Children with Autism

"Being victimized by an other human being can disrupt relationships with all human beings" (Peter R. Breggin).

Autistic children live in fear of others :

Physiological findings in autistic people : so far, it has not been determined whether those specific features are causes or consequences of autism but

"amygdala is also enlarged. This particular size may be related to a high level of anxiety in autistic people. Research shows that their amygdala is activated when looking at faces, as if confronting a threat" (Time Magazine, May 15 th 2006).

In 2009, Henry and Kamila Markam of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne found after they studied children with autism that

"the fundamental problem of autism-spectrum disorders is not a social deficiency but rather hypersensibility to experiences with others which includes an overwhelming fear response" (from www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/).

This highly looks like autistic children were severely abused and then in presence of others they feel unsafe because they fear it might happen again, hence their silence and withdrawal to try minimize the risk of being inflicted terrible harm again.

Linked disturbances :

Statistics in the US confirm this as 80 % of children and teens with autism spectrum were found to have also anxiety that causes stress and difficulties in daily life.

Also, 1/3 of autistic children have also seizures and sleep disturbances. Sleep disturbances are often the consequence of having been abused, they fear it would happen again when they are asleep : their anxiety keep them awake for their safety.

Under interdiction to talk ? Autistic children seem to be under a strongly interiorized interdiction to talk : "I'll tell Mommy !" is the only protection a young child can try to prevent being abused, while the abuser can intimidate the child into silence by ordering "tell nobody !", like victims and witnesses of crimes are threatened of death if they report to authorities (see also below Hints of Abuse).

Autistic children can be fully aware of their condition : A 10-year-old boy, Ian Drummond, speaking thru facilitated communication:

"People don't understand that autism is like having a bad dream. You have to learn everything the hardest way possible... I hate autism. It is a nightmare. Sometimes I want to die. It would be better for everyone if I was dead" (from book by Russell Martin "Out of Silence").

This child suffers all the more as he is fully aware that he can not be like children of his age, and that he is a permanent cause of worries and stress in his family.

Brain size : cause or consequence of autism ?

Children with autism are normal children who were severely abused and try as a post-traumatic reaction to protect themselves from further harm and sufferings : their brain is quite normal as is their reaction of fear when with others, anybody heavily traumatized would react that way.

Some researchers found that autistic children had a larger brain than average. They then concluded autism is caused by an abnormal brain, i. e. they call their finding a cause but actually if they were truly honest scientists they would also consider the other option : any finding can be a consequence of other facts also. Thus the same fact can be a cause or consequence of other facts : such knowledge about chain reactions is the basis of science and there are no effects without causes.

Now if to be fair those researchers would consider if a larger brain could be a consequence of autism, they could understand that children with autism living in fear keep their inner life more internalized than other children : they communicate much less with others, are then much more introverted than average children, life in them tend to seek protection by withdrawing deeper, then their brain grows more.

It is possible also that a bigger brain helps cope better with the high level of stresses and sufferings autistic children are under : all living beings' bodies have to adapt to the milieu where they have to live, if not they die. The body of any person does not exist independently of the feelings ces experiences in life.

It is weird that no study was ever made on the second option: a bigger brain as a consequence of autism. This is an other example of how scientific research can be deliberately biased to serve interests that have nothing to do with truth and public health. This also contributes to making the public believe that autism is a neurological disorder to avoid considering it is caused by emotional factors.

Like other introverted children, when it is possible to test them, autistic children are found with higher intelligence than average children : this does not match with the conclusion that autism is a neurological abnormality, neurologically impaired persons can not score with superior intelligence.

The motive behind such biased researches that strive to find an organic cause to autism even if there is none, is to deny the truth that autism is caused by abuses : this is to please the many adults who want to continue to believe that they are for nothing if their child is found with a severe disorder or disease.

Hints of abuse :

In the book in French "Ma victoire sur l'autisme" by Tamara Morar, a French mother with an autistic little boy Paul

- when 4 year-old the child restarts talking but is reluctantly uttering a few words, she finds "it's as if the child felt it was dangerous to speak" (p. 103).

- p. 191 : "during a long time, Paul had rejected his father in the category of strangers to distrust. This attitude puzzled the father who hesitated to force the contact that Paul sometimes refused brutally. [But as the child progressed] after distrust indifference followed, then detached curiosity" [for the father].

It seems that this mother never suspected that the father could be the abuser who caused autism in their child as she was 100% economically dependent on him as she dropped her job to care full time for their autistic son.

Autistic child cured :

Nevertheless, that mother being very attached and dedicated to her son, she spent a lot of time trying to help him out of autism : with the help of a speech therapist and compassionate school teachers they succeeded in really curing him in the course of a few years. From severe autism the child became similar to his peers but with above average intelligence and sensitivity.

Unfortunately it seems that the book she wrote to tell that story was never published in english even though she was by profession a translator french-english.

Traumatism and autism :

Massacre of children in Scotland in 1998 :

A pedocriminal with firearms wanted to kill a whole class of children aged 5 year-old, he killed 16 and the teacher. The surviving children were found to be under a syndrome similar to autism after the horror : they could not talk nor cry, were emotionally frozen as a consequence of having suffered this extreme trauma.

Same causes producing same effects, that shows that autistic children also suffered heavy trauma(s) but were never treated as such because they were never recognized as traumatized, as all adults prefer to consider only the hypothesis of a biological or neurological cause for autism to avoid facing the truth which is much more shocking.

Those surviving children at the school in Scotland were in good health biologically and neurologically but given the extreme violence they lived thru, they could not be afterward in good condition as before.

Anyway, all traumatized persons have difficulty to talk, but nevertheless are not called autistic.

Mute and withdrawn child :

"A Japanese girl named Hidomi became mute at age seven as a result of the abuse she had suffered by her parents. Her world was lonely and she felt she could not trust anyone. She retreated into herself, feeling safe only in her isolation.

Because of the trauma, a court ordered her to be taken to live on her grandmother's farm where she would be away from her parents. On the farm were many animals. She began spending her days with them, petting and feeding them. She began to feel safe. They gave her unconditional love as she played with them.

Eventually, she began to talk to the animals, regained her power of speech, and grew up to be healthy and happy. She is now studying to be a veterinarian" (from the book "Peaceful Kingdom" by Stephanie Laland, p. 104).

Emotional deprivation :

Autism can also be a consequence of emotional deprivation : some researchers found autistic disabilities in children living in institutions, they then advocate placing young autistic children in foster care to meet their emotional needs.

(more on autistic children at the "Obstacles for Creating the Project" page).

rev. 2017