Yes, another article that makes us say "Duh!!!"

[MomOTwins]

The thing that I most appreciated was that the New York Times put this in the "FASHION & STYLE" section of the paper. Now the real question is - was it fashion or style? :rolleyes:

Your Child's Disorder May Be Yours, Too


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/fashion/09diagnosis.html?ex=1197954000&en=26323c85a161fe17&ei=5070&emc=eta1

[Isabelle]

if i look back at my life, look at my behaviours from the point of view of a psychiatrist i would have been diagnose with hyperactivity and given ritalin, my sister perhaps dx as bipolar and my other sister as ocd and my father and mother paranoids/psychotic of 3rd degree and from all that my son is the only "autistic", the rest of my family are "normal" as "normal" comes, psychologically defined.
nobody is perfect, pills are not going to make anybody "perfect".
"perfect" and "normal" are relative to the eye of the beholder. we are all unique, let's deal with it with kindness....but the power of suggestion is so big...

[tgrimes]

That's a good article, i think this part:
>>>“I think there are a lot of parents of kids with these diagnoses who have at least a little bit of the traits their kids have,” Mr. Schwarz said. “But because of the stigma this society places on anything associated with disability, they’re inhibited from embracing that part of themselves and fully leveraging it to help their kids.”

I don't know about that, some of the problem in not acknowledging that might be all the 'causes' that are speculated about, that kind of diverts people from thinking about things as a family trait. And also that doesn't relate to the profoundly affected. The parents cant come up with many comparisons there.

But anyway, I think it's a 'fashionable' article!

[peglem]

Insofar as autism is a developmental disorder and the fact that everybody has different development I think you'd be hard pressed to find a single person that doesn't have some trait that might be considered to be autistic-like. Sensory defensiveness- especially when tired or stessed. I know I've stopped answering questions on medical questionaires about mental illness and/or substance abuse in the extended family. I just don't see how its going to help them treat my child and don't want them to shrug anything off as inherited (not that there's a lot there for them to tag, unless "a bunch of weirdos" means something)

[mc4_a]

Good article. I think my father exhibits a lot of these traits and me to a much lesser degree. It's funny because I think this makes him less able to tolerate and accommodate my child.

[AKF]

Good article. I think my father exhibits a lot of these traits and me to a much lesser degree. It's funny because I think this makes him less able to tolerate and accommodate my child.

My FIL was one of the least able to tolerate Keith's behaviors, and yet he was the most rigid with his own!!

And DH will get annoyed at Keith when he perseverates, but will annoy with #$## out of me over something that he just can't let go of!

Maybe it's just a man thing!!??

[MomOTwins]

Well, AKF and mc4_a, they do hypothesize that autism is linked (somehow) to an overabundance of testosterone...like we are building super-guys by giving them more "guy-ness" then they would have normally had with "normal" development. This does indeed seem to support the predominance of boys with autism, along with the hyper-maleness that we often see (cluelessness re. emotions, inabililty to understand women, lack of understanding of why shopping and chocolate are two of the only reasons that women survive, etc. etc. etc.) .

Sorry, having a bad day. Found out that one of my best friends (diagnosed with colon cancer about a year ago, survived major resection surgery, and 6 months of chemo.) has gotten the report that her cancer is back - metastasized to the liver. What a lovely Christmas gift.....

[mc4_a]

I think the testosterone bit is linked to the womb only. If all Autistic people had high testosterone they would have low body fat, back acne and bald heads. I'm a bodybuilder so I see too much of this at the gym every day. ;)

Sorry to hear you're having a bad day. My mother beat cancer twice, so good luck to your friend.

[MomOTwins]

Yep, the testosterone thing is strictly related to how much the kids got in utero, sorry for being unclear.

[Kristen (ColeysMom)]

There's something about this that doesn't seem right to me.

Isn't the incidence of mental illness and/or the rate of prescription use for them increasing at some obnoxious amount?

I guess it says something that they are all sorta neurological in nature...but isn't this kinda like saying that the incidence of computer use by parents of kids with ASDs has increased whatever fold since 1980?

I mean computer use, and mental illnesses have both increase...so have a ton of other things...it only stands to reason that there are going to be a fair number of family members with these conditions, and PCs, right?

And lets not even consider the fact that dealing with a developmentally challenged child puts a HUGE strain on the parents & their marriages, and likely that puts a strain on thier immediate family members too...so doesn't that sorta imply that many of them will have periods of depression, maybe even a breakdown? And perhaps even need management drugs or conselling?????

I dunno...of course it's a DUH! But I just don't think it lines up that this is some sorta marker or something...

M.O.T---Sorry about your friend! I will keep her & you in my prayers!

[mc4_a]

There's something about this that doesn't seem right to me.<snip>

Yeah, I agree. It's very easy to read things into this without doing a more through study. I've read so literature that suggested that many of these children have close family members that work in industries such as computing, engineering, etc... This wasn't really measured against the general population, so again who knows how accurate that is.

Though it is interesting that most ******** computer guys I know seem to have a lot Autistic traits.

[Kristen (ColeysMom)]

Though it is interesting that most ******** computer guys I know seem to have a lot Autistic traits.

But that makes sense because it's a great 'fit' for someone that is on the spectrum...but so are other things like artistic type professions. Not saying all in that category are autistic (funny how those two words are so similar) but it's a logical place for them to make a living, ya know...so of course the 'rate' will be higher...

Just like a hyper-active person may be better suited for say gym teacher/coach or fitness director or whatever...can't think right now...stuff that keeps them more physically active during the day versus sitting behind a computer, ya know...

I think they are taking 'duh' type information and looking at it from the wrong perspective...the REALLY sad thing though is that they are WASTING time and money...there are MUCH more important things that they could be doing, don't you think????

[mc4_a]

I totally agree. Though I think a lot of the article was based more on the reporter's thoughts than an actual study. I figure that anything that keeps a reporter from talking about Britney Spears is a good thing.

[AKF]

I totally agree. Though I think a lot of the article was based more on the reporter's thoughts than an actual study. I figure that anything that keeps a reporter from talking about Britney Spears is a good thing.

AMEN to that!!

[Kristen (ColeysMom)]

http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_12_6.gif

[frogmama]

I've always said Mattew is the extra nuts in our family trail mix. Now I can mean that 2 ways. Some of it is chicken and egg - which came first, am I an introvert beacuse I have autistic traits which I passed to my child OR am I an introvert beacuse taking my child out in public is so hard?