San Diego authorities have filed a criminal lawsuit against a Nevada company that claimed to have a miracle cure for autism and trisomy Down Syndrome.
The city attorney's office charges that a Website run by Little Angels Inc. offered to sell a "jumbo shot" of the hormone secretin for \\$200.
Based on a citizen complaint, an undercover agent arranged to meet a Little Angels representative in a motel room in the San Ysidro district of San Diego, the city attorney's office said Thursday.
The agent bought two vials of a substance labeled "Secretin Powder," syringes and hypodermic needles from a Little Angels office manager who was not a licensed physician or pharmacist.
An analysis of the substance found no detectable level of secretin, which is approved for use in diagnosing gastrointestinal illnesses but not as a treatment for autism, the city attorney's office said.
The criminal case filed this week in San Diego Superior Court charges several defendants with selling adulterated, misbranded and new and unapproved drugs, improperly acting as pharmacists, and false advertising.
"Our fear is that these defendants are preying on parents who are desperate to help their autistic children," City Attorney Casey Gwinn said in a statement.
i think the risk of ABA and pre-natal screening is bigger and more dangerous then false "cures" such as this
would you like to expand on these discoveries?
Good for you, you have more sense than others who follow the herd.
It may be that the usual therapies for Aspergers and Autism may do more harm than good, or accomplish very little.
Check out the following U.S. public radio program "The Infinite Mind" and one of their shows on Asperger's
ASPERGER'S SYNDROME: A SPECIAL REPORT (Part Two of Two)(week of May 18, 2005) :
http://www.lcmedia.com/mind375.htm
You can listen to it for the next hour on Realplayer :
http://lcmedia.com/rafiles/tim375.ram
Welcome to AFF tenacious, I agree with your views. If all the money spent on crummy cures was spent on providing services and support, it would make so much difference.
I loathe to see parents complaining that their child cannot receive thousands of pounds of ABA free from the governemnt, while there are autistic adults who are literally homeless and without any support. :evil:
Rae
I think one should difference between "cure" and therapy. I would not want to cure my son (or myself), but I certainly try to get him every therapy that helps him to find his own ways and helps him to achieve abilities he would like to have or he will need in his life.
So by now the therapies he has/he's had are psychotherapy (single, to learn how to find out his own feelings/needs and to show/tell them to other ppl in an acceptable way, which he will need to stand up for himself, his needs and his rights; it's been a lot about talking and a lot playing to get the ability to keep his anger/disappointment down to a certain point), ergotherapy because he has a very low motion index (sorry, if I'm missing the correct term) and he really wants to be athletic and kind of a group therapy with another asperger kid - which he simply wants (he likes the contact and both of them seem not to be capable to maintain contact without the group).
As we have to live in a NT's world, we should learn to follow and respect some main rules. It's like: if I'd move to another culture and wanted to live there for the rest of my life, I would expect from myself to learn the language and try to adapt to some major rules. Like: being in Japan it would be very rude, I think, to walk into another persons house with my shoes on...
Sibylle
Yes, it's two different types of cultures living parallel. But even the NT culture has different categories and has ever had.
I think one of the main problems is, that the NT culture in whole does not know about the Aspie culture. So it's a very good thing that Aspies started to make us more visible and better known.
But in every culture it's the minority that has to adapt to a certain point - if that's fair I can't say. And I certainly don't want to change any Aspie completely, just give them the abilities to interact with the majority when they have or want to.
As I understand, there are a lot of us, who become quite good actors, because they need to be. And we need much more knowledge about psychology to be good in the "guessing game" (as I call it: "what might the person in front of me be thinking?").
There's more, but I'm short in time today.
Sibylle
"
You mentioned your son has a very low motion index. Is that like a delay in gross motor skills? I have noticed that Aspies tend to have difficulty with gross motor skills but classic Autistics do not. My son has exceptional gross motor skills. He is very coordinated. We have actually thought about putting him in gymnastics because he is so flexible too. His fine motor skills are another story. Writing with a pencil (no problems typing on a computer though), opening, getting dressed, twisting etc. are all very difficult for him. Has anyone else here seen, read or heard about these differences between classic Autistics and Aspies?
and I think it's important for everyone to remember that this is your world too! Perhaps, you are lucky to have this ability and therapies to become more in tune with the NT mind? It's great if you want to adapt but I worry for those individuals that can not or, even better, do not WANT to. What about the people getting shot at the airport because they can not immediately 'comply' with orders because of their disability and are mistaken for a terrorist enemy? I think awareness and acceptance on everyone's part (especially the NT population) is the right path to take. It must be very sad to feel like a foreigner in your own home.
Rae
Yes, Rae, my son has problems in gross and fine motor skills. I used to have that, too. I have been very bad in any sports in my childhood and when being a teenager. My parents sent me to a sports course every week (I hated it!), which might have helped.
When I was about 18 or 19 I decided to do martial arts (being female I thought this a good way to help me getting some self confidence and and self defence skills). I had good luck that I could decide on myself when I wanted the testings for the next belt, so I could take my time and that helped a lot to reconcile my relationship (?) to sports.
On the other side, my son learned drawing and writing very early, but it might be that he only did because it was one of his obsessessions. The Psychologist who diagnosed the Aspergers told me, that he was only good at it, because he concentrated much more than most other kids did/do. So it's very exhausting for him to write properly (which I learned, when he started school and did not like what he wanted to do - his handwriting is horrible then!).
I have AS myself, but I see myself an artist. I do drawings, paintings in watercolor and acryle and I started teaching kids to do creative painting (the social part is much more exhausting than the technical). But again it is mainly a problem of concentrating and of course of training (and accepting that I'm not perfect).
As I understood it, the motorical problems are a part of the diagnosis scheme. It's not neccessary to have motorical problems, but it's quite often, at least with aspergers.
Well, I think it's both partys who have to accept the other's ways. Not wanting to at least understand the NT's world is not the right way, I think. If someone just can't, that's different. I have the opinion, that I only can ask for acceptance of my ways if I am willing to accept someone elses ways, myself.
For the airport problem, well, partly it is very important for the security personnel to have control about maybe-dangerous people (that's me, trying to understand the reason for such behavior). Of course that does not excuse to shoot someone. So if there are aspies/auties who are in such a danger, they should try to travel with someone who could help them in such a situation. Of course I think the security personnel should use non-deadly techniques to stop a person in doubt. But seeing the development of the society (US, UK, Germany), things are becoming more threatening.
Sibylle
Well it's not considered very rude not to ask someone to drop by, at least not where I live. And depending on how you'd tell someone to ring first it won't be rude, either.
I can understand, why people consider those questions being good behavior - to be asked to "drop in" makes the people feel wanted/welcome. And there is nothing bad in making other people feel fine (well, at least if they are nice or neutral people and not offending ones). In general I think it is very desirable to make other people feel nice, cause that makes it easier for them to give the same feeling to others, too (if one feels good he can make other ppl feel good, too).
So I think this is meant to bring more positive feelings into our wordl, but if you don't feel comfortable youself with that behaviour, just don't do it. If you want to see the guests again, you can tell them that you'd like to phone them to make a date or that they might phone you. It might be unusual to do so, where you live (I don't know), but it won't be very rude.
Most people I know of, would phone first, anyway, because it would give them a bad feeling to disturb someone for example who is tidying up his rooms or wants to go our or something alike. I think the "dropping in" became less popular when everyone started to have a phone.
As I don't think that I'm cleverer than you, it might only be lack of experience, the willingness or the habit to think about the reasons for such customs and phrases (this is not meant as an offense! a long time in my life I was not willing to think about habits of other ppl I did not understand in instant). I found out that moreoften there's a friendly reason behind such behaviors and that it is easy to fit in, if one thinks of appropriate alternatives.
I admit that it took a very long time for me, to become flexile enough to step beside my point of view and look what others might think why they found myself kind of hostile and it hurt a lot to acknowledge that from their point of view they might have been right. So I started discussing my views with them and found out, that for most of my problems there was a society conform alternative. Having that start it was easy to think about other problems and solutions on my own.
So now I try to find out, why a special habit is thought to be nice or not (what kind of feelings does it do in other people?), in which point my view differs and if I can find a solution that fits the "why" and my opinion of doing things (sorry, this is kind of confuse, but right now I'm missing the correct words in English, hope you understand what I mean)
Sibylle
Nobody would think you are stupid here, so that's where you can ask when you are puzzled about NT-habits :smile:
And I think, there are a lot more Aspies than me, to answer your questions.
Sibylle
I think Rae answered the questions before I could.
The eyebrow-thing... well, I have a girlfriend who did this when she was younger (I don't know if she continues) and her reason (and one I could understand) was, that her eyebrows were not two, but one big eyebrow that was from the left to the right, crossing her nose. It did not look very nice, indeed.
And there's a lot of different beauty ideals, women and men can follow, so what you think is ugly, someone else might think is very beautiful. That's just like people like or dislike the taste of nuts, bananas or whatever.
I like the eyebrow-explanation of Rae :lol:
Yes, Rae, if I meet someone on the streets and recognise him or her, I do greet first. Unless I really dislike that person and would ignore it. I would never knowingly ignore someone I know and like.
Sometimes, when with a special peer group, someone might not greet you and ignore you, because of being ashamed of telling his peers who you are - that's snobism and I'd ask that person why he did so and if the behavior continues I would quit contact, except if it was very unwise to do so (because it's your boss or something alike). The exception only grew in my a couple of years ago...
Sibylle
If there are any good ones they must be very rare, according to the many things that I read and hear.
Did you see the news recently about the death of the boy being 'treated' by a supposed therapist?
Anyway, welcome to AFF too.
I think ABA can be a good way of learning some autistics things they actually NEED like brushing teeth, but it definitely aint cool when the people doing it has this set idea into them that it is supposed to make them look "normal".