Fear and panic .....

I notice in the news today that the doctor who caused the scare around MMR and autism is to be charged with serious professional misconduct. I find the whole issue interesting for a number of reasons. It has shown how much the public distrust the medical profession. There was a willingness to believe the scare story even though subsequent research has not backed up the claims of a link with autism made by Dr Wakefield.

There are reasons to exercise critical judgement of the medical profession, but the trend to believe any scare story is not the way forward. It often feels to me that as a society, and particularly the woolly element of the middle classes, we are willing to embrace lots of nonsense. I come across many people who are happier to believe the words of a ‘crystal therapist’ than a doctor. People who say ‘what do experts know’. Well yes, exercise some critical thought but there is a clue in the word expert.

The other issue I find interesting is that the fear of MMR and autism does not seem to have educated the public about what autism is. Looking today at the page on the BBC News site there was not a link to the Autism Society or of any of the groups set up by people with autism/aspergers. Most people’s views are still either of very disturbed children or of Rain man.

The reality is that autism is part of a spectrum, including aspergers. It is still a recent diagnosis and although it seems hereditary, no cause is known for it. The debate around MMR has been unhelpful. Some awareness of aspergers and autism could have come from it, but did not. It is not all negative. Many people on the spectrum are what are called high functioning. It is not all ‘bad’. There are positives as well as negatives aspects to autism and aspergers, as there are for people who are not on the spectrum. Trouble is, as with mental illness and learning disability, in this society there is still the fear of people who do not fit in and of the unknown. Many of the problems faced are due to the attitudes and ignorance of other people. It is often 'hidden' and so there is an expectation for someone to 'fit in'. When someone does not then the reaction to them is often critical.

Perhaps now the MMR debate can move from fear and panic to looking at autism and aspergers in a more rational light. Perhaps people can take the time to understand and appreciate the differences .

Clay Marzo: Just Add Water - positive film about aspies

Regular readers may have noticed that myself and Janine sometimes write posts on aspergers and we get frustrated at the often negative press. Well here is something positive :

... Clay Marzo, who exploded on to the scene at Puerto Escondido in Mexico last month with his first pro victory, and is now being dubbed the most naturally gifted surfer of his generation, has a high-functioning form of autism called Asperger's syndrome.

The condition makes it difficult for the 20-year-old wunderkind to interact with other people. He finds crowds unnerving, conversation perplexing, and is unable to "read" emotion on someone's face. In social situations he is often – if you'll pardon the expression – a fish out of water.

Yet Asperger's is also the secret of Clay Marzo's incredible sporting ability. According to an acclaimed documentary called Just Add Water, it actually helps him succeed in the glamorous field of professional surfing. He is a unique talent because of the condition, rather than despite it. Some believe it could eventually make him the greatest surfer in history.

Some people with Asperger's are genius mathematicians, scientists or musicians (many believe that Albert Einstein, Mozart and Isaac Newton had it). Others have brilliant memories, such as Dustin Hoffman's character in the film Rain Man. Marzo may very well be the first person with the condition to have developed a genius for surfing.

"He'll have a schema of many waves that he's ridden before, so he's able to predict what to do in that situation," adds Dr Attwood (expert on aspergers SB). "His brain disconnects from everyday functions, and becomes one with the wave: he'll intuitively know what the wave's doing, so he'll anticipate that, and be ahead of everyone else."

Marzo's style of surfing is creative and spontaneous. Unlike most professional surfers, he doesn't plan different manoeuvres in advance, but instead adapts instinctively, suddenly spinning his board into reverse, perhaps, or flipping into mid-air to land audacious 360-degree turns.

The article highlights the difficulties he had before diagnosis and how he now gets support to make sense and navigate what is a neurotypical world.

I particularly like this quote :


"The main treatment for Aspergers is self-understanding and self-acceptance," adds Dr Attwood. "The problem is that people will talk of suffering from it. No. You don't suffer from Aspergers, you suffer from other people. I want people like Clay to be admired, for people to say they've got talent. Don't feel sorry for them, applaud them."

Exactly.

Here is a trailer for the film:

Being different .....

Today's Independent covers a report given by Professor Fitzgerald to the conference of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Glasgow yesterday. The headline is "Keith Joseph, the father of Thatcherism, 'was autistic' claims Professor "

Professor Fitzgerald states that Keith Joseph and Enoch Powell probably had aspergers syndrome (autism is a spectrum, aspergers is on that spectrum).

So here is a chance for the media to discuss this subject in a positive, or at least more balanced light, and what do they do. They highlight two reactionary unpleasant rightwingers !
Aspies have enough hassle without being branded rightwing ! The article seems to imply that the two go hand in hand, they don't.

They mention less unpleasant characters only briefly (Orwell , Newton) . Obviously more newsworthy to highlight Powell and Joseph.

The media tends to cover this issue in terms of sympathy for parents and as an 'affliction'. Aspies do not fit neatly into the norms of society and so the talk is of how sad it is, justifying parents who kill their children when they cannot cope . The debates on MMR all focused on whether it 'caused' autism , but did not address the realities of autism and aspergers, or take the chance to educate people.

The article goes on to say :

"The university professor of computer science with the brilliant mind, few friends and an obsessive interest in model trains is the classic sufferer."

Yes, lets throw around some stereotypes that would not be acceptable if written about other groups who suffer discrimination. Oh and of course the classic , aspie as 'sufferer'. Most 'suffering' is caused by other people's ignorance and fear of anyone who does not fit in . Its caused by a society that does not recognise and accept difference and by offensive remarks such as Professor Fitzgeralds.

The Aspies for Freedom site has a rather more balanced list . It includes Darwin, Einstein, Samuel Beckett, Lewis Carroll, Patricia Highsmith, James Joyce, Arthur Conan Doyle, Kant, Bertrand Russell, Bill Gates, Beethoven, Courtney Love, Van Gogh, Andy Warhol, Stanley Kubrick......

So not all the stereotype 'geeks' or right wing politicians then.

Some links for those who are interested in understanding a bit more :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurodiversity
http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com/index.php?page=main

And to see the world from another perspective :

http://isnt.autistics.org/index.html
http://isnt.autistics.org/dsn.html

Whoops - Skipped the Aspie Post

Some of you may have missed my regular Aspie Sunday post yesterday, on account of the fact that I didn't do one. This is because yesterday, the demands of parenting an child with Aspergers and his two brothers left me too shattered to turn my computer on let alone post anything.

So, if you like, you can consider this an open thread on managing challenging behaviour.

Same old Tories...

Cameron started off the conference with his usual spin and no substance...

"let sunshine win the day".

Pass the sick bag !

Then the Tories touchy feely mask slipped to show their prejudice and general nastiness.
Of course New Labour isn't immune to this either .

At a fringe meeting the little toe rag that is George Osborne is reported as saying :

He said Mr Brown lacked personal skills and, in a light hearted exchange, seemed to suggest his rival could be faintly autistic.
The comments came as Mr Osborne was talking about his own childhood, saying his brothers had nicknamed him "Knowledge" because he knew so many facts.
The journalist interviewing him at the event organised by the Policy Exchange and IPPR think tanks interjected that he might have been "faintly autistic".
Mr Osborne quipped: "We're not getting onto Gordon Brown yet."
Mr Osborne later denied suggesting Mr Brown was autistic when interviewed by Sky News.
The Tatton MP said: "I didn't say that actually." He added: "I was asked if I was slightly autistic." He said he had been "merely" moving the conversation on.

I suspect Brown will be undermined by both Blairites and the Tories on the grounds of his 'psychologically flawed' personality. Autism and aspergers are not 'flaws' . If Brown is an aspie its telling of this society that he has to hide it. So what, its not a bad thing. Why can't leadership contenders be aspies, be gay , be single parents, have had drink problems,not be cosy family men and women (though of course none are women). I don't like his politics , but as I have said before, give me a dour aspie Scotsman any day over Cameron and his lightweight PR friendly personality .

Sloppy journalism...

I have posted here before about the misrepresentation of autism and aspergers in the media . So it was with interest I read about a new film ,' Snow cake', which is covering this issue and features a woman who is on the autistic spectrum. I was then dismayed to see the Independent state :

Dustin Hoffman's memorable performance in Rain Man 18 years ago has long been seen as the definitive film representation of autism. To those who knew nothing of the learning disability, it was a revelation to discover that some sufferers, like Hoffman's character, Raymond, could demonstrate the most astonishing feats of memory

Sloppy journalism. A little research would have shown it is not a learning disability . It is a 'developmental disorder'. Now I would also argue against it being a disorder at all, but in terms of 'diagnosis' that's what the official term is. I would argue for the concept of neurodiversity (see my original post on this). It is a spectrum and many are highly intelligent. Also the bloody word 'sufferers' !! Arghhh.

Sorry but when much of the population is pretty ignorant on these issues I find this sort of journalism annoying . I could also rant about how mental health is portrayed, another misrepresentation,but I would be here all day on that !

I will be interested to see the film and see how the character is portrayed. It would be good to see the positives for a change, because there are lots with aspies :-)

Ponderings on Blair and Brown

Blair resigns as PM today,so why no celebration. Well of course I am glad he is going, but Brown was an architect of New Labour and has been a major part of the government for the last ten years. So when he takes the reins of power he is not going to be heralding the dawn of the revolution or even anything a little bit reformist. Things aren't going to get better, to misquote the New Labour '97 election song.

On to Brown. Well he seems to have started as he means to go on, beginning with his determination to ensure there was not an election for leader and as in the old Soviet days, that all nominated and endorsed him. It seems he wants to limit any real debate with his proposals to reduce further the influence of unions and conference. So much for those unions who backed Brown against McDonnell, who seemed to think they could exert influence on him. Will the tactic of not upsetting Brown whilst giving some support to Cruddas may any difference long term ?

Then there is the welcoming by Brown of a Tory defector to labour. Now as much as the next leftie I do like to see the Tories fight amongst themselves, but this is overshadowed at the horror of seeing him join the Labour ranks. Quentin Davies , the Tory defector, does not seem to have shifted his right wing views. Instead the Labour Party has become a place he now feels comfortable in:

Mr Davies said he had found himself increasingly "naturally in agreement" with the Labour Party.

He praised Mr Brown as "a leader I have always greatly admired, who I believe is entirely straightforward, and who has a towering record, and a clear vision for the future of our country which I fully share".

Mr Brown said: "Quentin Davies is a senior parliamentarian and he commands respect on all sides for his expertise and his dedication to public service, and I welcome him to the new Labour Party."

Take a look at a post from Owen highlighting what a nasty Thatcherite homophobic anti union shit he is. Proof if needed that Brown is not going to move leftwards , if any had any illusions (and I certainly didn't).

The Tories have tried to make out Brown is a closet leftie, but I suspect for all their talk of focusing on policies, their attacks will continue to focus on the personality differences. Cameron is more in the Blair mode with his bike riding, webCameon and converse shoes. Blair played the media, ingratiating himself with britpop in his early days and playing to the audience even to the extent of changing favourite foods and music to match the people he was addressing.

Of course it is not just the right that is attacking Brown on his personality . Hakmao highlights an attack on Brown by Galloway, interestingly in the 'showbiz and entertainment' section of the Daily Record. Says it all about Galloway really .

Galloway's comments :

THE first time I met Gordon Brown, more than 30 years ago, he was weighed down with more newspapers, magazines and policy papers than any normal man could possibly carry, never mind read.

But the clue is in the N word. Normal. Brown, who follows Bonar Law, Campbell-Bannerman, Ramsay MacDonald, Harold Macmillan, Sir Alec Douglas- Home and Tony Blair into No.10 as a British premier of Scots descent (not bad for an OPPRESSED small nation) is no normal man.

I mean that kindly as well as unkindly. Ir'n Broon has a completely abnormal single-mindedness - every step he has ever taken has been with this week's trip to the Palace in mind.

He is a policy worker on a par with Bill Clinton, though Brown's idea of a good time in his office is a study of endogenous growth theory rather than erectile expansion. He has a brain the size of Hampden, intellectually he is Bertrand Russell to Tony Blair's Bob Monkhouse (who said: "Once you can fake the sincerity ... the rest is easy.")

He is as straight as a son of the manse should be. Not for him the Cool Britannia pals and his missus will never secretly snap up nice flats in Bristol or get down and muddy for a spot of re-birthing with a con-man's floozy.

Neither will the new PM holiday with the likes of Mrs Robin Gibb, a bisexual Druid priestess from Northern Ireland (ah, but which team does Mrs Gibb support, I hear some readers ask).

But Brown's main problem with the N word is that he is, as Alistair Campbell allegedly said, indeed "psychologically flawed". In fact, I knew from that first day I met him that, like many a brain-box before him, he is asocial cripple.

Painfully shy, no small talk, dour to the point of sullen, unable to suffer fools gladly, he is a Rev I.M. Jolly when what the modern stage needs is Rikki Fulton's amanuensis, a Francie. Hullowrerrrr, nor anything like it, will ever trip off the lips of the new PM.

All of this could be carried to victory nonetheless if Gordon could just jettison the albatross of war, privatisation and the alienation of Labour's core vote which has seen them lose four million votes since that "New Dawn" in 1997.

But it can't and won't be. Because Brown is the co-architect of all that and it's too late to do anything about it. For me, therefore the script is tragedy, Shakespearean in scale.

Betrayed by his friends Blair, Mandelson and Reid, when they knifed him before the great John Smith was ere interred, Brown is "in blood stepped in so far, that should he wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o'er".

The Jim Callaghan of our times, he will likely have inherited his life-long goal, the Prime Minister-ship not Paul Gascoigne's, only in time to lose it.

Yes George, the main issue is his policy, not his personality. Why throw around words like 'normal' ? What exactly is 'normal' and why is it such a good thing ? Nothing wrong with difference . What is wrong with being weighed down with papers, being single minded and focused, not shagging the intern, not using office to gain freebies and hang out with new agers and con artists ?

And what exactly is a 'asocial cripple'? Interestingly language . So being serious and not shallow is being a 'cripple'?
'Painfully shy, no small talk, dour to the point of sullen, unable to suffer fools gladly' , why is this a criticism? is this relevant to his policies? This fits with
George Osborne last year :
He said Mr Brown lacked personal skills and, in a light hearted exchange, seemed to suggest his rival could be faintly autistic.

As I said on my post then :
I suspect Brown will be undermined by both Blairites and the Tories on the grounds of his 'psychologically flawed' personality. Autism and aspergers are not 'flaws' . If Brown is an aspie its telling of this society that he has to hide it. So what, its not a bad thing. Why can't leadership contenders be aspies, be gay , be single parents, have had drink problems,not be cosy family men and women (though of course none are women). I don't like his politics , but as I have said before, give me a dour aspie Scotsman any day over Cameron and his lightweight PR friendly personality .

Blair is 'normal', but he has taken the country to war, has limited the debate in the party and even in his own cabinet. Not just 'asocial cripples' then.
The issues with Brown are political and not his personality, which for the record I think is preferable to smarmy camera friendly Blair.
Lets judge him on his politics.