Autism: The Musical. HBO documentary
this popped up on tv and I was like "whuh?"
the film opens with this little factoid:
in 1980, one in 10,000 kids were diagnosed with autism.
today, one in 150 kids are diagnosed with autism.
(from center for disease control.)
so what's making all these kids autistic?
obviously there's more understanding, so more kids are being diagnosed with autistic.
but that's not all of it...
plastics? pollution? vaccines? all the chemical crap in food, soaps, cleaning stuff?
Re: Autism: The Musical. HBO documentary
I'm really digging Henry the reptile kid and Wyatt. I swear Wyatt is a little talk show host. he talks like someone way older, and the way that he communicates is awesome! He's going to be such a heart throb when he grows up!
Re: Autism: The Musical. HBO documentary
oh man. i know im going to have to stay out of this thread, because its a very emotional issue for me.
but before i check out, here's my take - 300 years ago someone who was bipolar wouldve been called crazy. and put in an asylum. so today, there are more diagnosed cases. not because there are more actual cases, but because it is understood and classified better. i feel the same about autism. we know more about it so we can diagnosis it.
also - about vaccines.. i dont think that has shit to do with it. the onset of schizophrenia is in the early 20s, correct? but they dont have a shot to blame. it was just there in your brain and it came out. autism just happens to come out around the same age that these vaccines are given(is what i think). because there are a hell of a lot more people who arent autistic who have been vaccinated than those who are.
Re: Autism: The Musical. HBO documentary
Better diagnostics. In the past, autism was not as recognized as it is now.
Over-diagnosis. There are a lot of kids that are incorrectly diagnosed with it.
Edited to say I agree with Britt...correlation does not necessarily equal causation, and hysterical mothers want something to blame...vaccines are an easy target, as she has described above. Media fuel for the fire doesn't help.
Re: Autism: The Musical. HBO documentary
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mr Hyde
Better diagnostics. In the past, autism was not as recognized as it is now.
Over-diagnosis. There are a lot of kids that are incorrectly diagnosed with it.
I think these points are true . . . and I also think it's worth looking into vaccines (for other reasons as well). I don't necessarily think that there's going to be one magic answer/root cause that will be discovered and then solve the problem; it may be a number of factors.
Something else that has come up recently & is just starting to be investigated more thoroughly is the theory that use of artificial oxytocin (Pitocin) in labor, for inducing or augmenting it, may be connected to instances of autism. Some preliminary studies have shown that autistic children have lowered ability to produce their own oxytocin, and some researchers believe that this may be connected to spending hours in labor with Pitocin pumped into their moms (and this happens routinely with increasing frequency in hospital births - one of about two thousand reasons I'm staying home, but I digress).
Sometimes use of Pitocin is necessary, please don't think I'm saying it's not, but the use of it routinely, when not truly medically indicated, may be having repurcussions even beyond the labor & delivery ward. It didn't used to be so commonly used, but over the last 20 years it's gotten absolutely ridiculous.
To be clear - I'm not saying that this IS the "Answer", I just think it's interesting and deserves further examination.
Re: Autism: The Musical. HBO documentary
Hmm -- from dealing with somewhat autistic states in a loved one, and experimenting with my own neurochemistry around oxytocin / lack of oxytocin, that actually sounds plausible!
And most of the theories I hear about autism seem like pissing in the wind to me. So that's quite something.