interesting post. My son is mildly autistic - enough to be noticeable, but not to make him socially incapable. We never even considered any kind of treatment or therapy other than some mild speech & cognitive association therapy, making his chool aware of his problem(s) and making allowances ourselves for him in everyday life. I dare say that if he suffered more seriously we might have gone for something more radical, but quack remedies that promise spectacular results? - never. In my experience, miracle cures are never what they're "quacked up" to be.

Thanks!

My Youngest is Moderately Autistic -- Still pretty much non verbal as of the age of 11 -- shes a sweetie and is trying very hard

The differences between Aspergers and Autism is huge and there is a debate going on to reclassify the DSM ( Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ) to express this differnce

We as a family are very well informed as to the whole Autistic debate -- This Diagnosis can cause great stress on the Families as a whole and the percentage of Verbal and High functioning Vs Those more like my Daughter is 5 to 10 % ( Aspergers ) Vs 90 % ( Autistic )

A Very Large and unspoken for Majority who will probably need to be placed in a group enviorment or such and need to be cared for all of thier lives

This is why there there is a sense of Desperation and lots of False hope

This diagnosis has also become a refuge for the con artist and illness of the year group -- those whos self esteem or other mental problems find refuge in Cocktail party diagnosis

The link you posted features a lady Kassiane -- she was supposedly Autistic -- Know shes Rhetts syndrome -- and who knows what next year ?? -- she and others like her prey on those who seek help -- asking for money and assitance why supposedly providing an " inside glimpse " into the condition

the root of the problem is that the diagnosis is dependent upon the observer's knowledge of symptoms and current definitions - as for people diagnosing themselves, i think thats fine as long as they're looking to act on it, not wave it around in everyones faces as some sort of trophy or whatever. fyi i didn't speak a word until i was four years old(neither did einstein, so nyah), and my 'nick has something to do with the lack of expression most people see in my face, like i've been botox'ed and my face is slightly paralyzed.. these are a couple of problems associated with aspergers as well as irrational fits of anger, 'aloofness', trouble forming long term relationships etc which also come under lots of other mental illness's headings so its not clear-cut at all for adults who suspect something's amiss upstairs

not that i would ever see a shrink - buncha quacks mostly

whatcha think about Jenny McCarthy vs mercury-preserved vaccines?

My bro in law also didnt speak till 4 -- I got alot of family argument about it running in family and my youngest would be fine -- Damm glad I put foot down and got the diagnosis at early age

I agree and disagree with you Cold Void -- if you self diagnosis with intentions to act or understand yourself then yes -- alot of people these days are wearing it like a Badge of Honor and proclaiming " Im not broke -- dont fix me " this is wrong as true autistic's understand the difference and what they lack and this is the preverbial tip of the Iceberg -- most ( 90 % ?? ) like my daughter ( border line High function ) may never speak and need a cure and help -- while the Top 1 to 5 % are Einsteins what happens to the rest ??

I myself talk to much and am over focussed and have hyper issues and other problems -- which i have learned to control and deal with thru maturity and yoga and other ways -- if I were growing up today i would probably be a Ritalin child and be in programs and such

As for the whole mercury Thing -- well I just dont Know -- Could be flouride in ther water that was adapted in the early sixities as the diagnosis rate began to rise ?? -- the Vacine thing could be a Trigger in some People -- there are other countries that Vacinate Later and they have same Diag rate -- also ther are places that dont Vacinate at all and they have same rate also

If you go back and think about the whole Concept of the Village Idiot per see -- I think you begin to see a pattern of human denial -- It so tragic that we couldnt acknowlege it -- also theres historical stuff such as the Wild boy of Avignon and other cases

I think That its a Cognitive Break down thats Genetically Based -- It runs in Families -- Possibly like Alsheimers or such -- and the Vaccines May trigger it -- we just dont Know enough ???

The mercury-based preservative thimerosal seen in some vaccines is often claimed to be the cause of autism. However, Denmark and Canada have had thimerosal-free vaccines since 1990, Japan since 1992, and there are autistics there aswell. People who have studied the debate for some time really think Jenny has acted stupid, even pro-biomed people.

People who get a diagnosis are ofcourse allowed to be proud of who they are, sad if some take it abit far on others.

I don't think seeking a cure for autism is the best way we can help autistics today. The Cure Autism Now in cooperation with Autism Speaks organisation is very controversial as most of their finances really go to marketting campaigns and genetic research for a prenetal test - earlier diagnosis they say but I think it will have other purposes for many.

woah there this -is- still TLR

autism may simply be the result of our artificial moon food - nutrition really isn't what it used to be. if not for the invention of the haber-bosch process we would be starving from lack of calories. well actually i shouldn't say we, i should say the 40% of the world that couldn't afford food, that would starve.

are reticulans using us and the rest of earths surface in a planet wide xenoforming process? i don't know, but i am on to something here -

you see my father, who's probably just around Taw's age? is 57 and he's been diagnosed with C.A.D., four arteries 70% closed a swollen coronary and a freak bicuspid valve. well i may not have to explain further... this is pretty bad. he has not had a heart attack yet and what else can i do to help but remind him to eat veggies, eat his vitamins, try-try-try-to get him to quit smoking, and tell him i love him? you see my grandparents are in very good health for their respective ages and only one mild stroke between them, so there is no genetic risk factor there - his blood pressure and cholesterol are now 'very good' for his age according to his doc - despite all these positive factors (besides failure at cessation) his doctors recommend a quadruple bypass, coronary and valve - is this a f***ing scam or what? grr

if my country actually wanted to save money on healthcare the first requirement to get subsidized/socialized/free/whathaveyougovernmentprogram should be a visit to the damn dietician. and although i'm a libertarian, IAMNOTADAMNANARCHIST and i do think this country should have socialized medicine, just like it has socialized transportation and socialized recreation in the form of the parks system (its all right there in the constitution: 'LIFE, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' BAM!) - being libertarian does -NOT- exclude one from being pragmatic you see, and I do realize the major costs of medical practice is insurance. MALPRACTICE INSURANCE SHOULD NOT BE MANDATORY - LIABILITY CAN BE WAIVED IN A FREE COUNTRY. we could do a lot to cut costs just by asking congress why they don't make malpractice insurance optional - and yes, i realize that that might require you to make -informed decisions- regarding -your health- but that might just be necessary -to save your life- and i'm telling you this right now so if you are like my father and are eating garbage and living like you want to die you might reconsider lighting that cigarette, eating those french fries, or making another uninformed decision that adversely affects your health. do i blame my father for his ****ty health? hell no - but i am pretty irritated at the old jarhead for his bad habits and particularly now because he is depressed and that is not helping his health or cessation.

oh and there are two kinds of people attracted to medicine: Hippocrats and Hypocrites. Hippocrats unfortunately, go to serve in doctors without borders and free clinics. Hypocrites pledge 'do no harm' and then refuse to save a patient for lack of payment.

sorry to go off my nut here but things are getting pretty damn intolerable here in amerika - poor children's teeth are left to abcess and eventually kill them, because letting someone reach in with pliers and yank it out for a reasonable fee would be irresponsible compared to that! where vets with ptsd raised their children with no spouse and come to be in dire straits thanks to "reformed" chapter 11 law get 'we're busy' form letters from a deadbeat VA who is only waiting for them to die and reduce the paperwork. where everyone drives a fancy car they don't own, to a home that belongs to their bank, and eats gene-patented, engineered food grown on depleted soil with my favorite reticulan scientist's ammonia.

ron paul or bust is all i can say. gold backed money, get the CFR's members out of our government, cancel nafta and cafta and spp and REOPEN THE FACTORIES. the "information" economy has not materialized, dolts! you know, MS is actually putting in a 1/2 mile long datacenter here with 500 jobs. 500 jobs..... thats uhm...2?5 percent? of our local population? wow oh thank you globalization, our little semi industrial farmlet is so gratefull - but not so grateful that we prostrate ourselves before any MS employee we might see commuting the 30 miles they drive to avoid living with the white trash here

if your country/state/county/city does not have an appropriate division of agriculture, industry, and service, and banking it will end badly, and if the usury of the commodities markets, the money lending, the money printing and coining is allowed to go unchecked and unregulated like some hideous goiter on someones neck it will end in disaster. the people who were hurt worst by the depression were the people who were totally disconnected from the land and that didn't have any assets. give it some thought... i certainly have (RUN FOR THE HILLS! RAGNAROK IS NIGH! AYI!)

Edited by - Cold_Void on 11/4/2007 8:08:48 AM

but you aren't a free-market libertarian, and a true free-market libertarian would say unless you extend that *liberty* to the free-market, you aren't really a libertarian, and that as everything should be deregulated and *the market* allowed to find it's own level, then socialised healthcare would be, to a free-market libertarian, anathema (unless he was seriously ill or injured and needed immediate care, in which case I'm sure his principles would be conveniently put aside for a while.)

as you know, in the UK (which surrounds Tawakalnistan on all sides) we have our National Heath Service - the archetypal socialised healthcare. It's pretty cr*p a lot of the time, absolutely terrible some of the time (MRSA, C-Dificil, waiting lists, overpaid consultants on jollies paid for by the taxpayer and drug companies) BUT it provides, most of the time, good to excellent care and superb acute and emergency care; and it would be political suicide in the Uk for any politician to seriously suggest scrapping it. Rather, it gets gradually undermined and nibbled away at in the name of "efficiency" and "reforms" which in fact generally make things worse.

But it's riddled with waste, overspending, misplaced and misapplied priorities - which I can tell you from first hand experience aren't at front-facing or care-giving level - they're in management" and the higher you go the worse it gets! Goodness me, i could tell you of the spendthrift horros that I've seen when I was working in the NHS on the NPfIT programme (which in itself has turned out to be a disaster, and that's a tale in itself.)

I know that there are proposals to begin a fledgling NHS in the US, but I don't think that they'll get off the ground - too much resistance from vested interests, all they need to do is shout "communist!" or "taxes!" and it's as dead as a doornail. Shame because I think that you people across the water could really benefit from a national health care programme, but it's so alien to your capitalist culture that it would never work. maybe if it had been brought in by someone like FDR in the 30s as part of the New Deal, it would have put down roots and succeeded, but now? Never. Will be killed stone dead before it's even born.

And I'm NOT 57!



Edited by - Tawakalna on 11/4/2007 8:17:26 AM

lol Taw - most people take a higher estimate of age as a complement when its not face-to-face/or voice communication

(when i was 13 and got on the net for the first time on our local BBS and started chatting everyone guessed i was much older, often between 23 and 50 - damn i'm smooth!)

well i'm more a libertarian in the way Bill Maher is a libertarian - actually we are very inclusive if you take the advocates quiz you'll probably come up on the liberal side of the libertarian field - I'm not such a wingnut that i think we can do without government, but i feel more comfortable associating with bircher's like doc paul than spineless simpering bootlickers like pelosi and reid. at least paul does not give one inch of ground to the neocons (simpler to call them RINOs if you've ever heard of lincoln and eisenhower) that reagan put on the path to power and yeah they are probably done for at this point... may only take a decade or two to get them out... only. the only problem perhaps is that the other party is exactly the same as them, just more open about it and willing to apologize with handouts to the plebes as well as the oligarchs.

everything that's in the constitution, except the 16th ammendment, that's what i believe in as a plan of action for government, and that's what the 'libertarians' for lack of better name believe. fair trade, not free trade. real currency, not coupons leveraged on debt, to be paid for with taxes. we would call ourselves the constitution party but some other wingnuts took it. and hey the new deal was a good deal - i was kept from homelessness when i was a child by welfare, which cut the check for rent and paid for food when dad quit his $12 an hour job to look for a job that could support us in a town with some sort of future. but, a lot of us have caught on to the fact that 80% or more of income taxes don't go to social security recipients or welfare parents and that the amount of money spent on "Defense" could easily pay for all the social security we owe to our elders who've worked damn hard for the scrawny pickings of the old deal, and still have enough left over to update our infrastructure and pay for healthcare. but what are the chances of that happening when soccer moms are afraid of flying with toothpaste? my opinion? women are to blame - not that their judgement is bad, they're just not interested in facts and facts are the lifeblood of democracy. (probably why ours is so dead)

Edited by - Cold_Void on 11/4/2007 9:48:45 AM

Taws still a youngster, what, 42? Got to give him back those 15 years

that quiz was a bit short, wasn't it? I found The Political Compass much more thorough.

Getting back on track, though, if it hadn't been for the UK's socialised NHS, it would have cost us about £5000+ to get the Boy diagnosed as autistic. That's how much special needs statementing costs. Some local Councils and NHS Trusts will do it, some won't - like so many other things, it's a postcode lottery.

Having said that, I have private medical insurance for Mrs Taw and the Tawlets. Because I don't want them waiting around for treatment for months (sometimes years) so things can get done straight away. I exclude myself from it though, I stick to state-provided NHS care and I don't even like bothering with that; I hate hospitals, and doctors are quacks.

Switch with you. I go for lab for Lab work monday, then a week later for a full physical.

not me, chum; the last time that I went to the docs (for myself) they shoved a camera down my willy! and it really hurt! I was in tears after and couldn't walk for an hour. Horrible - never again. Bl**dy quacks, only thing they're good for is telling you to stop smoking.

Posts like the above are the reason that everyone on TLR laments the fact that Taw doesn't have a "blog" .

Edited by - esquilax on 11/4/2007 3:06:25 PM