I will be your voice!

To the world, you are just one, but to me you are the world.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Autism is Not Mental Illness: Get it Out of the DSM

Gabby, a friend from the Healing-Low-Functioning-Autism Yahoo list, posted this very imformative article that I am sharing on this blog.

Trapped child By Jill Rubolino

In this month of Autism Awareness, I am ever so aware of the great disparity for our children on the autism spectrum regarding their diagnosis and healthcare. It brings to light some major changes that need to take place in order to not only stop the perpetual, exponentially expanding numbers of children developing autism, but to provide the already affected children with proper medical care and treatment.

In a health care community that listed homosexuality as a psychiatric disorder on the DSM until 1973, and recognizes alcoholism, addiction and obesity as diseases, our children are suffering and being denied proper medical attention. Not only are our doctors not acknowledging our children’s medical ailments, they are flat out denying to us that they are occurring or that somehow these conditions are some normal variation of childhood.

This needs to stop immediately. It will only stop when parents demand competent and educated pediatricians for their children and settle for nothing less. We must no longer listen to the false and unsubstantiated litany of canned text responses we hear from uninformed, uneducated pediatricians and specialists. We must no longer accept the standard answers that all refer back to one, already discredited study, regarding vaccine safety. When pediatricians site their references, how many parents ask them to explain that information? How many doctors could? And yet, how many parents that we know can site study after study, and explain biochemical abnormalities ‘til the cows come home?Autism as a diagnosis must be removed from the DSM. Period. It is a medical disorder, with many causes, some of them genetic and totally unrelated to a psychiatric diagnosis altogether. Down’s syndrome is a medical diagnosis, has an identifiable genetic abnormality, and a range of associated features also affecting that person developmentally. It is not, however, diagnosed using the DSM. Autism is not currently recognized as a medical disorder because, if not diagnosed as a known genetic cause, it is a disorder caused by environmental insult, including vaccines.

The resulting medical problems are symptoms of the underlying cause, not the disorder itself. But because this medical disorder is caused by vaccines given to our children by the very people who are supposed to care for them and keep them healthy, it will not be recognized as such. No other disorder, psychiatric or otherwise, is so blatantly denied its medical or biochemical component except autism.

No amount of early detection or early intervention will reverse a disease process unless it is treated medically. It is a process, that left untreated, will perpetuate itself to variable degrees in each individual with sometimes irreversible and devastating effects. The medical community turning its back on basic medical principles in treating their autistic patients’ symptoms first can only be referred to as gross malpractice.

The pediatricians that are treating our children should be ashamed and embarrassed at their complete negligence and incompetence in recognizing a pattern of symptoms that is seen over and over again, hundreds, and thousands of times in this patient population. And yet, they cling to their outdated, obviously inadequate standard answers and bury their heads in the sand while our children suffer and sink deeper and deeper into Autism. Every parent of an autistic child has heard some ridiculous, condescending statement from a physician while they ignored that same child’s obvious vaccine reaction, or explosive diarrhea, abdominal pain, mysterious rash, poor weight gain, reflux, relentless fever, immune dysfunction, and on, and on. And they ignore us, because they can.

Pediatricians, vaccine manufacturers, the CDC, and our federal government are all protected under laws that are unconstitutional. That’s right. Your pediatrician doesn’t have to worry about being sued for your child’s descent into Autism after their MMR, or Proquad because the US Federal Government says so. Even though adequate informed consent is never provided, and protocols for vaccinating are rarely followed appropriately.

Children get vaccinated without being screened for immune dysfunction, mitochondrial disorders, and even when they have a febrile illness, all inappropriate according to the vaccine makers’ own recommendations. Yet, where are all the suits being filed for this obvious malpractice? Because, as parents, we are spending every waking moment and every dime we have trying to recover our children, we have no resources to venture into this legal arena with special masters and shorter statute of limitations. In a country where the father of a child that resulted from a rape has a legal right to that child, our children have no legal rights. By the time we navigate the myriad of professionals that are deemed qualified to diagnose our children as autistic, our statute of limitations has already expired. It will take one individual with deep pockets and a fire burning in their soul, to bring change. There is no exemption for gross negligence by a physician even if it’s one of our kids. You are not protected under the umbrella of indifference. It will only take one case, one precedent. Change will happen.

The controversy about vaccines rages on, but only in the minds of those officials who are themselves, responsible for the conspiracy to conceal the truth about vaccines. All of the supposed nonexistent, mainstream medical studies that apply to vaccines, and thimerosol, mitochondrial disorder and dysfunction, seizure disorder, aluminum etc. are all easily accessed by anyone with a computer and half a brain. This may explain why the officials, that coincidentally have some type of connection to vaccine manufacturers, cannot seem to find them. All of the necessary medical documentation, studies, information, case studies, etc. are there and readily available for anyone who wasn’t deluding themselves that they can still go on national television and tout that everything is okay. This political, money driven quagmire will come to an end. Big tobacco took a fall and so will vaccine pushers. And I’m thinking of one gentleman in particular, I think we all know who that is, you will not make it off this planet in an upward direction, sir.

I’ll leave you with the thought that for the same reasons that people fought for civil rights, government officials are impeached, landmark cases are won, people have overcome adversity throughout history to affect change, we must do the same for our cause. I will pledge from this day forward that the next time I get that look from a doctor, you know, the placating one you get when you start to talk gastrointestinal, I will put my foot down. I will say, “Why do you look at me that way? Do you not believe what I am saying or are you just not aware how negligent you have been in my child’s care? Why did you not recommend a genetic work up for my child? Why have you not tested his lead level before now? Why is it that while I sit here in receipt of that condescending look, you don’t even realize that every new piece of information I have found out about my child’s medical condition is because I looked for it and not you? As we sit here right now,
I know infinitely more about how to treat the medical condition of autism than you, and quite frankly, you should be on the receiving end of that very same look you are giving me. As we sit here and you comment on how well my child is doing, and how far he has come, it is only because of me, and not you, acting as his medical professional and managing his care, and at the same time, being damn good at it.”

So pediatricians, and specialists be aware and beware. We will no longer tolerate substandard, negligent care for our kids. And while we might be the government’s scapegoat right now, that curtain will come down, and they will sell you out just as fast. And then my friends, you won’t be able to afford your malpractice insurance.

http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/04/autism-is-not-mental-illness-get-it-out-of-the-dsm.html

Jill Rubolino is the mother of two beautiful children, one who was affected by vaccines and diagnosed with PDD-NOS. She, along with her husband Richard, is currently working on her son’s recovery and returning his body to a healthy state. Jill has been a nurse for fifteen years and is appalled at the lack of appropriate medical care for ASD kids. Along with friend Jeanna Reed (fellow nurse and mom to a vaccine injured son) they plan to do something about it. Their company, Autism Is Medical, Inc.., focuses on educating doctors and parents and bridging the gap between them. They can be found at
www.autismismedical.com.


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