When The Darker Side of Autism Rears Its Head

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It also depends on how one is taken off of it. For instance, cold turkey can have devastating results. Slow gradual weening, less so.

In this case I don't think Obama momma had much control over the gradual weening...

i went back and read the two articles---the first one cited (the one in which she assumes there's some link between her son's autism and his violent behavior) and the other link immediately beneath it---the one in which she discusses the drugs. a really interesting story emerges.

at eighteen, he began to show signs of catatonia. the family later learned that this isn't an entirely uncommon occurrence on the spectrum---if it happens, it tends to happen in early adulthood. this is misdiagnosed as schizophrenia, and he's prescribed a combination of two drugs called "abilify" and "geodon." as it turns out---with subsequent treatment---these two drugs only make the symptoms of "autistic catatonia" much worse.

he's detoxed. he's placed in treatment. he improves.

then---for whatever reason---he's placed in a series of group homes (apparently as a condition of treatment.) his behavior goes to hell. even his eating is that of someone who's been institutionalized (he gulps and gobbles his food.) he's frustrated. he's angry. he's anti-social.

AAARRRGH. (that's my conclusion. it's not the autism, stupid. it's the institutions. place anyone in a series of foster homes, and their behavior will go to hell. group homes aren't much better---in some cases much worse. and the worse his behavior got, the more institution-like the placements became.)

Maybe this is harsh, but the point of article seems to be self-pity. That if her life can't be as shiny and pretty as her friends' lives, or even the lives of other "autistic families," then she's going to take everyone with autism down to hell with her.

"But I'm going to imply the hell out of it."


I see very little in that article about her son's life -- what was his daily existence like? In the other article that Willard found, this guy goes through hell because of autistic catatonia and medical incompetence. Could he have PTSD from that or any other experiences?



Not unique to autism. And I didn't see her mention trying to address his isolation, frustration, or hopelessness anywhere.

I took medication of various things related to the AS and it simply excerbatated my problems. I'd be finishing up college and starting veternary school now if it wasn't for the horrible reaction I had to the meds I was put on. f**k the pharmacutal companies!

I've read that article about psych meds but didn't happen to notice that it was written by the same woman.

That's why you've got to slowly wean yourself off meds. My doctor told me if I wanted to off off meds to take half a tablet a day for a few weeks then I could stop taking them. I was on Aropax and I never got one side effect and nothing happened when I stopped taking them, except my PMDD feels like it is returning. I took the meds to stop the PMDD, so they did their job.

In WHAT country? Certainly NOT the US! HECK, such people BUILT the US.

Steve

Phyce meds made me crazy too. For real. I want to sue the pharmacutial compaines for everything they own.

I agree With Soulcakeduck if I was that kid I'd be upset with my mother spending more time studying trivia about someone she'll probably never meet than giving me the time of day.

I love the phrase about the beach and the shark it spoke deeply to me.

I don't know if anyone noticed, but she wrote the article about the meds causing her sons problems BEFORE she wrote the article about autism causing his violent behavior. So she obviously had a change of heart & came to believe that the autism itself was the cause of her sons problems & not the meds he had been on.

On another note, I'm disturbed by the fact that she basically said that she's going to make it her goal to let others know how dangerous those with autism can be. That's already a problem. A lot of people already think people with ASD's are violent, & her going on a tirade about it is only going to make things worse. I think a lot of her sons problem was due to the fact that he felt isolated, had no one to talk to or relate to, & was kept in institutions & treated like a child. He was full of rage because he wasn't being treated fairly. I feel bad for everyone involved. For the woman & her family, but definitely for her son as well. I feel he's being vilified & she now wants to vilify others on the autism spectrum. I do agree & understand that she wants people to become aware of what happened, but people with ASD's don't need to be vilified any more than they already have been.

Also did you note that in the pysch meds drove my son crazy story in 2007, the kid was recovering but in the monster inside story in 2009, the kid makes no recovery whatsoever and is in a pysch ward. I just find her changing story a little hard to believe. Maybe the kid did have a relapse, but changing what is causing her son to react violently starts to cause doubt in my mind about the rest of the story.

I cant stand the lady who wrote those articles. She is too melodramatic and ,as others have pointed out, self-pitying. What she writes is probably for either money or ego, and not to advocate for her son or anyone else. I was really ticked after reading that.

I had to come off of some large doses of psyche meds cold turkey because I no longer had insurance and the VA would not help me because the previous year I had made too much money (they go by the previous year NOT current need- arrrrrrrrrrg). I am lucky to be alive. I was more depressed and suicidal coming iff the meds than I had been before getting on them, and I still have "brain zaps" from the Effexor.

I went from 300 mg Effexor , 200 mg Lamictal, 100 mg Elavil and 75 mg Wellbutrin to 0
Like I said- surprised to still be alive. I recommend never going cold turkey off psychotropic drugs!

people don't need mental illness to be violent. Most violence comes from nondisabled people.

Also to respond to someone else, akathisia is not a rare side effect and it can cause severe violence in some people. I had akathisia that contributed to violence, self-injury, moving all over the place, and just bolting out of the room for no reason. It's sometimes underdiagnosed because people blame all that behavior on a mental illness and not the medication. Akathisia can also become permanent sometimes.

What akathisia feels like is a terrible almost painful sensation in your body that drives you into a frenzy of movement. People treated with neuroleptics for nausea have been known to jump up and bolt straight out of emergency rooms if they aren't warned of the reason for the sensation. It feels like a cross between pain and anxiety and people will do nearly anything to get rid of it. It is like severe restless leg syndrome over your whole body instead of just legs. I would rather have severe chronic pain than akathisia and I have had both.

I have had some similar experiences to the guy in one of the articles. (The psych meds drove my son crazy one.) A friend of mine was actually consulted about me by the author of that article. Because I have had a (parkinson/catatonia-like) movement disorder made abruptly worse by psych drugs. The author was asking around for people with that experience and my friend answered.

I began losing sympathy for the author though when she really began to demonize autism and autistic people and say some really terrible things about her son. I can't even handle reading her stuff anymore so I'm going from memory.

I agree. I think a lot of it was exaggerated for the benefit of her story. The problem with that is, it's not supposed to be a "story." It's supposed to be a genuine biographical account of what happened with her son, but she's treating it as if it's fiction & purposefully changing things & leaving out details. At least that's what it seems like she's doing to me. I think there's a lot more to her sons story that she left out simply because she was trying to make it seem more inviting to the readers, or because she didn't want to make herself look bad.