Posted on 08/24/2005 3:09:44 PM PDT by Born Conservative
A 5-year-old Monroeville boy died this week during a medical treatment that's being touted by some as a cure for autism.
The autistic boy died while receiving chelation -- an intravenous injection of a synthetic amino acid known as EDTA, for ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid. The Food and Drug Administration has approved the practice only to treat heavy metal (such as lead) poisoning. The treatment is becoming increasingly popular, though still controversial, for autism.
Police are investigating the boy's death, which occurred Tuesday morning in the office of Dr. Roy Kerry in Portersville.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
I think you're referring to ADD, attention Deficit Disorder. I don't know anybody who would even dare suggest that autism is something that is brought on by the neglect of a parent. If you do, than I'd rethink who I hang out with because they're IDIOTS.
Hildy wrote:
I think you're referring to ADD, attention Deficit Disorder. I don't know anybody who would even dare suggest that autism is something that is brought on by the neglect of a parent. If you do, than I'd rethink who I hang out with because they're IDIOTS.
Sadly, it's family who is kiting this stuff.
Generally, for diabetes to use your example, there is an improvement if it is actually diabetes. They may eventually die from it, but their longevity and their relief from symptoms is increased. In the case of many of the drugs prescribed for mental illness, the results are very inconsistent, and on average detrimental.
Consider hypertension. The antihypertensive medicine may control the BP but it doesn't cure it. The patient goes on to have increased rate of stroke, coronary artery disease, kidney disease, etc, even with the meds.
My point wasn't simply that those taking the psychiatric drugs aren't cured, but that overall they are worse. If a doctor were to give you a medicine to control your blood pressure, but which causes immediate cessation of your heart...that's not really a help, is it?
We do everything possible to help the body cope with illnesses but I get the sense that some folks (possibly sometimes for conservative religious reasons)don't believe in mental illnesses. Somehow that is different -- not really part of the "body". My point is that the brain is as complicated and fallible as any other organ in the body.
There certainly are people who do not seem to believe in mental illnesses. I am not one of those.
The problem starts with the brain being so little understood, and the sphere of what can be controlled so broad that diagnoses are extremely subjective. It is difficult to even describe mental illnesses in a definitive manner, much less to determine what causes most of the problems.
Further, degree programs tend to self-select people that are mentally unhealthy themselves, often maniacal and suicidal to levels well beyond the population at large. Further, in my experience, there is an overwhelming tendency for the people who choose to study psychology not have any comprehension of the limits of the theories they study and to treat everything as a nail.
Repeated studies have shown that the most common result of psychotherapy is to become addicted to psychotherapy. They feel better about going to therapy, but don't really improve the underlying problems, and often use the therapy to justify continued ill behavior.
This is not by any means to say that there are no improvements, and no pharmaceutical aids, and no fundamental malformations. My point is that the brain is so complicated and so little understood that, beyond the benefits of a paid friend, the fields of psychology and even psychiatry are often little more than alchemy. This is a field where there are very few touchstones, and where abusing patients with pet theories is encouraged.
To go back to an earier example of yours, we can definitively measure the bloodpressure, but definitvely measuring "crazy" is not a straightforward process, and most of the time psychologists and psychiatrists don't even attempt to do so.
Pure Mercury is odd that way. Because it has such a strong attraction to itself (note the bend of the meniscus) compared to other things, that large quantities of it tend to stay inert for a long time...however, if it is broken into smaller bits, by say dropping a vial of it, it forms these little tiny balls, which will evaporate and combine with other things. Thus very small quantities of mercury are often far more dangerous than large quantities. It's mostly about surface area relative to volume.
As for mercury which is chemically combined with other elements already, that is a whole different thing.
powdered mercury? Obviously a compound of some sort. what was it combined with?
Do you KNOW that was the source?
Even things defined by degree vary in degree. :)
It's amazing how some "mentally retarded" children can outsmart the adults around them with regularity.
So they accused you of that? It's so hard to believe human beings could be so wretched. I wish you well. What State do you live in?
My autistic nephew is so smart with certain things. But he repeats the same thing over and over...just like Rainman. About 5 years ago he ran into the mother of a girl in his class at the Circle K. EVERY SINGLE TIME he writes me a note, to this day (which is often on the computer), he says "we saw Kayla's Mom at the Circle K." It's so...hard to understand the way the mind works. I've always thought autism was the opposite of mental retardation. My brother was a certified genius his wife, extraordinarily bright. Her Father, literally, a rocket scientist. You find autism in very intelligent homes. I wonder if there's ever been a study to that effect. Years ago, my Father's friend, Josh Greenfield, had an autistic son. This was before it was such a common thing. Josh Greenfield was a writer, most known for his screenplay "HARRY AND TONTO" with Art Carney and OH, GOD Part II. He was married to a very well known Japanese Artist. They had an autistic son, Noah. He wrote one of the first books on the subject. It's called "A Child Named Noah." I met Noah many times when I was young. I think we were about the same age. He may have been a bit younger. If you were to tell me then I would have an autistic nephew it would have been unheard of. But in the last twenty five years something has happened. Something in our way of life. Something.
What a load.
I know a woman who when she was a child was considered severely mentally retarded, and yet was capable of presenting every person she came across with a different impression of her capabilities and keeping it all straight. Whenever we have gone through an airport, she nearly always finds someone that she has met in the past and correctly identifies them.
She was part of a special program that taught her how to read, yet after she moved to a different school district, she managed to convince the staff that not only could she not read or remember most of her letters, but that she could not dress herself. It took a slip-up on her part where she was showing a younger child who was there how to spell her name and his name on a chalkboard during a conference to prove to the new staff that she could read. The staff all thought her parents were nuts.
She was retarded, but not THAT retarded. It was all a game.
I'm in Michigan, they are in NC, and that's a Good Thing, (as Martha would say)
What are you trying to say?
that the mind is odd. ...That a person can be sufficiently retarded as to not be functional without extreme help, but yet in certain situations can outsmart people with Masters degrees.
Just to be clear, I wasn't saying that this woman wasn't quite retarded - she is mentally about a 6-8 year old, and cannot carry out much of anything that requires more than a few continuous mental steps - but she has the ability to keep track of interactions with dozens of people even occassionally over the span of years.
Frankly, it's quite humbling.
Uh, this is what I was responding to:
Autistic kids' parents are notorious for seeking out quacks, from Robert Kennedy Jr, to this phony.
It is insulting to say that about autistic kids' parents. I have sought out quacks such as neurologists and the University of Washington for help with my kid and more and spent a lot of time on research. How awful of me and other autistic parents to strive for an answer to our problem instead of sitting like idiots waiting for a miracle. My ex-husband did mention chelation to me a few weeks ago and I told him the research I did on it made me think it wasn't worth the risk. Try walking a mile in someone elses' shoes before you paint everyone with the same brush.
You have my sympathy. My best friend's eldest is autism-spectric (?), and I have watched the joy and frustration in that father's eyes. Luckily, the only person in his son's life who doesn't understand autism is his MIL, a woman living 300+ miles away.
The boy is bright, but his light is trapped inside. It's heartbreaking on the bad days.
Thank you.
We're pretty lucky, actually, compared to what some folks have to cope with.
She's in a great school now, and getting her into 4-h was the best thing we could have done for her.
But yeah, it can be a very strange and distant world where they live.
Sigh. My ex has to "win" any any cost. The kids have slipped up and told me on occasion that daddy says they don't have to help pack, do chores, etc. If a kid has problems, it makes the situation 10x worse. My youngest one is emotional from all the manipulation, but otherwise healthy...thank God.
Whether he makes it, is up to him now. When he was in middle school, he and a friend were cited by the cops for lighting off fireworks...on school property, during summer school. DOH! In HS, he got in a fight in class, and several members of the wrestling team had to pull them apart. Cited once again. This meant going before a judge, court fees, and money for community service. Almost a grand for both citations, and I didn't bother asking daddy to split the cost. I didn't even tell him about the second court appearance, after Dad didn't show up for the first one.
I'll always pray for him.
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