What is this disease called Autism?
What is this disease called Autism?
quietfun_06
I have a newphew with Autism.
Some of the things he does is..
Eat one specific food until it literly makes him throw up
Hes only 5 but can play video games better than most people
Hes so strong when he gets mad he breaks things and punches holes in the wall
when hes scared or nervous he will take off all of his clothes and hid under a blanket
He cannot speak very well at all
and they pretty much feel no pain
he cut his finger off once and didnt even cry…
suzieq_64093
It’s not really a disease. It’s more of a disorder with a range of behaviors involved. Many people that have it fixate inappropriately on one thing to the exclusion of others.
Nicole M
It is a treatable disorder; known by various names and variations: Autism, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), PDD-NOS (NOS stands for Not Otherwise Specified), Asperger’s Syndrome, Rhetts Syndrome. The different variations can manifest differing symptoms. While a lot of people with Autism have reduced verbal skills, those with Asperger’s Syndrome are often highly verbal, but limited in social interactive ability. Repetitive behaviors are common, but society’s judgments of those behavior is more pervasive than Autism itself!
Standards of behaviors are subjective. What one person finds inappropriate, another person may think is fine. Thus, our world that is already confusing and unpredictable to a child with Autism, becomes even more confusing and unpredictable. These kids are overwhelmed by our world and do these things to calm themselves…kind of like meditation. The truth is our world full of judgments is problematic….I once saw a speech therapist chastise a little boy for clapping his hands while waiting in line for the bus to come. By the way, the special needs pre-school where this happened taught the kids the song, “If Your Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands”! See the problem?!? Every single person on the planet has some habit that others might find odd, but don’t presume to break someone of…unless they have been labeled as having Autism. Once you have a child’s willing engagement, you can teach him anything…but first you must prioritize bonding over personal behavior preferences. Just think about it, if someone made you feel like everything you did was wrong…would you want a relationship with them. I know that is not most people’s intent, but kids with Autism feel soooo overwhelmed by our world that even the slightest judgmental attitude can seem like an attack on who they are. I highly recommend looking at the principles behind the Son-Rise Program® from the Autism Treatment Center of America. http://www.autismtreatmentcenter.org/
With Son-Rise, innumerable children have completely recovered from Autism and still others surge well beyond their prognosis. Note: To see a video of one of the complete recoveries using Son-Rise please go to Kyle Westphal’s video: http://www.kylestreehouse.org/video1.htm… Kyle’s story was featured on the Discovery Channel and FOX News. Check your local library for “Son Rise: The Miracle Continues” by Barry Neil Kaufman, whose son Raun was diagnosed severely Autistic but eventually had a complete recovery and received a degree in Biomedical Ethics from Brown University, an Ivy League school.
To look at various treatment options, you can go to:
http://www.kylestreehouse.org/treatment_options.cfm
As you can guess, I am not a fan of the Behavioral approach, rather I find Relationship driven modalities more useful…dietary issues should be considered as well. My personal favorite relationship-base program is Son-Rise. In April, there will be a new [inexpensive] book out “10 Things You Can Do Right Now to Help Your Child with Autism” by Jonathan Levy, certified Son-Rise teacher. Note: Amazon has the wrong release date, but Barnes and Noble has the wrong description.
Our daughter has changed so much in the last 6 months since we started Son-Rise (in the areas of verbal communication [spontaneous sentences instead of one word], eye contact [up to 30 seconds uninterrupted], demeanor, etc.) Our daughter, who battled us nightly not falling asleep until between 2-4:00 in the morning, now goes to sleep consistently at a reasonable hour, and get this, she decides she is sleepy and wants to go to bed. We don’t have to tell her to go to bed! That’s amazing!!! She’s happier than I’ve seen her in years, and so are my husband and I. Before Son-Rise, just to get a dental check-up, she would typically have to be restrained in a mesh wrap thing (like a cocoon) and have cartoons playing in front of her face…recently she had a dental check-up without restraint or cartoons, and was pleasant and cooperative…the dental hygienist commented that our daughter was “like a whole different girl”, the hygienist even got a spontaneous hug from our daughter. This has had a phenomenal impact on our family’s quality of life!
If you want a gripping read on the topic, check out the book of “A Miracle to Believe In” . The entire book is online: http://www.autismtreatmentcenter.org/contents/resources/miracle/prologue.php [note if you need a reason why you should read this, just read chapter 24 first: http://www.autismtreatmentcenter.org/contents/resources/miracle/chapter24.php ] for frame of reference this takes place in 1978 or ’79.
Also, the new Sigourney Weaver Autism movie “Snow Cake” was written my a Son-Rise mom: http://www.prwebdirect.com/releases/2007/3/prweb511775.htm
to see a six minute preview of this movie go to:
No two people with Autism are exactly the same…and one thing that pleased me about the preview is that the movie seems to make the point that just because someone sees a movie with a character who has Autism that doesn’t suddenly make the movie-goer an expert on the topic. Hence, the scene where the older lady says, “Oh, I know all about Autism. I saw that film.” [Probably referring to "Rain Man", which I hated!] I like that the movie doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously and gives a wink to the audience letting them know that no movie [even "Snow Cake"] makes them an expert on Autism.
Above all families impacted by Autism should never lose hope! There is beauty and brilliance in our children…we just need to take off society’s blind-fold and see it!!!
—Nicole “Son-Rise Mom”
******************************
There is no such thing as “false hope”!
http://www.autismtreatmentcenter.org/
Tess
Hi there. I have autism myself: it’s a condition caused by the shape of your brain, which affects the way you think, communicate, move and understand things.
It used to be thought that all people with autism were mentally retarded, but now we know that this isn’t true and many autistic people are actually more likely to be geniuses than ordinary people. Because of this, some people think it shouldn’t be thought of as a disability, but autistics do have problems understanding emotional connotations in what people say and understanding their own emotions.
For example, lots of autistic people may throw tantrums like a toddler and be unable to express their emotions in an adult way. Some people with autism can’t show their emotions in their faces, so other people believe they don’t have any feelings (this can be really annoying for us!!!). Often they are unable to tell how other people feel from their expressions and body-language, which can cause huge problems such as not realising when people are dangerous and getting hurt.
Lots of autistic people can *seem* retarded, even if they’re very intelligent, because they don’t have normal expressions – they might roll their eyes, or poke their tongues out, which makes some people think they’re ‘mad’. Also, many of them will have to live in homes because things like poor co-ordination will stop them being safe on their own (they might spill something hot on themselves when cooking, or something like that). It can also be hard for autistic people to sense things like when they are tired, hungry or sick, because the wires in their brain don’t always receive good signals from their body; this too might make them less able to look after themselves.
Speech can be affected a variety of different ways by autism, because the part of the brain that communicates can be weak. Some autistic people can speak perfectly, some speak with a slurred tone, some have stammers, some can’t speak and some even have a whole language of their own!
People with autism may usually like to have routine in their daily life – they usually like to do things in the same order every day and have all their things in the same places, so if these things get changed, it can be very worrying for them, make them feel frightened and sick. That happens because autistic people tend to prioritise things differently, and what seems like a small change to someone else can literally be like a catastrophe to them; but normal people might find something else a catastrophe that an autistic person wouldn’t mind.
Being autistic has lots of upsides and lots of downsides, but it affects every person differently. Many people still think that it is only one condition, but there are really a huge range of types of autism and we find out more about it all the time.
Hope this helps. 
bjblackler
Some of us actually believe that the mercury-containing preservative in childhood vaccines (thimerasol) contributed to the rise in autism diagnoses in the 90′s. More information about this can be found at www.generationrescue.org and www.putchildrenfirst.org
Autism is treatable and preventable. Please feel free to contact me, I would love to share my son’s recovery story with you. -BJ
jennyw94
It is a disease, as defined, “A pathological condition of a part, organ, or system of an organism resulting from various causes, such as infection, genetic defect, or environmental stress, and characterized by an identifiable group of signs or symptoms.”
It is caused when certain children with a susceptability are exposed to vaccines and mercury. The vaccines and mercury work together to poison their bodies, disrupt their immune system and gastro-intestinal systems and thusly destroy brain function.
It is NOT simply the shape of the brain or a hard wiring issue.
It is NOT a psychological disorder.
It is a biomedical, toxicological, gastrointestinal, immunological, full body DISEASE.
What it Does?
Well it robbed my son of any expressive language.
It robbed him of a chance to live on his own as an adult.
He cannot stand most sounds…. a vaccum cleaner sends him running to shut him self away up in the attic. He wore a diaper until he was 7.
In general, it destroys language, and then so the abilty for these kids to relate socially and then so have no friends.
It wrecks havoc with their sensory perception…
They are also medically sick, with Immune and GI system illnesses, most of our kids need supplementation and medical treatments that are not covered by insurance.
Not to mention the education side of it…
doctorking3
Technically, “autism” is a “cause unknown” neurodevelopmental disorder that is currently estimated to be diagnosed in more than 1 in every 175 children in the USA.
However, based on a full differential diagnosis (looking into the genetic and biochemical markers in urine, blood, feces, and other tissues) in more than 100 children having a diagnosis of “autism,” the most sgnificant causal factor is mercury poisoning (found in >85% of the cases examined), other environmental poisons (e.g., lead, arsenic, PCBs, and live viruses [e.g., the measles virus in the MMR vaccine]) found in <10% of the cases, and genetic abnormalities (e.g., Rhett's and Fragile X).
Thus, from the viewpoint of toxicology, in the majority (>85%) of cases, autism is one disease aspect of the sub-acute mercury poisoning of children from conception onwards principally triggered by the BOLUS [1] doses of mercury that are introduced directly into the pregnant woman or the developing child by:
a. Injection (from vaccines and other biological products or their diluents containing an added mercury compound [usually, Thimerosal but also phenyl mercury salts]) or
b. “Topical” application (legally in USA, up until 2001 or later, O-T-C topical antiseptics [e.g., Mercurochrome and Merthiolate], vaginal contraceptives, and diaper rash creams/ointments containing Thimerosal and, to this day, ear and eye drops preserved with Thimerosal or phenylmercuric nitrate, and nasal sprays that are preserved with Thimerosal).
Contributing/exacerbating mercury sources are mercury amalgam fillings in the pregnant and lactating women, dietary mercury, and the background mercury in water and air.
[1] Here the term “BOLUS” “BOLUS” is taken to mean “directly applied” mercury/mercurycompound doses that:
a. Are imposed on the body in a short time (<10 minutes)
and
b. Exceed one-sixth of the EPA's putative "0.1 microgram of mercury / kg of body mass / day."
NKS
Please do not call Autism as a disease. It is a neurodevelopmental disorder. There are several websites which can give you a clear definition of autism.
NKS
joeysopha
Autism is not a dis-ease, its something wonderfull. The only dis-ease autistics have comes from the society we live in. Lack of understanding and inflexability is what causes the problems. Just imagine if society was engineered with the majority of people being what you call autistic. Society would be very diffrent and what you consider normal people would be very stressed out and have trouble functioning. Actually I would bet that an autistic society wouldn’t even communicate with words but with imagery and guestures. A normal person would be totally flipped out and have allot of problems understanding whats going on !
A simple way to visualize this is if you went over to china where the language is symbolic. You don’t understand what people are saying and everything looks confusing. Does that mean you have a disease ???
Joey
dad_4_kids
Autism is technically not a disease, and though the cause remains undetermined it is most likely of heterogenic etiology combining some aspect of genetic susceptibility with as yet unknown environmental exposures.
Here is a link to the DSM-IV criteria which leads to a diagnosis of autism and other ASD’s:
http://www.autismsocietyofwa.org/DSMIV.html
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