Mine are (purportedly) normal and I can't handle them many times. I can't imagine how I'd handle being in your situation.

A friend of D1 has Aspergers. He doesn't have such drastic reactions to such social situations anymore, but did use to when he was younger.

He loves problem solving, and now treats social situations as a problem he has to learn from. He's learnt facial expressions, laughter, and various other social cues in order to fit in better. He still gets it wrong sometimes, but he no longer finds it as frustrating as he used to.

Of course, I've got no idea how different his condition is from your son's.

My cousin on the other hand has a boy who's severely autistic. He does not speak, and can be very difficult to deal with. His reactions often result in real physical harm to himself and his mother.

So, I don't really know what you're going through, sorry. For some people it can get better with coping systems, for some it can't.

What I would think though, is that anybody selling a cure, is trading on your hopes and dreams and nothing more. The vast majority of them are despicable charlatans who should be strung up by their privates.
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smart, pretty, sane. pick two - georgeha

But its rare and no one really understands why it happens. Or at least that was the state of affairs in 2005 when I had to research the subject a bit for a diversity class I took when working on my BA. The conventional treatment centers take the same basic approach as the quacks you mentioned, throw everything at it and see what sticks. I believe that the present focus is on different sorts of therapeutic sensory stimulation such as dark rooms where everything is soft and fuzzy to the touch combined with certain types of music. The only difference is that most of the things are the real treatment centers are less likely to be harmful than the some of the various supplements, diets, or treatments for entirely unrelated illnesses.

I think there's more promise is some of the genetic therapy that's currently in the experimental stage, as in experimental on lab animals. Here is a good overview of the present state of the research: As Autism Diagnoses Grow, So Do Number Of Fad Treatments, Researchers Say.

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There is no more degenerate kind of state than that in which the richest are supposed to be the best.
Cicero, The Republic

...you don't expect miracles.

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Girls come and go but a mortgage is for 25 years -- JtL

I am hardly an expert, but one of the kids in my son's play group is autistic, and they've managed to make great strides working with psychologists. I don't know the details, other than it's all therapy. No drugs, diets, etc.

Again, I don't know that much, but if I had an autistic kid, that's what I'd do. Unfortunately, it's lots of work.
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_{ウセーバラケダ}

it's offered, though I of course have my own biases.

Namely:

mercury: vanishingly unlikely
gluten: possibly
supplements: seem most probable to me.
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_{"Nature is such a fucking plagarist."}

We just don't know how yet. There are a lot of leads, but at the moment the best therapy is behavioral (Lovaas may be the best of a bad lot, but again...maybe). And in this case "best" is a very, very relative term.

There are leads, but the trouble is that a lot of them are contradictory. Increase acetylcholine, increase dopamine, increase GABA, decrease glutamate, increase AMPA signaling (which is really glutamate), increase serotonin levels, decrease signaling through 5HTR (serotonin receptors). The playing field is huge.

There is some data that the atypical antipsychotics (things like Zyprexa and Seoquel) help reduce the symptoms of ASDs, but don't offer anything like a cure and have pretty serious side effects. It's basically just tranquilizing him. Worse than worthless.

The "fad" stuff generally doesn't work. With one exception, there is no evidence that chelation or diet do much of anything. There is some suggestion that stimulatory massage helps, but it's not that great of a study, IIRC. There is a recent diet development though, focusing on omega-3 fatty acids. It's good for you anyway, can't hurt.

The best track so far seems to be SSRIs in neurodevelopment. There is some controversial evidence that serotonin (5HT) is too low in the developing brains of ASD kids, and the the thinking is that this depression in 5HT is what causes some of the structural differences in ASD brains. If you can get at it while the brain is still highly plastic (pre-adolescence), it might be able to keep some of the changes from being permanent.

Regardless, as a parent my heart goes out to you. Parenting is hard enough, parenting a kid with problems beyond the typical kid stuff....I can't even imagine. I have a hard enough time dealing with stop touching me/dad can I have [x]/I don't like so-and-so any more/my bed is too high.

There is a reason for everything. Sometimes, that reason just sucks

When I was around 9 I was diagnosed with Aspberger's syndrome after years of shuffling back and forth between psychiatrists. For several reasons I don't believe that this diagnosis was accurate, or even if it was that it was useful. Because of this, because I'm far from an expert and because I'm not exactly an exemplar case of getting my life together, my opinion should obviously be taken with a grain of salt.

I have no experience with any of these "alternative" (for want of a better label) remedies, and am in general predisposed to a pretty conservative view of medicine. I have not noticed any changes in myself as a result of diet. I've taken various nutritional supplements for other reasons over the course of my life, and have not observed any change in my personality or mental state. When I was younger I participated in various classes on both ends of the spectrum -- both "learning disabled" and "gifted". The former were not helpful, and the latter were helpful only in so far as I found them intensely enjoyable, and encouraging as regards the existence of people I could relate to more easily. I did not learn any techniques, practices or methods which were helpful.

Psychiatric drugs have not helped me appreciably, although I have not yet entirely written off that avenue, and emphasize again that I am likely not representative. Therapy likely aided me in dealing with life at the time, but it did not provide any advice or knowledge that was useful in the long term.

I would, in general, treat claims of "magic bullet" cures with deep suspicion.

I was a deeply, deeply messed up kid. I may have Aspberger's syndrome (particularly in my youth, the symptoms certainly fit well enough), or may not, but either way the diagnosis wasn't helpful. I have changed immeasurably since then. I attribute this to maturity, discipline and the increased ability age brings with it to put yourself in an environment that works for you. These changes were not at all easy, and were often fantastically unpleasant. I would not relieve my childhood today. Thankfully, there seems to be a strength in children that lets them get through experiences that would ensure suicide when they were older.

The only real advice I have -- and this is a complete cliche, but don't discount it because of that -- is to not forget to take care of yourself. I will never have children in part because I know I could not deal with the experience of raising me. Unfortunately, nor could my mother: I spent most of my life from 8 - 16 in the care of the children's aid, voluntarily sent by her when she realized that she was incapable of both raising me and remaining sane. I do not really begrudge her this -- she lacked any sort of support network, was a single parent, wasn't the most mentally healthy person herself and I was undoubtedly a complete nightmare -- but my time in foster care and group homes left deep scares, and they show in my present day relationship with my her.

I don't envy you. Good luck.


"What woman wouldn't love a guy in WW2 aviator glasses eating their ass?" -- dest

That assumes mercury is at fault. Pity autism kept right on increasing after they pulled the mercury from the vaccines...

That said, be careful about treatment that removes metals from the blood. We need some of them to survive...

Earth First!
_{(We can strip mine the rest later.)}

If there was a legit cure your family doctor would be suggesting it to you, you wouldn't have to solicit contradictory advice from a bunch of wishful-thinking parents.

A cure would indeed be swell, but we've got to deal with our kids as they are, not as we wish them to be.

a couple of thoughts re: transitions - if we're transitioning away from something Blackbird likes, eg. the park, I give her a countdown - leaving in 5 minutes, OK? Leaving in 4 minutes, OK? etc. etc. How old is your boy, does he have a digital watch with a timer you could set? The countdown gives your kid a chance to get used to the idea that you're going to get in the car and go home.

In the Walmart case, I'd try to keep him occupied. OK, I think we've got every thing on the list. Can you double-check the list to see if we've missed anything? Now we're at the checkout. Which lane do you think is quickest? OK, we'll take that one. Get him to count the people in line, or ask him about the pictures on the magazine rack, or what brand of gum he'd like as a reward, any damn thing at all to keep him moving.

The above may sound like ridiculous pandering, but if your kid associates Walmart with stress he'll flip out every time you go. If you humour him and work hard to keep his equilibrium for a few visits he'll become comfortable, soon it'll be routine, and you won't have to pander.

Have you read many books about autism? I could recommend a couple if you're interested. One in particular has a chapter about finding out what services you may be entitled to, and how best to access them. (assuming you're in the US)

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Blackbird's Dad

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However as he has got older he has improved immeasurably. He's still not entirely mainstream but that's no bad thing.
As ni and other posters have said the kids learn strategies for coping with situations that they can't handle, and they learn intellectually how to read social cues. So....I'm saying that things may be crap, but they are likely to get better. This is borne out by my (and ni's, and hulver's) personal experience.
There is no cure at present. These people are well-meaning quacks at best. Predatory scum at worst. I presume that you have seen stories like this.

The Czar of Accounting. No Nit Too Small To Pick

But gluten-free is rough, especially for children.

Behavioral treatments are still your best bet, next to the tried and true Spartan method of dealing with these types of problems.

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"I'm very responsive to certain stimuli, and pain is pretty much at the top of that list." - BadDoggie