Did anybody see that medical mysteries show a few months back pertaining to a false autism diagnosis of a little girl?
it had something to do with a little girl and her brother and the parents were told it was autism.But then the lady did research dn found that her daughter had the symptoms for some other rare disease that had to do with her neurons and not enough chemical signals. Anyways did anybody catch the name of that
show or the name of the disorder?
Did anybody see that medical mysteries show a few months back pertaining to a false autism diagnosis?
I recall the story and believe I saw it on-line somewhere, although it's rather hazy in my mind. I think the child may have actually had a motor neuron disease. I'll check around to see if I can find the actual story.
[Side-note re: Larry L. I know Larry from a few groups/message boards. He is convinced about the psychoanalytic-based theory of ASDs and has little understanding of those children actually dx'd ASD. He is a huge fan of psychoanalysis -- which is fine, but it colors his perceptions about all things autism. His responses will mostly always have a psychoanalytic foundation, which is not helpful (for the most part) in terms of current scientific understanding of ASDs.]
Reply:I am EXTREMELY OFFENDED by the answer of larry L. I am the parent of a child with Autism. It does appear there are treatable issues such as food allergies thrown into the diagnosis of Autism and thence there is the label Autism Spectrum Disorder. But you obviously know nothing about it and should not even have attemped to answer this question.
To answer the question, I am sorry I missed the show. Good luck with better answers!
Reply:Larry L. you answer offends me as well, as the parent of a child w/ autism. Autism is NOT a pyschological disorder. Autism is comprised of difficulties in the neurological function of the brain, genetic influences, environmental factors and even biological and physical problems. It is a SPECTRUM disorder and effects each person DIFFERENTLY!
There are many people who have been thought to have had a form of autism that have made great contributions to our society, Albert Einstein for one.
There is strong speculation that Bill Gates may also be on the spectrum.
For many, many children on the spectrum a change in diet does wonders for their behavior, concentration, and overall health....you really should do some research on a topic such as this before making a very, mis-informed, biased, and ignorant statement.
Autistic people are NOT crazy, they are different! Many, many of them can and do function on their own and make contributions to society.
Autistic individuals who have become well-known through their writing and/or speaking on their experiences:
Donna Williams.
Temple Grandin. http://www.grandin.com/
Thomas McKean.
You should stay away from answering questions like this unless you know what you are talking about. Below are few more individuals thought to be autistic who made some great contributions to our history.
"Blind Tom" Wiggins (1849-1908)
Thomas Wiggins was a slave from Georgia who may have been autistic. From an early age he had the ability to compose and play music and he toured concert halls in Europe and America as a musical oddity. Geneva Handy Southall wrote a book about him entitled, "Blind Tom, The Black Pianist Composer: Continually Enslaved."
Fitzgerald
Michael Fitzgerald, of the Department of Child Psychiatry at Trinity College, Dublin, has speculated about historical figures with autism in numerous journal papers and at least three books: The Genesis of Artistic Creativity: Asperger's Syndrome and the Arts,[4] Unstoppable Brilliance: Irish Geniuses and Asperger's Syndrome[5] and Autism and Creativity, Is there a link between autism in men and exceptional ability?[6]
Fitzgerald speculated the following were autistic in The Genesis of Artistic Creativity:
Writers – Hans Christian Andersen, Lewis Carroll, Bruce Chatwin, Arthur Conan Doyle, Herman Melville, George Orwell, Jonathan Swift and William Butler Yeats.
Philosophers – A.J. Ayer, Baruch de Spinoza, Immanuel Kant and Simone Weil.
Musicians – Bela Bartok, Ludwig van Beethoven, Glenn Gould, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Erik Satie.
Painters – Vincent van Gogh, L.S. Lowry, Jack B. Yeats and Andy Warhol.
Unstoppable Brilliance discusses Daisy Bates, Samuel Beckett, Robert Boyle, Eamon de Valera, Robert Emmet, William Rowan Hamilton, James Joyce, Padraig Pearse and W.B. Yeats.
Autism and Creativity says the following may have been autistic: Lewis Carroll, Eamon de Valera, Sir Keith Joseph, Ramanujan, Ludwig Wittgenstein and W.B. Yeats.
Hans Christian Andersen – author Michael Fitzgerald[4]
Béla Bartók – 20th century Hungarian composer Ioan James;[7] Oliver Sacks says the evidence is thin.[8]
Hugh Blair of Borgue – 18th century Scottish landowner thought mentally incompetent, now studied as case history of autism. Rab Houston and Uta Frith[9]
Lewis Carrol – writer, logician Michael Fitzgerald[4][6]
Henry Cavendish – 18th century British scientist. He was unusually reclusive, literal minded, had trouble relating to people, had trouble adapting to people, difficulties looking straight at people, drawn to patterns, etc. Oliver Sacks,[8][10][3] and Ione James;[2][7] Fred Volkmar of Yale Study Child Center is skeptical.[3]
Charles XII of Sweden – speculated to have had Asperger syndrome Swedish researchers, Gillberg[11] and Lagerkvist[12]
Charles Darwin – naturalist, associated with the theory of evolution by natural selection Michael Fitzgerald[13]
Éamon de Valera – Irish revolutionary and politician Michael Fitzgerald[14][4]
Paul Dirac – British mathematician and physicist. He was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, 1933–1963 and a Fellow of St John's College. Awarded the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the mathematical foundations of Quantum Mechanics. Ione James[2]
Albert Einstein – physicist See analysis below
Glenn Gould – Canadian pianist and noted Bach interpreter. He liked routine to the point he used the same seat until it was worn through. He also disliked social functions to the point that in later life he relied on the telephone or letters for virtually all communication. He had an aversion to being touched, had a different sense of hot or cold than most, and would rock back and forth while playing music. He is speculated to have had Asperger syndrome. Michael Fitzgerald,[4] Ioan James,[7] Tony Attwood,[15] and NPR[16]
Thomas Jefferson – US President Norm Ledgin[17] Tony Attwood,[15] and Ioan James[7]
Prince John of the United Kingdom – son of George V of the United Kingdom [citation needed]
Keith Joseph – father of Thatcherism Michael Fitzgerald[4][14]
James Joyce – author of Ulysses Michael Fitzgerald and Antionette Walker[5]
Michelangelo – Italian Renaissance artist, based on his inability to form long-term attachments and certain other characteristics Arshad and Fitzgerald;[18][19][4] Ioan James also discussed Michelangelo's autistic traits.[7]
Wolfgang Mozart – composer Tony Attwood[15] and Michael Fitzgerald;[4] others disagree that there is sufficient evidence to indicate any diagnoses for Mozart.[1]
Isaac Newton See analysis below
Moe Norman – Canadian golfer USA Today[20]
George Orwell – writer Michael Fitzgerald[4][14]
Enoch Powell – British politician Michael Fitzgerald[4][14]
Ramanujan – mathematician Ioan James[7] and Michael Fitzgerald[21]
Charles Richter – seismologist, creator of the eponymous scale of earthquake magnitude Susan Hough in her biography of Richter[22]
Erik Satie – composer Ioan James[7] and Michael Fitzgerald[4]
Jonathan Swift – author Ioan James[7] and Michael Fitzgerald[4]
Alan Turing – pioneer of computer sciences. He seemed to be a math savant and his lifestyle has many autism traits about it. Tony Attwood[15] and Ioan James[7]
Michael Ventris – English architect who deciphered Linear B Simon Baron-Cohen[23]
Andy Warhol – American artist Michael Fitzgerald[4][24] and Ioan James[7]
Blind Tom Wiggins – autistic savant Oliver Sacks[25]
Ludwig Wittgenstein – Austrian philosopher Michael Fitzgerald[26][27] Tony Attwood,[15] and Ioan James;[7] Oliver Sacks says the evidence is thin.[8]
W. B. Yeats – poet and dramatist Michael Fitzgerald[4][14]
[edit]Einstein and Newton
It has been speculated that Isaac Newton had what is now considered Asperger syndrome.
Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton may have had Asperger syndrome, but a definitive diagnosis is impossible as both scientists died before this condition came to be known. Albert Einstein's brain has been preserved. As physical features of the brain connected with autism become better known it may become possible to tell whether Einstein has those features.
[edit]Case for autism
Ioan James,[2] and Michael Fitzgerald[14][28] believe that Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton had personalities consistent with Asperger syndrome; Tony Attwood has also named Einstein as a likely case of mild autism.[15] Asperger's involves difficulties with social skills and preoccupation with complex subjects like music, which Einstein had. Fitzgerald says society should accept and tolerate eccentrics as they frequently have positive contributions to make.
Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton both experienced intense intellectual interests in specific limited areas. Both scientists had trouble reacting appropriately in social situations and had difficulty communicating. Both scientists sometimes became so involved with their work that they did not eat. Newton spoke little and was frequently lukewarm or bad-tempered with the few friends he had. If no one attended his lecture he still lectured to an empty room.[29] When he was 50, Newton suffered a nervous breakdown involving depression and paranoia.
It has been speculated that Albert Einstein was on what is now considered the autism spectrum.
People claim that Albert Einstein was a loner as a child, was a late speaker, starting only at two to three years old, and repeated sentences obsessively up to the age of seven. As an adult his lectures were confusing.[29][30] He needed his wives to act as parents when he was an adult—factors people claim make him "obviously" (or at least stereotypically) autistic. He was also the stereotypical "absent-minded professor"; he was often forgetful of everyday items, such as keys, and would focus so intently on solving physics problems that he would often become oblivious to his surroundings. In his later years, his appearance inadvertently created (or reflected) another stereotype of scientists in the process: the researcher with unruly white hair.[citation needed]
Finally, in the words of Albert Einstein:[31]
“ My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities. I am truly a lone traveler and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude... ”
[edit]
Reply:I am new to this forum and glad you are here. As for the show, I haven't see it, but I'll keep my eyes open for it.
The response of larry L. made me laugh. A little humor goes a long way sometimes, thanks.
Reply:Well, the word is going around that autism is caused by neurons and not enough chemical signals. So what were the doctors supposed to do?
The big problem seems to be that everybody insists that autism is a neurological disorder, when actually it is a psychological problem--a peculiar form of craziness.
Addendum:
For those who are offended by the possiblity that autism is psychogenic, join the parade. Nowadays everything from Tourette's Syndrome to ADHD is called a neurological disorder--even though there are no neurological tests for those or for autism. Talk about politics! As long as politics enters into consideration of medicine, medical research itself becomes suspect. I mean, surgeons never operate on people they love, because they're afraid of getting distracted; and yet we let mothers of autistic children decide what we are allowed to study!
As for those who make patronizing remarks about me; I have evidence to back me up. Those who believe ASD's are caused by strange wiring have this much evidence: NONE. TOODLY-OOP POOP. ZIP ZOT SQUAT. Any peculiar brain physiology generally associated with autism is exactly the same as that for children who have survived war and neglect in Romanian orphanages.
http://www.news.wisc.edu/11882
http://www.mcgill.ca/headway/fall2006/in...
http://www.adoptionarticlesdirectory.com...
I have hard evidence to back me up. The only thing my opponents have is POLITICS.
Anyway, here is a link to a "Floor Time" website.
http://www.floortime.org/
This was founded by Dr. Stanley Greenspan, a highly-respected psychiatrist. His work with autism was written up by Time Magazine. His approach to autism is strictly psychoanalytic. His procedure is highly effective. However, it is no different than Bruno Bettelheim's Orthogenic School technique, with the one exception that the mother is encouraged to get involved in the therapy.
Of course, I'm ready to change my mind the moment anyone comes up with a neurological test for autism.
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