Autism Awareness for Me and Mine - 2012

Today (April 2nd) is Autism Awareness Day and it's something that's been on my mind and in my work rotation for several months now. Truthfully, autism has been in my life a lot longer than that. You see, my (almost 13-year-old) son has a form of autism called PDD-NOS. What the initials stand for doesn't really matter, what it means for him is that he has trouble understanding social cues, both verbal and visual and thinks in very literal, black & white terms. His brain is literally wired differently than most people's and this makes the way he sees things, understands things and learns things different from most of us. He has to study how to interpret facial expressions, body language and secondary meanings of words. He has to learn social language like taking a class in a foreign language would be for most of us. Sights, sounds and smells can often overwhelm him and he might have a meltdown.

This does not change how he feels about things. He is extremely sensitive in fact and most of the time wants nothing more than to help other people. He gets such self-satisfaction from doing good. (I wish I could be more like him in that way) But, just like everyone else, kids making fun of him and excluding him hurts him, adults ignoring him hurts him, he's not unintelligent (in fact, he's smarter on scale than about 65% of us in the general population) but he's slow on the sarcasm side and doesn't quite "get it" like most young teens. He does "get" when others are being mean, however.

I love him with all of my heart and realizing that this is a permanent, life-long condition that same heart aches for him knowing the pain he'll endure as he faces the challenges life has ahead for him. The more people know about Autism Spectrum Disorders, the more they will accept his differences and appreciate his unique view of the world, what he has to offer all of us. If you don't already know someone with, or affected by autism - the CDC released new figures last week that 1 of every 88 children in the U.S. has some form of the disorder. You will know someone soon. It's statistically impossible not to.

I created a local resource page on Facebook for this event and hope to keep it updated with information and opportunities that people with autism and their families and friends can use. We've encouraged people to wear blue today, light a blue bulb in their home or business, but most importantly to talk to their friends, co-workers and kids about autism and what it means for the people who have these conditions. They're really very cool people with perspectives on society and life that could benefit all of us in the rat-race.

In case you're interested: www.facebook.com/AutismAwarenessAberdeen

One of Every 110 US Kids Diagnosed with Autism but Don't Blame Vaccines

Having a pre-adolescent son with a (debatable) form of autism, this news made a big impact on me; Vaccines do not cause autism. Now, I really never believed they did, but the "easy out" was tempting to take. It's typical that kids either develop or start to exhibit symptoms of autism right around the same time they're receiving standard childhood vaccinations, notably the MMR (Measles, Mumps & Rubella) vaccine. At one time, thimerisol, which contains mercury, was a standard substance used to help stabilize vaccines and we all know that's bad for us, right? There could be a reaction to one or more of the viruses in the vaccine. Lots of things associated with the vaccine could cause autism, we don't really know, right? Wrong. We do know.

The one major study that linked the MMR vaccine with a higher incidence of autism was published in The Lancet, a major British medical journal in February of 1998, little more than a year before my son was born. This was well-known news as he was going through the initial testing and educational interventions (that are still part of his life to some degree) that occurred once it had became obvious his development was drastically delayed. Unfortunately, the study never should have been published and today was finally retracted by the journal. It was flawed ethically and dozens of other studies have not been able to duplicate it's results. The main author is now having his medical license reviewed as well and may have it revoked.

I can't say that I'm actually happy these steps have been taken. It feels much better to think you have an answer to a problem than to not have one. Vaccines were an answer for many parents of children on the autism spectrum and now that is gone from us. We're left with not knowing why our kids struggle as they do and without that 'why' it's even more difficult to come up with the 'hows' or the 'whens' like "How can my son compensate for his disabilities?" or "When will he have friends?". I do wish, however, that this pat answer hadn't been given in the first place. It provided an easy place to set our fears, our hopes, our anger, but it gave it to us falsely.

Here we are, nearly twelve years later with no answers, only statistics. My son is one of every 110 kids to be diagnosed with a form of autism in the US and I don't know why, but it wasn't caused by a vaccine.

More can be found about autism in the US at Autism Speaks http://www.autismspeaks.org/.