it did.
My local Kroger, about 90% of their baggers and other support staff have Down’s.
Excellent, friendly and hard-working, and did I say, friendly. They also pay attention to detail.
I know the assistant manager of the store and he says other than an occasional incident of emotional over-load, they are far, far better to work with than “normal” high school kids (and some adults).
That makes perfect sense to me.
I love your attitude. :)
Its just chick drama. 99% is fake and they only need a crack on the ass to make them act right.
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I thought everybody had “a crack on their ass”.
“””if your slow kid gets the autism diagnosis, they get more services and you get more money.”””
I know a couple who probably make over $200K a year. They have a twelve year old who’s mildly autistic. They continuously complain about the lack of resources for their son in the public school system.
I hear people say stuff like that from time to time. I was educated by Nuns for about 10 years and never saw anything like that. Maybe it was a generational thing.
+1
I also think I had a touch of autism when I was growing up. I had some severe social deficits. And my 4th grade teacher wrote my parents that they should resign themselves to the fact I was going to have a “lopsided education” because I simply refused to do anything I wasn’t interested in or saw the need for. But back in 1968, they didn’t diagnose those things. I was just “the weird kid.”
Now I’m the weird adult and I’m quite grateful they didn’t put a label on me (other than weird) and pump me full of psychotropic poisons.
Yeah, I knew that guy too!
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