The TikTokers with tics, influencers selling EpiPens, an 8-year-old trying new foods. Awareness has become a kind of currency, but no one knows how to spend it.
I've always remembered how shocked I felt when I read this NYT article over 10 years ago basically saying we have too much awareness now (thanks to Susan Komen) of breast cancer, and it's leading to too many invasive procedures on women who would die of something else before dying of breast cancer (https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/magazine/our-feel-good-war-on-breast-cancer.html). It was fascinating to hear this argument of overawareness itself possibly being a cancer on society.
Great reporting. You’re point about Big Pharma is well received. Social Media is the perfect distraction for anyone and everyone who wants to “feel” involved without having to actually do anything. Perfect for big business of any kind. Sign this petition, click yes if you like “engaging in awareness” while all that’s happening is mindless scrolling and button clicking. “Look mom! I’m helping!”
Suzy- thanks for bringing our awareness to AWARENESS!! Geez-us!! That poor 8 year old! Too bad she didn't have an old school mother who said "that's what we are eating" and moved on!
Seriously. A woman told me a couple years ago that she had to cook 3 dinners, one for herself, one for her husband, and one for her child. HELL no. Once in a while as a kid my parents would let me order a small pizza when dinner was something I didn't like. As in, maybe once a year. It was a treat to act like a grown up and order it myself. But aside from legit food allergies, what we have going on now is bonkers.
My mother always gave us two choices for dinner, take it or leave it. I wish I had known that I could have declared pizza and ice cream my safe foods and expressed the danger I felt when eating spinach or liver.
Time for Me awareness and anti-stigma day! My kids and my wife need to be more tolerant of Me! My life matters a lot too. To me it does. Me too! Me day! I have lots of problems too. My car has problems. I do not know how to turn off the notifications on my phone. My left eye is blurry and I have flatulence ,and I forget to signal sometimes too. I want to have ADD so I do not have to actually pay attention to or really listen to my wife and maybe she will finally excuse Me for that. Me day!! Maybe Me week, or Me Year or just Me Forever Awareness. Rodney Dangerfield day for Me forever!!!
"I want to have ADD so I do not have to actually pay attention to or really listen to my wife and maybe she will finally excuse Me for that."
Maybe the poor unheard wives can organize a "My husband doesn't listen to me" Awareness campaign. My wife would be all in on that one. Husbands would be, too, especially if it meant the wives going on a three day walk.
I'm currently reading Dr. Allen Frances's book Saving Normal, written in 2014, about all the medical/pharma fads we've been subjected to an how each will promote anything for a buck or a million. So ARFID sounds like just another bullshit fake fad created by the medical establishment, rather a lot like trans nonsense with which I see many apt comparisons as I work through this book.
I have zero faith in the medical profession anymore.
Now now, there is a clear distinction between real science-based medicine based on biochemistry, biology and RTC research and on the other hand, psychotherapy based on... um, ah, well something else. For example XX means female in science based medicine, but XX means all TERFS should die you wretched JK Rowling, in psychotherapy. See the difference?
Actually, what he writes about (along with psych matters) is how the pharma industry has turned every aspect of human behaviour into a 'problem' to be 'cured'. Only the most recent being puberty, which we oldsters (pre-2014) called 'a normal change of life'. But yes, point taken, for some doctors XX is a biological reality, and for others it's an excuse to take kids away from their parents. Rather a lot like old Commie re-education camps.
It is criminal, and not your fault, that you wrote that out and the best known cause isn't even on your list. I have NO IDEA why this isn't getting shared more broadly, but I'm someone who can read the medical literature and found it easily. The compelling piece by Jill Esher in July 2023 here in the FP (which is linked to in the article) showed something clearly: there is a class of "profound autism" involving serious deficiencies and nonverbal behavior. There is no way this group would have been undiagnosed or missed in the past, they are too severely impacted. Within that group, the numbers are up so much that one can't claim that the increases could possibly be due to better diagnosis. They are essentially nonverbal and certainly non-independent people, so they wouldn't have "passed" with no diagnosis. That condition used to be extremely rare and now is 1 in 200 children in the US.
So with that clear evidence that it's really, really, not better diagnosis, I said to myself "what is it, then", and within minutes found the clear likely answer in the medical literature. Now, this isn't conclusive fully as no one is going to run a randomized controlled clinical trial here. But when there is something that already has clear statistically significant evidence in REVIEW articles, as someone who does this type of analysis well for a living, I can tell you it's going to hold up. People will tell you some studies didn't show an effect, but that's statistically ignorant. I could literally run 100 "trials" of whether US men and women differ in height, taking 3 of each for each "trial", and 50 of the trials would show that there is no difference, the other 50 would. In case it's not clear, there is a profound difference in average height of about 5 inches. People like to look at that kind of data set and say the evidence is weak or not proven, I say that evidence like that shows it's almost certainly an effect but it's just that no one has a profit motive to run a 5,000 subject study to prove it.
So I have purposely not gotten to the answer, but will get to the point now. The likely major contributing cause as shown in the medical literature is use of acetaminophen during pregnancy. There are review articles with clear statistical significance shown. There are letters from dozens of leading MDs pleading with the medical societies asking them to consider working warnings to pregnant women into standard care because the data is at a tipping point. I really can't explain why this information isn't out there more except for that same old issue: nobody has a profit motive to get this info out there. I remember a time when nobody knew what osteoporosis was, and then merck and lilly had drugs for osteoporosis that got approved, and then 5 years later everybody (and, importantly, their mother) knew what osteoporosis was due to the profit incentives out there.
The data on acetaminophen being the cause is hit or miss when they use surveys on overall use during pregnancy, which involves the highly variable memory of the mother. The data gets lots better in studies where upon birth they undertook to measure the levels of acetaminophen in the umbilical cord. There are clear dose-dependent relationships to levels of autism.
Tell everyone you know, because at the very least there's low risk in using less acetaminophen during pregnancy. Use it when medically necessary for headaches that compromise function, but really avoid using it casually as we all too often do.
"Conclusions and Relevance Acetaminophen use during pregnancy was not associated with children’s risk of autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability in sibling control analysis."--Journal of the American Medical Assn (JAMA), April 9, 2024
As that study says, it found an effect in the total population, confirming the other results that there is an association between acetaminophen and autism. Then they go on and test if that effect is present between full sibling pairs, comparing only the recorded use of the drug in one versus the other, and find that they don't see the effect then "in sibling control analysis". But what does that control for? These siblings don't have the same genes, just more similar genes. Plus the standard disclaimer that a study that doesn't see an effect means very little. By the laws of statistics, not seeing an effect doesn't read on whether or not there IS an effect. Seeing an effect demonstrates one with high likelihood, seeing no effect is not accepting that the two groups are the same, it's simply failing to prove a difference.
I pointed out the strongest evidence is from studies that actually measure acetaminophen in the cord blood. In this study it was instead measuring what doctors prescribed to the patient from records. Which could bear no resemblance at all to what a patient took on their own, as the drug is OTC. So basically this study makes the necessary assumption that each woman who had each sibling pair has exact medical records of her acetaminophen use, when in reality a woman who needed well-recorded prescribed acetaminophen one of the two times is at high likelihood to have used it herself in the other pregnancy with no record.
As I said "People will tell you some studies didn't show an effect, but that's statistically ignorant. I could literally run 100 "trials" of whether US men and women differ in height, taking 3 of each for each "trial", and 50 of the trials would show that there is no difference, the other 50 would. In case it's not clear, there is a profound difference in average height of about 5 inches. People like to look at that kind of data set and say the evidence is weak or not proven, I say that evidence like that shows it's almost certainly an effect but it's just that no one has a profit motive to run a 5,000 subject study to prove it."
I remember when numerous members of one family died of contaminated Tylenol. If memory serves, some had taken Tylenol from the same bottle for headaches following the stress of a sudden awful death in the family. We all do, because OTC meds do work well, and we never know all the dangers until later...too late.
I certainly don't use it casually. Acetaminophen can damage the liver and I believe that the recommended maximum daily dose is 2600 mg - or four extra-strength tablets.
So, I would not take it unless I had surgery coming up and needed a painkiller, as aspirin and ibuprofen are both blood thinners.
However, I could imagine if bleeding is a problem during pregnancy, acetaminophen might be preferred, even with the above risk.
Yes, I don't use anything casually. I always read all of the patient information. I still got burned by a drug reaction once - because it was supposed to be so rare that it wasn't even in the patient information, only in the info for the IV form of the drug. Drugs should always be used as sparingly as possible; many people seek the "extra-strength" dosage forms when they should take half of the minimum dose first and find the lowest dose that works for them. Side effects and negative impact are real.
I'll probably get blasted and cancelled for saying this, but I personally believe that autism has become over diagnosed. This notion that so many kids are "on the spectrum" nowadays seems to be almost impossible. Is it possible that many kids that are classified are just different than what we deem to be as "normal"? When my kids were young they absolutely could have been classified as at times they exhibited some classic Asperger signs, but I never even thought to have them tested, if I had pursued it with doctors or the school. They sometimes struggled with social issues and one struggled with large and small motor skill issues, but we worked through them and now not only are they are healthy, functioning adults, they are actually more successful than most. Yes, I do believe that there are some that are diagnosed are actually on the spectrum, but it seems statistically impossible for so many to be autistic. Of course, this is just my honest opinion and I have no facts to back it up except for my own experiences.
I think the commenter (Kelly Green) sated this is PROFOUND autism (not nerdy Aspbergers!) Yes- Autism is being diagnosed willy-nilly (as is ADHD, anxiety disorder etc. etc.) She clearly states she's describing an increase in extremely autistic children!
Growing up in the 80's, I can think of several kids I knew that would likely be diagnosed as "on the spectrum" today. Also, many kids that would be diagnosed as having "ADHD" today and prescribed drugs.
I wonder if it has always been a thing, just that now there is so much money to be made in looking for it and diagnosing it?
The Esher piece notes the situation of profound autism and, to me, proves that this is not simply more diagnosis. 25% of kids with autism are severely low IQ and non-verbal or borderline non-verbal. We weren't missing 19 in 20 cases of that 20 years ago or even 40 years ago. People think of autism as a minimal deficit that can "pass" and for many that is the case; but when one looks only at this profoundly affected severe low IQ set that in no way would have been not counted in 1975 or 1989, the numbers are clearly much higher now.
I have no idea why children are being diagnosed with autism in griwing numbers. I do know this. In our case our youngest was diagnosed autistic in the third grade. The person in charge of dealing with special needs kids at our smallish and poor Parish school was overwhelmed with many special needs kids. We opted to homeschool early with him. We never ever accepted his supposed condition to be anything other than a mild impediment and insisted on performance and delivery of his tasks. He processes information and meets challenges differently from the conventional. Sometimes taking far longer than he would have if I had been performing the same task. We run a family business that produces functional items that can be utilitarian or very artistic. Most of our product is production but some is bespoke. He's thirty three this year. He has developed a following in the posh neighborhoods of our communities and patronized by the wealthy mothers of autistic children who often immediately recognize him as being "on the scale". He's requested by name through word of mouth for our fanciest work. He works mostly with his ten years younger also autistic cousin and they're a well matched team. I've always told him since he was young. There is nothing wrong with you, your just a retard. Often followed by let's eat. We do have one family member, a nephew who is permanently institutionalalized with a sever case of autism. So of three siblings born in the 50s each youngest son is autistic.
My brother and I chose to work with the condition of ours boys as described above. Our sister a lifelong leftist chose to follow the leftist path.
What do you mean by "leftist path"? Institutionalization?
Don't get me wrong. My politics lean right but you seem to imply that your sister's son has a more severe case than your son, so is it a fair comparison between how you handled your son and she handled hers?
Thanjs for your reply. Those three boys were born with ten years of each other. The eldest is our son the institutionalized young man is nine months junior. Up to a point they were comparably afflicted. We chose not to treat it as disease. My sister chose to follow the science. At eighteen years of age her son drove, attended university had a girlfriend etc. Our son didn't feel he wanted a degree. He chose apprenticeship in the family business. He didn’t drive until is mid twenties. He’s had one girlfriend for about eight years. His peer cousin was in my estimation less socially awkwsrd than our son.
At some point a switch flipped in that young man. In my uneducated opinion the medications probably had something to do with his sudden and deep decline.
Good work helping him develop into a great person who is successful in his endeavors in a challenging environment! I have pity for your sister, it takes an exceptional person to not simply follow along the recommendations.
C section births raise the risk, as does lack of breast milk. Then kids are fed a diet rich in ultra-processed foods and they're given multiple rounds of antibiotics throughout their life. This messes up their gut microbiome (gut and brain are connected). There are theories that the multiple vaccines they're given contribute as well.
Online voyeurism never goes out of style here in America, life is a reality show.
Brilliant 👏
I've always remembered how shocked I felt when I read this NYT article over 10 years ago basically saying we have too much awareness now (thanks to Susan Komen) of breast cancer, and it's leading to too many invasive procedures on women who would die of something else before dying of breast cancer (https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/magazine/our-feel-good-war-on-breast-cancer.html). It was fascinating to hear this argument of overawareness itself possibly being a cancer on society.
It could also be called “Gaslighting.” All this “Awareness” could cause a “mental health crisis.”
Why does Suzy Weiss follow anyone on TikTok? I guess she has to, in view of her job, keep up with all this crap. I think I'd rather dig ditches!
Great reporting. You’re point about Big Pharma is well received. Social Media is the perfect distraction for anyone and everyone who wants to “feel” involved without having to actually do anything. Perfect for big business of any kind. Sign this petition, click yes if you like “engaging in awareness” while all that’s happening is mindless scrolling and button clicking. “Look mom! I’m helping!”
Suzy- thanks for bringing our awareness to AWARENESS!! Geez-us!! That poor 8 year old! Too bad she didn't have an old school mother who said "that's what we are eating" and moved on!
Seriously. A woman told me a couple years ago that she had to cook 3 dinners, one for herself, one for her husband, and one for her child. HELL no. Once in a while as a kid my parents would let me order a small pizza when dinner was something I didn't like. As in, maybe once a year. It was a treat to act like a grown up and order it myself. But aside from legit food allergies, what we have going on now is bonkers.
My mother always gave us two choices for dinner, take it or leave it. I wish I had known that I could have declared pizza and ice cream my safe foods and expressed the danger I felt when eating spinach or liver.
Time for Me awareness and anti-stigma day! My kids and my wife need to be more tolerant of Me! My life matters a lot too. To me it does. Me too! Me day! I have lots of problems too. My car has problems. I do not know how to turn off the notifications on my phone. My left eye is blurry and I have flatulence ,and I forget to signal sometimes too. I want to have ADD so I do not have to actually pay attention to or really listen to my wife and maybe she will finally excuse Me for that. Me day!! Maybe Me week, or Me Year or just Me Forever Awareness. Rodney Dangerfield day for Me forever!!!
"I want to have ADD so I do not have to actually pay attention to or really listen to my wife and maybe she will finally excuse Me for that."
Maybe the poor unheard wives can organize a "My husband doesn't listen to me" Awareness campaign. My wife would be all in on that one. Husbands would be, too, especially if it meant the wives going on a three day walk.
(Shh I agreed with you... shhhh! And I am NEVER get that hearing aid either.)
I've been told (more than once) that I need one. I've done some research. You can get ones that will not boost certain frequencies, if you get my drft
“Why in the world am I watching a child that I don’t know struggle through eating a honeydew? Why is anyone watching this?”
—> Better question: why is anyone putting their 8-year old child on YouTube to have others watch her struggle eating a honeydew?
Does this really motivate her to get better, or only to continue on in her “healing journey” indefinitely to keep her little bit of fame?
I'm currently reading Dr. Allen Frances's book Saving Normal, written in 2014, about all the medical/pharma fads we've been subjected to an how each will promote anything for a buck or a million. So ARFID sounds like just another bullshit fake fad created by the medical establishment, rather a lot like trans nonsense with which I see many apt comparisons as I work through this book.
I have zero faith in the medical profession anymore.
Now now, there is a clear distinction between real science-based medicine based on biochemistry, biology and RTC research and on the other hand, psychotherapy based on... um, ah, well something else. For example XX means female in science based medicine, but XX means all TERFS should die you wretched JK Rowling, in psychotherapy. See the difference?
Actually, what he writes about (along with psych matters) is how the pharma industry has turned every aspect of human behaviour into a 'problem' to be 'cured'. Only the most recent being puberty, which we oldsters (pre-2014) called 'a normal change of life'. But yes, point taken, for some doctors XX is a biological reality, and for others it's an excuse to take kids away from their parents. Rather a lot like old Commie re-education camps.
Amen
So you can make money if your kid is a picky eater??
Damn, I should really quit my job. Cause I have sure thing living in my house!
"Awareness" is the sole product of many fund-raising schemes/well-known charities. Been this way for decades.
Raising awareness about how raising awareness might not do much.
Really?
Can someone please tell me why autism has become so much more prevalent?
I have heard all of the following:
a) Women having children at later ages
b) Assortive mating - bright people having children are more likely to have autistic children
c) Lack of vitamin D during pregnancy
d) Lack of vitamin D when young
e) The MMR vaccine
f) It is diagnosed more because there is money for those who deal with autism
Is there anyone who can provide some insight on this?
It is criminal, and not your fault, that you wrote that out and the best known cause isn't even on your list. I have NO IDEA why this isn't getting shared more broadly, but I'm someone who can read the medical literature and found it easily. The compelling piece by Jill Esher in July 2023 here in the FP (which is linked to in the article) showed something clearly: there is a class of "profound autism" involving serious deficiencies and nonverbal behavior. There is no way this group would have been undiagnosed or missed in the past, they are too severely impacted. Within that group, the numbers are up so much that one can't claim that the increases could possibly be due to better diagnosis. They are essentially nonverbal and certainly non-independent people, so they wouldn't have "passed" with no diagnosis. That condition used to be extremely rare and now is 1 in 200 children in the US.
So with that clear evidence that it's really, really, not better diagnosis, I said to myself "what is it, then", and within minutes found the clear likely answer in the medical literature. Now, this isn't conclusive fully as no one is going to run a randomized controlled clinical trial here. But when there is something that already has clear statistically significant evidence in REVIEW articles, as someone who does this type of analysis well for a living, I can tell you it's going to hold up. People will tell you some studies didn't show an effect, but that's statistically ignorant. I could literally run 100 "trials" of whether US men and women differ in height, taking 3 of each for each "trial", and 50 of the trials would show that there is no difference, the other 50 would. In case it's not clear, there is a profound difference in average height of about 5 inches. People like to look at that kind of data set and say the evidence is weak or not proven, I say that evidence like that shows it's almost certainly an effect but it's just that no one has a profit motive to run a 5,000 subject study to prove it.
So I have purposely not gotten to the answer, but will get to the point now. The likely major contributing cause as shown in the medical literature is use of acetaminophen during pregnancy. There are review articles with clear statistical significance shown. There are letters from dozens of leading MDs pleading with the medical societies asking them to consider working warnings to pregnant women into standard care because the data is at a tipping point. I really can't explain why this information isn't out there more except for that same old issue: nobody has a profit motive to get this info out there. I remember a time when nobody knew what osteoporosis was, and then merck and lilly had drugs for osteoporosis that got approved, and then 5 years later everybody (and, importantly, their mother) knew what osteoporosis was due to the profit incentives out there.
The data on acetaminophen being the cause is hit or miss when they use surveys on overall use during pregnancy, which involves the highly variable memory of the mother. The data gets lots better in studies where upon birth they undertook to measure the levels of acetaminophen in the umbilical cord. There are clear dose-dependent relationships to levels of autism.
Tell everyone you know, because at the very least there's low risk in using less acetaminophen during pregnancy. Use it when medically necessary for headaches that compromise function, but really avoid using it casually as we all too often do.
"Conclusions and Relevance Acetaminophen use during pregnancy was not associated with children’s risk of autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability in sibling control analysis."--Journal of the American Medical Assn (JAMA), April 9, 2024
As that study says, it found an effect in the total population, confirming the other results that there is an association between acetaminophen and autism. Then they go on and test if that effect is present between full sibling pairs, comparing only the recorded use of the drug in one versus the other, and find that they don't see the effect then "in sibling control analysis". But what does that control for? These siblings don't have the same genes, just more similar genes. Plus the standard disclaimer that a study that doesn't see an effect means very little. By the laws of statistics, not seeing an effect doesn't read on whether or not there IS an effect. Seeing an effect demonstrates one with high likelihood, seeing no effect is not accepting that the two groups are the same, it's simply failing to prove a difference.
I pointed out the strongest evidence is from studies that actually measure acetaminophen in the cord blood. In this study it was instead measuring what doctors prescribed to the patient from records. Which could bear no resemblance at all to what a patient took on their own, as the drug is OTC. So basically this study makes the necessary assumption that each woman who had each sibling pair has exact medical records of her acetaminophen use, when in reality a woman who needed well-recorded prescribed acetaminophen one of the two times is at high likelihood to have used it herself in the other pregnancy with no record.
As I said "People will tell you some studies didn't show an effect, but that's statistically ignorant. I could literally run 100 "trials" of whether US men and women differ in height, taking 3 of each for each "trial", and 50 of the trials would show that there is no difference, the other 50 would. In case it's not clear, there is a profound difference in average height of about 5 inches. People like to look at that kind of data set and say the evidence is weak or not proven, I say that evidence like that shows it's almost certainly an effect but it's just that no one has a profit motive to run a 5,000 subject study to prove it."
I remember when numerous members of one family died of contaminated Tylenol. If memory serves, some had taken Tylenol from the same bottle for headaches following the stress of a sudden awful death in the family. We all do, because OTC meds do work well, and we never know all the dangers until later...too late.
I certainly don't use it casually. Acetaminophen can damage the liver and I believe that the recommended maximum daily dose is 2600 mg - or four extra-strength tablets.
So, I would not take it unless I had surgery coming up and needed a painkiller, as aspirin and ibuprofen are both blood thinners.
However, I could imagine if bleeding is a problem during pregnancy, acetaminophen might be preferred, even with the above risk.
Yes, I don't use anything casually. I always read all of the patient information. I still got burned by a drug reaction once - because it was supposed to be so rare that it wasn't even in the patient information, only in the info for the IV form of the drug. Drugs should always be used as sparingly as possible; many people seek the "extra-strength" dosage forms when they should take half of the minimum dose first and find the lowest dose that works for them. Side effects and negative impact are real.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10915458/pdf/cep-2022-01319.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9385573/pdf/cureus-0014-00000026995.pdf
I'll probably get blasted and cancelled for saying this, but I personally believe that autism has become over diagnosed. This notion that so many kids are "on the spectrum" nowadays seems to be almost impossible. Is it possible that many kids that are classified are just different than what we deem to be as "normal"? When my kids were young they absolutely could have been classified as at times they exhibited some classic Asperger signs, but I never even thought to have them tested, if I had pursued it with doctors or the school. They sometimes struggled with social issues and one struggled with large and small motor skill issues, but we worked through them and now not only are they are healthy, functioning adults, they are actually more successful than most. Yes, I do believe that there are some that are diagnosed are actually on the spectrum, but it seems statistically impossible for so many to be autistic. Of course, this is just my honest opinion and I have no facts to back it up except for my own experiences.
I think the commenter (Kelly Green) sated this is PROFOUND autism (not nerdy Aspbergers!) Yes- Autism is being diagnosed willy-nilly (as is ADHD, anxiety disorder etc. etc.) She clearly states she's describing an increase in extremely autistic children!
Growing up in the 80's, I can think of several kids I knew that would likely be diagnosed as "on the spectrum" today. Also, many kids that would be diagnosed as having "ADHD" today and prescribed drugs.
I wonder if it has always been a thing, just that now there is so much money to be made in looking for it and diagnosing it?
The Esher piece notes the situation of profound autism and, to me, proves that this is not simply more diagnosis. 25% of kids with autism are severely low IQ and non-verbal or borderline non-verbal. We weren't missing 19 in 20 cases of that 20 years ago or even 40 years ago. People think of autism as a minimal deficit that can "pass" and for many that is the case; but when one looks only at this profoundly affected severe low IQ set that in no way would have been not counted in 1975 or 1989, the numbers are clearly much higher now.
You should go read the Jill Esher piece linked to above, I want to hear your thoughts after you read that. https://www.thefp.com/p/the-autism-surge-lies-conspiracies
I have no idea why children are being diagnosed with autism in griwing numbers. I do know this. In our case our youngest was diagnosed autistic in the third grade. The person in charge of dealing with special needs kids at our smallish and poor Parish school was overwhelmed with many special needs kids. We opted to homeschool early with him. We never ever accepted his supposed condition to be anything other than a mild impediment and insisted on performance and delivery of his tasks. He processes information and meets challenges differently from the conventional. Sometimes taking far longer than he would have if I had been performing the same task. We run a family business that produces functional items that can be utilitarian or very artistic. Most of our product is production but some is bespoke. He's thirty three this year. He has developed a following in the posh neighborhoods of our communities and patronized by the wealthy mothers of autistic children who often immediately recognize him as being "on the scale". He's requested by name through word of mouth for our fanciest work. He works mostly with his ten years younger also autistic cousin and they're a well matched team. I've always told him since he was young. There is nothing wrong with you, your just a retard. Often followed by let's eat. We do have one family member, a nephew who is permanently institutionalalized with a sever case of autism. So of three siblings born in the 50s each youngest son is autistic.
My brother and I chose to work with the condition of ours boys as described above. Our sister a lifelong leftist chose to follow the leftist path.
Hyacinthus- I love your approach!
What do you mean by "leftist path"? Institutionalization?
Don't get me wrong. My politics lean right but you seem to imply that your sister's son has a more severe case than your son, so is it a fair comparison between how you handled your son and she handled hers?
Thanjs for your reply. Those three boys were born with ten years of each other. The eldest is our son the institutionalized young man is nine months junior. Up to a point they were comparably afflicted. We chose not to treat it as disease. My sister chose to follow the science. At eighteen years of age her son drove, attended university had a girlfriend etc. Our son didn't feel he wanted a degree. He chose apprenticeship in the family business. He didn’t drive until is mid twenties. He’s had one girlfriend for about eight years. His peer cousin was in my estimation less socially awkwsrd than our son.
At some point a switch flipped in that young man. In my uneducated opinion the medications probably had something to do with his sudden and deep decline.
I blame my sister's leftist stupidity.
Good work helping him develop into a great person who is successful in his endeavors in a challenging environment! I have pity for your sister, it takes an exceptional person to not simply follow along the recommendations.
Thanks. I don't take direction well. I greatly distrust authority.
C section births raise the risk, as does lack of breast milk. Then kids are fed a diet rich in ultra-processed foods and they're given multiple rounds of antibiotics throughout their life. This messes up their gut microbiome (gut and brain are connected). There are theories that the multiple vaccines they're given contribute as well.
Yip I think you onto something!
I have dermatitis. Does that make me brave or special??
Just ichy. Sorry.
🤣🤣🤣