THE CULT OF NEURODIVERSITY...

For those of you who are new to me and my blog...may I say welcome. To those of you who have read my blog for a while...may I say Thank You. Recently, the forums that I read daily have taken a weird turn. The Biomedical community, besides quoting complete whack jobs (so-called authorities) for their "discovery" that autism is Mercury Poisoning (WHATEVER) are stating the the Neurodiverse community is a CULT. First and foremost, is that the Pot calling the Kettle BLACK or what? The Neurodiverse DO NOT put every quacky doctor who preaches what they want to believe on a pedestal. The Neurodiverse DO NOT push untested and unregulated medicine into their children's bodies. The Neurodiverse DO NOT resort to horrible name-calling when they are proving the theories of the Biomedical community wrong. I fell in love with Autism in 1972, when as an 11 year old girl, I was chosen to babysit a 2 year old boy with autism. This young boy was a handful..he did not want to sleep at bedtime, he did not want to keep a diaper on, he did not want to eat.....etc. As a young girl, I was baffled by what to do....After several nights of babysitting, I came to love watching him and his ways of doing things. This family moved after a year of me babysitting. This little boy would be 35 years old now...God I am OLD. Next came my job at a residential treatment center when I was 24 years old. I worked with adolescent autistic teenage girls. These girls were very much like my Caitlin. They would jump up and flap, they would covet their items, they would rock and stim...the only problem was, they were heavily medicated. That is what they did with these children in the 1980's. They did not realize they could educate these amazing children. The doctors wrote them off as mentally retarded....I knew better. These girls would be in their early 30's now.....God I am really OLD. Then finally, came my real awakening into Autism. 16 years ago, I gave birth to Caitlin. What mother would not be in awe of this brilliant child. Yes, she did not talk until she was 9 years old....maybe, she had nothing to say. She walked by 9 months and played with her toys...maybe, not the way a Biomedical person would want their child to play, but in the way Caitlin wanted to play. Caitlin always did things a bit differently. In ballet class, she would be in the circle, but face the opposite direction. This was okay, because she was participating...according to the teacher. In gymnastics, Caitlin was in the boy's group....she did better there. In art class, Caitlin excelled. She does drawings that Pollack would be proud to call his own. She has caught the eye of many an art dealer. I have only had the heart to sell one of her portraits. Caitlin led the way to how we treat all of our autistic children and our NT child. Caitlin let us know that she was happy, healthy, alert, smart, artistic, athletic, gifted and brilliant.... Caitlin let us know that she was not a label, but a thriving human being. Caitlin has enabled us to have the knowledge and foresight to raise our other children to be the best they can be.... I am so proud to be part of the Neurodiverse community....I am sure my children will be welcome with open arms....now that is a CULT I can live with.

THE LABEL MAKER....

I was concerned after the shootings at Virginia Tech that the media would somehow blame the shooter by labeling him "autistic". Lo and behold, it happened. After reading the shooter's families comments, I realized they "labeled" this young man a very long time ago. He never had the family support to make it in this world from the beginning of his existence. Once we label a person, they then become what we have named them. If I carried around a labelmaker, I could label every person I see. The only problem is, I would label them differently than you.... I see people differently than you see people. We all have our perceptions and they are all unique. I look in the mirror and see a totally different person than the one you look at. People with autistic children cannot even agree on the label of autism. Some call it PDD-NOS, some call it "mercury poisoning", some parent's have to add additional labels to their children's diagnosis of autism (such as autism with ADD, ADHD, OCD, whatever. That one really chaps me. When my children were labeled "autistic", in no way did this change my view of these children. The label of autism just defined some of their behaviors, not who they will become in life. The label of "autism" did not define them...being autistic does not make them any less amazing than they were before the label. We need to get rid of the labels society has placed upon people. Once we rid ourselves with these labels, every person will be on the same playing ground. People will not become destined to be something they do not have to be. The world will have less to hate about people who are like them-unlabeled. When I look at my children every morning, I do not see a label upon them. But, if I did, this would be what I would label them-if I carried around a labelmaker.... Caitlin-perfection Deirdre-perfection Erin-perfection Meaghan-perfection Patrick-perfection Kiernan-perfection