Looming? The Autism Crisis is Here.

By Anne Dachel

We’re still reeling from the news.  One in every 88 children born in 2000 has autism.  Among boys alone, it’s one in 54.  That’s supposed to be an average, but the rates in individual states are truly horrific.  In New Jersey, it’s one in every 49 children, one in every 28 boys. In Utah, one in 47 kids has autism.  These numbers are for  today’s twelve year olds.  We don’t even know what the rate is for younger children.  Still, doctors and health officials attribute it to better diagnosing and no real increase.  Members of the media have conveniently repeated this claim with each and every increase over the last decade.  No one bothers to ask why doctors are still learning to recognize autism when the changes in the definition of the disorder were made in 1994.  One would think that the rate would have stabilized years ago.  Instead, like a conquering army, autism is relentlessly consuming more and more children. 

Something has to be done.  We desperately need answers.  Parents are frightened.  There’s nothing a mainstream doctor can tell new parents to do to prevent their healthy baby from also ending up on the autism spectrum.   On April 4, 2012, Mark Roithmayr, president of Autism Speaks, had a story about the new numbers on Huffington Post.

“We are dealing with a national emergency that is in need of a national plan. At 1 in 88, we now have more than 1 million children directly affected by autism. According to a newly released study, the annual cost of autism in the United States is a staggering $126 billion annually, more than tripling the cost analysis from six years ago.”

Roithmayr called for a national plan to address the autism crisis.  He wants“a call to action” that, among other things,

“Funds more environmental research detecting the causes of autism.”

“Addresses the growing issue of adults with autism, specifically around continuing education, employment, housing/residential living and community integration; here, too, we need a focus on a National Training Corps to recruit and train professionals to work with our adults.”

He called on the President and the Republican Presidential candidates along with the members of Congress to “commit to this National Plan.”

It was all pretty impressive and at first glance, it seemed like maybe things would be changing, after all, Autism Speaks is the country’s leading autism science and advocacy organization.  They’ve given millions for research and they’re constantly cited in news stories on autism.  If anything could wake this country up to the autism epidemic, it would be Roihmayr’s rallying cry. 

Incredibly, no one seems to be listening to Autism Speaks.  In fact, in the last couple of days there has been a massive effort to MAKE THE AUTISM CRISIS GO AWAY.  Major news sources are out to convince the American people that autism is a genetic condition and that there’s been no real increase at all, despite the new numbers.

First of all, The New York Times  among others just announced yet another autism gene study, this time involving “spontaneous genetic mutations” that happen “near or during conception.”  (So much for all you parents who blame your child’s regression on the massive load of vaccinations they received prior to losing learned skills.) 

The New York Post had this short piece that said it all: Autism linked to genetics, still not to vaccines.

 The culprit in this is the older dad because “older male sperm is more subject to small, perhaps random glitches that in rare cases affect brain development.”  (Previous studies implicated older moms.)  What are we to do? It seems the wrong people are reproducing.

A story from TIME Magazine, What to Make of the New Autism Numbers, cited Dr. Thomas Insel who brought up the uncomfortable question: “What hasn’t yet been identified are the factors that actually trigger the genetic mutations in the first place or that provide the later conditions in which the glitches express themselves through the development of autism spectrum disorders.” 

TIME reporter, Judith Warner blamed the parents who link vaccines to autism for the lack of research on the environment. “Researchers are, not surprisingly, reluctant to rush to judgment about environmental causes of disease. They have good reason to be reticent, as outbreaks in the U.S. and the U.K. of measles, mumps and, most recently, whooping cough, in the wake of public panic over vaccines have made strikingly clear.”

In all of this coverage, autism is never talked about as an emergency.  It’s not a national crisis that requires immediate action.  It’s more like a curiosity that will need many more years of research.  Most of all, no one is really worried..

And if people needed any further convincing that things are happening in the world of autism, a story just out by AP medical reporter Lindsey Tanner is meant to do just that.  News sites from coast to coast have published this piece; it’s everywhere on the Internet news. The headline reads, “Doctors want to redefine autism; parents worried.” 

It’s all about the upcoming changes to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).   Tanner pointed out that DSM changes will make the autism epidemic go away. “With new government data last week suggesting more kids than ever in the U.S. — 1 in 88 — have autism, the new definition may help clarify whether the rising numbers reflect a true increase in autism or over-diagnosis by doctors.” 

Over-diagnosing?  Seriously?  For twenty years, all the jaw-dropping increases in the autism rate have been attributed to BETTER DIAGNOSING.  We were told that the DSM IV, published in 1994, had broadened the definition of autism so much that lots more kids qualified.  For eighteen years, doctors have just gotten better and better at recognizing autism. 

Now the better diagnosing is being called misdiagnosing and doctors are prepared to un-diagnose a generation of sick kids.  We’re to believe that tightening the definition will improve things for those with autism.  It’s acknowledged that a huge percentage of kids will lose their diagnosis—maybe half of the current autism population—but it’s all for the good. 

I can’t imagine how experts could just write off hundreds of thousands of children.  The real beneficiaries will be those who currently have to provide services for children with autism.  It’ll be welcome news for insurance companies now required in more and more states to cover autism therapy and school districts strapped for money.  It also makes organizations like Autism Speaks irrelevant.  If there’s no real increase, what’s the emergency that Roithmayr is talking about?  Why do we have to do anything?  

In truth, Roithmayr’s point about adults is about to bury us.  He called for action that “addresses the growing issue of adults with autism, specifically around continuing education, employment, housing/residential living and community integration; here, too, we need a focus on a National Training Corps to recruit and train professionals to work with our adults.”

All of the stories telling us that autism really isn’t a problem are about CHILDREN WITH AUTISM.  That simple fact is completely ignored in all of this.  No one has ever shown us

a group of adults with autism like we see in children, especially severe autism whose symptoms can’t be denied.  We’re to believe they’re out there somewhere, labeled as something else.  (If that were really truth, health officials and news sources like CNN and ABC would be falling over themselves to find the 40, 50, and 60 year olds with autism.)

They can’t do that.  They don’t even try.)

They may disguise children with autism with this latest ploy with the DSM but they can’t make them go away.  Year after year thousands and thousands more of them will be aging out of the school system.  They’ll be dependent on the government for their support and care for the rest of their lives.  As parents age, social services will have to provide everything for them.  This is the disaster that’s can’t be covered up.  

Anne Dachel is Media Editor for Age of Autism. Subscribe to her newsfeed at www.annedachel.com.

 

 

 

Comments

[The Mommy Psychologist]

As a child psychologist, I certainly understand the concerns with overdiagnosis. However, one of the things that so often times gets overlooked in these discussion is that in order for a child to receive treatment by their insurance or within the schools, they must have a diagnosis. Otherwise, the parents are the ones who end up paying out of pocket. Although the system is faulty, the intentions of the system are good. Check out my recent thoughts here in answering the question: Do we over diagnose children?

http://www.themommypsychologist.com/2012/04/11/are-we-over-diagnosing-our-children/

[Rich]

alert! they have found the cause of autism, fat pregnant women are the reason for the autism increase.
So mothers with autistic kids, it is your fault your child is autistic,and you thought the CDC would man up.
So learn to live with the guilt that the extra twinkies you ate during pregnancy caused your childs autism

The insanity never ends.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/10/us-obesity-autism-idUSBRE83900B20120410

[Wendy Frye]

Same here, Maureen. Our local paper is practically void of all things Autism. The local Autism "leadership" where I live are holding firm to "no cause, no hope, no future" - and they tanked my letters to the editor.

Wendy Frye,
"1 in 10,000" Fat Autism Mom - (eye roll)

[LB]

Does everyone remember Ephedra? It was taken off the market in the US because it was deemed dangerous and was pointed at as the most likely cause of several heart related deaths. (several, not millions). So now it is off the market. It is really important to the Government to make sure we cannot use diet drugs that "might" contain high risk factors but would they consider taking anything off the market that could even possibly be linked to Autism... F'GET About it.....

Stay Fat my friends (insert sarcastic face here)

[Louis Conte]

Anne:
I find myself wondering if the Social Security System can give us some insights here.
Is there an increase in cases seeking benefits for autism? Given what I have heard, any increase would likely only reflect seriously impaired people as IQ is often used to determine whether an SSI case is opened or not (from what I have heard). So Social Security would not reflect the myth of the "Aspegers Expansion" causing the increase.

Another great article!

Louis

[owntruth]

Well written Anne.
Even if they wipe out half of the autism population with different diagnosing, that would make the rate 1 in 176 (and rising). That is STILL an epidemic!!!!

[Ilyse Levine-Kanji]

You are right on, Anne!!! Well said!! This is what I wrote for our local on-line newspaper: http://westborough.patch.com/articles/westborough-mom-questions-recent-study-on-autism

[Lisa]

I just saw an interesting old clip of Dr. Oz on You Tube called Dr Oz says no to vaccination! in which he says he would vaccinate but at home he is just Mr. Oz not Dr. Oz and his wife doesn't want to. It is really weird to watch it. I have a Korean American friend in her twenties whose father is a doctor. She told me he just signed the school papers and never vaccinated her, saying When it's your time, it's your time. I found the quote in your article attributed to Judith Warner at Time really astonishing. What is going on? This is really weird stuff. Anyway, thanks so much for your always excellent reporting.

[cmo]

No response for the 1 in 88 Autism rates...

BUT....Remember the response for the 2009 H1N1 ...WORLD WIDE PANDEMIC ???

The WORLD made a rather rapid seven billion dollar "Save us Pharma" commitment. Two billion up front to create the vaccine, and five billion to promote the vaccine with the media.

Per the CDC in 2009, an American toddler should receive four flu shots, two doses for seasonal flu, and two doses for H1N1 flu.

EACH of the two shot visits will provide 50 micrograms or about a 50x rate of mercury injected into a toddler. A total of 100 micrograms for the four vaccines.

100 micrograms = 148,605,000,000,000,000 molecules of mercury.

One might want to ask their pediatrician how to remove this material from the central nervous system of their toddler...

About 136 million doses of 2009 H1N1 vaccine, with Thimerosal, were left over.

The trusted voice of Dr. Nancy...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I05xIFyBIPs&feature=related

Thankfully ...no one turned violent... fighting over access to the 2009 H1N1 flu shot.....

The Patent for the H1N1 vaccine was applied for before the "H1N1 pandemic" was declared by the World Health Organization.

The H1N1 pandemic was "only classified a pandemic" due to changes in "pandemic rules" by the WHO in early 2009.... Pharma quickly found a pandemic.

[Kapoore]

Probably nothing will happen until parents stop giving birth in hospitals, stop going to pediatricians, stop sending their children to schools... I heard a strange advertisement on the radio for pediatricians and obstetricians "Those wonderful people who you remember from childhood." ... and it made me wonder if "well baby" visits will suddenly become more scarce as parents get more scared. Parents need to boycott baby magazines that advertise for Big Pharma, tune out TV, and believe what parents have to say. Yes, today on Yahoo I watched a clip from TV where it is now the mother's obesity that is to blame. "Oh, if only you hadn't been so fat you wouldn't have ruined your child's life." The medical establishment will blame everyone but themselves. Doesn't the DSM call that a "character disorder?"

[Benedetta]

There are several things on the news that I have noticed recently - that I can't help but think is another indication of vaccine injuries besides autism.

In the news;
1.) Kids are so busy texting now a days with their friends that they do not feel the need to get their drivers permit, learn to drive a car, or get their liscenses.

Hmmmm - I ran into some of those kids - their parents shake their hands in wonderment- including our mail man at his daughter as his wife drives her to a small community college - my son went to school with herand he says she has high aniexty.

2.) A large population of both men and women are not getting married. A large population of men and women are moviing back home with their parents because of economics.

What is that is not the real reason?

[Benedetta]

My daughter I don't think is on the autism tables.
And yet she is not married, seems to not care, if she is not working she is in bed, if she works overtime or works much she ends up having to miss days of work as she rebuilds her strength.
Yesterday for half an hours she got all excited about landscaping her grandparents home, the ideas were just bubbling out of her head, but that was short lived.

There is just so much more than just the brain involved in this mess.

Some one commented on one of the blogs on "Age of Autism" that the elites in this country wanted to take away our thinking power and just leave brawn????
Well there is not brawn here either. There are other health issues. Low energy is only one of the many complications that is going on with this immune disorder besides just involving the brain.
My son I am happy how he turned out - he is not what he was born to be - but he is intelligent and kind - although very immature in his thinking nor a teller of tales (a given in my family) -- but if he is lucky enough to join the workforce - I don't see him holding up day after day.

[Karin]

Should we (everyone affected by autism, including Autism Speaks) all team up to organize an 'autism-epidemic-apocalypse awareness', to raise awareness not just on autism, but on the catastrophic emergency autism is becoming? What could we do to counteract the denialism and lack of concern currently broadcasted by the media?

Could we get out in the streets everywhere in the country holding candles and gory pictures of children with self-injuries, covered in excrements, emaciated, dark circles under the eyes, screaming, etc... with signs showing 'Your family will be next'? Kind of like AIDS activists raised awareness about the emerging epidemic in the 1980's?

Maybe also create a short movie clip showing the most gory and shocking sides of autism and raise money to have it broadcasted all over mainstream TV and in movie theaters?

It would be horrible and by all means not representative of all sides of autism, but sometimes the public needs big kicks in the gut, scares and electric shocks to wake up from the deceiving propaganda that paint autism as something cute and blue that nobody needs to worry about.

[Maurine Meleck]

Bubba won the Augusta Ga masters. Yeah! All week long the Augusta Chronicle had a special section on the Masters Golf tournament, They have yet to put in an article on the autism increase since the news came out and they did not print my letter to the editor. Priorities. Priorities.
Great piece, Anne. Thanks.
maurine