Aspies For Freedom

Drifter, there is several studies and lab tests have shown similarities between Fibromyalgia and autism, pointing to an autoimmune disorder.

David, about medications, international experts observed that meds do nothing for the core features of autism but aggravate the outwards symptoms, meaning the neurological and 'psychological behaviours'.

Clearly no autistic verbal, or no, would agreed to be treated like a psychiatric case, usually are 'scared' professionals and/or caregivers who can't connect with the autistic that ask to or sedate the autistic.

Meds can take a non-verbal autistic on the road to psychosis, bipolar, dementia, self- harm and aggression. An European expert couldn't believe that Canadian doctors were diagnosing as psychiatric disorders the advers effects of the drugs.

An English doctor observed that drugs 'mimic' the disease in some patients.

Yes, I understood the same, they bought the house for Hasit. I guess too the neighbours couldn't take his 'behaviours'.

Drifter, I don't mean to have absolute knowledge what cause 'autism', just what I have observed on my son and the other guys, I know since childhood and of course, whatever I have read.

Sadly, I totally agree with you. I don't believe he is going to ever to recover. My son is in a very similar situation but at least he is home under my care. To me is criminal to treat the non-verbal autistic with drugs. They can't tell the doctors how drugs are affecting them and they have only their 'behaviours' to be interpreted at will. Anybody can say anything about them and do anything to them, that's why they are described as vulnerable and defenseless and still Canada does not stand for the autistic to prevent this aberration of the main directive in medicine "do not harm'. Since 1998 or before, Europe approved a Chapter of Rights for the Autistic.
Hon. Susan Pupatello is wasting millions of  taxpayers money creating a network of psychologists, behaviour therapists, psychiatrists for her 'dual diagnosis' program in which the developmental disabled will be diagnosed with 'mental illnesses'. More money should go for Individual Funding instead they are going to make them crazy, violent and totally dependent.

Amy, first I am just a mother and I have done alot of reading to inderstand what's going on with my son and why 'treatment' made him worse instead of better. "Experts" convinced us that he was 'sick' and needed 'treatment'....'psychiatric treatment' at that, that was terribly wrong.

Further, his father consulted a Vienna expert who couldn't believe that Canadian doctors were so barbaric in the treatment of the autistic. Worse, to diagnose as psychiatric disorders the adverse effects of the drugs and to add more drugs. That Europe did the same before but not anymore. Now she believes that as any child the autistic needs education and to be shown boundaries and the consequences of their behaviours, you do this, this is what will happen exactly like a normal child.

About  'curing' the underlying medical condition, that's different. I understand that 'autism' is many things, it can be immune disorder (I strongly suspect that in my son and in others), metabolic disorder, mytocondrial, digestive disorders, heavy metal intoxication, viral infections, vaccines, thymerosal in vaccines, Lyme disease, etc. Many factors shows autism-like symptoms and if in childhood doctors attend to them with the right diagnosis then 'autism' can be 'cured'.

Many instances an 'autistic' child at the age of 5 has recovered with and without intervention, his immune system kicks in? Who knows.

In general I don't believe in 'autism' per se. I read this book "A Dose of Sanity" by Dr. Sydney Walker III and it convinced me that 'autism' is a bunch of symptoms and not a proper disease or disorder.

PDD-NOS according to Dr. Rimland is a way for the DSM-IV authors to say I have no idea what ails your child. I believe the same goes for Aspergers, is a group of symptoms and each Asperger shows very different deficits and symptoms pointing more to an autoimmune disorder.

Well, whatever 'autism' or 'ASD' is, is not a pscyhiatric disorder.

Tenacious, will you be so kind to give me the study/ies confirming that autism is genetic and which particular gene is the affected one?
I will really appreciated that information. Thank you.

Scientists believe there are more then one specific gene involved.  Last I read there was speculation of at lest 12 possable genes involved.

A quick sure on google with keywords autism and gene turned up queit a bit.
http://www. medicalnewstoday .com/medicalnews.php?newsid=23854
http://www. cureautismnow .org/home/article/science/4396.jsp
http://www. cityofhope .org/presspass/news_releases_view.asp?id=1134
all links intensionally broken.

Thank you, Amy, Darkcode, I am in my way to read your links and the genetic forum. Even though my son's genetic code was found 'normal' in the year 2000, perhaps, now, exists new tests which are more advanced.

If 'autism' is found to be 'genetic', the next question is: what has made our genes 'sick'?

Have you seen Dr. Wakefield lectures? Tell me what you think.
http://www.chem.cmu.edu/wakefield/

Also I am reading Elaine Gottschall's book "Breaking The Vicious Cycle" Intestinal Health Through Diet" it says "Diet for Chrohn's disease, Ulcerative colitis, diverticulitis, Celiac disease, Cystic Fibrosis and Chonic Diarrhea". Editing to add, this year version includes a chapter "The Autism Connection". For that reason I bought it.

According to Dr. Wakefield and Mrs. Gottschall and another book author Dr. Michael Gershon "The Second Brain" "A Groundbreaking New Understanding of Nervous Disorders of the Stomach and Intestines", the gut and the brain are connected. If the digestive system does not work the brain starves and thus the mental illnessess and mental/neurological disorders.

Apparently, these gut/brain related disorders are all related to an autoimmune ill-working and will not show in the genes. My son's genes were found normal. So I have to look at another angle, not that I want to 'cure' his 'autism', I want that clear, I want to reverse the effects of the psychiatric drugs that messed him up.

Happy New Year! Let's wish for an enlightening year.

Amy, what do you mean Dr. Wakefield's "poor and partly, faked research"? Have you seen Dr. Wakefield's lectures or... you just repeat what others have been saying? How could all these doctors been deceived?

When my son had his genes tested (I don't remember the proper term for this kind of test) we were just ruling out any abnormality that we were not aware of. No, we were not testing his genes for 'autism'.
We blamed the drugs for his sudden changes in 'behaviour' but first we had to rule out any other factor/s.

Genes don't get/become sick.  Genes occationally mutate.  Gene mutation is neither bad nor good, its something thats naturally occuring.  This natural occurance usualy results in differences that are sometimes subtile sometimes not.

I believe, most people have as time has progressed become more intolerant of changes and differences.  This intolerance has made people hypersensitive to changes and differences and brought about dislike for even the smallest of changes and differences.  Requering sameness to persist throughout society in order to be at peace.  Any disruption of this peace is looked at with fear and uncertainty and a wish to force it to become the sameness that one is use to.

Maybe nothing is wrong his immune system and thats why nothing showed up in the genes.  Perhaps the problem is that all the people who eat food thats been geneticly altered or eating plants that have been sprayed with chemicals or animales that have been feed drugs ment to alterner their size who aren't having problems, are the ones with a disfunctional gut.

Happy New Year! May the New Year bring about new insights, new ways of thinking and tolerance for alternative view points.

Amy, is there a new one? There was an answer to the Swedish one.

Darkcode, perhaps, you are too quick to conform to 'natural' changes in the human genome, accepting as a kind of a natural evolution. I guess, soon we are going to see 'mutants' walking around.  I hope that vision  stays in the realm of science fiction.

Right now there are babies, children and adults with metabolic/mitochondrial/immune disorders that might respond to diets. Those disorders might be in born or might be consequence of antibiotics or ingestion of genetically altered food, who knows. But in many cases diet has helped to eliminate physical suffering, emotional pain or mental degradation.

I am not going to accept a very dubious reality of a 'natural' mutation. My curiosity is to know what is the 'factor/s' affecting the genes.  I have to know.

Why? My son has been affected seriously by psychiatric drugs, one almost killed him, so I have to know what kind of 'autism' he has to have such serious reaction to drugs and to prevent a repetition in his future. We have to have a scientific approach to find a answer. Is it metabolic, mito, immune,  infection: viral, bacterial, genetic?

So, I need information about the autism gene/s.  Do you have it?

Thank you!

You seem as quick to deny/dismiss that natural mutations happens.  I wasn't speaking about science fiction.  Darwin for example theorized that through natural selection certain traits are inherted because they have more preferable traits that allow the species to survive better in its envirement. We are just animales after all.  It would be silly in my opinion, to believe that we are somehow immune to natural selection and mutations.

Of course its also possable for people to believe someone is suffering physically or emotionally when they are not. Just because someone believes they would be suffering if they were that person doesn't automaticlly make it true.  The only person who truely knows if someone is suffering is the person themself.

As for mental degradation.  People are quick to judge people as unintellegent or having decressed in mental abilities.  Like I completely disagree with the idea that people with down syndrom are mentally *** or the idea of "low functioning" autistics.

There only two things that come to mind which could effect DNA which in turn would be effecting genes.  A virus infecting the body which rewrites DNA of cells and when something goes wrong when cells split.

Psychiatric drug usage is based on the theory that theres chemical reactions in the brain that are unbalanced which can be rebalanced with the use of the psychiatric drugs.

Autism has generally been considered by scientists to be a neurological "disorder".  Psychiatric drugs aren't ment to treat problems with the nervious system.  So even IF autism were a disorder, psychiatric drugs couldn't help with it.

As far I know of theres been no attempts to study what effects psychiatric drugs have on people who are considered to be perfectly healthy.  So as far as I know psychiatric drugs could kill perfectly healthy individuals.

All I've heard of is speculation on at lest one gene having been found by various orginzations, each with a different gene and no real details on what that gene supposely does other then being described as having autistic like effects when removed from lab rats.

Ok, here are my own theories or assumptions based in reading since my son had a serious reaction to Risperdal that almost killed him. We went to many doctors to rule out many factors. Then we researched Internet and contacted forums like yours all about autism and psychiatric drugs.

We studied the history of the drugs used on him and the causative factors of his autism. What came up again and again were the vaccines, not that much the thymerosal, but the live virus in vaccines and/or dead and extra stuff in vaccines. Then the explanation that the only way to get to affect seriously the immune system and the human DNA and to change the genome, is by infiltrate DNA from virus, or being sick or receive via vaccines.

So, please, demolish that theory.

Studied "mentall illnesses" and psychiatric drugs and we found that 'mental illness' is in reality a "gut illness". More an autoimune disorder affecting the nervous system. A gut problem affecting the brain. Our conclusion is that in the future our mental illnesses are going to be described as gut illness affecting the brain functions.

About 'chemical imbalances' doctors don't have tests to prove it. Then, you ask your self where are those brain chemicals are manufactured? In the gut, if the gut is not working properly, the brain starves.  In reality those same psychiatric drugs cause create chemical imbalances.

So, please, what do you think about all these theories? Moreover Autism  more than 'genetic' is generational, meaning that whatever got into their DNA is passed from parents to children. Some shake it off some pass it on, it's luck.

Interesting to 'talk' to you guys.