I have kids. If I knew I was going to have an autistic one, I'd have aborted.
We only have to put up with this until there's a screening test. Then the problem will take care of itself, like the way Tay-Sachs is disappearing.
In search of a truce in the autism wars
101–110 of 169 posts
Re: In search of a truce in the autism wars
#102We’re probably all better off because some people have autism. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s an evolutionary explanation for its prevalence. However, there are so many consequences to being “abnormal” that most neurotypicals would refuse to be reincarnated as autistic if given the choice. If you have autism, the traits conferred by the condition have become part of your identity. You very well may not see it as…
> I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s an evolutionary explanation for its prevalence.
It's kind of a corollary to the No Free Lunch theorom, really. The genes that cause autism in one configuration are probably vital in most other configurations and turning them off willy-nilly would likely be bad.
Re: In search of a truce in the autism wars
#103We’re probably all better off because some people have autism. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s an evolutionary explanation for its prevalence. However, there are so many consequences to being “abnormal” that most neurotypicals would refuse to be reincarnated as autistic if given the choice. If you have autism, the traits conferred by the condition have become part of your identity. You very well may not see it as…
> Do we have nothing better to do than judge others? You just related a story where you sat and judged two people for over an hour! You tell us why you did it if you want to know why people do it!
That sounded like an observation, not a judgement.
Re: In search of a truce in the autism wars
#104I fully acknowledge that conditions affecting the brain will have a much larger impact on one's identity. That much is obvious. That being said, if I had the option to "correct" most of my personal atypical genetic "variations," I would do so. Colorblindness? Yep, I don't want that. Congenital flat feet? I don't need those. IBS? No thanks. Hair loss starting at 17? Nope! Weird neurological symptoms no doctor has ever…
Everything you described is a physical trait, not something deeply intertwined with your personality and identity.
For people with mild autism, a closer analogy would be an aspect of your personality. Do you like to travel and explore new places? Imagine it was a major aspect of your life, to the point that you'd get uncomfortable staying in one place too long. How would you like it if someone told you that you should be cured of that, and you'd be better off able to settle down and be "normal"? Do you feel that you would still be you after that kind of change? If it helps, take the exact same question and reverse it. If you were told you had to be "cured" to love travelling to that degree, would you consider that a major change to your personality?
I'm purposely not speaking for severe autism here. I think the big problem with this debate is people arguing past each other, both sides saying "autism" and meaning wildly different things. I really wish they had different names.
Re: In search of a truce in the autism wars
#105Anyone who thinks autism is just a difference in personality that doesn't need treatment is welcome to foot the bill for all the people including my nephew who has difficulty talking and cannot live independently now and may very well continue to be this way long after his parents pass away.
It can be. It can also be more serious. This is the whole point of the article - everyone is arguing about two entirely different things, a most extreme version and a least extreme version, which need different ways of thinking about how they should be approached, and in some cases treated, and in others accepted.
Arguing in absolutes only serves to enflame both sides.
Re: In search of a truce in the autism wars
#106I fully acknowledge that conditions affecting the brain will have a much larger impact on one's identity. That much is obvious. That being said, if I had the option to "correct" most of my personal atypical genetic "variations," I would do so. Colorblindness? Yep, I don't want that. Congenital flat feet? I don't need those. IBS? No thanks. Hair loss starting at 17? Nope! Weird neurological symptoms no doctor has ever…
How do you know its genetic? Things like mercury does that too. I don't like to bring this up too often if I have no data at all because it sounds so alarmist, but I can only post publically so just in case... My own unfortunate experience: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19575424 Do you have any tooth fillings, for example, if so what kind? Was the source in my case. Jaw bones in very bad shape, never noticed by x-ray, only when a doctor trying to inject into buccal mucosa ended up diving deep into the jaw bones was it discovered how bad it was. In four places - all of them ex amalgam tooth fillings for two decades, and healed by injecting chelator. Lots and lots of conditions cleared that are quite common, such as psoriasis, and where no doctor ever considers heavy metals. How much it had affected my brain, direction of thoughts, dreams (literally), I only noticed through years of (university clinic researcher doctor controlled) chelation (DMPS, DMSA). Huge changes. And until I was forced to look into my problems I called myself "health" all the way through three decades of suffering from things which are all completely gone now, but which I always thought were "normal" and/or "part of (my) life".
Re: In search of a truce in the autism wars
#107There's an observation I made a while ago: pretty much all people that I heard stating that they are "on the spectrum" were americans. Why is that? I never checked but I would be surprised if the prevalence is higher than in other western countries. So what is it? Is it better diagnosed or just wrong (wrong diagnosis, self-diagnosis, pidgeonholing bc it's cool to be non-average,...), or maybe there is an issue that p…
An acquaintance was involved in diagnosis of autism in US schools.
There are autistics that clearly have something severely wrong with them. They flap their hand, frequently have extremely low IQs, and are not going to be able to effectively participate in society in any meaningful way. You don't need much any expertise to diagnose these people, other than to know that autism exists. Her expertise came in diagnosing people whom I think many would challenge the diagnosis of. It seemed anybody who exhibited less interest in social interactions or engaged awkwardly, and had 'quirks' was designated as being "on the spectrum."
There are radically different different rates of diagnosis in the US by state. Though there are going to be some biases between states, this does seem at least reasonably strong evidence against any sort of genetic, environmental, or other factor. It's obvious that "autism", whatever it may be be, does exist but I think the sharp differences in diagnostic rates are probably simply down to the clinician choosing to diagnose (or not) people who do not clearly exhibit as autistic. It'd be interesting to have 10 clinicians each independently diagnose the same 1000 children. I expect you'd see some fairly sharp differences between them. Go figure, another aspect of psychology that's not replicable.
Re: In search of a truce in the autism wars
#108There's an observation I made a while ago: pretty much all people that I heard stating that they are "on the spectrum" were americans. Why is that? I never checked but I would be surprised if the prevalence is higher than in other western countries. So what is it? Is it better diagnosed or just wrong (wrong diagnosis, self-diagnosis, pidgeonholing bc it's cool to be non-average,...), or maybe there is an issue that p…
An acquaintance was involved in diagnosis of autism in US schools. There are autistics that clearly have something severely wrong with them. They flap their hand, frequently have extremely low IQs, and are not going to be able to effectively participate in society in any meaningful way. You don't need much any expertise to diagnose these people, other than to know that autism exists. Her expertise came in diagnosing…
> There are radically different different rates of diagnosis in the US by state. Though there are going to be some biases between states, this does seem at least reasonably strong evidence against any sort of genetic, environmental, or other factor.
It's not, since there are strong environmental differences between states, and probably significant differences in population genetics.
There may be clinical biases, too, but there existence dish by open our the other factors.
Re: In search of a truce in the autism wars
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
so what should they do? explain how they should think about inviting your kid to events that they might worry would be too much? It's an awkward conversation for them to have too. What is the consideration? is this different for every autistic kid?
No 2 autistic people are the same. For example, my girlfriend is sensitive to certain sounds. Our daughter appears to have the same issue, but we don't know for sure yet. I learned to get less sensitive to it over the years. As for your question: invite the kid and take their needs into account? Is it really that hard to grasp? I don't get it. Some kids have an allergy. Some kids have lice. Some kids have tamper tant…
Yeah, I don't want kids with lice, skin infections or temper tantrums over at my house. So I'm not sure the burden is on me to take their needs into account.
Re: In search of a truce in the autism wars
#110I think we need to accept that from this point forward some subset of the internet will be outraged about literally everything, and try not to let it have a disproportionate effect on our actions.