Where are the autistic adults?

[Anonymous]

Agree with PP that it could be from pesticides. Or maybe there is more awareness or older parents these days. Or maybe they kept these children away from their peers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree with PP that it could be from pesticides. Or maybe there is more awareness or older parents these days. Or maybe they kept these children away from their peers?

Or that a lot of them ended up in jail. That's where many of my ADHD male relatives from prior generations ended up. I also come from a long line of self-medicators - always tobacco and tobacco and other drugs when they had money. They also had a high mortality rate. Two of my self-medicating ADHD brothers died in their 20s. The remaining one isn't doing much more than surviving but at least he's self-sufficient. Only my sister and I are thriving. At least I have lots of stories from generations past to help my kids understand the dangers of untreated/unmanaged ADHD. Don't want to end up like great-grandpa Andy who shot that guy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are hiding your head in the sand if you cannot see that there are many, many more children with autism than there were 40 or 50 years ago. I am a boomer, and I did not know a single child with autism when I was growing up and when I was in college. When I started having children, I began to see children with autism. My child needed speech therapy, and suddenly there were no speech therapists because they were booked for months taking care of all these ASD kids. The number of impaired kids mushroomed in the 1990s.

It's not my opinion, nor is it better diagnosis (although that may be a small part of it). Did you know a single kid with a life-threatening peanut allergy when you were growing up? I never met one until the late 1990s.

I think the toxins in our bodies, and the toxins our children are exposed to have caused this epidemic of ASD, allergies, asthma. Yes, toxins in the computer I'm using now, in the fuzzy blanket covering my feet, in the soft sweater I'm wearing, in the rug on my floor, in the vinyl in my car, in my food, in the air, in the materials used to build my house, and on and on and on.

Some people are not affected by these toxins, but most of the kids with ASD have a relative with allergies and auto-immune diseases (mother or father or grandparent), and these are the kids who are most affected.

I'm not saying there were NO ASD kids who were given other diagnoses, but people who try to explain away the epidemic of ASD must have another agenda. Opinions don't change reality, and the reality is that there are many more sick children now with ASD, allergies, asthma, ADHD, etc., than there were 40 years ago.

I COULDN'T AGREE MORE!!!

Think what you like. The research doesn't support you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Think what you like. The research doesn't support you.

Ohhhhh, that's right, you drank the coolaide and believe all the falsified research studies that come from big pharma. I got one word for you....SIMSPSONWOOD!!

http://www.safeminds.org/government-affairs/foia/simpsonwood.html

[Anonymous]

Where are the autistic adults? Mountain View, Menlo Park, San Jose, Seattle, and anywhere they write a lot of code.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Think what you like. The research doesn't support you.

Ohhhhh, that's right, you drank the coolaide and believe all the falsified research studies that come from big pharma. I got one word for you....SIMSPSONWOOD!!

http://www.safeminds.org/government-affairs/foia/simpsonwood.html

Salon.com actually retracted Kennedy's article on Simpsonwood b/c of major factual errors: http://www.salon.com/2011/01/16/dangerous_immunity/

What is it now, 16 clinical trials and counting with no link to autism and vaccines? And it's Kool-aid BTW.

[Anonymous]

Kids with autism don't have elevated mercury levels. No credible researcher has found that they do.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/167967.php

I'm down with a possible environmental contributor, but it is not mercury.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids with autism don't have elevated mercury levels. No credible researcher has found that they do.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/167967.php

I'm down with a possible environmental contributor, but it is not mercury.

Mine do. We've tested. I have plenty of friends whose autistic children have elevated mercury levels...they tested as well. Unless you test, you'll never know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids with autism don't have elevated mercury levels. No credible researcher has found that they do.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/167967.php

I'm down with a possible environmental contributor, but it is not mercury.

Mine do. We've tested. I have plenty of friends whose autistic children have elevated mercury levels...they tested as well. Unless you test, you'll never know.

Was that done by an independent lab or by a DAN doctor?

I don't trust DAN doctors generally, because I think they're out to milk parents for every dollar they can.

[Anonymous]

I know two people dx'd with HFA as adults. They're out there in the community. Both were dx'd in the last 10 years.

R. was 56 when he was dx'd. He lived next door to his mother for all of his adult life. She owned the house and left it to him when he died. He went in the army when he was drafted during Vietnam and did a tour as a medic stationed in Korea. He did not get along with the people in his unit, who found him strange. He worked as a union painter out of the hall when he came back and then got a job as a painter on a manufacturing line. When he was in his early 30's, a woman in the neighborhood decided he was husband material and moved in with him. They eventually got married. He continues to work on the line. His social life is pretty much non-existent. He goes to work and stays home. He doesn't see anyone in the family unless they initiate contact with him. Still, he has a daughter and two grand-daughters and a very good manufacturing job. He couldn't do that without extensive support from his mother and then his wife/girlfriend.

B. was 48 when he was dx'd. He was odd as a child. He did very well academically, but was horribly bullied. He went to a Christian college and graduated with a degree in IT. He was a good programmer, but was fired from multiple jobs because his behavior and personality were just too odd. When his parents died, he fell apart. His mother was doing a lot to manage his life and when she wasn't there anymore, he couldn't do it on his own. He can't manage his own bills or money. He is very socially odd. When he was about to become homeless, friends intervened and got him on SSDI. A friend of a friend of a friend had met B. a couple of years before and said "That guy has an ASD." She was in medical school at the time. Otherwise, no one would have known what to do. He has a friend who manages his money and bills for him now. He lives in an apartment and doesn't work.

[Anonymous]

I have a cousin in his 50ties, works as a technician at a hospital. Never married and lives with his parents. Overall is doing well.

Remember reading that the Dr Asperger described his namesake kids and adults as having their mother and then their wife, if they marry, help them navigate through life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are hiding your head in the sand if you cannot see that there are many, many more children with autism than there were 40 or 50 years ago. I am a boomer, and I did not know a single child with autism when I was growing up and when I was in college. When I started having children, I began to see children with autism. My child needed speech therapy, and suddenly there were no speech therapists because they were booked for months taking care of all these ASD kids. The number of impaired kids mushroomed in the 1990s.

It's not my opinion, nor is it better diagnosis (although that may be a small part of it). Did you know a single kid with a life-threatening peanut allergy when you were growing up? I never met one until the late 1990s.

I think the toxins in our bodies, and the toxins our children are exposed to have caused this epidemic of ASD, allergies, asthma. Yes, toxins in the computer I'm using now, in the fuzzy blanket covering my feet, in the soft sweater I'm wearing, in the rug on my floor, in the vinyl in my car, in my food, in the air, in the materials used to build my house, and on and on and on.

Some people are not affected by these toxins, but most of the kids with ASD have a relative with allergies and auto-immune diseases (mother or father or grandparent), and these are the kids who are most affected.

I'm not saying there were NO ASD kids who were given other diagnoses, but people who try to explain away the epidemic of ASD must have another agenda. Opinions don't change reality, and the reality is that there are many more sick children now with ASD, allergies, asthma, ADHD, etc., than there were 40 years ago.

I COULDN'T AGREE MORE!!!

My mom is 62 and autistic. My brother is 42 and has Asperger's.

Think what you like. The research doesn't support you.