Have You Met Autism?

reply to post by mysticalzoe


I've always wondered about vaccinations, and when they were administered. I was leaning towards early 80's, but you answered my question. Thanks

I have a 6 yr old who was diagnosed with mild to moderate autisum last year. We thought it was normal for him to point and grunt for things as his father had done the same.He would stack everything(and I mean EVERYTHING), he focused on not toys but parts of toys. Through the therapy, he's in occupational, and speech, they have taught me some ways to cope.

When they go into a tamper the best thing to do is distract them(bribe them). I know that most shrinks tell you dont bribe the child, but this is not the case with auisum, find something he loves and promise to give it to them if they stop,(swap this for that lol). They often have sensory overload, most dont like to be touched, looked at , like certain sounds etc.... they have showed me things that help wit this,they have "weighted blankets" to put on the child when they turn "wild". They have explained to me that it is usually a response to over stimulation and that constant weight and pressure is a good way to reset the mode. He has issues with some sounds and will scream and cover when they are heard, the best thing I have found for this is holding him and covering his ears, rocking him untill it stops. I have found o get him to look at me I touch him on the end of the nose and then touch mine (dosen't always work but sometimes is better than never) I have found that he usually watches my finger till it stops on my face and looks even for a scond it starts to get longer and longer.

The best thing that can be done is get them into the proper therapys asap, most dr's are diagnosing this syndrome right now and really have no clue who are the best for this but rather pick a name and send. I was blessed and have an autisum diagnostic center who diagnosed my lil one and they knew who was best for this. They were able to get me in within a month(as they are backloged with all the new diagnosis) and are able to help more than you could ever believe. Good luck peace and happiness be with you and remember these kids are extremely intelligent, find the thing they are most into and fan the fire (mine is computers he has worked one since he was 3) they are a blessing and have much to teach us.

reply to post by Michelle129th



I have a 23 year old autistic grandson and can relate to many of you posters here. I'll start
at the begining. He passed all his landmark checks with flying colours and in some cases was
ahead of where he should have been doing. At the age of about two he was given the MMR jab
and although he was not ill with it his progress slowed down considerably at that time MMR
was new and no connection was made. When he started nursery school the head observed
that he observed the other children rather than socially interact with them. There were also
lots of instances when he came out with whole reams of literature that were obviously taken
from characters from TV or expressions that were used by friends and aquaintences, we all
laughed at him thinking and saying that he would end up being an impersonater. (We later
learned that this was called 'echolalia' and one of the symptons of autism. The head at
his nursery suggested he be assesed (at this time there was no suggestion of autism) however
he was assessed and finally diagnosed with autism. The only thing that seemed to have
any connection with his early development and autism was his MMR jab and as a result the
next three children in my family did not receive the MMR although the doctor and many reports
said there was no connection , which mother with this first hand experience would take
this risk ?? With the passing of time i have come to believe there may not be a connection
but that autism only shows itself at about the same time as the injection is given saying
that, i would not risk it.
My grandson it tall good looking and remembered with affection by every one he meets but
although well spoken and polite it is all learned behavior. On meeting anyone they at first
do not realise his condition, but soon notice his repetitive 'conversation' his lack of eye contact
is better now (Again not natural but learned) he has obsessions, trains, snooker, music and
for some reason he likes countdown and mastermind.
When he was young he liked Postman Pat and Thomas the Tank Engine (Big and old as he
is he still likes them lol) and what i have noticed is that a lot of children with autism like and are
obsessed with Thomas the tank Engine. Infact i did pick up on one child of an aquaintence as
being autistic by this obsession before his diagnosis. Indeed i have often wondered if the writer
the Rev Audry was himself autistic because of this?
That is my story of of my connection with autism i have 23 years worth of experience to much
for here i could fill a whole book but if i can help anyone? i am more than willing to answer if
i can.

Have you read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon? It's written in the first-person perspective of a 15-year-old boy with autism. It's very enlightening.

I have a niece and an adult friend who both have Asperger's Syndrome. The friend doesn't look at you when she speaks, and she has trouble interacting socially except -- and the difference is profound -- for Internet social media sites where she's quite the social butterfly. I wonder if she finds the structure of online interaction helpful or if it's just less threatening. At any rate, I'm glad that she has this outlet because she might otherwise be quite lonely.

There is another thread about the vaccinations and their effect on autism but hope its alright if I add basically what I said there.

I worked in a unit whilst training which housed adults suffering with autism and aspergers. I noticed when looking through the files that all those I worked with, were born to Mothers whom had Rubella whilst pregnant. I wondered if this factor was ever considered during the research into these conditions in the past or whether it was just a coincidence all were also profoundly deaf.

I hope this helps.

reply to post by graceunderpressure




Yes i have read that book and was intrigued at how the author managed to get into the
mind of the autistic spectrum. Throughtout the reading of the book i was reminded
constantly of my grandson. He can read a book (phonetically) but he dosen't understand
what he is reading, but his memory is excellent. There are many times we call on him
to verify a time,a place, a name or things we cannot recall, because he never forgets anything.
When he was around 4/5years old i would take him on the train as a treat (a circular route)
one day i decided to do the route in the opposite direction and couldn't beleive he knew all
stations and land marks as they came up (dont forget this would have been in reverse
order to a 4/5year old)
All his CD's Videos and books are arranged in order in his room and he knows immediately
when they have been moved around, indeed his aunt often just changes the order thinking
he won't notice but he never dosen't notice.



Lynda 101 In the last 20 or so years the increase in autism has if i remember rightly
more than doubled but rubella has decreased to almost nil (in most part due probabaly to the
vacination) Our GP gave the sister and cousin (girl) of my grandson the separate vacination
for rubella due to the fears of their mothers and the controversary surrounding the MMR.
I don't think deafness is in any way specifically related to autism they do have many problems
but i dont think deafness is one of them infact i have not come across it during the special
schools etc. that i have been to in the course of my grandson's education and life experiences.
Another strange fact is that autism affects more boys than girls if i remember rightly the ratio is
about 4 boys to 1 girl.

I have an autistic cat. Im not being sassy either. I really do. He doesnt make eye contact, (and most cats love a good stare down) he steps all over the head and body of my other cat, innocently, not maliciously, and seems to have no normal understanding of how what he does might make the other animal (or person) feel. (ie, you also have to be careful petting him because he gets happy and will just bite, hard. Lots of cats love bite, but Timmy has no clue that you have feelings, he looks so sad and scared when you yelp and pull away) He also prefers being touched by his brush over your hand. He will never come over to be petted UNLESS he sees brush. With his brush and his toys it almost seems like he thinks THEY are his friends, more so than me and the other cats. He relates to them better, because they never get mad at him or yelp if he hurts them.

And, he did develop all of these traits after his first round of vaccinations.

Personally, I am not so sure that it is vaccine itself. I think a lot of people have looked at the ingredients of the vaccine, and cannot find a strong link there. I think that the vaccine triggers an auto immune condition, personally. The increase in both autism and auto immune conditions cannot be explained by genetics alone. They are increasing, in other words, more rapidly than you should expect in the population if it were just genes. And so are auto immune conditions. I think that many of the things we do to "help" are actually confusing and misdirecting the immune system. It evolved to work with things as they were, and by taking its job away, I think we are priming it to misbehave unintentionally. Many researchers agree that it is a combination of genetic vulnerability and some environmental trigger.

en.wikipedia.org...

Though autism's genetic factors explain most of autism risk, they do not explain all of it. A common hypothesis is that autism is caused by the interaction of a genetic predisposition and an early environmental insult.

Just my two cents. And I love my weird little autistic cat. I know some people say "thats just how all cats are," but I have had cats all my life, and no. He isnt like other cats. There is a growing number of people asking if their cat could be autistic online too, but so far, vets arent really accepting it. But............its happening. And I would be willing to be its happening to house cats and not feral ones whose immune systems do their ancient and regularly scheduled job.

www.msnewstoday.com...

“This finding reinforces the suggestion that autoimmune processes are connected somehow with the cause of autism and autism spectrum disorder,” said researcher William W. Eaton, chairman of the Department of Mental Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. “This finding is on the pathway of finding the cause of autism.”

The risk of autism is associated with several prenatal risk factors, including advanced age in either parent, and diabetes, bleeding, and use of psychiatric drugs in the mother during pregnancy.[21] Autism has been linked to birth defect agents acting during the first eight weeks from conception, though these cases are rare.[22]

A child's risk of developing autism is associated with the age of its mother and father at birth.[21][23][24] The biological reasons for this are unknown: possible explanations include increased risk of pregnancy complications;[21] maternal autoimmunity;[24]

Wow, what great posts, I am so thankful for all of you sharing your stories and opinions. I have questions and comments for some of you, and will post them later on tonight. Oh and the little bits of advice, thanks, I'm on my way to my friends house now to show her this thread. I hope she finds it helpful.

reply to post by DeepThoughtCriminal


When a parent realises there is something not right....it does not mean science knows better, hell we still do not know about the universe, let alone anything else.

Originally posted by Illusionsaregrander
I have an autistic cat.

This really struck me. I know this thread is about autistic humans, but there is not specificity in the title, so I guess that means this is not off topic. My sis has a cat named Oscar. When I met Oscar, I knew he was different, but then I met my best friend and her kids. The next time I met Oscar, I realized he is autistic. The same things that you talk about Illusionsaregrander, are what he exhibits. He is easily overstimulated, but on the opposite of your cat, this one is incredibly needy and though he can't be touched too much because it sets him off, he also cannot stand to be alone without a human around. It makes me wonder how many animals out there have conditions like these and no one realizes it.

ETA, a google search on autistic cats is astounding. I think I answered my own question.

I don't know about the labels, but was diagnosed as the signature shows after seeing a psychologist for several months. I was just different. I had my interests that other people didn't care for. There have always been sensory issues. Sometimes I hear everything, and can't cancel sounds. Most of the time I see everything, and can't help but process the flow and interactions between objects and conversations.

If a am on the spectrum, it doesn't much bother me at this point. I had to get over the fact that I'm different, but after realizing that, everything is mostly okay. I need a lot of time to "decompress" after anything major, especially long bursts of interactions with people, but sometimes I actually crave short runs with locals.

I've always had obsessive interests, and extreme focus towards whatever I'm passionate about. The weird thing is that although I may be thought of as weird, or aloof from societies viewpoint, I excel at whatever I love to do at the particular time. So I'm not sure whether I'm simply a different mind, or a defunct mind. I guess it's how I perceive it that matters the most. I think that what is normal isn't healthy, so to be weird may be a good in the 21st century.

I do not cry easily, but these stories brought tears to my eyes. I hate when children suffer. If there is any chance that the vaccinations can cause this, any chance at all, it terrifies me.
I have not done a lot of research on this subject but I will now.
Along the same subject line, has this been tied to ADD or ADHD in children? I know that society is quick to label people, and that some children just need discipline but it seems that more and more children are "ADD".
Could this be the pharmaceutical companies pushing their drugs to increase revenue at the expense of our children?

reply to post by eletheia


Hi Eletheia,

Sorry I didn't explain about the deafness. I was born deaf with only partial hearing. Due to this when I had to chose where to work for part of my uni course I worked in a special unit for a deaf charity. That was why the common deafness, I hadn't meant to associate deafness with the autism.

I wonder if the rubella link is still ongoing, if children are given a vaccine against it, then it still gets introduced into their bodies. Someone made the point about it affecting boys more than girls, there was only 1 deaf lady with autism in the unit, obviously the rest were men

reply to post by Lynda101



lol.....Thats made it clearer about the deafness aspect, and also goes some way to
confirming the ratio of autistic males v females.

To explain more fully about the rubella. In my post i explained that the later three children
in the family were not given the MMR (three vacinations in one) because of the autism in the
oldest child, whilst our doctor had every sympathy with my daughters reasons for not
having her children given the MMR he did convince her to give the girls the rubella vacination
when they reached theit teens to eliminate any incidence of german measels and pregancy.

Originally posted by DeepThoughtCriminal
reply to post by Jomina

 

Was the link between the vaccine and the onset of your son's condition proven?

You call science BS? Well, I pity you.

science is proven wrong every day....its full of theories.


i'm not saying i definitely believe vaccines cause autism...i don't know. and it could be vaccines and not thimerosal...i do NOT think vaccines are safe...at least not safe enough to require them or to vilify parents that refuse them for WHATEVER reason.

i'm just saying that accepted scientific theory can be proven false and actually absurd within a matter of years...and it could happen with this issue. you could not know, so to argue with someone clearly affected in a way you couldn't understand...that is absurd, sir.

I have to say there is something to the vaccine thing, debunked or not. Have you ever noticed how the people debunking this theory are involved with big pharma somehow? I've fought this fight before, and I don't care what science says, I saw with my own eyes what happened to my nephew. You can't debunk that. When it is one of your own, it hits home.

My nephew was perfectly fine. He was born healthy and just beautiful. My family and I watched him blossom that first year of his life. He said several words including all our names, he smiled and recognized us, he would come to all of us to be held. He was such a joy.

Then he received his 12-month vaccinations and that all stopped. He didn't want to be held. He no longer spoke or acted like he knew who any of us were. He flapped his hands and hummed. We were all bewildered. My brother and his wife immediately began having him checked for things to find out what had happened.

He was diagnosed as Autistic and we moved forward broken-hearted. He was placed in a Special Children's School and they worked with him and got him talking again and he hasn't shut up since. He's 16 now, and you'd never know he ever had a problem except for the small things we all recognize.

He's had his share of social problems in school and otherwise. He doesn't handle transition very well and he has a few minor quirks. For example, my sister-in-law was vacuuming once and he came to her begging her to shut off the vacuum because he felt like he was suffocating. Upon further questioning, my brother ascertained that the noise bothered him and he couldn't articulate that effectively at the time.

He is brilliantly smart and well past his grade level in all subjects except Math, I believe. He is above college level for everything else. While his story has gone on to mostly happy results, I truly believe it had something to do with the vaccines.

reply to post by glitchinthematrix


So how can big pharmas claim that vaccines dont cause autism be true? Obviously in your case (and many others) its been proven to be false. Just one example like this is enough to make their claim wrong or possibly even an outright lie.

Originally posted by glitchinthematrix
I have to say there is something to the vaccine thing, debunked or not. Have you ever noticed how the people debunking this theory are involved with big pharma somehow?

Just remember that both sides can be wrong. In a sense. It may NOT be a direct result of some ingredient in the vaccine. Life (and biology) isnt always simple. It could be a complex interaction between a particular persons physiology and the vaccine, like the immune response theory.

It could be some other complex interaction. One problem is that people get fixated, say on the idea that it is some specific ingredient, and then when science tests the theory and says, "No, its not that" they both accuse one another of being liars or idiots, when in fact it might behoove both of them to just wipe their ideas out of their minds and look at the problem with less preconceived notions.

Vaccines sure are a strong corollary. But, correlation does NOT mean causation. I just wish both sides would be a little more open minded and not fixate so heavily on the ingredients, and check to see if perhaps the vaccine is altering the immune system, and perhaps causing inflammation which damages some brain regions, or even alters the immune system, which alters bacteria in the gut, which then alters the brain.

Its probably a longer chain of causation than we are currently assuming.

reply to post by MidnightSunshine


My sister has autism.
She was born in 1994, she was very advanced as a baby but it all halted, and she never spoke. We thought she was deaf for a while, she wouldn't talk, didn't act like she could hear us, etc. She wasn't deaf, obviously, and they diagnosed her with autism at age 3.

She used to not be able to communicate at all, she would just throw tantrums and we could never figure out why. She never wanted to be hugged or held or any of that. We could never hold her hand, she could only hold ours. She has a hard time looking anyone in the eyes and is extremely smart. She's able to fix just about any computer or electronic device and teach herself how to use it.

She's taught herself how to read and write and she loves art and can sing beautifully, she just can't say the words correctly.

Overall, she's amazing, she just lacks communication and has a hard time connecting with people. She's gotten very very good about saying "I want *insert whatever item here*" but she still and will always have trouble expressing herself...that is when she gets angry and throws extreme fits, full of screaming, hitting, throwing stuff, and more.

My parents always wondered what caused her autism. We know she had a FEW issues in the womb, she was born with a club foot and my mom was hospitalized while pregnant with her..I don't remember why though, I was only a child. She also has a very interesting eye, one of her eyes is blue-green, while the other eye is blue-green with brown and purple? Very interesting indeed.

Anyways, that's about all I can think of right now to share. My dad does a lot of research and works with children with autism a lot (he is an OT). He is very convinced that she wasn't born with autism, even with her history in the womb.

P.s. sorry if that made 0 sense, I'm running low in the sleep department

I know three people with Aspberger's, one a friend, one a family member(in-law) and friend of the family's son.

My friend, who I've known since third grade, is dealing very well. We became friends because we were both very shy(I have anxiety) and just seemed to click well. She is high functioning, works and has been since HS, has her own apartment and paid for her own car. I believe she will be going back to college soon. She's bright, but easily confused when certain things are explained to her. Going through school was only in a few learning disability classes. She takes medication from time to time, to curb some issues, but overall I am very proud of her.

Friend of the family's son is doing well, but may never be able to live on his own, esp. now things are harder because Medicaid benefits have been cut where he needs help the most-to learn to live in society.

I can say the same for my in-law who has it. He is very bad off, an addict, stricken with OCD, bulimia, Bi Polar, injures himself, etc and stuck with family who are not willing to care for him. He has never had a job, can barely feed himself and clothe himself, etc. Drs. say his conditions are linked. Though, he has an average IQ, all of the factors he has to go through, are preventing him from functioning. I wish the best for him, as it's out of my hands. Not to mention benefit help has been cut.


Personally I don't believe Autism is connected to vaccinations. Rather other factors such as before birth. Also, each person is different it seems, so it might be vague to group all people with it into one way of treatment and understanding.