colector: Re: [JournalWriting] Re: excellent news (knock on wood)!-MARY

Mary,

Thank you so much for the detailed reply.

Your comments on the probable environmental causes, and the too easy answer of drugs for everything re-inforce my own long held opinion that the only thing that matters, anymore, is MONEY NOW!.

In 1925, Sinclair Lewis published a novel Arrowsmith, which had, as a sub-theme, one doctor's struggle to get drug companies to fully test their drugs before marketing them. He asked for longer experimentation times and fuller study of long-term effects. We are still fighting that battle. Drug companies are so afraid someone else will get the patent, they shove the drugs faster than they should.

Now they merchandise their stuff on television and encourage viewers to pester their doctor for the newest thing. Usually, the side effects they state (who knows what they don't state) are worse than the complaint. I, myself, would like to see these medical ads banned from public advertising.

Part of the problem, too, I think, is the lack of time doctors spend with individual patients. It's easier, more time-saving, and thus more profitable, to drug a patient than discover the real cause of a malfunction..

Mary <soragne@yahoo.com> wrote:

--- In JournalWriting@yahoogroups.com, Ray <weaver0322@...> wrote:
> I have so many friends with autistic children. Is there a rise in
> the occurance of autism, or are we just hearing more about
> the situation? Is society being more open, understanding?

There are kids I've seen diagnosed under autism when the underlying
problem was something else. Like cases where it was actually
early epilepsy... petit mal seizures in the brain produce
behaviors and symptoms that completely mimic autism. Then these
children get on an anticonvulsant and suddenly their "autism"
is "cured." Another child I knew was completely normal until
he turned 7... one summer he had a series of very high fevers...
which did significant brain damage... but that's not
clinical "autism" yet it was easier for everyone to understand
(especially the school district) for him to be labeled as autistic.

To some degree, it's become a convenient label. But SERIOUSLY
there is something else going on and it is TOTALLY environmental.
The whole "genetics" thing just irks me to no end. I have seen
autism cross ALL the boundaries of age, race, class, money.
There has NEVER been a case in my family or my husband's family
of anyone being MR or anywhere close to it. Genetics my *ss.

Interestingly, a man I spoke to... a cab driver actually...
who asked about my son and we got started on the conversation...
said his grandson just got diagnosed... and his symptoms
were exactly like Alex's. Now NO ONE in his family...
in fact his *entire village* in Chile had ever had anything like
autism. But his daughter moved to the US a few years back...
and suddenly her son has the same symptoms as my mine?

I don't know if it's vaccines exactly (or only). But it's something
widespread. I hope it's not in the water. In canned goods
(which DO leach aluminum/tin into the food in them...
which is another mental my son's body has not been able to
remove on its own apparently), in playground equipment (wooden
playground equipment is treated with arsenic to prevent
attacks by wood damaging insects), in the paint used in
houses, solder in old plumbing, ceramics, paint on toys,
dyes, the very asphalt we walk on and air we breathe...
all sources of lead. Don't even get me started on fish...
or how much of what we eat/drink now is processed.

I mean, seriously, ASPARTAME is a known neurotoxin. And
it is still in diet sodas. Because in a few lab rats it
killed only a few brain cells so it's ok in humans? We think
of side effects in terms of hours, days, weeks... rarely
ever months and years. Which is another reason why I wanted
so much to avoid putting Alex on a drug... no one honestly
knows what this will do to him in the long run, what it'll
do for other children. 10 years ago... how many *children*
ever NEEDED to be on medication for behavioral issues???

It'll be found one day soon. And if it's a major company
or industry doing it, you're looking at some serious lawsuits
(which I suspect is the reason behind all the wishy washy-ness
and finger pointing).

I can't think about what I could and could not have done...
I'd spend all my hours crying my eyes out.

I can barely even think about "tomorrow" as his moods, news,
research, etc. changes all the time. Which is what is great
about his case manager being there daily with his teacher...
she can change his lessons that very minute depending on what
he is or isn't responsive to.

All I can do is do what I can day to day. Hour to hour,
minute to minute if need be. But that's how you measure
"success" and progress, too.

> I know that having to deal with situation, daily, is
> patience draining and must sometimes seem unending.
> How do you find some spiritual/emotional
> re-newal, day to day?

One of the greatest moments of my life was when (he'd started
both behavioral and biomed intervention at 3 1/2... "late")
I was on my knees, cleaning up the living room of his toys and
I saw him in the doorway. I asked (not expecting an answer),
"What do you want, Alex?"

He was looking right at me, smiled, and very
softly said, "Mommy." He walked over
and crawled into my lap for a hug. I cried for at least
a solid 30 minutes.

Those are the moments I live for and keep me going.

Mary, CT