Is it me or is most people's solution to autistic people to "throw em out"?

[OoTLink]

9 times out of 10, whenever I search the internet on this stuff, they talk about people's little kids, not being able to sleep, or behavior issues, yah..

It's almost as if the older ones don't even exist, but can you really blame them? My brother is 24 (older than I am, yes), and he still lives with my mom, my brother, and I. The fact is there, for most of the past 24 years my mom's had to deal with the most stressing/irritating/well, terrible side of this.

Imagine it this way - when you have kids, sometimes they wake up in the middle of the night, you generally have to clean them, take care of them, and manage their tantrums among other things. Taking them out is a pain in the butt.

To this day, that would still be the case with my older brother. He isn't "in a world of his own" because he watches the news, uses his computer to (yeah he has one) look up all kinds of stuff on the internet (and annoy me with new things), and is very aware of pop culture (thanks mostly to my oldest brother, haha).

However, he's almost 6'1, somewhere in the upper 200's, and ... when a dude that big throws a tantrum it isn't a laughing matter.

*Will post more on this topic later*

[Daddy Kool]

I hear you. My son, Graeme, is autistic. Fortunatly he's high functioning and although he gets upset he doesn't throw tantrums. Your brother is lucky to have siblings who care about him.

[marlinspike]

One of my mom's friends has a son in the same situation (well, his is pretty severe). It's sad because he's mentally capable, but because of his autism he works at a gas station and will be unlikely to ever obtain more advanced employment. But what can be done?

[DaveW68]

What I find absolutely amazing about autism is that 1 in 150 children born these days has autism. And about 1 in 100 boys born now have autism. In the 1970s, autism affected about 1 in 3000 births. That means that the occurence of autism is 20 times higher now than it was 30+ years ago. It has to be environmental & social issues that are causing this phenomenon, not just "being born with it". I think a parent's lack of nuturing their children from birth has increased these numbers so much. Think about how many families now have 2 working parents compared to the 1970's when most moms stayed at home with their kids. It's truly sad that we have to live in a society where both parents are forced to work full time just to "get by". Their children are the ones that suffer. That's why I feel so blessed that my wife is able to stay home and raise our kids without having to pay an outside child care provider. I hope that more and more parents find the means to do the same thing, at least while their children are very young and prior to being of school age when their brains develop the most. If that happens, I think we'll start to see a reversal of these staggering stats.

[fgenetics]

wow man I am reading this post when i watching the movie "Mercury Rising"

What a coincidence!

[jaded300c]

MY GOOD FRIENDS LITTLE BROTHER IS hIGH fUNCTIONING AUTISTIC , AND I GOTTA SAY HE IS BY FAR ONE OF THE BEST PEOPLE I HAVE EVER MET IN MY LIFE. 8 YEARS OLD ,HE WELDS TOGETHER A GO KART WITH NO PLANS AND HIS DADS LAWN MOWER ENGINE. HE IS 11 NOW AND EVERYTIME I SEE HIM IT PUTS A HUGE SMILE ON MY FACE, HE IS GREAT. I JUST REMEMBERED THAT SO I THOUGHT I WOULD ADD IT .... LATER GUYS.

[stevesrt8]

my wife is an OT and works with many autistic children. My heart goes out to the families as the stress is surely an incredible burden.

Many parents do not know that the school system can be the source of free benefits for the damaged child.

Those of us with normal kids should thank God we were so blessed.

[OoTLink]

Dave: My mom did stay at home.

Steve: The school district was by far, one of the biggest sources of problems for us - I kid you not in that when he was in a regular school setting, the assistants he had were ex-convicts and drug addicts.

I'd consider my bro high functioning, he's just a pain in the ass sometimes.

I think the majority of it is the amount of corruption in the medical industry (Sorry, those of you in the medical profession here, but I think you're scumbags). Every time there's something about vaccines possibly containing bad ingredients, CNN puts a barrage of doctors on Larry King SWEARING that isn't the case.

Anyway, a lot of you guys appear to be heavily biased to the right, what would you do about something like this? You know, actually because of this my mom can't work a regular 9-5 job, it'd put us in even worse shape.

Really though, I don't care what you say about 5 year old kids, when they get old, I guarantee you they'll probably become a big headache.

[robaustin]

Originally Posted by DaveW68

What I find absolutely amazing about autism is that 1 in 150 children born these days has autism. And about 1 in 100 boys born now have autism. In the 1970s, autism affected about 1 in 3000 births.

I suppose it is difficult to sort out what the problem is. Are they just diagnosing more autism than they used to or maybe there is a combination or more diagnoses and an actual increase due to other factors. For one thing, life seems to be faster paced, and more demanding than it used to be. When I was of high school age back in the 60's, people who were not good students due to attitude, learning disabilities or just plain stupidity could leave school early and get some kind of job and make a decent living. Now days, you need a Phd. just to pump gas.

[Northern Rider]

I just finished reading a novel about an autistic 15 year old boy. It was one of the most disturbing and thought provoking books I have read in a long time. As a former teacher, I have always had an interest in behavioral issues. I never really had any insight into autism until I read this book.

Imagine a young person who has a brilliant logical brain but no ability to experience emotions except for basic feelings such as fear. A lack of ability to make moral judgements and what is really scary, an ability to become very violent when he thinks he is being threatened.

Here is some information about the novel I just read, from Wikipedia. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to see into the mind of an autistic person:

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is a novel by Mark Haddon that won the 2003 Whitbread Book of the Year, the West Australian Young Readers Book award in 2005 and the 2004 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book. Its title is a quotation of a remark made by the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1894 short story "Silver Blaze".
The story is written in the first-person narrative of Christopher John Francis Boone, a 15-year-old autistic boy living in Swindon, Wiltshire. Although Christopher's condition within the autism spectrum is not stated explicitly within the novel, the summary on the book's inside cover describes it as Asperger syndrome.

15-year-old Christopher Boone goes to a school for students with special needs (a euphemism he disparages) because he has a form of autism. Christopher is a mathematical savant, has a photographic memory, is extremely observant and has a pathological inability to tell lies. However, he has difficulty understanding human behaviour, gestures and relationships. He takes a deep interest in mathematics. He owns a pet rat named Toby.
Christopher has many traits that separate him from others because of his perception of life. He is unable to recognise and comprehend facial expressions besides 'happy' and 'sad' and has difficulty in understanding metaphors and jokes. He likes lists and facts, has a fear of strangers and new places, and his favourite dream is one in which all "normal" people (those who are unlike him) die. In addition, he is over-sensitive to information and stimuli. For this reason, he screams and reacts violently to people who touch him. However, he doesn't mind pressing his fingers against those of his parents as a gesture of love. He curls up and groans to protect himself against overwhelming noise or information.
Christopher hates the colours yellow and brown, but loves red. This extends to adding red food dye to brown- or yellow-coloured food (and being unable to eat two different kinds of food that are touching), and also his belief that seeing three, four or five red cars in a row means it's a "good", "quite good", or "super good" day, respectively, while four yellow cars signify a "black" day, on which he will not eat his lunch or talk to anyone. Finally, he dislikes eating food from new places and the furniture being moved.