People recover from autism?

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Yes somehow people can recover from their brain..........how does that make any freaking sense?

I can understand NT parents wanting to find a "cure." We don't want our beloved children to have extra difficulties, get bullied or shunned. Life is hard enough when you're "normal," or so I hear.

I've read claims that going gluten free can "cure" autism. Gluten intolerance is an allergic reaction to wheat. Do you think it could be possible that some kids have allergies and get misdiagnosed, or perhaps an Aspie can mask their undesired behaviors enough to be pronounced "cured" once the allergies have been addressed?

Don't allergies usually cause physical symptoms? I doubt cutting wheat which I love by the way because bread is awesome would make me any more normal, it might make me rather angry but not normal.

Not always. Allergies are improper immune system responses. These often lead to physical symptoms, but not always.

Also, sensitivities that aren't true allergies also exist. These also sometimes lead to physical symptoms and sometimes don't.

I know you've mentioned you're sensitive to light. Take that sensitivity, convert it to being caused by a food product but keep the basic response, and that's something that people really do deal with.

Well I do not always eat food with wheat in it, and when i don't my symptoms are not any less severe. If anything food with wheat in it is a great way to get calories.

Once you go completely gluten free you will begin to notice differences. One, you will probably have a gluten withdrawal.

I don't think it has to do with a gluten intolerance but with a sensitivity. I love white bread because it makes me energetic.

While we're on the subject of sensitivities: toothpaste makes me hyper.

Sweetleaf, you might research gluten intolerance a little before you come to such conclusions. You would really be surprised at all the hidden gluten in your diet. This is a severe condition that many people aren't aware of until it's too late.

Sensitivity - I think that's what I was getting at, Tuttle. I know when I'm being bugged by one of my sensitivities, it's really hard to "toe the line." I just want to get through the task-at-hand and get away from whatever is bothering me - or just give up so I can get away. I often snap or lash out when agitated, though less and less as I gain understanding and control. But, I'm 52. I've been working at this for a long time. A child is new and inexperienced. Self expression can be a great puzzle.

Toothpaste has sugar in it.........that might be why, and it's also why I use natural flouride free toothpaste. Sure it tastes a bit bitter but its better for my teeth than the normal crap that has sugar in it. Also white bread also has sugar.......so maybe that is what it is. Cannot say for sure I do realise some people are allergic to wheat, but I just don't feel it explains autism.

Oh crap now I'm on the flouride rant......but hey the crap makes me nauseous so maybe I am allergic to it, that would also explain why I get nauseous if I drink unfiltered city water.

While I do not think people "recover" from AS/autism in the way the wiki article appears to suggest (and I think it is talking about autism not AS, but that's another issue) I would like to respectfully point out that the word recovery has more than one meaning or at any rate more than one usage.

The meanings/uses are similar but not identical. Language can sometimes be a bit inexact.

For example we generally speak of "recovering alcoholics" (in the UK we do, anyway), or an alcoholic who is in recovery. This means an alcoholic who has stopped drinking. It does emphatically not mean they are cured. Alcoholism can't be cured, and that is generally known and accepted.

I am not drawing a parallel between these conditions btw, merely pointing out another use of the word recovery that does not equal "cure".

Recovery
1. the act or process of recovering, esp from sickness, a shock, or a setback; recuperation
2. restoration to a former or better condition
3. the regaining of something lost
4. the extraction of useful substances from waste
5. (Law) Law
a.  the obtaining of a right, etc., by the judgment of a court
b.  (in the US) the final judgment or verdict in a case
6. (Individual Sports & Recreations / Fencing) Fencing a return to the position of guard after making an attack
7. (Team Sports / Rowing) (Individual Sports & Recreations / Swimming, Water Sports & Surfing) (Team Sports / Rowing) Swimming Rowing the action of bringing the arm, oar, etc., forward for another stroke
8. (Individual Sports & Recreations) Golf a stroke played from the rough or a bunker to the fairway or green

There are more meanings listed in other dictionaries. The wiki article may well mean cure but as you say, that will hopefully get edited eventually.

When my brother was young, my mum was sure he had an ASD but she never got him tested. She says he was the most difficult child to handle out of all of her 4 kids. Now he's 17 and all of the autism symptoms he had as a child are gone. He's very social now, he isn't ritualistic and he doesn't melt down. It turned out I was the one with autism the whole time but we didn't realise until early this year.

Most Aspies eventually find ways to "cope" with it or to "fake" it. But they don't often learn to "feel normal".

I benefitted enormously from psychotherapy. I learned to look people in the eye, to take turns and to feel loved. I conquered my depression and I'm no longer angry all the time. And I worked through some personal issues too.

It is hard work, expensive and extremely painful. It is almost impossible for an Aspie to understand psychotherapy or to believe it could ever work. It was difficult enough for me to believe that emotions are important. Why are we talking about feelings when you could be teaching me skills?

(My best mate is an Aspie too and he still thinks therapy is a fraud. I've mellowed. He hasn't.)

I still have Aspergic "episodes" and the gulf between me and neurotypicals still exists. But I've grown from a low functioning Aspie to a high functioning Aspie, and I am much happier.

That's it, CantExplain. Humans cope. I grew up in a world of open-minded, optimistic, cope experts - California Quakers - I guess I could consider myself lucky in that, me being an extrovert, but, MAN!! ! it sure takes a lot of energy to maintain the farce, especially since I was often confused. I'm so glad to have learned about Aspergers. It takes a lot of the pressure off and I'm learning ways of coping that are less draining or less offensive to NTs.

I think I would like to try psychotherapy, though. An educated outside perspective could be very helpful. I just wish I could afford it. Hah!

We are living in a time when there are experienced Aspies getting involved in the Say of how we're to be treated. The general public is getting educated. I think future Aspies won't have to work so hard to justify their existence.

I applaud you for celebrating your autism. I prefer to take a realistic and holistic view of autism. Just like everyone else, we all have our neurobiology, our temperaments, our areas of strength, and our areas of weakness. We need to be honest with ourselves about all aspects, celebrate who we are, and work on amplifying our strengths while compensating for our weaknesses.

For example, people often say that the most common allergy is to milk, but that isn't true. Lactose intolerence has nothing to do with the immune system misfiring and causing negative symptoms, it's simply that the digestive system cannot digest the lactose in milk so those suffering from it get sick if they drink milk.

Those kids that magically 'recover' from autism all tend to be the one's that also claim vaccines gave them autism. Children who have seizures, go into shock and develop life threatening inflammation after a vaccine - but survive and recover, are diagnosed with 'autism'. So kids, with less virulent reactions, actually can recover. So, it all depends on which autism you are talking about. The after-a-vaccine type - I would call that brain injury but the medical profession believes otherwise thus the confusion.

All conjecture of course...

Autism is a way of being. It is to be enjoyed and be proud of, not recovered from.