God's Love Shines down on us all

God's Love Shines down on us all
I Love You All, Blessed Be

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Aspergers/autism in my family is genetic

Hello to all of you. First off, let me say that I'm not trying to come down on any one's beliefs. I've heard and seen a lot of talk about vaccines and the problems they could possibly cause. I just want to tell my story about my family and maybe some of you can explain to me how if a vaccine affected my grandmother it could turn into a genetic problem and be passed down to my father, both of his kids, myself and my half brother, and on to our kids. I can remember long before I even heard or thought of the words aspergers or autism, my grandmother on my fathers side, my mother and myself were taking a trip from Michigan to Pennsylvania so my grandmother could visit an old friend. My mother is a normal person and at that time I was a wild and free aspergian teenager, even though I had no idea what was wrong with me. The trip down was irritating for both my mother and myself but we kept our spirits up by joking about the situation, which was my grandmother being fidgety, constantly saying, "Are we there yet? We should be there by now." We didn't understand what her problem was. Years later, after my son was diagnosed aspergian/autistic and I started associating his problems with problems I'd been going through my whole life, then looking at my father, discussing all of this with my mother, that we both realized that my grandmother was autistic all along and what was happening on the trip was her experiencing panic and anxiety attacks. We could also see looking back on her that she wasn't very social, didn't have a lot of friends, but always voiced her disapproval when friends or family would move a long distance away. She also rarely made eye contact when she was speaking to someone. My father, myself, my children, my half brother and his children, show all the same aspergian/autistic characteristics. I just don't see how it could have been caused by a vaccination shot to all of us. I can see the genetic trail in my family. My mother can see it and she's completely normal with lots of friends and no problem socializing with people. I've had a hard time convincing her of anything I've been passionate about my whole life. It's been like we've lived in two different worlds but she understands, sees, and believes me one hundred percent when it's talking about autism and our family. I welcome all of you to change my mind. Show me how vaccinations could have done this to my whole family. If you can convince me I'll tell everyone I was wrong and join the other side. But the bottom line still is we've got to do something with our autistic community. Move forward and advance. Not just keep looking for who's to blame. We need to know what to do with our children next. I think we should all focus on whatever talents and passions they develop and make them the best in the world at what they like to do. That's my plan with my kids. I think all of you should do the same. I'm forty, Aspergian, and sure that there is no cure. Autism is not going to go away because it's the human race evolving into a less social, more intelligent species. This is my opinion world. You're welcome to change it. Just remember, I love you all no matter what you think. The world need more love, less greed and most of all more understanding and less hate. Take care and love each other. Thanks for reading!

5 comments:

  1. Basically there is a strong genetic predisposition as you have witnessed it yourself in your family. The tipping point is all of the environmental insults our children have been subjected to (vaccines, pesticides, coal plants etc.) which were not that bad in the past. Our children are in much worse shape than our ancestors because of environmental insults added to a strong genetic predisposition. To clear (or not clear) your mind you can run a genetic test for yourself and your kids and see if you have that genetic predisposition that precludes you from getting rid of heavy metals for instance. To be more specific the GSTM1 gene is often a missing gene among our children. It is responsible for glutathione production which is essential to detoxify Mercury. As for a cure to autism... Well you don't recover from a train wreck but you can significantly improve and lead a happy and productive life :)!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Scott, I am with you 100% on this one. I see the genetic trail of autism spectrum disorders clearly throughout my dad's side of the family. When we figured out my son was on the spectrum, it was immediately evident that that was the connecting link between all those statements of similarities between my dad and my son, and also myself and my dad, not to mention other relatives. I don't really care to argue the issue with anybody, but for myself, my personal understanding of autism is deeply rooted in genetics, and it is most helpful for me to think of ASDs in these terms as it becomes more about understanding and accepting a natural way of being and less about finding somebody/something to blame.

    Let me reiterate, I speak only for myself in this and mean no offense to those who hold different views. I speak also as somebody who has been sent numerous email forwards about blaming vaccines and trying unproven (and sometimes inhumane--thank you, Dr. Eisenstein) "cures".

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, the same in my family, the sad thing for me is that it's on both sides of my family, Me, my dad and my mom's brother seemed to be the most affected until my son came along, that's when I discovered what aspergers was. It's all over our family on both sides and now I'm married and it's in my husbands family too. My sister-in-law was just telling me how her 2 yr old is fascinated with mufflers on cars and it reminded me of my son at 2 yr when he was fixated on hot water heaters. I can't tell her that her son is autistic, even though we've known since he was less than a year, just based on his behavior. She would not accept it from us, my husband says she'll find out on her own. I hate to see the delay in his diagnosis, but I really don't think she would like me saying anything. I was thinking about getting peoples opinions on whether i should tell her or not. We didn't know until my son was 13 yrs, yet we knew he was different. My husbands family never really accepted the fact that there was a diagnosis for my sons behavior. The just said he was a brat and weird. So Little by little I will discuss it more with my sister-in-law.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am convinced there are different types of autism.
    I do believe some are born with it.
    I also believe our son was not born with it.
    He was my 3rd child, i had a normal pregnancy and delivery. He scored 10 on his apgar score, higher than my other children had.
    He was not premature, and there was no acident at birth or soon after.
    He reached his milestones, smiling, rolling over, crawling, walking.
    My grandma never believed in injections, so my mum didn't let me or my sister have any.
    When my first child was born there was a scare about the whooping cough vaccine, so she didn't have that.
    My son had the mmr. I remember asking the nurse if there were any side effects. She said a raised lump and a slight temperature.
    She gave me a prescription for calpol.
    He was 15 months old when he had the vaccine, i have a note in my diary.
    He was very ill almost immediately, i had the calpol so gave him that and thought no more about it.
    We moved house when he was 18 months old, and my sister asked the health visitor to call on me as i was worried that my son was not answering to his name.
    It was when he was at last diagnosed at 4 years old that i met another mum who asked if he had the mmr.
    Now i'm not out to blame anyone, we love our son and our lives are spent making sure he is safe and happy.
    Our son will not play for Manchester United, or give me grandchildren, but that doesn't matter.
    There is no proof there is a link betwwen autism and the mmr, but that also proves there is no proof there isn't.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Gina, hearing anyone say anything is "different" about one's child is not an easy thing. The first time my sister suggested as much about my son, I was furious, not to her face but I called up all my friends to indirectly vent my anger. After we did start piecing things together (my sister gave me the phone number of a wonderful OT to talk to), a friend whose son has Asperger's said, "Well, we wondered about Elliot..." but she was right that we wouldn't likely have heard what she had to say. It's a hard call, but it's important to be a listener and, I think, to speak from your own personal experience as a way of indirectly suggesting your concerns about autism.

    ReplyDelete