There are many theories about the causes of autism spectrum disorders. The prevailing theory used to be that it was primarily a psychiatric problem caused by disinterested and cold parents. This must stand as one of the cruellest and misguided opinions in the history of medicine. It placed blame on the people who were suffering the most, already felt embarrassed and scared, and were in the best place to help. Rather than trying to understand the disease, medicine wasted time and the lives of autistic children by focusing on psychoanalysis and blaming parents.
We all owe a debt of gratitude to pioneers like Bernard Rimland, Ph.D., an experimental psychologist who, like many of the brave ground breakers in the field of biological causes of autism, is the father of an autistic child. These pioneers have taken an intellectually honest look at autism, and have shown their colleagues and fellow parents of autistic children that autism is a complex set of flaws in the chemistry of life. These biochemical flaws affect many different organs and systems in our children’s bodies. This is a powerful sounding conclusion, but don’t be fooled, there is still much we do not know about autism. What we do know is there are genetic, immune system, gastrointestinal, detoxification, and neurological aspects that probably affect all autistic children. These biochemical flaws are influenced by the environment our kids develop in to produce the varied collection of disorders we call autism and autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs).
Should we relegate the disinterested parent cause of autism to the junk heap of wrong science and medical quackery? What made well educated and presumably well intentioned practitioners even think to blame parents? It turns out there are probably things we can learn from their errors. There is a body of scientific literature that describes “Institutional Autism”. This work observes that there are some overlaps between the symptoms of true autism (a diagnosis of one of the ASDs having a biochemical basis) and a syndrome experienced by children placed at a young age in neglectful institutions such as poorly operated orphanages. Do not imagine this is just a casual overlap or just poor socialization. Institutional Autism can be highly regressive and feature all of the worst symptoms of the disease our kids suffer from. So, what can we learn from this? 1) One of the causes of autism is very different from the ones we typically recognize and think we understand; 2) maybe one way of understanding autism is that autistic children do not experience the emotional bonding, socialization and language signals they need to develop normally. This does not mean that we as parents are at fault. The problem may be that their biochemical flaws make them unable to perceive or benefit from the contact we give them.
There may be no relationship between institutional autism and our children’s disease. However, the possibility may serve to open your eyes to some of the potential causes of autism and help you cope with the certainty that many approaches you try to treat your child’s disease will not be effective. You need to understand the unique road they took to arrive at a diagnosis of autism in order to make them better – and that is going to be difficult! The book Conquer Autism is a comprehensive guide to the causes and treatments of autism. It describes a rational approach to diagnosing and treating your child’s disease, and gives you the tools you will need to navigate the rough and dangerous waters of living with autism.
Read more free autism articles on this website:
Autism Causes-Toxic Heavy Metals / Diagnosis and Evaluation / Signs and Symptoms-Play / Signs and Symptoms-Language Problems / Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) / Autism Indications for Immediate Evaluation / Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (CHAT) / After the Diagnosis / After the Diagnosis-Assembling and Managing the Team / Conquer Autism Chapter Summary
Purchase the Conquer Autism eBook with all this information and much more.