Aspies For Freedom

Time Magazine May 15, 2006 issue.  The cover story is Autism with a huge article.  I just received mine in the mail and read it once.  I will be reading it again.  

I am interested in hearing everyone's comments on the article.

Don't have it yet, but expect bias (as always). They never print my observations!

New York Times?
London Times?
San Fransico Times?
<insert major city name here> Times?

None of the above.

Time Magazine.

Time Magazine

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/articl...43,00.html

This is not the whole article.

We have a copy of it at my dojang. I opened up to the autism article and wrote in thick black permanent ink

AUTISM IS JOY

Some excerptions from the article Time Magazine May 15, 2006 issue

"Autism is almost certainly, like cancer, many diseases with many distinct causes."

"Once thought to be mainly a disease of the cerebellum - ....... - autism is increasingly seen as a pervasive problem with the way the brain is wired."

"And while autism is generally a lifelong struggle, there are some reported cases in which kids who were identified as autistic and treated at an early age no longer exhibit symptoms."

"One goal is to clearly define autism subtypes.  'It's hard to do the genetics if you're talking about four or five different syndromes,' says NIMH chief Insel."

"They have detected aberrant antibodies in the blood of kids from families with a pattern of ASD and, significantly, in mothers with more than one autistic child.  'These antibodies are actually raised against proteins in the fetal brain,' says Amaral, who recently submitted a paper on the discovery.... If correct, the finding could lead to a maternal blood test and the use of a therapy called plasmapheresis to clear antibodies from a mother's blood.  'You get a sense of the excitement,' says Amaral, 'if you could prevent, say, 20% of kids from getting autism.  But we don't want to raise false hopes."  (researcher David Amaral, MIND, University of California, Davis)

about plasmapheresis  http://www.mdausa.org/publications/fa-plasmaph.html

"The ritualistic behaviour that is characteristic of autism is strongly suppressed.  'Hands down', says a teacher to a child who begins to flap.  'We're not a culture that accepts that,' says Taylor.  'Fifty percent of the battle is addressing behaviour to look good'.  (Alpine Learning Group, Paramus, New Jersey, USA  tuition is $72,223)

Another school is profiled called Celebrate the Children, again in New Jersey.  Tuition is a bargain at $47,856.  Their "therapies" sounds like what most people do when they play with children  (at least from my experience)  

Apparently, the state of New Jersey pays the bills "since federal law requires a free education for children with disabilities in an 'appropriate setting."  New Jersey must the ABA state.  Change the licence plates.

The Boston Higashi School in Randolph, Massachusetts makes the kids jog twice a day so they will be "hungry enough to try new foods" and they will fall asleep more readily.  "endorphins released during exercise reduce anxiety - which is good because Higashi does not permit the use of psychotropic medications."

I am extremely angry and sad about this article.   It makes me sick.

and you know that that means.."we can prevent 20% of the autistic kids from being born" is probaly a more correct statement.  but then again, mind is with the mecury folks that belive autism is a disease process.  autism is not a disease, it's a way of life.  it's the only way i know how to live and it's the best life i know of.

digusting in all ways...we have heard it before.  and my life is not like someone suffering from cancer.  i know people with cancer, and their life isn't awesome like mine is...it's awful.  offensvie.  enough said.

it's only a problem becuase these people who research us don't know what it's really like to be autstic.  and my brain is working fine...i like it like that...it's the best way i know how...if you were to change it to a non autistic wiring, i would struggle with that.  don't they understand, we're all wirled differntly to execel at diffrent tasks.  if we were wired the same way, it would be boring.  and they only see it as a problem becuase of what soictey deems as the correct wriing, which is bogus.

everything is a lifelong struggle.  they act as if autistics desire to be normal, but can't.  we don't desire to be like everyone else the way non autistics do, but we just want to be ourselves.  and here's something...i learned earlier than most of my peers that following the crowd is just stupid.  i usually do my own things, but socitey deems that we should do all things together for saftey and more enjoyment.  well, 1 or 2 friends may not hurt, but not a big pack.  also on this not exhibiting symtpoms, they assume we don't develop at all after age two and we stay like that, and if we don't, we're not autistic.  i wish people understand that we grow and develop as well, just diffrently.  and no, autism isn't a struggle in the way they say it, but everyone, autistic or not sturggles with some parts of thier personality and well being.  it's just that it's more apparent in autistics as many times, the personal struggles are something soically important to the mainsteream and there are so few of us.  i wish they stopped viewing us as inftiable bums that have no hope and only have problems....

autism is not just a set of problems and/or defects...it's a part of my being.  i think i would be very diffrent without autism...and i like it this way...i'll die first before being cured, and thats saying something.

Hmm, so is the issue I would've recieved at work yesterday, or next Tuesday? We get a "Canadian" edition of Time, so it could very well not be in the one at work. I will check today, but this thread already has me outraged.

Necrophillia?

isnt new jersey the state where naar was formed?  they problay urged the school system to put autistics through totutre so that they desire to be cured.

i'm sorry they did that to you.  i was one of the lucky ones...i got all the advantages in school that made me the person i am today, a very succesful and smart person about to graduate from college in december.  my parents would not let me be treated like garbage, i was not garbage to them...sometimes, they were the only ones who really cared for me to be the best i could be.  i'm proud of who i am, although sometimes i feel jealous of those who have had friends throughout childhood.  my problem is that nobody liked me and nobody wanted to be my friend becuase of some stupid reason..i guess they were jealous of who i was and wanted to make me feel bad.  at least i found friends that are nicer than that now.

M wrote

:lol:

Quote from article

How does the "my immune system ate my baby's brain" theory of autism explain the association between high intelligence and autism in many people? My IQ is higher than average, based on testing done when I was a schoolkid. My aspie husband was very good at some subjects at school, and knows heaps about computers. All of our kids have some strong autistic traits and all are also in a gifted programme at school, which has entry by testing. Were all living proof that this theory is crap, unless brain damage boosts the IQ in some way. :roll:

If some mad scientist came up to me and said "I'd like to make your children's brains more normal" I'd be sorely tempted to punch his lights out. :evil:

Quote from article

How does the "my immune system ate my baby's brain" theory of autism explain the association between high intelligence and autism in many people? My IQ is higher than average, based on testing done when I was a schoolkid. My aspie husband was very good at some subjects at school, and knows heaps about computers. All of our kids have some strong autistic traits and all are also in a gifted programme at school, which has entry by testing. Were all living proof that this theory is crap, unless brain damage boosts the IQ in some way. :roll:

If some mad scientist came up to me and said "I'd like to make your children's brains more normal" I'd be sorely tempted to punch his lights out. :evil:[/quote]

i think what they are saying is that mabye that the mother's body attacks the brain in autistic people, as maybe autistic brains provoke that respose, possibly from some kind of unknown process and the antibodies are proudced in this attack.  i can see this as a neccsary reaction taking place in autistic people, developing the antibodies that prehaps protect the body from other things, and mabye explains the immune system diffrences between autistics and non autistics.  prehaps if the process is stopped, the baby may not surive.  mabye it's natural for this to happen.  but this is just my theory, only the future holds truth, especally if the babies undergoing this have dead babies in the end.  it will just prove this is a essental process that happens in autistic people's brains to set the wiring correctly (in autistic terms).  mabye i'm not making sense right now.  but here's the simple version since i have worked this out: autistic brain provokes messenger that reaches mother, mother's body attacks or otherwise effects the brain, antibodies produced.  since autism is mostly genetic, i'm guessing without this process, we die.  this is probaly just a process our brains go through in the womb to prehaps mature the brain, as mabye the brain is not useful without the process.  theattack could be breaking dangerous links that affect us living, of which we do not know.  i say we should look further into this process and see if this is in fact a nesscary procedure for autistic people.  and one more thing, the antibodies could be an explation to why our immune systems are diffrent.  just a theory.

"Scientific" theories that autism is caused by brain damage from in-utero attack by maternal antibodies have been around for years, but have never been very popular nor scientifically tested. There actually are a few very rare diseases caused by such a situation, one causing damage to the heart of the foetus, but to my knowledge are not associated with autism.

Even before these theories gained promonence, it has been known that many traits, including homosexuality, dyslexia, autism, auto-immune disease, allergy, intellectual giftedness and right-brain type talents (maths, drawing, archtecture, music) are found more often in left-handers, and this was all explained most adequately by US neurologist Norman Geshwind in the 1980s with his ideas about testosterone and "anomalous cerebral dominance". Sadly he died and his grand theory went out of fashion after a research study to test his theory was not replicated and was critiqued.

There's a butt-simple explanation as to why there is an association between autism and abnormal antibodies and immune system disease. The antibodies are the result of a misbehaving immune system, and that is caused by high testosterone levels foreshortening the development of the thymus gland (an very important part of the immune system) by speeding up in-utero development or by making puberty happen earlier. Autism is ALSO caused by high testosterone levels, hence the association. The dodgy immune system does not cause the autism, both are the result of a common cause.

At the moment some scientists are experimenting with "re-booting" the immune system by giving anti-hormone drugs then allowing a second puberty to happen with the return of the sex hormones. They hope this will confer immune tolerance to transplanted organs that are put in during the hormone-free period. I think this could be a promising therapy for autoimmune disease, and can't for the life of me think why the scientists haven't thought of this already. :roll:

what i'm saying is in the fetus, autistic and non autistic brains develop slightly diffrent, and mabye the attack is to break links that would otherwise make the otherwise bad brain into someting functional.  that's my theory.  does not envoke brain damage of any type, and since autism is genetic, it has a slihtly diffrent code to develop the brain.

i think the theory could be legit, and should look into brain development of autistics and non autistics, and see if it is diffrent in the start.