Mom fell down an "Autism can be cured" rabbit hole
Laeril
Velociraptor
Joined: 13 Mar 2019
Age: 36
Gender: Female
Posts: 400
Location: Eagle Mountain, Utah
About an hour ago, I went into my parent's room to see how my Mom was doing, as she's got three rare diseases (with similar symptoms, no less) that made her essentially bedridden and I like checking up on her to see how she's doing. I should have known to just walk out of the room when she asked if I would get rid of my autism if I could, but I decided to humor her for a bit for some reason. That lasted about a minute as she told me the broad strokes of the snake oil she'd found before I interrupted her by calling it BS. I don't know if she was mad at me for dismissing the idea that autism can be cured or that I used the word "BS" to do it, but we have been avoiding each other ever since.
Now, before my diagnosis, my parents and I tried several alternative "solutions" to my behavioral problems. Supplements and energy healing are what immediately come to mind. Those were abandoned when we couldn't justify the expense anymore/I realized that nutritional deficiency was not the problem in the first place. And we recently discovered that my rages all stemmed from dropping blood sugar levels, not anything related to autism at all.
Fortunately, I know exactly why she fell down this rabbit hole in the first place. Her rare diseases have caused her a lot of memory problems, and while I know I've had the "autism needs no cure" talk with both of my parents, the odds of Mom remembering said talk is both very low and completely not her fault. It just sucks that not only did we hurt each other's feelings, it's probably gonna happen again at some point.
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Yes, that really sucks. Been there.
I tried explaining "Hanger" to my parents, but they dismissed it as adolescent bad behavior.
I had asthma and eczema while I lived with them, and went through just about every supplement in the drug store to discover "The Cure". Only after I could afford to visit an allergist on my own did I find out that second-hand smoke caused me to have asthma, and that the airborne dust from the forced-air furnace got on my clothes and caused the rashes and blisters (and also aggravated my asthma). When I told them the results, they waived if off as if it never mattered.
And the autism? Whatever behavioral and learning disabilities I had back then, they believed could either be beaten out of me or lectured away -- hours-long talks under the implied threat of "The Belt".
I hope you can somehow reconcile with your mom. My parents are gone, and we never could see eye-to-eye.
Double Retired
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Joined: 31 Jul 2020
Age: 70
Gender: Male
Posts: 6,287
Location: U.S.A. (Mid-Atlantic)
I tried explaining "Hanger" to my parents, but they dismissed it as adolescent bad behavior.
I had asthma and eczema while I lived with them, and went through just about every supplement in the drug store to discover "The Cure". Only after I could afford to visit an allergist on my own did I find out that second-hand smoke caused me to have asthma, and that the airborne dust from the forced-air furnace got on my clothes and caused the rashes and blisters (and also aggravated my asthma). When I told them the results, they waived if off as if it never mattered.
To this day, my parents refuse to see the connection between their chainsmoking and the fact that both their children had severe asthma by the age of 8. "Ignoring inconvenient or cognitively dissonant truths" seems to be a universal skill of parenthood, sadly.
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