The Cure Debate and the Myth of Free Choice

Over at Facing Autism in New Brunswick, there’s yet another post criticizing Ari Ne’eman. This time, Ari is accused of opposing free choice in the cure debate. Beyond the fact that there simply is no cure and there will not come one anytime soon – the most likely “cure” to emerge will be “prvention” through [...]

Read Full Post »

Autism, Anxiety, and Overload

As Amanda of Ballastexistenz points out, sensory symptoms in autism are often misinterpreted as emotional. The two examples she mentions are overload being labeled anxiety, and shutdown being labeled dissociation. In this post, I will focus on the confusion between overload and anxiety, as I am not familiar enough with dissociation to make a point [...]

Read Full Post »

Misconceptions About Autistic Abilities and Intelligence

Urocyon wrote a lengthy but very interesting post on abilities and the supposed loss thereof, especially in autistics. Even after multiple reads, I find it hard to digest all that she writes. However, I do already see quite a few misconceptions about autistic abilities, intelligence and “regression” that she addresses. Firstly, people often suppose someone [...]

Read Full Post »

The Lack of Information on the Modern Web

Even though I am an avid blogger and not entirely against Web 2.0, I sometimes wish to go back to the good, old days of LiveJournal, DiaryLand and further mostly Web 1.0. Today, I find myself searching Google for a relatively sciencey subject about which I hope to find lay-friendly information. Lay-friendly it gets, but [...]

Read Full Post »

What I Believe About Autism and Neurodiversity

After reading this post on Stephanie Lynn Keil’s new blog, I started thinking where I agree and disagree with her, and I thought about my own beliefs on autism and neurodiversity. From there, I decided to write a list of things I believe, so here goes: I believe autism is a disability as well as [...]

Read Full Post »

Back Online on Mobile Connection

I hereby declare myself an official Internet addict. I’m glad it will not be a clinical diagnosis in DSM-V, or I would have an additional label three years from now. Barely a week into the Internet outage, I arranged for a mobile connection. Thanks to Open University, I qualify for the student computer and Internet [...]

Read Full Post »

Internet Hiatus, Timeframe Unknown

One of the ward computers had a virus. As a result, the Internet service provider blocked our connection. Unfortunately, someone deleted the antivirus log files, so we cannot comply with the ISP’s requirements for restoration. All my ward staff are whining about how the ISP is “punishing” them for a virus that they got destroyed, [...]

Read Full Post »

Should the Social Model of Disability Permit Autism Treatment?

IP of Modus Dopens had a post last week about cures and the social model of disability. In this post, she makes clear that a cure for medical conditions will not solve the social problems faced by people with these conditions. As an example, a cure for AIDS – a condition most people would want [...]

Read Full Post »

Should McDD Be Distinguished From the Pervasive Developmental Disorders?

Multiple complex developmental disorder (McDD) is a typically Dutch subdiagnosis of autism spectrum disorders. I gather that it is a research diagnosis, but I found no references to its inclusion or rejection in DSM-V. It is characterized by social deficits similar but not identical to those in autism, emotion regulation difficulties, and psychotic-like thought disorders. [...]

Read Full Post »

Psychological Factors Affecting Physical Health Are Not Mental Disorders

In the DSM-V, the effect of psychological factors on physical health, will be acknowledged and reflected in a conditoin tentatively labeled psychological factors affecting medical condition. A number of subdiagnoses are considered, but for now, they will not be included as specific subtypes in the DSM. Now of course it is a fact that psychological [...]

Read Full Post »