Autism Treated and Cured

There's no such thing as autism

By Ann M Evans

I am reviewing this title , as being an autistic adult myself I was curious to see how autism could be cured , as there is currently no 'cure' available. I have high functioning autism , and get on pretty well in life .... I'm very happily married , have two children and a career that I enjoy , so to sum it up , I am very happy with my life and the person that I am. So why would I need a cure ? 

Perhaps that is where I have taken offence at this book . I know many other autistic people , and whilst I appreciate that we all present differently in our symptoms , I think we all accept who we are and are happy with the people we are . I had a discussion recently with some fellow aspies , where we asked ourselves if there was a cure for autism ,would we take it ? and the result was an outstanding no . Would a gay person want to be cured from being gay , or a redhead want a cure to not have ginger hair ? Probably not.

The author refers to autism as a 'disease' and a 'mental illness' . It is not a disease at all , it is a genetic condition in which the autistic person processes information in an individual sense , not necessarily evident nor logical to a non-autistic person . Also , I took offence at the author's yearning to make their child 'normal'. What exactly is 'normal' ? I consider myself to be perfectly normal , as do most autistic people I know . The main problem for us is everyone else not understanding our condition and the prejudice that ensues from that . I am no less 'normal' than the next person .

The author 'cured' her daughter , Sarah , using a mixture of complimentary medicine techniques , Chinese medicine and a change in diet . This is laudable , but what you have to realise that all autistic people present differently in their symptoms ,so as such if this 'cure' works for one person it does not necessarily work for all - in fact it probably only will work for that one person . The best thing to help an autistic person is to understand them and help them to understand themselves and cope with their limitations.

The book was poorly written , with many typographical errors . Whilst I am aware that the parent has an autistic child , I felt that the book lacked empathy with autistic people and failed to convey an understanding of the successful and happy lives that many autistic people lead.

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