We need to appreciate autism-not try and 'cure' it or work around it

I give special thanks to my friend Emma Dalmayne, who spoke on 'Autism Kom Unity' yesterday (which I co-host on Kensal to Kilburn radio every month), for inspiring me to write this particular post.

If you live in Britain, Ireland (where Fiona O'Leary has been covering this topic: http://www.eveningecho.ie/cork-news/quack-treatments-for-autism-are-abuse/) , or the USA in particular, you may recently have come across con artists trying to sell 'cures' for autism (and other conditions for that matter) to you, your family or your friends.

It is important to remember that because autism has a neurological basis, there is no cure-and also, autism needs to be appreciated and respected anyway. False cures such as Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS) are illegal in the UK for a reason-they are dangerous and can kill.

It is important that we continue to expose these fake cures and stop them being proliferated anywhere. If you see any seller trying to market a chemical compound as a cure for autism (such as chlorine dioxide, or a mix of sodium chloride and water), I advise you to do all of the following:

1. Report them to the Trading Standards Authority; under the Trades Description Act 1968 it is an offence to supply a false or misleading description to goods, which is what those sellers are doing by marketing 'autism cures'.

2. Warn your family and friends about how dangerous these solutions can be if given to children (or indeed anyone), not just by word of mouth but also through social media. There are well-documented cases of children with autism suffering permanent intestinal damage as a result of being given these 'cures'.

3. Report these sellers to the police-the sellers of fake autism cures are obtaining money under false pretences and are causing substantial harm.

Rather than trying to cure autism when there is no cure and never was, or use therapies such as ABA to try to eliminate the autistic behaviours that are not actually harmful either to the child or to others, we should appreciate the useful things autism, and people with autism, can bring and have brought to all of us and that we all have our quirks and idiosyncracies in the end.

Alan.




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