This has been an issue bothering me for a long time, especially since my own grandmother argued with me that a diet could cure Autism and that the vaccine gives it to people.
I would like to point out many factors that make me believe the whole thing is a sham:
She said that he still wasn't speaking at age 2 and having uncontrollable seizures and went to the doctor and then he was diagnosed.
-Although not common, there are many children who can't speak at the age of 2, and according to my mum (who is an ER nurse and also believes she's fake) those could be attributed to other symptoms, of say a fever she didn't know about. There are children at two who can't speak and then pick up later. My Uncle for one didn't, and he's now getting a Master's degree in social work. Doesn't mean he's Autistic.
The biggest piece of *** in all of this is that she states by giving him this "magical diet" he can now speak again. Yes, he was diagnoses with Kanner's but all of a sudden he speaks again because of this diet.
This is why I can't stand her. It pisses me off every time I think about it. In my opinion (and some others) she is just using this to further her celebrity status because as we all know, its hard for a Playboy playmate to be well known other than Pamela Anderson. She's using it to make money, like writing books, appearing on shows and selling pictures of her and her son to magazines. This is only to benefit her financially since she didn't have much of a career.
Oh, and she announces everywhere that it was that proven false "vaccine theory" we love hearing about.
I think we need to call this moron out on everything she's doing, because her kid is not autistic, I can tell just by watching videos of him. Both my parents are in the medical field and very rarely do they agree with me but on this they did. This is complete BS.
She claims he was diagnosed with Autism, so I'm assuming it was a legitimate one. What's come after though is just everything to do with her is her son in the media, and that's how she wanted it. She's a fake. A Playboy model who's star faded and she's using her son's (fake) autism to rekindle it.
No wonder she looks so good on the cover of People magazine.
I guess though with airbrushing and Photoshop they could make the Wicked Witch of the West or Grendel look good on the cover of People magazine.
If she wants attention that bad, leave her kid out of it and start her own magazine. You can probably imagine what kind of magazine that might be. MILF.
I've reported this person for trolling. For all we know it could be any one of those people banned in the past for needlessly causing trouble.
Lately, I've been wondering if these people are being sent over from curebie forums to try to influence this site.
I should think that these things are a significant departure from what most people on this forum believe and also that the title of the forum was fair comment on rather a pathetic attempt on the part of Ms McCarthy to rescue a flagging career.
Tbh it even strikes me as faintly misogynistic.
Are Christopher Reeve (former Superman actor) campaigning for advances in spinal surgery and other biotechnologies, and Michael J Fox, campaigning about Parkinsons Disease talked about so disparagingly about using their celebrity for what they perceive to be a worthwhile medical cause/issue that personally affects them? Were they called has-been publicity whores?
Does Jenny McCarthy come in for such vitriol because she's an attractive blonde woman?
She may be misguided but she's a mother who's concerned about her child.
It's nothing to do with gender. Truly, it isn't. It's more about bad publicity being worse than no publicity. We would like to see people come out and say how proud they are of their autistic children.
To be honest, I do believe the original post was unnecessarily provocative and inflammatory.
Even the thread title: Jenny McCarthy's son is not autistic
My curiosity was piqued and -- since this post was in the news/media forum -- I expected to find a link to an article or other piece of evidence to back up this assertion, maybe news of some misdiagnosis.
But no, instead, there's an opinion piece rant by another AFF member.
Jenny McCarthy may genuinely believe her son to be autistic, he may have been officially DXd and may even be autistic.
Where we differ is in the cause of autism, because if I understand previous coverage correctly, she believes it to be caused by vaccine damage.
And also in the need for a cure.
I still would like to know how you are managing abroad--in Qatar, of all countries.
I would think such a polarizing change of scenery would be tough for any Aspie to deal with--and I'm absolutely befuddled as to how some Aspies can do this.
I didn't see it in its entirety but apparently the "Jenny/autism anti-vaccine cottage industry" was on Larry King last night (a major prime-time talk show on a major US tv channel) literally screaming that vaccines cause autism. Two scientists were on trying to get their points across, one of which was infants can show signs of autism years before they get any vaccines whatsoever.
Class act Jenny used profanity as well.
It's official: Jenny IS using her son to make a buck imo.
It's not just Jenny McCarthy, at this point--it's her other half, as well. Jim Carrey is apparently in "agreement" with Ms. McCarthy on this "vaccines cause autism" stuff. That makes things a lot worse for us...
I'm an NT mom of a teen (13) with Asperger's.
I am so, so bothered and upset by Jenny McCarthy's appearances on Larry King and elsewhere (partly because all the grandmoms call to say they now understand autism).
Here's my beef: vaccines do not cause autism. There is no "cure" for autism, any more than there is a cure for however other people's brains work, how we perceive, understand, and respond to information.
Jenny McCarthy spends her time and money etc on promoting an ill-defined, non-research-based "therapy" (i.e., diets that were originally prescribed for intestinal disorders) to "cure" people who have nothing wrong with them.
As a parent, my efforts are focused on helping my son get the supports he needs in school, and helping him know what to ask for, how to interact with NTs.
He is much more self-aware than most NT teens we know. And we as a family appreciate his gifts, and learn from him every day. (Not to say he's perfect or anything, because there is way too much Batman discussion in our house
I learn from you all every time I come and thank you.
Yes, we have some deficits and developmental delays, but we're different, many of us also have gifts and advantages. For example, my IQ was measured to be 150, if I took a pill to be 'cured', to make me 'normal', like you, I wouldn't be anywhere near so intellectually able. In some ways, I'm actually better off being Aspie than I would if I were NT. So it can be quite offensive for someone to come along and have the audacity to start to 'pray' for people like me. (As well as being against a cure, I'm not a huge fan of other people trying to impose their religion on me either.)
Some of us don't have the high IQ to compensate for Aspie deficiencies... you seem to imply that those of us who are held back by Aspie deficits, and cannot compensate with raw intelligence, might make it better as NTs.
I find this highly offensive on many, many levels.
ENGLISH LULU Said, "What you've said about a cure, for example, a lot of people will find offensive. Yes, offered the red pill/blue pill, at some point in the future, some might want to be 'cured', but the vast majority of people on the spectrum on AFF and WrongPlanet don't want to be cured."
I have to say, really I have to. Why is anyone out there wondering why "people" out there are out to "cure" stuff. Of course people want to cure stuff - look at the TV - every 60 seconds is another commerical telling people to take a pill, or give money to find a cure for "Whatever" It is way scarier for me that "regular people" out there are taking all these God knows what chemicals and then they think that they are "normal" and want other people, be they NT or ASD to be just like them - Unnatural, Zombies, with a "buffer" around them, pill popper, avoiders of life. _sorry if that came out sounding like a tirade, it isn't. The shame is, I think that what I said is very true (at least in NJ, USA) Life s spinning too fast for people and instead of speaking up for themselves and changing it, tehy are medicating themselves into an even worse stupor. ANd "they" are going to worry about how much it costs to educate a child ? Pennies, compared to the costs that will be ago along with the long term health effects / side effects that will no doubt be associated with them - The problem is with the "curebies" of all , brainwashing all TV watchers to cure all, restless leg syndrome, whatever...- the very health of the next generation is in peril - and the ripples of the side effects that may be associated with all the "Cures" and pills out there are going to be felt for generations to come....
So I guess you are against anyone taking antidepressants or anti-anxiety meds...?
Personally, I'm not sure how well I'd function without an anti-anxiety medication.
Or a cure or part of a cure in my earlier years might have
a. acccelerated my career from 1999 to 1992
b. maybe got me some sort of "good job" in college too like the cool kids
c. maybe got me in a relationship like the mature kids, married in short order like the mature kids
I don't know. Relationships and jobs can be based on appearances too.
1. Even now I look late twenties when I am in fact 38. Young men are not often hired or dated.
2. Ditto fat guys.
3. Ditto guys with Asperger.
but a cure or parts of a cure in my earlier years might have stopped me losing three jobs.
I think I have seen (aspdar) a case of someone so well brainwashed or lobotomized (occupationally) that they seem neurotypical, but might not be. Maybe a 9 or 10 on the Occupational Lobotomy scale (my mentor would have scored between 6 and 8 on that scale). I think I would score between 8 and 10.
Even if autism had no positive aspects, it wouldn't be right to try to cure it, if you define "cure" as "make an autistic person indistinguishable from a neurotypical person".
That's because autism is so very wound up with personality and way of thinking that a cure is more like brainwashing or a lobotomy than any sort of compassionate medicine... It would change an autistic person so very completely that it would be like killing them and replacing them with a typical twin. It would mean having no respect for who they are and how they think.