Is ASD caused by trauma? Can it be ‘fixed’ forever?

amother

Darkblue

Today at 1:30 am

I work with mainstreamed special needs.
I really strongly believe that you have to look forwards not backwards. If there are skills lacking, trauma etc now, deal with it from here. You cannot relive your life. I have a kid whose mother "rebirthed" her (whatever that means) because she was sure that stress during pregnancy caused her issues.

Yidishkeit has teshuva as an ikar - meaning accepting you made a mistake, regretting it and promising not to do it again. Nowhere does it say that you can go back and relive your life perfectly. That's impossible.

Step number one in helping your child is accepting them. Warts and all. Step number two is loving their differences.

You can't go back and "fix" everything so that it should be perfect. You can move forward from here - a healthier diet, a calm atmosphere, support, therapy and skills. And most important? love and acceptance.

amother

Strawberry

Today at 2:36 am

There is more and more evidence that ASD is genetic. Some evidence that things like high fever at a young age seem to correlate as well - but more and more research is showing genetic. They have not isolated the gene yet, but they are very close.

There are many things that can help "cure" ASD, but the fact that the "healer" is blaming it on your feelings sounds very Fruedian pseudoscience that has been debunked, and that they are exploiting your situation to make money.

I am all for natural healing BTW - there is a lot of evidence ( anecdotal not studies) of diet and gut health improving symptoms and therapies like ABA and DIR and CBT/DBT can really help. My brother was diagnosed with ASD as a child and today has a successful career, a masters, friends, and reasonable social skills ( he is still slightly "quirky").

amother

Watermelon

Today at 3:10 am

amother Strawberry wrote:

This! It reminded me a bit (ok, more than a bit) of the refrigerator mom thing from years ago that thankfully was eventually realized to be absolute nonsense.

As a mom of an adult with autism, I will say that these kids aren't "cured" in the way that you mean - they learn new skills, they learn how to better adapt to the world around them, ones who are high enough functioning learn how to mimic what others do and expect, but they are still genetically who they are and have challenges that a so called "normal" kid wouldn't. But each of these kids are so different from each other! One of them may learn to be better at social skills, one better at daily living skills, one better at dealing with overwhelming stimuli - there's a reason it's referred to as a spectrum Wink

One of the best most helpful things I was ever told I was told by a special Ed teacher who at the time was providing services to my son at home (he was little - under 4 for sure and honestly probably younger than that). I asked her if she thought he could ever get married and her answer was an eye opening "would you worry about that at this age if he wasn't autistic?" when I said no, she said "then don't worry about it now!" - and it's true, about things like will they be able to live alone, get a job, have a family, all those big things...if I wouldn't drive myself mad about it for any other kid at this age, why for him? The point is, stop worrying about the long term at this moment, even most of the "how did this happen" won't help you now, unless you stumble upon something that can be cured. Focus on helping him learn new skills and on developing his own skills and strengths.

I am not saying don't look for what will help him the most - we've all btdt, with many of us looking for the unicorn cure, I am just saying enjoy your little one, help him in the best way that you can, and don't let anyone talk you into believing that there was anything you did or didn't do that caused this
Hug