re: #43 zombie

Last time I said this here, a lot of people jumped down my throat, but I’m going to say it again anyway:

Autism is a real disease. The people who have it really do have it.

However, it is very rare.

Thousands of kids are being falsely diagnosed with autism or semi-autism these days, both to please the pharmaceutical companies, and to reassure the moms who can’t cope with their children who are not acting entirely “normally.”

But as soon as anyone points out that autism is being over-diagnosed, they’re accused of being insensitive. People these days apparently crave any kind of medical “explanation” for the difficulties of parenting a problem child.

So they glom on to this vaccine hoax as a way of absolving themselves of any guilt.

Let’s help the real autistics. Let’s even help the “problem kids” in whatever way we can. But let’s not saddle them with an inaccurate medical label. And let’s definitely not embrace craziness in the process.

Aren’t school districts awarded extra money for every “sick” child they diagnose? I’ve had teachers tell me the school tries to label every kid who acts up for this reason - plus no one wants to tell a parent that their kid is a brat.

My s-i-l is one of the people you describe. She was so convinced her son was gifted that she dragged him around to different doctors until one said he had Aspergers to explain why he wasn’t doing great in school. He doesn’t need the special tutor he gets now, it’s not helping his performance any because he’s just an average kid, but it is taking a resource away from a kid who could really use it.