TV3 Ireland AM recently interviewed an autism “expert,” a clinical psychologist, Tony Humphreys, who made a comment about autism, saying the disorder is “a theory.” So now your kid’s a theory. How about that? Chalk this up to another misunderstanding into which a naïve, clinical psychologist fell! Will these professionals ever learn that parents of children with autism are a prickly bunch? Understandably, parents are outraged at his comments. It is hard enough living with a child with autism, fighting for that child’s rights to treatment and education, and bankrupting the family for the child’s treatment. What’s impossible to then bear is for some so-called expert to come along and deny your child’s debilitating condition by calling it a theory! It also doesn’t help that this psychologist’s case dredges up the “lack of love” angle as a cause of autism (which reminds us all of the
Detached Father Theory and finally, the sophisticated Assortative Mating Theory). Despite this debacle, which was sufficiently controversial that the Irish Examiner actually pulled the article, a couple of points do need to be made.
Autism is definitely real; however, the causes of autism are not yet well known. Much good research is being conducted and many theories as to the causes of autism are being researched. Unfortunately, we do not yet know how to measure autism biologically. We can neither count blood cells nor measure proteins to determine whether or not a child has autism. The diagnoses are always behavioral, which is not adequate, but that’s all we currently have. One day, though, we will actually know the causes of autism. In the same way we know “fever” is a symptom of underlying disease rather than a diagnosis on its own, autism may similarly be a symptom of one or more conditions.
For parents of children with autism, this difference may be no more than semantics, despite the fact that researchers will be gratified after years of research. The term autism may eventually come to describe a group of symptoms, but when your child needs help, does it really matter? Let the Irish Examiner experience be a cautionary tale for the next autism expert who wades into autism’s very deep waters.
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Comments (1)
Autism was originally a symptom of schizophrenia. Eugen Bleuler
listed it as one side of a coin--loss of contact with reality
(psychosis) and loss of contact with society and peers (autism). This
happened in the 1880's, if I remember correctly. Generally speaking,
symptoms of autism were sufficient for a diagnosis of childhood
schizophrenia well into the eighties and even nineties, until that
category was elliminated. Asperger and Kanner independently identified
children who showed symptoms of autism, and they noted the lack of any
psychotic symptoms in the 1940's. However, people still got diagnosed
with childhood schizophrenia, despite showing autism and no psychosis. A
study done in the eighties looked at the differnce between children
diagnosed with autism and children diagnosed with schizophrenia, and the
only difference the researchers found was that the schizophrenic group
included girls. Autism is now considered a separate entity, for
whatever that's worth.
Looking at it from a purely machiavellian
standpoint, it is hard to say whether "autism" or "psychosis" is a
scarier thing to meet someone with (from the point of view of the
general public), considering the number of PR campaigns designed to make
everyone affraid of autism. Is it useful to an autistic not to be
diagnosed schizophrenic? I would say yes, a thousand times yes.
Anti-psychotics are extremely dangerous medication, and being on them is
rarely pleasant. For that matter, they don't do anything for
autism, except leave you spaced out and unable to move without great
difficulty, so on that note I am indeed glad that autism is considered a
separate disorder and not a symptom.
The same goes for other
things that I don't have despite being autistic, such as celiac disease,
for which I should not be treated because, as I said, I don't have it.
Although there is a group of people convinced autism is a symptom of
that and other bowel issues, it's never turned up in me, so again it's
better for autism to be considered separate from it.
As far as
the "cause" no one has ever convinced me that it was anything to be
excited about. We have known for a long time that it runs in families,
which fact does not mean it won't occur spontaneously without a family
history. Every individual is supposed to have at least one mutated gene
that they did not get from either parent, so autism will naturally come
up in families with no history of it. Of course, that history will be
difficult to trace, considering the history of the disorder. There may
be covert aspies or auties of any functioning level in many families.
We
have to deal with our daily lives no matter what the cause, and
supports and understanding of autism is the number one most worthwhile
investment. Improvements in the availability of voice synthesizers or
education or employment is far more important to autistics than finding
the latest gene or funding the latest study that fails to find a link to
mercury.