GUILTY AS CHARGED! : THE WAY WE TREAT AUTISM.

I will tell you a personal story first. Then we will come to the point.

This story goes back many years.

I was 8 years old then. My younger brother was 4. A beautiful, adorable child. Very smart, very intelligent!

But there was a problem. When he set his mind on something, you could not take his attention away. Sometimes, you may try to tell him something, but it went in one ear and out the other. He never hurt anybody, or insulted anybody. He just loved to live in his own world; mostly oblivious to the things around him, when he was in that mood. The problem was that everybody expected him to be a normal child. He wasn't. He remembered everything, every small detail, and he would recite a conversation word-for-word, including when it happened and who said what.

His photographic memory awed everyone who noticed it. We had a fairly large family, and that gave us some comfort in choosing who we wanted to talk to. Most of the family members talked to almost everyone else, but when it came to my little brother, they were a little aloof.

My dad was a doctor, a very well-respected, towering figure - over 6 feet tall with a commanding presence. When he talked, everyone listened. He always told us what we were supposed to do, and we all listened. If we didn't do what he wanted, the consequences were severe - a good whacking with a stick. I, being the older among the siblings, was a frequent recipient of this discipline. Unfortunately, my kid brother received this treatment for no other reason than he was not paying attention to my dad. When this happened, he would cry uncontrollably. We would go behind the house and I would give him a hug and would console him. I would tell him that it would not happen again, knowing full well that that was not true.

The worst thing was that nobody in our family dared say anything against my dad. Everybody was afraid to challenge him. So, this went on and on.

We lived in a small village. Most of our relatives lived nearby. Among them was my uncle, who was especially fond of me and my brother. He lived only a mile and a half away from our house.

One day, I was visiting him and we had just finished the dinner and we were sitting outside. It was getting dark. My uncle was telling me and my cousin a funny story when we suddenly herd a shrill cry - something that chilled my blood. My uncle suddenly stopped, told me and my cousin to go inside the house and stay there. He took his bike and sped away.

He came back a couple of hours later. We were almost falling asleep. He told me that I would be staying there that night and told my aunt to make a bed for me.

My cousin and I tried to go to sleep, but that ear-piercing scream kept on coming back in our memory and kept us awake for a while. All along, we heard my uncle and my aunt whispering something for a long time. Then I heard my aunt say "Oh My God!" and then the whisper got quieter and quieter until we fell asleep.

Next morning when my uncle took me home, he knocked on the door, and when my mother opened the door, he just said "Good Morning", led me into the house, and then left, without saying anything.

By a strange coincidence, from that day onwards, my dad did not hit anyone. He would get angry, but then say something and just walk away. Our nightmare started easing off.

Many years passed. My brother was a grown up guy by now, had followed into my footsteps, got a degree in Physics, and then went even further, with a Master's degree in Physics. He became a scientist and received a lot of acclaim in his field. Always a top-notch student, always a high academic achiever and very focused on his research. He always had that very special place for me in his heart, but not for many of our family members, and very little for our parents.

It was almost thirty years after that night with that scary scream. I was visiting my uncle. It was after dinner and we were sitting outside, talking. It was getting darker, and then that memory suddenly came back. I asked my uncle about what happened that night. He paused for a long while. My aunt had heard our conversation while she was bring in some lemonade, and she said, "Go ahead, tell him. He is a grown up man now, and he can handle it".

Then my uncle told me the whole story. When he heard the scream, he had suspected something was wrong. His hunch was right. That scream had come from our house. When he reached there, he found my father hitting my brother for not listening to him. My mother was just standing there, scared and crying. My uncle grabbed my father's hand and said " You better stop this right now, otherwise you will have to deal with me , and I will NOT be easy on you! God will never forgive you for your sin. What did this poor child do to you that you are about to kill him? This better stop, and stop RIGHT NOW!" Then he turned to my mother and said "If this animal ever touches this child or anybody else, call me right away. I will make sure he does not live a moment longer". He then turned to my father and said, "You better apologize to your son and your wife right now, or else I will make sure everybody in town knows about this. You are guilty now and will be guilty forever in my mind and in front of God". My father muttered something and walked away. My mother said, "Thank you for saving my child and me. I will never forget this. God will always bless you for this".

My uncle stayed there for a while, but didn't say much.

On the way home, he was thinking why anyone as intelligent and successful as my father would act like a demon and hurt an innocent child. Guilty, indeed, he thought, guilty for failing to understand that some children are different and God made them that way!

My brother had Autism.

Very few people knew it then, and even now, very few people understand it. Instead of trying to understand more about this disorder, we expect these God's children who happen to be autistic to behave normally and within the framework of logic- something they are incapable of doing. And we keep on punishing them for NOT BEING NORMAL.

We are guilty as charged, and we have absolutely no defense against it, because we choose NOT TO LEARN ABOUT AUTISM, (AND ASPERGER'S SYNDROME, ANOTHER VERSION OF IT). We just keep on pumping up drugs like Ritalin and Adderall into our unsuspecting children, pushing them further down this abyss of hopelessness.

GUILTY AS CHARGED, INDEED!

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Over the past 40 years, millions of children have been added to this exponentially growing epidemic. Latest medical research has identified mercury as the main culprit for this epidemic. People motivated by the seriousness of this ailment affecting their children have started forming groups that support techniques such as chelation that have helped their children get out of the vicious clutches of this monster.

We as a society have to wake up to the immenseness of this problem and start demanding answers and treatments. The consequences of neglecting it are enormous!

I am giving some useful links that can help my readers find answers. I invite them to go even further and search the web to get answers more pertinent to their needs. The more we know, the better prepared we are to deal with this calamity.

I wish hope and success to those amongst us who are facing this monster.

Peace and Blessings!

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Some links:

http://www.upi.com/Consumer_Health_Daily/Reports/2007/04/27/ped_med_alternative_autism_treatments/

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aspergers_pr.html

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=67953
(Mercury as the main cause)