Vaccines and Autism

it was on talk of the nation today, and of course since all the research associated says that there's no link and they only have scientists on all the whackos were out saying they should have had experts from both sides.i really don't want someone on npr that says i shouldn't vaccinate my children because it doesn't actually cause autism but i should get my chakras aligned to prevent whooping cough.anyways.a bunch of people were saying how you have to consider vaccines because you shouldn't rule anything out until you've looked at everything. but there have been a ton of studies demonstrating that there's no greater instances of autism in those who have been vaccinated than haven't.so i thought we could discuss autism and what else might be causing the "increase" in cases.there was an article released last summer that demonstrated that autism is associated with different development in the anxiety centers of the brain.it seems to me that twenty years ago i was called "defiant" as i imagine many higher-functioning autistic kids might be having worked with dozens over the last few years (and having a close friend with asperger's who could just be described as 'wiggly and excitable'). so anyways. i have adhd and potentially some other disorder which is masked by various coping techniques i have developed. my friend with asperger's and i are almost the same exact person. down to the buttons. so maybe it's not that more people have autism and maybe it's not that more people are 'aware' and watching for it, but that we are more willing to attribute "bad behavior" to a disorder than to just being a bad seed.so how about what might be causing it. has anyone looked at other causes? how about prior parental drug use? environmental pollution? we have looked at genetics. most people don't buy that they might be at fault for their own problems. but how about this anxiety thing. what if the onset of autism is contributed to by some traumatic illness. some people whose children seemed to develope autism quickly after vaccination describe severe acute illnesses. what if that might have some contribution to triggering an autistic tendency already there? but if there are more and more cases, what else in human behavior and exposure is being increased? processed foods? formula? smoking?on a side note, our understandings of developmental disorders are still basic in many ways. it seems to me that we may discover that adhd may simply be the alternate brain function and entirely normal. the other option is that it's on that spectrum and simply part of the same bunch as autism and your label is merely based on which symptoms you pulled out of the great galactic hat. having said that, i consider my "symptoms" to be the most valuable parts of my personality. a cat is not a defective dog.

that's the question. but i think it's a rise in the number of lazy school teachers. because apparently these are the people in charge of who has a mental problem. i think it's simpler than that. people have different personalities.

we used to call these people 'eccentric geniuses' i believe. i was referring to this article. it's not that it's an anxiety disorder per se, but
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5568609 so an early development leads to a mishandling of potentially traumatic input, thus a severe reaction to the vaccination (caused by an ordinary allergy or just fear of injection) could be a trigger, but not the cause.Edited by brennakimi, : No reason given.

thank you for your delightful insight. thanks for solving all of our problems. now go bury your head somewhere before you see someone who actually has autism. it's specifically people like you who make life impossible for those of us with high-functioning neurological issues.

btw, here's a few articles from npr.Cause of Autism Narrowed Down to 100 Genes
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8926283Author 'Remaps' Notions About Autism
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7496704Autistic Brain Has Difficulty Coordinating
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6284914Asperger Syndrome Explained
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7382362for those who don't know, asperger's is a spectrum disorder (autistic disorders are described as being on a spectrum, hence those stupid rainbow puzzle bumper stickers) which is typified by autistic behaviors in a person of normal to high intelligence. this of course assumes that people with autism have normal to low intelligence. i think many of them just test poorly. i know it's all anecdotal, but so many of my autistic students did just fine when they could respond physically instead of having to respond verbally. i mean, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to swim, but when a teacher tells you that that child will never do anything you ask and he follows precise instructions on the first time...

well. the last big evolutionary step in humans was neurological and if more autistic people (or people with other issues) are capable of living 'normal' lives and reproducing, it could lead eventually to a cumulative change for the mass of humanity. our society is getting to focus so much on work and so little on social interaction (except through devices like internet and telephone) that a cumpulsive brain with reduced social impulses like that in spectrum brains may be a better fit for our new world. so it's not really that far out there.

pft.

exactly. but they're not looking at this.

it's an onomatopaea for the sound made to discredit a statement or idea.

i haven't seen that there's any specific recessive gene discussion of this kind of stuff, and as far as i can tell, the shortage of developmental disorders in non-caucasians is due to underdiagnosis, not lack of cases.