Aspies For Freedom

http://www.cbs news.c om/sto ries/2 008/04/0 2/ea rlyshow/he alth/main3988 928.shtml

link broken.  the wrights spew their hatred again.  here's something, show me a child that doesn't require 100% attention growing up.  oh wait, these people think nt children are perfect little angels that can take care of themselves and that the parents can do whatever they want and treat the child as a trophy and go about their high power careers.  they also treat their children as a checklist, listing off things needed to do instead of adjusting themselves to the child.  sounds like yuppie life.  somehow i think the wrights think childhood itself is a disease.

and btw, the 80% divorce rate is probably due to either pre existing issues or spending too much money on quack cures and such.  don't blame us for the high divorce rate.  not all of our families are in tragic turmoil due to the presence of autistics.

for those that don't want to give the wrongs more web traffic, here's the pukeriffic article.

some thoughts...

half of a million children are autistic...what about the adults?  oh wait, we don't exist.  and why do we cost so much to support?  quack cures?  every child costs something to raise, don't make it seem like nt children are free of charge to raise.  and btw, i guess we're supposed to be in developmental stasis, being forever a 2 year old.  again, autism is developmental delay, not stasis.  it's just a different way of thinking.  growing up, i thought everyone was autistic (as in they thought like me), and that autistic was normal.  to become nt would be a nightmare, i would have to learn all over again.  i don't know how they think, i only know how i think, and i think it's normal and it's the best way i work at.  don't tell me mr and mrs wrong, that i'm defective or inferior because my brain works differently than yours.

i would also like to know what emotional toll autism is supposed to take on everyone...sigh, their negative rhetoric seems to do more damage...my family has not gone bankrupt and we're emotionally stable, so don't speak for all of us.

then they talk about spreading awareness.  i wonder what kind of awareness that is bob, the type where we are dehumanized, a job that you do so well...

Out of interest, what role do the parents of their grandchild play in Autism Squeals?  Was there not some kind of falling out, which is conveniently not mentioned?

Lol - "pukeriffic" - what an adjective!  One to use at every opportunity - and the Wrongs do provide those opportunities.

Do we have any statisticians in the house?  It would be interesting, I feel, to see what other aspects of humanity occur at rates of 1 in 150 or 1 in 94.  I'm inclined to think that something which is so common is less of an epidemic and more, well, mainstream, aspect of normality....being human kind of thing...   What are the ratios for colour blindness, etc?  It would be interesting to counter them on the stats they're so fond of.

Just for the sake of interest both of my sons are profoundly colour blind & I see different colours through each eye..  there is no family history of any this. The stats are 1 in 9 males have some degree of colour blindness.
Although it very much restricts employment.... there are hundreds of jobs which can't legally be done by a colour defective person, it isn't classed as a disability.

That's seventy grand a kid.  I wonder how much is going on chelation, crystals and witch-doctors?

It affects some 500,000 American children, at an estimated annual cost of $35 billion.

$35.000.000.000 p.a. / 500.000 kids = $70.000 p.a.p.kid

$70.000 p.a.p.kid / 365 days =  $191.78 p.d.p.kid

$191.78 p.d.p.kid / 24 hours = $7.99 p.h.p.kid


What might this estimation be based upon?

wiki says:
At an estimated cost of €100 billion (~US$157 billion) for the ISS project from its start until the program will end in 2017,[10] the ISS is the most expensive object ever built by humankind.

They started in 1998, that makes a total of 19 years. Spending money like they estimated above, it would be 19 * $35.000.000.000 = $665.000.000.000 which means that they could have built 4 stations instead of ... whatever.

wiki again:
The military expenditure of the United States Department of Defense for fiscal year 2007 is:

Total Funding                                 $439.3 Billion
Operations and maintenance                    $152.2 Bil.
Military Personnel                            $110.8 Bil.
Procurement                                   $84.2 Bil.
Research, Development, Testing & Evaluation   $73.2 Bil.
Estimated Costs of Whatever                   $35.0 Bil.
Military Construction                         $12.6 Bil.
Family Housing                                $4.1 Bil.
(The War on terror, Iraq, Afghanistan are not included)

Fifth place. But a safe one.


(ahw, this point has already been made during the time I typed all this. I post it anyway, for the fun that it is)

Even schools where there are special ed. teachers who have dealt with a fair amount of people on the spectrum yet don't even seem to have a clue. Every day almost I see their profound lack of understanding, but because they've taken classes they're supposed to better understand than me and have authority over me.

In this class, I've even been removed from the class because I was spinning in my chair! And it wasn't a squeaking chair, and it's basically a work/study hall where the teachers work individually with students. I couldn't believe it. Even though I would really benefit from having extra help in my classes, I plan to drop it and have a late-start. I'm a senior in high school, and really, as long as I graduate I don't really care at this point. I can get extra help with the college tutoring center and disability support office. The high school hasn't even got me evaluated yet because they think the services wouldn't change, even though I only get 30 minutes speech every week or so. So I have this long battery of tests that somehow they're supposed to cram in the next month.

The thing is, just as with the human population in general, no two autistics are exactly the same. Some of us are maths whizzes, others very good at writing or art, and others seem very ordinary with no apparent special talents. We might have very severe sensory issues, mild issues or sensory blunting.

Some of us have digestive issues and others can eat just about anything without getting ill. I think it would be so much more helpful if teachers and other professionals were able to treat each child on their own merits rather than making generalisations such as "all autistics are mentally retarded/maths geniuses etc."

Furthermore, if everybody else in society did the same, we would be ever so much closer to receiving the understanding that we need and understanding other's viewpoints too.

I'm also actually happy that I didn't receive any early interventions such as ABA because I think they would have completely ruined my creativity. It's doubtful they would have been "needed" anyway. I think I would have benefited from assertiveness training and perhaps being put in a gifted programme but I've managed somehow without those things.

I got somewhat annoyed recently about being asked to sign a petition requesting the Australian government to provide a certain amount of funding per child diagnosed with autism between the ages of two and five.

This is not because I think they are undeserving of support - far from it - but I don't want to be 90 years old before there are programmes to help adults with autism who need assistance with such things as housing, dealing with the legal system, finding and keeping jobs and counselling.

It also irks me that people often don't listen to those such as me who got diagnosed quite recently. Maybe they think we are bad examples or are disappointed because we don't want to tell them the lie that their children will be cured and they will all live happily ever after.

Adults with autism are considered an inconvenience, I think, for a couple of reasons...

1.  There are those of us who are independent and get by OK, disproving all the dire predictions that the slightest touch of autism automatically dooms a child to a life of dependence and only a million hours of therapy before the age of three will save them.  

2.  There are those of us who are 40, 50, 60, 70 years old, who fly in the face of the panic-merchants trying to prove that autism is a very recent trend caused by modern vaccines, too much processed food, computer games, television, or whatever's fashionable this week.

3.  We exist.  Why does there seem to be quite a common mindset that ADD, Aspergers etc disappear when a kid reaches adulthood, and whatever was causing them trouble at school will miraculously not be a problem any more once they move on to uni or work?

This article seems to be tailored to evoke fear in parents and to-be-parents. It is the trouble caused to those parents that will disappear the moment we leave their homes to go to university or work or live in some asylum. Out of sight, out of trouble. Maybe it is even creepier, because it is not anticipated of adult kids to say i-love-you-mum-and-dad or see-what-i-have-tinkered-here anymore, so there is no real problem for them, but if kids do not say such things on a regular basis, this is thought to be hell on earth. Whatever. Possibly, those expectations may be different in the reality of parents, but the make-belief and stirring up does work, subconsciously.

In short: they plant fear in parents to get funded. No one cares about the kids, for they do not have any money.

I've often wondered what sort of computer games my grandad must have played in the early 1900s to make him autistic. Or was it all those vaccinations? Or did he spend too much time in front of the television?

Or perhaps it was the ball games, childhood diseases and the goldfish bowl?

i had doom and gloom predictions made about me (i wasn't going to graduate high school, life of dependency, blah blah, and this was in the late 80's), and didn't have a million hours of aba before three and turned out fine (college graduate, and over time, seen as somewhat 'normal).  glad i was raised before the autism speaks nonsense went mainstream, probably would have made things worse.

something else that has been bothering me about the article.  they say earlier in the article, that half a million kids in america are autistic (implying autistic adults don't exist), then later say autism lasts a lifetime.  so what is it, do autistic adults exist or not, because it's a yes and no answer in this article.  either that, or all the autistic children all live in institutions when they turn 18 according to them.

Oh yes it can, Suzanne, you blithering idiot!! That's how big a change the DSM-IV provided!

Honest John, I tend to agree that the school system can be a problem for those on the higher end of the Spectrum (LFA's generally don't get into mainstream schooling). But you have to remember (I'm assuming this as I live in Australia where this is definitely true) that it's up to government to prop up school funding. If they don't then that's not exactly the school's fault if they can't deal properly with bullies as an example. It's the government's.

New Jersey is an odd case. I heard that their numbers were higher than the average because parents from other states were gravitating there to get access to better services. It's in New Jersey that they have the strictest adherence laws to vaccinations (perhaps too strict to some). So who knows?

Timelord, I'm surprised that you mentions vaccinations. The general consensus on this forum seem to deny any relationship exists - which may well be true. I believe that the timing of johns vaccinationsm his MMR in particular, interupted his development.  Whereas, there are definite genetic markers throughout mine and my husbands families, the timing of the outer influence was the trigger.  The chemcials entered johns predisposed to be sensitive body and blocked his energy flow.  We are a homepathic family, so we unblocked him as soon as we could and now he is developming noramlly.  He is ASD, but after his MMR and for about 2 years he was fully autistic.  Just our experiences...    And as far as school goes, NJ spends a ton of money, ane has a ton of money  and people move into my town to get special services.  I am not pleased with the management, they tolerate too much from the "regular" kids and don't tolerate enough of the so called "special" ones...
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Just to clear something up first - I mentioned vaccines with the intent of being a seperate comment. I probably shouldn't have put that quote in one paragraph - sorry if that confused you.

With regards to your statement as to what happened to your son, I don't have a problem with it - although blaming the MMR specifically is a bit risky without knowing fuller detail (I say that as a question you about the circumstances around that particular vaccination).

I am of the firm belief that sensory overload is the key to any regression - which certainly appears to have happened in the situation you have described. Reacting to that overload straight away is gives the best chance to recover from the overload - and you did that. You knew when it happened, and you knew to offset the overload. Well done.

The thing about the MMR though - it reacted to something. Normally that vaccine is fine. The question is what did it react to? Or was it a bad batch? That happens as well.

I have a feeling what happened to your child is similar to what happened to Hannah Poling. The difference was her overload was caused by five to nine vaccines one ofter the other (that's just asking for a sensory overload in a child on the Spectrum!)

(CBS) Despite the explosion in awareness of autism due to heightened media attention, and the skyrocketing number and percentage of children diagnosed with it, progress against the disorder itself hasn't been keeping pace, experts say.

Explosion in awareness? Aparently you mean explosion in misinformation and fearmongering. I preferes it in the days when I had to explain what autism was to people than now, when I have to get rid of their idiotic misconceptions of my neurotype. There were less people pitying me back then. It was better. Yeah, the treatment we got from the special ed. around here was still demeaning and insulting, but at least the rest of society left us alone.



It affects some 500,000 American children, at an estimated annual cost of $35 billion.

Again with the children. I'm sick and tired of hearing about autistic children. What the hell happened to autistic teens and adults? This isn't a childhood disorder. This is a lifelong set of traits. We still exist once we're out of the school system. Of course, hey, if they didn;t focus on the children, then the spotlight wouldn;t be on the brave, brave parents and their struggle to be able to love their hideously malformed kids, now would it? God forbid the focus shift to the people who actually ARE autistic. No, their parents deserve the attention. As for the money- how much of that is spent on snake oil and lobbying to get vaccines destroyed? My family certainly doesn't spend the implied amount each family spends, and neither do the other families I know with autistics.



CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook says autism has a spectrum of symptoms, including problems with communication, social interaction, and behavior. Symptoms begin before age 3 and last a lifetime. There is no cure.

"Symptoms" belong to a disease. Autism is a neurotype. Of course there's no cure. There's no cure for being a socially awkward, reclusive type of person who prefers systems and logic. Because it's not a disease. It's a personality. You'd have to reqire our entire brais to "cure" us, and would ultimately just destroy our personalities. Stop trying.


"This is an epidemic," developmental pediatrician Dr. Cecelia McCarton told LaPook. "You have one out of 150 children being diagnosed with autism. With boys alone there's one out of 94 being diagnosed with it."

Why the hell is it a pediatrician? Why do people think this only effects children?



LaPook also spoke with a number of parents of kids with autism about the overwhelming emotional and financial impact on their families.

Oh, yes. The parents. The poor, brave parents. Let's see what they have to say. Because they're the important ones here. They deserve all the attention and compassion. It's so tragic, that their children aren't exactly as they want them. Let's talk about how difficult it is to love such freaks as their children.


But parents and experts say increased awareness of autism hasn't translated into better treatment and support.
"On a scale of one-to-ten," LaPook asked McCarton, "how well are we doing in treating autism?"
"I think we're at a two," she replied. "Maybe inching toward three."

Really? How about you ask an autistic? They'll tell you w're at a point where society views it as acceptable to put us down, give us shocks, beat us, deprive us of comforts, and humiliate us in order to change our "abberant behavior".


Parents point to long waiting lists at schools specializing in helping kids with autism, and enormous costs associated with getting their children the support they need, as particular concerns.

Or you could give them the support they need at home. You could start by actually loving them, instead of focusing on their "defects".

And, they tell LaPook, their kids' autism dominates their consciousness, taking a heavy emotional toll.

Oh, the poor parents.

To see LaPook's report, click here.

General Electric Vice Chairman Bob Wright and his wife Suzanne spoke with Early Show co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez on World Autism Awareness Day Wednesday.

They started Autism Speaks, one of the leading global autism advocacy and research organizations, after their grandson was diagnosed with the disorder.

Note that they themselves don;t HAVE autism, and therefor have NO RIGHT t speak for us.


Autism Speaks played a key role in designating the day, with the United Nations.

The key is "just to keep spreading the word" about autism, Bob said. "It needs so much awareness. This is the first global building step."

Suzanne says improved diagnosis alone can't account for the vast rise in the number and percentage of kids with autism. "Something is going on," she said.

The numbers, Bob, said, are "just staggering."

As is the idocy.