Oprah will have a show on Autism on April 5th

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I actually saw this with my mom before we went out for a late lunch and it was a totally different mindset. With my mom, I see her choke up in tears almost because she told me the hand rocking, the rolling on the floor, the reading of college algebra books and so on was my offset with autism. And that I didn't relate well with other kids except for my deaf cousin from San Diego when we used to live in San Diego. So I didn't watch this alone, my mom and I did have a lengthy conversation about it and how she had to live through sacrifices over my autism.

I thought that besides the autismspeaks autism everyday video of stuff and all, it made me look back to how I was as a kid and how I didn't realize it affected my family a lot. Hella lot.

I thought the show was to the point for Autistic Parents coping through autism because it did two things.

1. brought my mom to tears yet understanding what they are going through now.
2. Bring Attention to Autism from Oprah for her viewing audience... Parents.

My mom is now writing a letter to Oprah Winfrey in hopes that she'll have an episode in a few months about Autistic Adults like us and how we're coping with it.

I'd wish i'd see it in your views and I agree it wasn't bad (I cringed when i saw that mother from autism speaks who wanted to kill her daughter at first, but it's usual NeuroTypically reactional for that too), but then again, It's what I expected and I don't think it was that bad. I mean, this is Oprah's first show about Autism.

If it's an interesting reply, show it to us okay?!

didn't catch Oprah yesterday but caught this on GoodMorningAmerica this morning.

abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=3008553&page=1

I was talking just today at the support group about the show. I hated it and they loved it. They thought it was so great that Oprah is raising awareness. But they fail to empathize with the message that WE are Conked over the head with!
1)autistic people are a burden
2)families of autistic people make unnatural and sad sacrifices
3)autistic people can't communicate
a)and if they can't communicate, then we don't know if they are really thinking or feeling

These are very dangerous messages to spread around. I'm not going to go into the vaccines and all that. But spreading the lies about them are also terrible. I'm more protective of the Aspie community and my son right now.
When I brought up the issues that the Autistic community has, the old "well anyone who can complain isn't LFA". NOT TRUE! My son did all the stuff that the kids on the Autism Every Day video do. He is still autistic, he still requires special ed and he still requires special avenues of learning at home.

This disagreement leads to the very problems people are complaining about in this thread
1)why aren't autistics featured in these awareness programs? Why aren't autistic adults able to tell their stories?
Answer-Because the Autism Community doesn't think anyone who can talk is autistic enough! That's why! And they don't want to be called on their complaining about, drugging, institutionalizing their kids.

2)Why do they keep bringing up the explosion in diagnosis? Why do they talk about cures when nothing has been proven?
Answer-Because they are convinced that there is a disease, a problem, a mutation that needs to be fixed. "No one should suffer autism" is their message.

When you say "they don't understand" our message it's because it's willful ignorance. This one mom kept redefining high and low functioning. I explained Amanda Baggs and Sue Rubin to her, and some other Aspies were referenced too. I countered that those definitions would always be subjective. I mean Alison Teper Singer states that her daughter "can't do anything" while we all can see plain as day that her daughter talks and communicates, hugs and emotes. Her mom defines her daughter according to her own specific desires and disappointments.


They also don't understand how dangerous these messages are. All they see is $$$$. For whom? Not us, not my family. I want money funnelled into the school systems, into the Regional Centers, into the state services that provide proven help for families and autistic people.

Awareness programs don't aim for realistic, tangible goals like I listed. They raise money for research, legal fees, administrative stuff.

I saw the show also and like I expected it was typical media fear mongering, they gave the number of 1 in 150 children and then only showed what seemed to be lower functioning people on the spectrum my son, husband and myself all do quite well and live happy( son and husband have Asperger's I have HFA although as things are different now probably Asperger's as the diagnosis is only available recently) fulfilled lives true we are all on the higher functioning end but although we don't always do what a NT family would we are happy successful and not burdening anyone. My mother also watched the show and was disappointed by how the mothers and children were portrayed (and I know I was difficult to deal with as a child I was quite disruptive in early school rarely spoke to people unless it was about my obsessions covered my ears and screamed when in loud public places spent a lot of time spinning, waving my arms and barking, well making a barking like sound etc ) she felt it was not a burden what you do when you have children is accept them and learn ways to live with them and help . She often says she had much more difficulty with my NT sister as she was growing up and it's actually often just the individual not the "disorder" that can effect parenting difficulties. Children and people on the spectrum express affection just not exactly in the way a NT would its like with cats for example I know my cat likes me because he brings me dead stuff he killed or perhaps he is just wanting praise for being good as a hunter from his mum , but although it's not how I would say I "I love you" it's his way of saying it , and i know that certain behaviours of my son are affectionate when perhaps others wouldn't see it that way.They didn't let anyone who was on the spectrum say that they could have lives, and that they mattered and that they felt things just as much as anyone they just express things differently. It is always a focus so much on a "cure" well they decided when i was doing well in school at the beginning of high school i was "cured" , but in fact I still have the same thought processes and such I just learned behaviours and strategies to get on with the NT world . it is how someones brain is not a disease. but then I often think shows like Oprah and such are an odd assortment of unhappy, illogical people who need attention.