dagblog - Comments for "Woe, The Children"

Eh, it's not really

Orion — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 19:21:54 +0000

Eh, it's not really important. That was a side note - article wasn't about abortion so I took it down.

Just my personal opinion

Orion — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 18:06:36 +0000

Just my personal opinion here, I don't want it to be taken as serious as the views I put out on other things -

One should be really careful about meds being thrown out to kids with autism. I think they are dealing with an entirely different operating system altogether. It is still their operating system, however, so by messing with it who knows what you could really be messing around with.

Meds to alleviate seizures or any physical defects that come with the condition makes sense but mood altering drugs are just extremely dangerous as a rule. Even meds to alleviate obvious mental disorders like schizophrenia are pretty sketchy - schizophrenics are often actually treated with medication like Seroquel, which is actually a repackaged sleep aid. To the people who have to deal with a schizophrenic, the meds may seem to solve the problem but more often than not, the problem is just tucked away.

When an autistic kid has a violent tantrum, they may be extremely frustrated about the fact that they cannot communicate what they are thinking and feeling so that other people understand. Imagine how frustrating that must be for them! Messing around with their moods with drugs that work in weird ways could turn the kid even worse and, since no one knows how the meds really work, you have no idea what the kid will end up like. You could make everything just much, much worse.

In my view, it might be a good idea to try to build ways in which to facilitate better communication. Even kids with bad autism are still human and all any humans want is to be able to coexist with one another. The only way to do that is through interpersonal communication.

That is just my opinion, though. I worked with kids with hardcore autism in high school but I don't have the qualifications to say this or that is what will cure their problems. The writing Genghis is kind enough to let me do here focuses on how these drugs are affecting neurotypicals.

From the article you

Verified Atheist — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 21:38:45 +0000

In reply to This is interesting:

From the article you link:

Autism isn’t sick or crazy. It’s rigid and routine, a little eccentric. Autism is multiplying columns of numbers easily while being unable to look anyone in the eyes; listening to only one band’s music, and always in the same order, for a period of six weeks; refusing to eat anything orange. It’s also being able to remember the exact date and time you ate a bison burger in Chamberlain, S.D., when you were 6. But there’s a really charming side to all this, a wonderful tilted perspective on life that, if you’re a parent of autism, you come quickly to enjoy.

Some people with autism are like that. Most of the ones I know aren't. Most of the children with autism I know have a hard time even talking to you. Many if not most of them cannot read or do math. Of course, there's a selection bias in the ones I know, so I have no idea how representative they are.

As for the meds, many (but probably not most) of the parents I know have tried different meds at one time or another in an attempt to help their children, and to be clear for the most part we're talking about children with autism so profound they will not be able to care for themselves independently as adults, so if there was a "fix", they would have every right to want it. None of the medicines have "fixed" the problem, although a few of them have made the children so groggy that the unusual behaviors have diminished, along with all other behavior.

I'll mention that now. I tend

Orion — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 06:21:29 +0000

In reply to Odd that you mentioned 'Our

I'll mention that now. I tend to have a tone of "the world is dead" editorializing. You're more grounded in facts. =P

Odd that you mentioned 'Our

NCD — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:11:16 +0000

In reply to I wrote a longer paragraph

Odd that you mentioned 'Our culture is used to so much wealth that that wealth could stand in for a lack of family.'

And you didn't mention that the USA has the highest rate of child poverty of 35 developed nations excepting only Romania.

Wealth doesn't stand in for family in the US.

Almost all other developed, and even many undeveloped or developing nations have the common sense to (1) mandate paid maternity and paternity leave (2) provide financial subsidies for families with new children and (3) give all children free medical care, and free dental care until age 18.

The fact is this country does not have national policies that would lead one to believe that it places a high value on either children or families.

I wrote a longer paragraph

Orion — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:14:29 +0000

In reply to Well stated. The opposing

I wrote a longer paragraph that went deeper in to the issue but it got eaten up multiple times.

I took that paragraph down. I was afraid when I wrote it that this essay - which was meant to tackle the role of children in our society - would derail in to a debate about abortion.

Nevertheless, I'm not sure what is really wrong there. Abortion rights activists are "pro-choice." The pro-choice movement is built on it being the choice of their parent. ?

This is interesting:

Orion — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:59:23 +0000

In reply to Just to be careful that those

This is interesting: http://www.salon.com/2007/05/18/autism_misdiagnosis/

Well stated. The opposing

NCD — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:02:22 +0000

In reply to You wrote: Whatever you

Well stated. The opposing philosophy is that any form of birth control, any education on parenthood, any clinical procedure to ensure the health of the mother or pre-natal care to ensure the health of a pregnant woman and fetus is both dangerous and a threat to state control of the womb, the most fundamental 'productive apparatus' in a capitalist society.

Just to be careful that those

Verified Atheist — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 01:02:42 +0000

In reply to He has never had any speech.

Just to be careful that those communication sessions aren't using "facilitated communication", a process that differs from Ouija boards only in that it's slightly more plausible. If you are using that and are convinced it works, I encourage you to perform a simple test — tell your child something simple prior to the facilitator showing up and have the child repeat it after the facilitator shows up. Obviously, I don't know your child (and one child with autism can be as different from another as one typically developing child can be from another), but I have had a lot of indirect experience with children with autism (my wife works at a school for children with autism), so I'm familiar with a lot of what doesn't work.

He has never had any speech.

Flavius — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:49:09 +0000

In reply to Flavius, does your son

He has never had any speech. The first sentence he spelled out - in response to an invitation to say whatever he felt like- was "autism is like death"..

We'll ask him some questions about his meds when he resumes the communication sessions in mid March. .