Thought you’d all be interested in this show tonight on Nightline .. from their daily newsletter.
A PLACE IN THE WORLD: Adults with Autism Find their Way
Oct. 7, 2005 —
For parents who hear the devastating news that a child has autism, it is one of the first questions — and the one no one can answer: what will my child’s life be? Will he find his place in the world? Of course these are the questions all parents ask for their children. But for parents of children with autism it’s a question with far deeper meaning.
Autism is a condition filled with unanswered questions. What causes this mysterious disorder? What causes autism to block so many important pathways in the brain — pathways of communication, understanding and processing? Why do the numbers of children diagnosed with autism seem to be growing? And what interventional therapies can help these children best?
But tonight’s program won’t address those questions — since those questions and the needs of autistic children are given a great deal of attention these days. Tonight we will only address the first unanswerable question. The one the worried parent of an autistic child never stops asking — even after that child reaches adulthood.
Autistic children seem forever locked in a kind of childhood. But they do, of course, grow into adults and some overcome their disabilities significantly. But for so many, especially the profoundly autistic, the challenge to find a place in the world continues. And for parents of adult children with autism there is a new question: who will help my child after I am gone?
Tonight’s program will be reported by John Donvan and produced by Caren Zucker — both of whom have personal experience with autism. They will introduce you to two remarkable families — whose love and dedication to their children is remarkable.
We hope you’ll join us.
Thank you Susan. So many focus on the “cute” kids … between the ages of diagnosis and elementary school years… or they focus on the Savants. … They don’t always get the teen years which are depression and suicide attempts due to lonliness and such or the hardships of appearing “weird” in society as you try to make your way in the world. Like shopping for groceries…
My husband is already facing the dirty looks of others as he holds our son’s hands in a store or as they cross a parking lot (parking lots are a stressor for my son. He’s a bit of a worryier (think OCD with a tude). Society thinks it’s “odd” for a man to be holding the hands of a teenager. For some sick reason people only think perverts hold hands of young boys. The list could go on…
I won’t be watching it tonight as one of the things about being a parent to a child with special needs is knowing that the other non-disabled child requires special attention, too. Tonight is my daughter’s birthday. She’s invited two very special, tolerant girls to partake in it as she’s invited her “big” brother to be a part of the party. Two friends she feels safe with just in case the big brother has a freak out or does something that might be “earth crushingly” embarrassing.
I can’t tape this either because I’m using the tv for her party.
If anyone catches this – or finds transcripts I’d be very appreciated. xoxo
(((Susan)))) girls are here – gotta run.
I know you probably won’t see this, but I hope the birthday celebration is fun for all!
Thank you, yes the party was wonderful. She had two tolerant friends invited. (A good friend of mine shared that his daughter did the same for her party as his son is also autistic) There weren’t any “freak outs or inappropriateness” 🙂
Only bummer was the hockey game in the background. Sharks lost, again. LOL
Can’t wait to send you the tape. I think i have your address 🙂
THANK YOU so much! SUSAN!!!!! 🙂
Thanks for pointing this out Susanbohu. My Goddaughter is Autistic, we discovered it when she stopped singing songs she had learned as an infant..she even included the lyrics she had learned from watching videos and CD’s. Then one day she just stopped. She tries so hard now as a 7 year old to speak, but her sign language is coming along much better than putting words together. She is the most beautiful girl who tries so hard. She has been going to a special private school in NYC since we discovered her problem. I know they say more boys get it than girls, but she is the only girl in her class of 6. I will watch the show with great interest.
During my career, I had opportunity to work with some adolescents who had mild forms of autism. So I am also concerned over the seeming increase in the percentage of youngsters with this affliction. I am sure as the child develops into “adulthood” the question on parents minds is, “what happens to them when I am gone?” I am equally sure that to BushCo, this question will forever remain unanswered.
Thought this might be worth adding here:
But you probably already knew all this…
Thanks for finding this. What is new is that what we long suspected is indeed true.
Let’s see: Neuroligical damage in one out of six, serious harm in one out of eighty. Doesn’t that make the risk of the vaccine GREATER than the risk of catching and being harmed by the diseases?
The part about CDC suppressing the study hit a nerve with me–you discover a medical proceedure is causing serious harm and you SUPPRESS that info!?
I begin to think the medical profession, like so much else, is turning malign.
And here’s another article from last week detailing the assistance Bill Frist and hs friends have been giving big pharma in avoiding lawsuits from the families affected…LINK
Thank you Gaianne, anytime anyone comes up with this same info, someone has to attack it as being “investigated and therefore null and void”… what they don’t realize is that the investigations were led by people with political agendas and the tests were STOPPED therefore the alleged investigations were never completed.
Stopped tests however they media spins it that there were results. Total BS.
Our nation is destroying young lives because it a buck is more worthy than your or my child.
Thanks for still questioning and asking. Some in this country think its horrible of us parents who stil have no answers.
Part of the Patriot Act was to keep us parents in check. They tried to shut us up.
To Snakelass… I have seen too many families with speaking children have their children stop talking after the MMW vax.
Mercury causes developmental disabilities. And the increase in Autism is becoming rampant.
Autism, coming to a loved one near you.
The Kennedy article (and the whole alleged thimerosal/autism connection) has been thoroughly debunked. An initial article to start with is Robert F. Kennedy Junior’s completely dishonest thimerosal article. For more on the subject, try Skeptico’s anti-vaccination hysteria index. There are links to other careful criticisms of the Kennedy article and the alleged linkage in general.
But the burden is on the vaccine.
The dose makes the poison, and the epidemiological evidence for safety and no link with autism is very strong. Those that claim a causal link between thimerosal and autism have the burden of proof on them. The vaccines have already gone through clinical trials to find out if they are safe and effective.
1) The risks of childhood diseases are very real. Here are some pictures of the ravages of vaccine-preventable diseases. Caution – these can be nausea-inducing.
The anti-vaccine liars operate just like the wing-nuts. When I’m more awake (here because of insomnia now) if you’d like I can post links to more resources. One good source is Quackwatch.
2) Thimerosal has already been removed from childhood vaccines, except the flu vaccine. There is an alternative to that, a nasal spray vaccine that I think is called Flu-Mist.
It is frequently claimed that the symptoms of autism are the same as the symptoms of mercury poisoning, but that is not true. If you’d like references I can find them.
All the best!
“Thimerosal has already been removed from childhood vaccines” that’s very very incorrect.
In fact that is why China is now facing an serious increase in autism because guess where they got their vaccines from?? the good ole USA.
3. the dose makes the poison
I’m sorry, but mercury poisoning is cumulative, which makes this claim just totally irresponsible.
1. Of course diseases entail risks! The risk from the vaccine of death or injury, should be (a good deal) less than from the disease. And that certainly used to be the case. A further consideration–in the vaccine’s favor–is that with an effective vaccination program the disease tends to disappear (though not completely). In that circumstance it makes sense to continue vaccinating, even thought the risk from the disease has dropped, so that the disease does not come back.
But what we seem to be considering here is new vaccines that are not as safe as the vaccines they have replaced. What excuse is there for that?
2. If Thimersol is no longer used, why the defense of it? By the way, the new vaccines being prone to spoilage, what has replaced it as a presevative? What about the safety of the new preservative?
Connecticut Man!, thanks 🙂 Yup RFK, jr is a hero to many families who have been slapped down. All we want is a study, possibly answers… but instead we get smacked down for simply asking “what is going on here?”.
We get called names like “denial, crazy, wingnuts (from this forum) – when information gets suppressed, for gawd sake, there’s something very very wrong.
At least we have RFK, jr who can continue to be a thorn in the side of the Big Pharm. Maybe, because of him, we can find answers and justice.
It isn’t RFK that pointed out the link from the mercury based preservative. It was physicians the link and pointed out the possibility of the cause.
Yes, it is true that they have not studied it quite enough to be definitive in the results. But there is a thing called common sense, and common sense says that if the “possible link” is so obvious than it is better to err on the side of caution and eliminate the use of the preservative.
What does that mean?
It means that they should revert to using only “single dose” packaging of the shots. Of course, that makes it a few bucks more expensive for each dose.
Most physicians (perhaps all of them in the USA now?) have already switched to that practice here just to be safe, BUT the problem is that now it costs a lot more to administer important “preventative medicine” for those that do not health coverage both in the USA and around the world.
As per usual it comes down to $$$ in the short term.
We checked with our pediatrician and she only uses single dose versions of the shots, citing that she realizes the strong evidence is not “proof-positive” yet, but it is strong enough that she cannot ignore it.
She even does this without charging more for the shots, absorbing the loss in her profit margin herself, so the HMO’s can’t say no to paying for it. We are actually lucky with our own medical plan, in that it is covered for us. We can pick whichever drug we want and it is covered. Many in this community are not so lucky, but she refuses to take the risk of using the “multi-dose bottles” that use thimerasol because of the possible risks to long-term health. Kudos to her for taking her oath seriously, and for putting kids health before the profit margin!
Mercury Poisoning.
There are no “stats” because there aren’t any unsuppressed studies.
…. breathe…
My son had high levels of mercury and heavy metals when first tested. Then the testing for such was “stopped”. Now it’s back up and running and guess what… all the “new” kids we now meet – they haven’t any mercury levels. None at all. Strange.
But then… we’re not allowed to question or sue the Big Pharm. It’s unPatriotic (acts) to even ask about autism.
Autism is a specturm disorder and I think we’ll find that the causes for autism will be just as diverse.