To Have, Or Not Have, Autism
“Does your son have autism?” actress Jenny McCarthy is regularly asked. She smiles. “No. Not anymore,” McCarthy replies.
This is from the November 20th 11Alive.com news (Atlanta).
But: “Jenny McCarthy Opens Up About Her Son With Autism” (People Magazine, September 18). And this from the description of McCarthy’s book, Louder Than Words: A Mother’s Journey in Healing Autism:
Her story shares the frustrations and joys of raising an autistic child and shows how with love and determination a parent can shape their child’s life and happiness.
I’m getting at least a bit confused about what McCarthy’s son does or does not have?
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POSTED IN: Media, Stereotypes
21 opinions for To Have, Or Not Have, Autism
Liz D.
Nov 21, 2007 at 4:50 pm
That, and the accompanying article
http://www.11alive.com/news/health/article_health.aspx?storyid=106774
and
http://www.11alive.com/news/article_news.aspx?storyid=106720
were jaw-droppingly biased in favor of the “vaccines cause autism” and “chelation is the cure” points of view.
No wonder the woo is winning.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Nov 21, 2007 at 4:54 pm
A little dose of Orac may be in order:
America the Over-vaccinated, on the return of Don Imus
and
How Much of Modern Medicine is Evidence-based
Beth
Nov 21, 2007 at 5:08 pm
The woo is getting the spotlight but it can’t really win in the long-term. If people try it and it doesn’t work it will lose in the end.
neil
Nov 21, 2007 at 5:15 pm
In Victoria, Australia, we have autism specific schools and it’s not unknown for parents to be offered a place after diagnoses, only to turn it down, for they can’t accept their child has autism. Sounds like Jenny has a variant of this sort of thinking, never really coming to terms with it. I think I know what she dreams of at night, but I do agree that…’with love and determination a parent can shape their child’s life and happiness’…whether the child has autism or not.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Nov 21, 2007 at 5:19 pm
“Love and determination” take the day for me—Charlie has a lot of both himself.
Marmiteboy
Nov 21, 2007 at 5:53 pm
I’d wonder if her son ever had autism in the first place to be honest.
Chuck
Nov 21, 2007 at 5:58 pm
Autism is nothing but woo, be it treatment or diagnosis.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Nov 21, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Woo-tism, maybe……..
Autismville
Nov 21, 2007 at 11:06 pm
This may seem outrageous to some, but since Evan is being held out as an example over and over again in the media, can’t we just see the kid … and not on a video … live and in person??? Then we can all figure out what “recovered” truly means.
Oprah has “kid wonders” on her show all the time. Maybe she could have a show about “kid wonders that recovered from autism…”
I know for me, explaining Jack to someone as opposed to someone seeing him in person, is a very different experience.
Just a thought…
Kristina Chew, PhD
Nov 22, 2007 at 1:25 pm
My sense, too, is that we are mostly being told by McCarthy about the “recovery” of her son. There have been photos (as in the People magazine story) but not even so many videos—-and a short clip does not say too much.
Kassiane
Nov 22, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Seeing as Ms McCarthy isn’t even aware of autistic people older than 5 (as indicated by all her interviews where she says as much), she wouldn’t know “recovery” from “autistic 5 year old doing quite well” anyway, would she?
Kristina Chew, PhD
Nov 22, 2007 at 3:35 pm
All the more reason it might be helpful to let others make their own judgements about the “recovery” of this autistic 5 year old.
Bink
Nov 22, 2007 at 4:04 pm
I’d love to see Evan, too. He sounds like a cool kid. I’m sure Miss McCarthy’s cause would be helped exponentially by showing the world that her child does not have autism anymore, as she states. Please put him on camera and let us all see for ourselves! If you don’t, we’ll only have a mother’s description of her child to rely on….wait, a mother whose only source of income is a description of her child to rely on….hmmm…..wait a minute…
jypsy
Nov 22, 2007 at 4:18 pm
So he’s reverted back to being a Crystal Child ? Or he always was one? Or he never was one? Or he recovered from that too?
Is she still an Indigo Mom? Why isn’t anyone asking? In April 2006 she was on Jay Leno’s show in her “Indigomoms.com” shirt, what are the chances she’d return to his show and, if she did, would he ask her about it?
I’m not sure you (and/or I) are any more confused as she is herself, however confusing we’re finding it.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Nov 22, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Hmmmmmm indeed…………… and there are those educational products too……..
I’ve been wondering where the Indigo Moms “thing” went—I’m waiting for her to have a line of “special diet food items.”
Kassiane
Nov 22, 2007 at 4:55 pm
*I* am waiting for someone to point out that smoking while pregnant and a steady intake of diet soda, not to mention fake breasts, is not exactly a way to keep your body toxin free, if they want to keep on with this “toxins make autism!” thing.
Maybe there will be Jenny McCarthy Diet Soda, with “safe” fake sugar?
Rochelle
Nov 23, 2007 at 1:42 pm
+1 for Kassiane.
Love the observation.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Nov 23, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Not to mention, well, maybe it’s best not mentioned.
pickel
Nov 24, 2007 at 12:52 am
I wrote about his a while ago…where is he? its nice that jenny gets to go about her pretty life while we all get to parent.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Nov 24, 2007 at 1:21 am
Can you send a link to your post? She was there for 3 days of the conference……who was watching her son….Jim and my parents were with Charlie while I was in Atlanta.
lisa bivins
Dec 2, 2007 at 7:31 am
my little girl gracie has autism but she is so beautiful and smart she wont talk doe she just turn 4 on nov 30 2007 and i just wish i had my information for ican help her and maybe some kind of diet also she is so bright i love her so much .
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