The Hills I Will Gladly Die On

So the inevitable has happened once again. What I mean by this is that life has a habit of bringing up one topic which infuriates me to the point that it is one of the hills I will happily die on. What I mean is I will defend my stance with such fervor that the only way to quell my voice is to kill me. And there are only two topics which affects me to this extent. The anti-vaccine movement and the very idea that autism is something to cure.

Why am I talking about this? Specifically because my elder stepsister (who may as well be my big sis) is doing a paper for a college course and she needs statements from those on the autism spectrum about the anti-vaccine movement. This will be done partially as an opinion piece and partially as a piece referencing peer reviewed scholarly piece. I really have to thank my big sis for bringing up the topic since I have a final paper for Sociology 101 which (if given permission) will be about how autism and the views around it is actually a public health crisis. I hope/intend to use some of this rant as a part of that paper. I will also state that some of this will be based on the research and findings from a similar piece I wrote for English 101 about the same topic, so yes, I actually do know what I'm talking about (mostly).

The Facts

There are several concepts that I feel I should emphasize before I get into the nitty-gritty. First of all, correlation DOES NOT imply causation. Just because one variable SEEMS to influence something DOES NOT mean that there is only one source or cause. This whole concept was emphasized in my Psychology 100 class. So yes, this concept is incredibly important.

A lot of the argument extrapolates and correlates the increase of both the number of vaccinations and the number of autism diagnoses. This correlation is, in fact, correct. To many people, they declare a causal relationship and walk away. However, I deplore you to analyze this string of logic:

If an increase of vaccines is true, would it also be true that it means that children's time around physicians have also increased? If there is an increase of child-physician time, would that also mean that physicians have more of an opportunity to notice indications of autism? By not looking at implications of increased vaccines further than a simple causal relationship, I feel that a whole dimension of the situation is left ignored.

Furthermore, the whole movement is based on what is known as the Wakefield paper, a study made by Andrew Wakefield and 12 colleagues, which clearly accused the viruses which make up the MMR vaccination of remaining in their subjects' intestines. What these people fail to acknowledge was that Wakefield's study had the sample size of 12 people and no control groups. If this doesn't alarm you, then the fact that the funding of the study came from people trying to win lawsuits against caccine-producing companies and the group performing the study was later "held guilty of ethical violations (they had conducted invasive investigations on the children without obtaining the necessary ethical clearances) and scientific misrepresentation (they reported that their sampling was consecutive when, in fact, it was selective)"(Sathyanarayana). 

Another point of evidence which I feel is ignored is that studies conducted in the state of California where the rates of diagnoses and vaccinations were compared. Immunization rates only increased by 14% while autism diagnoses have increased by 373%. I have to thank the anti-vaccine movement in one huge way: without them, we wouldn't have a true control group. Studies have even compiled the rates of autism diagnoses among unvaccinated children and found NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO GROUPS.

The Real Cause?

First of all, some types of autism seem to have a genetic link - such as the link between having an engineer in the family and Asperger's Syndrome. But there are several other variables which we have started to find.

I've recently read Emergence: Labeled Autistic by Dr. Temple Grandin which implies that some types of autism may be caused by an underdeveloped central nervous system, lack/shortage of myelin, or having a brain which is underdeveloped in some areas and overdeveloped in others.

Somewhere, I've also read that there is a relationship between gut bacteria and autistic behaviors. I've even read somewhere that there is some link between some types of autism and having 3x as many neurons in a brain 2x the size of a typical brain.

Personal Opinions

I have tried to be impartial in the previous sections. I know that it is likely I've completely failed. 

The only reason I feel that identifying the cause or source of autism is just so that we can identify autism earlier and have the ability to do more to assist those like me to become what society can accept. So that we can pioneer better therapies. But that can only do so much.

Also, this leads into the whole concept of "curing autism". My opinion is "don't". There's nothing wrong with me - nothing that is worth fixing. The only reason I'm deemed "disabled" is entirely because society is so narrow-minded and unwilling to accommodate those who speak differently or have non-verbal means of communicating. My "disability" is entirely a "social disability" imposed on me by a society and culture which refuses to change to accommodate anyone who differs from the majority. Until then, we will still be stuck with an argument between those who want to "cure" me and those like me who don't want to be cured - I've recently found that I'm not the only one who sees autism as a part of who I am, a lens that I see through to experience the world. Take that away from me and I will never be me. I will become someone else. In a sense, it would be genocide. 

Just think of it this way: every known genius, innovator, inventor have been shown to have something which makes them neurologically different from the norm. Without people like me, we wouldn't have many of the things we now take for granted. By curing autism, we would be preventing the next Einstein, Tesla, or Bill Gates from appearing and creating something society will take for granted. And hey, it could be that little child who didn't learn to speak until they were five. Or the young adult whose means of communicating with the world is a text-to-speech application on their tablet. Please just let them be them.

Sources

• Bearman, Peter. "The roots of the vaccine panic." The American Prospect 22.3 (2011): 33+. Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 6 Mar. 2012.
• Glazer, Sarah. "Increase in Autism." CQ Researcher 13 June 2003: 545-68. Web. 1 Mar. 2012.
• Grandin, Temple, and Margaret Scariano. Emergence, Labeled Autistic. Novato, CA: Arena Press, 1986. Print.
• Handley, J.B. "Compelling Evidence Shows That Vaccines Trigger Autism." Epidemics. David Haugen and Susan Musser, Eds. Opposing Viewpoints Series. Greenhaven Press, 2011. J.B. Handley, "Autism Is Preventable and Reversible," Larry King Live Blogs, April 2009. Reprinted by permission. Web. 3 Mar. 2012.
• Healy, Bernadine. "Fighting the Autism-Vaccine War." U.S. News & World Report. (2008): n. page. Web. 1 Mar. 2012.
• Keelan, Jennifer, and Kumanan Wilson. "Balancing Vaccine Science And National Policy Objectives: Lessons From The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Omnibus Autism Proceedings." American Journal of Public Health 101.11 (2011): 2016-2021. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 Mar. 2012.
• Miller, Lisa, and Joni Reynolds. "Autism And Vaccination - The Current Evidence." Journal For Specialists In Pediatric Nursing 14.3 (2009): 166-172. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 Mar. 2012.
• Sathyanarayana Rao, T.S,, and Chittaranjan Andrade. "The MMR vaccine and autism: Sensation, refutation, retraction, and fraud." Indian Journal of Psychiatry Apr. 2011: 95+. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 Mar. 2012.
• "Statement on Thimerosal." World Health Organization. World Health Organization, 2006. Web. 6 Mar. 2012.
• Ponte, Maya. "Vying For Credibility In The US Congress: Legitimating Symbols In The Debate Over Immunization And Autism." Focaal 46 (2005): 67-78. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 Mar. 2012.
• Rabin, Jack. "Denying denialism." Commentary 129.6 (2010): 9+. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 6 Mar. 2012.

Apologies

I figure everyone who has been reading my blog deserves an apology considering that it's been roughly four years since my last post. My life has made some significant changes since then and my intentions for this blog has changed. I still intend for this to be "my area" where I vent and talk about things. But I have other and new reasons for doing so.

As anyone can tell based on the title and previous posts, I'm autistic and was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome under the DSM-IV and this is just a part of who I am and I know that people may be curious as to what it all means or simply dismiss me as being unintelligent or stupid. And this is really why I like to explain what my experience of the world is like - to explain how I think and see things in order to illuminate what it's like and to prove that I'm more than what I appear to be.

It could possibly be that I've read too many entertaining books written by bloggers. But in reality, if I were to write an autobiography, I wanted this to be it.