hi everyone i'm amythest and welcome to
this week's episode of ask an autistic I
wanna run a song to shine a light be the
change we want set things right
even waiting in the dark for so long
I received a question on my tumblr blog
a couple weeks ago and the question was
what do you think of biomedical
interventions for autism so that's what
I'm going to be addressing this week I'm
going to be talking about treatments
medical treatments that can supposedly
cure someone of autism if you've seen
any of my other videos you can probably
guess how I feel about biomedical
interventions for autism that is I don't
agree with them because I don't believe
in them because they can't work the
thing about autism is that it is not a
disease or an illness it's not something
that you can get better from or recover
from autism is a neurodevelopmental
condition it's present since birth an
autistic person is born out to stick
will live autistic and will die autistic
being autistic means that your brain is
developed in a different way it means
that your brain wiring is different and
being autistic informs your entire life
because all of your learning your
communication your perception how you
experience the world is all informed by
your neuro type which is autism the
autistic neuro type so the very idea of
biomedical interventions for autism are
already working off an untruth that
autism is a disease or an illness and
that it can be cured the truth is that
there will never be an effective
biomedical intervention for autism if by
effective you mean can cure somebody of
their autism because autism isn't caused
by a leaky gut or mercury the marisol
autism isn't caused by vaccines or
drinking milk so as soon as somebody is
claiming to be able to cure autism you
immediately know that they're not
telling the truth
the first thing to realize is that even
when biomedical treatments for autism
are disproven conclusively without a
doubt by science there are the parents
who keep the dream of these biomedical
interventions alive because they're
desperate and why are they desperate
because disability is so closely
entwined with negativity in our society
anything that's different is scary and
awful and needs to be corrected even if
that difference in somebody isn't
necessarily a negative thing or an
impairment parents are also desperate
because they've been specifically told
that autism is an awful condition the
autistic people will never lead a life
worth living having an autistic child
will ruin your marriage that I should
seek children will cost you millions of
dollars over the course of their
lifetime for all their therapies and
treatments they hear this doom and gloom
message of autism this negativity and
this hate coming at them from all sides
so of course when they receive an autism
diagnosis for their child they're going
to be scared because that's what they've
conditioned to be is scared and the
second way that these biomedical
interventions for autism are perpetuated
is by the people who are making money
off of them I'm going to sound really
cynical here but it's just truth the
people who are selling hyperbaric oxygen
chambers and camels milk and antifungals
these people are after your money
there's a chance that they might
honestly want to help people or they
might even be so misinformed as to
believe that what they're selling
actually works but it doesn't so when
these people prey on desperate parents
of autistic children and they take their
money and they make life harder for
everyone they are doing a very bad thing
the scary thing about biomedical
interventions for autism is that because
autism has become so conflated with a
tragedy almost like your child has been
kidnapped stolen or like they've died
any lengths that you want to go through
to try to get them back or cure them is
considered a okay even if these things
are downright abusive and will never
ever be condoned for use on an autistic
child so best-case scenario biomedical
interventions for autism are time and
money wasters they're ineffective and
they're just not scientifically proven
worst case scenario biomedical
interventions for autism still aren't
scientifically proven they have no
evidence to support them but they can be
downright dangerous and even potentially
fatal so on one hand we have ineffective
time and money sucking biomedical
interventions for autism treatment that
can supposedly cure your autistic child
or greatly lessen their autistic
symptoms or traits and in this hand we
have things like hyperbaric oxygen
chambers
hyperbaric oxygen chambers are supposed
to help because there are those out
there who say and that autism is caused
by a deficiency of oxygen in the brain
and that's supposedly by putting your
kid in one of these hyperbaric oxygen
chambers you can allow oxygen to cross
the blood-brain barrier and they'll be
magically cured or their symptoms will
be greatly lessened but there's no
evidence to support the autism spectrum
disorders are caused by a deficiency in
oxygen and it's pretty ridiculous that
these hyperbaric oxygen chambers you
know that you see it tradeshows and
autism conferences caused so many tens
of thousands of dollars when the fact is
that soft-shelled hyperbaric oxygen
chambers are about as effective as an
oxygen tent which costs a lot less
one of the most popular pop signs myths
out there is that most autistic people
have a gluten sensitivity or have celiac
there's not actually any scientific
evidence to suggest that autistic people
have higher rates of celiac or gluten
intolerance than not autistic people so
not only is the gluten-free casein-free
diet not likely to do anything for your
autistic child then cause a lot of grief
for the both of you since autistic
children already have so many food
sensitivities and troubles with eating
adding a special dye into the mix can
really just complicate things and add
stress the gluten-free casein-free diet
is supposed to work because of this idea
this wrong idea that autistic children
have something called a leaky gut again
something never been scientifically
proven the idea behind a leaky gut is
that autistic children have opioids
leaking from their digestive system into
their bloodstream they travel to the
brain and cause autistic behaviors
scientists look into this but what they
found was that autistic children don't
have anymore opioids in their blood than
non autistic children do and actually
the gluten-free casein-free diet can be
potentially dangerous for the health of
the child because children who are on a
gluten-free casein-free diet generally
have lower bone density and are at
higher risk for osteoporosis than
children who aren't on the G FCF diet so
if your autistic child is legitimately
one of the rare people who are sensitive
to gluten taking gluten out of their
diet can improve digestion and decrease
tummy discomfort and in the same way
that an autistic person will feel better
and be able to focus more and just be
feeling more cheerful when they're not
sick that could help an autistic child
who actually is sensitive to gluten or
who has celiac but in the case of most
autistic children removing gluten from
their diet isn't going to do anything
and really it's the health and proper
healthy development autistic children
that's way more important than trying to
decrease their autistic behaviors
now when it comes to downright dangerous
and potentially fatal biomedical
interventions or autism right up at the
top of the list for me is chelation
chelation is a process that uses a
chemical to take metals out of blood and
this is really great for people who have
heavy metal poisoning or mercury
poisoning but autistic children don't
have mercury poisoning what happens when
you give a person chelation is that
along with the heavy metals present if
any other vital metals and minerals like
calcium will be stripped from the blood
as well this is potentially very
dangerous and has actually been deadly
at least one autistic child has died
during a chelation process there has
never been any scientific evidence
saying that autistic children have
mercury poisoning or that autism is
caused by heavy metal poisoning so
giving an autistic person chelation is
abuse plain and simple the other big two
when it comes to currently popular
dangerous autism treatments alongside
chelation is chemical castration and the
MMS treatment also known as the miracle
mineral solution also known as C D or
chlorine dioxide treatment
organizations like Autism Speaks and
Generation Rescue have a lot to gain
including financially from perpetuating
this misinformation this fear and this
cure culture and of course the people
who actually sell these treatments
people who sell MMS or hyperbaric oxygen
chambers or chelation creams or raw
camel's milk these people all have
something to gain financially as well so
it's in a lot of people's best interests
to keep parents scared and to keep them
uneducated
but nothing is more important than the
health of your child and if you really
love them you should stop and take a
minute to think why am I so desperate to
try to cure my child's autism why am I
so desperate to try to change my child
into somebody that they're not
well autistic children need is not any
kind of biomedical treatment what they
need is acceptance like all children
they need to be loved for who they are
exactly who they are right now not I
will love you if you become less
autistic I will love you if I can cure
you of your autism love your kids for
who they are now beautiful bright
struggling autistic kids and love them
for who they will be one day autistic
adults and they can be broken hurt
devastated out to stick adults who have
been told their whole lives that they're
not good enough that their burdens on
their families that they're a disease
that they need to be cured or they can
be healthy happy autistic adults who
have been told that who they are is fine
and lovely and wonderful and who know
that they are accepted for who they are
some people think that acceptance is
passive that it means sitting back and
doing nothing but that's not the case
acceptance is the best and most
important step you can take towards
helping autistic child because
acceptance is about love and acceptance
is an action it is not passive
acceptance is a brave act of everyday
saying no to the ableism and cure
culture that surrounds us and saying yes
to love and yes to neurodiversity
and yes to your child who loves you very
much and who wants to please you and who
doesn't need to be cured
I hope you guys enjoyed this week's
episode and found it educational once
again there will be tons of links in the
video description so if you're
interested in anything I've talked about
or you want to know more or you want to
see more scientific evidence than just
me talking at a camera please check out
the video description if you have any
questions that you would like answered
on the topic of autism being autistic
feel free to post your question in the
comment section below or message it to
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hope that you guys all have an awesome
week thank you for watching ask an
autistic
I want a renaissance to shine a light be
the change we want set things right even
waiting in dock
for so long