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 Autism
Treatment
If
you are anything like me when it comes to naming a favorite movie, and
appreciate the brilliance of a performance by Dustan Hoffman playing
Rainman Raymond Babbit, you will appreciate the beautiful nuances and
idiosyncrasies, the intelligence and endearing characteristics of an
autistic individual. Or you may be touched by the depiction of a genius
afflicted as played by Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind. Or
you may identify at some level with Geoffrey Rush’s portrayal
of the piano virtuoso David Helgott, who goes slowly and yet suddenly
mad.
But great and moving films aside, some of us have a deeper connection
to mental disorder, one that seeks, for example, a solution for
schizophrenia or an ADD recovery plan or an autism treatment that works
to re-socialize and satisfy the needs of the patient and his or her
family. It is the latter, autism treatment, that demands
attention here today.
If you study the autism treatment pamphlets, you will learn that many
attempts are made to study and find solutions for a condition that
includes abnormal social skills/interactions/responses, repetitive
characteristics such as rocking or rituals, unique speech codes, and
lack of affect (no eye contact, no sense of danger, value, importance,
no humor, etc.).
You will also find progressive methods and approaches for autism
treatments, some of which are aligned with western medicine, others
which include more homeopathic approaches. Some of the autism
treatments include the following, which are here only briefly addressed
but are by no means intended as medical advice in total:
Antibiotic Treatment
Anti-fungal Treatment- based on the notion that colon problems and
common bowel problems are prevalent in autistic individuals, and can
cause everything from hallucinations to the autism itself--anti-fungal
therapies involve sugar-reduction, yeast-free diets, medications, and
anti-fungal supplements.
Behavior Modification- based on the belief that behavior that is
rewarded is more likely to be repeated, behavior modification as an
autism treatment attempts to treat “inappropriate,
repetitive, and aggressive” behaviors.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment- based on theories that autism and other
developmental disorders take origin in viral infections, auto-immune
disorders, and encephalitis (and encephalitic lesions), hyperbaric
oxygen treatment has been studied and used to balance and return oxygen
to the compromised blood supply to the brain.
Medications- based on the knowledge that various symptoms (focus
problems, anxiety, aggression) accompany autism, medications are used
to treat not the disorder as a whole but symptoms that appear in the
autistic individual.
Naltrexone Treatment (NTX) - based on the understanding of an excess of
opioids in the brain, NTX is a drug that works against the opioids by
blocking them.
Other therapies and autism treatments are still under way, being
studied, or coming under the fire of controversy. Secretin,
administered transdermally; stimulants, anti-depressants,
benzodiazapenes, and even dietary modifications, for example, are, as
always, touted by one group who find success and rejected by another
group that worries about the dangers of mistreatment.
So it may be as it was with Rainman, when his brother took him to a
small-town doctor and the intake nurse said,
“Artistic? He’s
artistic?” Then again, it may be that the doctors
and medical practitioners you seek support from will have the latest
and most effective of autism treatments. Bless you in your
search.
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