Autism’s “Incurable,” So Let’s Just Go Ahead and Drug ‘Em

     The word Autism initially meant “self-absorbed.” It was coined in the early 1900s by the racist  psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler, who also brought us the term “schizophrenia.” He then recommended the enforced sterilization of anyone diagnosed with schizophrenia in order to avoid the racial deterioration that would evolve from these “mental and physical cripples,” as he defined those mentally ill.

     Bleuler said schizophrenia was a “chronic and incurable” mental illness, thus exiling those diagnosed with it from any possibility of being helped. Hence, their mandatory sterilization. His medicalization of mental illness was new, and his eugenics theories and philosophy soon became handy justifications for the mass racial cleansing programs of the Third Reich.

     Autism, too, has been similarly medicalized and, in fact, the first word that appears when Googling it is “incurable.”

     Fifty years ago, only one child out of 2000 was  considered autistic. Today psychiatrists estimate that one child out of every 31 have autism, and they worry that even more have it but are not being diagnosed. One predominant theory today is that 90 percent of autism is genetically based…just like Bleuler’s schizophrenia.

     That rise in the estimate of autistic children over the last fifty years is coincident with the expanded definition of the term through the five incarnations of psychiatry’s DSM. Their current  umbrella term, Autism Spectrum Disorder, was coined in DSM V, but that term merely describes symptoms, not causes, of the condition.

      Consequently, the declaration of who is displaying those symptoms is highly subjective because it’s only based on personal observation. The “deficits” in social communication and interaction and the repetitive patterns of behavior which are said to define autism today have no objective measurement. They are the observer’s opinion of what’s a “deficit” or what’s too “repetitive.”

     The M-chat screening that is now done on infants 18 to 36 months old relies only on parents’  observations. Autism means “self-absorbed.” What 18 to 36 month old toddler is not self-absorbed? A toddler’s entire world consists of being hungry, needing sleep, and needing to be held and loved. Of course they’re self-absorbed…and not necessarily autistic.

     However, because Autism Spectrum Disorder is now an official diagnosis in the psychiatric DSM V bible, it can be used to authorize – and justify – the  prescription of psychotropic drugs to “control” the symptoms of autism…because it cannot be “cured,” of course.

     What do they prescribe today? Two of Big Pharma’s antipsychotic concoctions are the most recommended. The FDA has now approved Resperdal for “autistic” kids 5 to 16 and Abilify for  “autistic” kids 6 to 17.

     The FDA Black Box warnings for Resperdal include tardive dyskinesia and breast enlargement in both young females and males. The FDA has also warned that the use of Abilify can lead to uncontrollable, obsessive urges to gamble, binge eat, shop, and have sex.

     But of course if autism is incurable, who really cares?

     Only Big Pharma, which now has a nicely expanded market for the excessive profits from drugging our children.

     Thanks, Doctor Bleuler.