Saturday, February 4, 2012

dividing the spoilers... autism diagnostic changes

Having just read an article on Mercola about forthcoming changes to autism diagnostic criteria (which one expert has argued will mean that many parents of children with aspergers will cease to receive support), I can see another pernicious outcome.

In some ways it's more pernicious, because given our families' social difficulties (child dramas often make going out impossible) and our hectic lives balancing therapy with everything else, we already find it harder than the well community to be politically active in ways that could help sufferers.

Changing definitions is a neat way of saving money, reducing the appearance of an epidemic, and dividing a group that might otherwise become a political force to be reckoned with.

Take your pick which one of those is the more pressing for governments that go down the path of changing definitions...

Whatever happens, we need to continue to call for collective autism spectrum disorder treatment, and research toward (yes, you heard it here first) prevention!

Something to do with gut erosion and heavy metals acquisition causes autism spectrum disorders... But if you call one form of autism 'X' and another 'Y', this commonality is disguised.