Autism while not a positive thing to have it is also not as bad as some of the things that people avoid in order to not contract autism. There are many various environmental factors that have been linked with autism. There is correlation of autism occurring in the children of mothers who have diabetes, stress, exposure to toxins, or encounter diabetes while pregnant. Largely, the paper we studied this week found that “synaptopathy is the underlying mechanism for autism and focusing on the two central environment factors ‘immune system abnormalities’ and ‘zinc deficiency,’ similarities can be found influencing synaptic function and plasticity.” (Environmental Factors in autism, Grabrucker) Many different factors can lead to these environmental factors, including exposure to toxins, poor nutrition (pica), heavy metal poisoning, copper overload, stomach abnormalities, stress, psychiatric drugs and other factors (Environmental Factors in autism, Grabrucker). When one has a zinc deficiency, this tends to lead to immune dysregulation, then to glutamatergic dysregulation (poor signaling in the brain) which leads to an imbalance of ions in the neurons and can eventually lead to autism, as the brain is not functioning properly.
Now, in recent years, there has been a surge of parents choosing to not vaccinate their children for sometimes the reason of not wanting their child to contract autism, granted this is not always the case, but a scientist posting fraudulent results about vaccines being linked to autism in order to better sell a new vaccine that was not supposed to have this link. Now, even if this link were established, it still makes little sense to me as to why someone would choose to not vaccinate their child over risking a disease that could kill them. Many different factors can lead to autism, and vaccines aren’t even a valid factor, and there is no way to protect one’s child from all of these factors. You see something as simple as a pregnant mother having stress can lead to autism, stress, the most common emotion felt by college students (at least it feels that way) and something that most people feel every day. And thinking about it big picture, autism in all reality is not the worst disease someone could have, as even with it they are largely healthy physically. Autism is mostly a social syndrome, it largely impacts how one interacts with others, which can be debilitating as it is then harder to communicate. In the more severe end of the autism spectrum , there are some health problems (like seizures), but the most common form of autism is Asperger’s, which is where the child is high functioning, and has largely only social and communication problems, which while nothing one would wish on their child, is also better than a child contracting deadly diseases. Thus, the thought that a parent would chose to risk the chance of their child being very ill or dying of risking their child having social and communication issues. I feel sometimes there needs to be a certain aspect of trust that when doctors recommend things like vaccines, as they are only trying to help children stay healthy and alive.
The Irrational Fear of Autism
I applaud your efforts in this post, however, I feel that you may be minimizing these ‘social problems’ a child with Autism may have. As a professional who works closely with many children with Autusm, I see the wide spectrum of abilities that these children exhibit. For parent, they may not be panicked about their child’s social abilities, but more concerned with their child’s ability to communicate, relate to others, as well as their ability to take care of themselves after their parents are gone. As a parent myself of healthy children, I can only empathize with my patients and their parents. As a parent, you only want your child to be healthy and happy but for many parents of children with Autism this is often difficult to tell if their child is unable to communicate. I only comment in efforts to bring awareness that parents aren’t always just stressed that their child will be quirky. I am unsure if your course requires you to do so, but I highly recommend talking to some actual parents of children with Autism before writing a post on it. Thank you.
I get where you are coming from, and I can’t imagine how hard it would be to raise a child with problems autism brings, but I am mostly just trying to get at that (at least in my opinion) I would rather choose to help my child stay healthy and alive than take the risk of not getting them vaccinated over there being a chance of autism. I have also edited the post to hopefully better reflect that.