I’m back from AutCom. It was both enjoyable and overloading. I plan to write a detailed account later.
The account may not be forthcoming for a bit, because it’s nasty-migraine-week (female hormone stuff) and I’m quite overloaded on top of that. Last night I managed to vomit and urinate just about everywhere but the toilet, and to go outside and get confused into immobility by the sheer number of blades of grass out there.
I’m still trying to write it but it might take awhile. Right now, even lying down and staring out the window seems unnecessarily overloading.
By the way, comments urging me overtly or covertly to view myself as in need of quacky biomed crap or as being in denial about some kind of preventable but ultimately lethal (and apparently pathetic) deterioration, are going to get deleted before they’d have been published. You know exactly who you are, and I do too, so don’t waste your time on me.
Ballastexistenz 
That stinks that someone was bothering you with useless suggestions; although I’m never quite sure what “biomed” means.
On the other hand (see above uncertainty) I also hope it wasn’t me, with the list of natural supplements my mother uses in order to have less migraines.
It was nice to “meet” you guys in the ALF HQ on SecondLife yesterday.
I like the idea of virtual conferencing… and I see why it could be really useful, too, in terms of both overload and financial aspects.
Hope you are feeling better soon.
If you have to ask, it’s not you.
This sounds like a cry for help and I would normally suggest biomed.. However, I think you should first arrange for cult deprogramming for yourself so you can understand that refusing medical assistance to make the drug companies look good is not in your own best interest.
That, on the other hand, I’m letting through because its sheer stupidity is obvious.
The person I’m talking to, however, has already had posts blocked this past week, and is the only person whose posts have ever been blocked here. He’s not any sort of figure in recent online conflicts over this stuff, at all. But he knows damn well who he is, and any times when I’d sit by and even try to listen to his manipulations are years past.
I do get medical assistance. The key word, is medical. Quackery is not medical. Anyone who doesn’t realize I’ve refused more drugs than I’ve ever taken, or slammed the way drug companies handle certain drugs given supposedly for autism, doesn’t know me well enough to dole out ridiculous and stupid quack-medical advice online. Of course, anyone who knows me well enough, wouldn’t. End of story.
I can’t even parse (is that the word?) #3. And I tried 4 times at least. You don’t need to explain it, though: I think you already did.
(^_*)
Well, um … Continued wish that things calm down for you generally.
Ooh! Fennel seed! Fennel seed is good for migraines!! (Kidding. Kidding. Last person who tried to “recommend” a remedy when my migraines were at their fiercest received the assault of his lifetime. And fennel makes me nauseous, anyway.)
Seriously, though — looking forward to you feeling better and hearing your AutCom exploits.
And Amanda — I’m surprised you never mentioned this cult you belong to! Why, I’m shocked and appalled! ;-P
I have no advice. I hope you feel better soon.
P.S. I find you generally quite open to assistance of all kinds — especially devices and assorted technology. And “not in your own best interest” is the most culty and institutional thing I see on this page, anyway.
Amanda, do tell. I don’t want details, but I’ve got to know at least which of your posts this person posted in response to. C’mon . . .
They were in reply to the one about the impact on families of the murder-fantasy propaganda. Which was not only off-topic, but totally insensitive.
WRT the cult stuff, being accused of being a cult member is new lately.
I’ve been accused of brainwashing Joel Smith before, though.
Actually, a long time ago I think I and all other autistic adults who had ever liked or written for autistics.org had supposedly been brainwashed by Laura Tisoncik.
It’s interesting how some people assume that everyone’s either forcibly leading or forcibly being led… and to those who erroneously find me pathetic enough I’m one who is obviously just forcibly being led and taken advantage of and gee even this talk is nauseating.
No need to respond, but I had no idea this was carrying on without me:
http://aleph-nought.blogspot.com/2006/08/another-fundamental-question.html
Thanks for handling that.
If that was John Best (as in Jr), then that is weird; I have never, ever seen him respond under his own name on these blogs. Did the IP addy resolve to the same as any of the usual talks-to-himself-I/D-IPs he uses?
Cult refs are not JBJr… abuse is. But not cult refs.
Hi David — yes, the cult thing is JBJr’s latest perseveration, he’s been making similar comments on other blogs lately. Just ignore him. BTW, I enjoyed the video of your song.
It’s not your typical religious cult, Dave. You’re one of the victims. Did they teach you anything about deprogramming working on your pending Special Ed degree in basket weaving?
Hi Amanda. I was at Autcom and saw your presentation. I refrained from approaching you at the conference because you’d mentioned you were having a tough time with migraines and I didn’t want to add to the overload. Anyway, I thought your presentation was a high point of a great conference; the ability to speak of one’s own experience with such nuance is uncommon among writers anywhere.
Autcom ruled. I really enjoyed strengthening connections with people I knew, and making some new ones. Phil Schwarz and I got better acquainted Friday night; we’d met at Autreat ’05, where my ability to engage in sustained conversations was limited by the need to focus attention on my son Ben, one of whose primary modes of stimming is to run, and is an enthusiastic explorer of new places filled with cool people. I also got to have another extended conversation with Sandra Radisch, whom I met last year and who has taken an interest in Ben, whose sensorimotor challenges (at least on a fine motor and oral motor level) appear similar to her own. Her encouragement to keep FCing with him was much appreciated by me in the wake of a stressful year.
Have you ever tried nonquacky acupuncture stuff for migraines? :-) I do acupuncture (part-time, when not homeschooling my son), and have had some success with it. I haven’t experienced more than a hint of migraines myself, unless my “sinus pain” is undiagnosed migraine, which I recently read it may well be. Anyway, my sincere sympathy on this, and if you haven’t tried acu and it’s accessible to you, it may help. As in other healing professions, there are practitioners who use sliding scales in cases of economic need. Most of the relevent points require needling rather than massage (acupressure), but here are a couple that perhaps you or a companion might try:
–Point GB 44 is on the dorsum of the foot between the 4th and 5th toes, proximal to the margin of the web at the junction of the red and white skin. (If your toes are webbed, as mine are between the 2nd and 3rd toe, measure from the point at which they normally wouldn’t be webbed.) This is a really good point to needle, but pressure (that doesn’t pierce the skin) with a tipped object, like a fork tine, might help.
–Point LI 4, which is somewhat well-known as a good point for headache, tooth pain and menstrual cramps, is in the middle of the 2nd metacarpal bone on the radial side: in layperson’s terms, between the web of the thumb and index finger. To find it, put your thumb abd forefinger together and find the peak of the hump made by the skin of the web. Place a finger on that point, relax the thumb and forefinger, and press in toward the hand (i.e., toward the metacarpal bone beneath the index finger) with a massaging motion. Usually the point is tender in proportion to the pain one is experiencing.
peace,
Jim
typo: above should be GB 43, not 44 (fwiw).
Cult leaders will always tell you to ignore the truth. Isn’t that right, Mr Seidel?
Life experience tells me to ignore assholes. So this will be my only response to you on this thread, Mr. Best. Go foul your own nest.
I see I struck a nerve, Dave. I think you should apply your foul language to those who lie about the effects of thimerosal. In your case, you won’t have to look very far.
Amanda: I’m sorry to add to this person’s flame war (Jr) but I just have to respond to this…….he’s telling others what to do as if they are stupid, and then he spells incorrectly.
Um, it’s “thimerasol.” And I don’t completely agree with that theory either…..in fact, I am really not sure how I feel about it. my thoughts range from……..eh, its bs, to hmmmmm…………….maybe????????? a very hesitant maybe. Amanda, do you have posts about this thimerasol idea? that autism may be caused in part by thimerasol in the vaccinations……….when I was posting on the autism pdd message board, I read posts from many parents who were no longer getting their children vaccinated because of this concern of autistic behaviour induced by thimerasol. I’m asking out of sheer curiosity…………..
hope you’re feeling better now
AI
On brainwashing – I’ve been accused of being so by *family*, because of my political views on disability and autism. Supposedly, I wasn’t brainwashed when I was younger and hated myself, but now people on the Internet tell me to like my body/way of thinking, question the medical establishment and be a disability rights activist. Or something like that. I don’t understand why nobody seems to grasp how insulting this is. I choose my politics and ideas myself, thank you.
Thimerosal.
No, there’s nothing to it. Check out autismdiva.blogspot.com and her friends for more info. (For instance, her review of a scientific paper on the topic at http://autismdiva.blogspot.com/2006/07/autism-spectrum-prevalence-in-montreal.html .)
What did you think of Barb Moran? And did you see her pictures? And I will go next year because it is in Canada.
Kathy Grant
Amanada, My aunt had a terrible time with migraines and eventually tried acupucture which she says really helped. I too have used acupucture for tendonitis and gained enormous improvement. I had about 6 or 7 applications and it cost a bit, but it worked. That was bout 5 years ago and I have had almost no touble since. It may be worth a try.
Don’t blame you for avoiding drugs, I do the same whenever possible.
I’ve pretty much heard every piece of migraine advice possible. No offense to anyone giving it, but I haven’t heard anything new in a long time.
I’m not avoiding drugs on the migraine front, but I’m very careful about them. Given that one class of migraine drugs seriously impairs my breathing (and are not in fact supposed to be prescribed to asthmatics), others (most) are just plain ineffective, and some do things like make my whole body retain water and puff up, or disinhibit me and make my emotions go out of whack, or cause massive allergic reactions, etc… I’m really careful.
I’m not going to try more than one thing at once — I’ve already made all the dietary and lifestyle changes that are necessary, and at this point I’m in the middle of trying one drug that has so far neither had any bad effects nor any good ones. If I were to start trying every migraine remedy at once, I wouldn’t know which one was working. So I’m doing the slow, obnoxious, and painful way, but also the way that’s more likely to get clear and definite results.
This also means, unless it’s an utter emergency I can’t take most painkillers of any kind, because all of them can cause migraines to get worse. So that translates to, actually, again, avoiding drugs — NSAIDs, Tylenol, and opiates can all make migraines worse in the long run. So can short-term migraine drugs. (The trouble is convincing doctors who are not up on the recent studies that, no, I can’t really safely take any of these more than a couple times a week. I just ranted to my headache doctor about this yesterday, and he assured me that, yes, there definitely are studies showing I should not be taking Tylenol every day no matter what my other doctor says.)
And I react badly to so many different drugs for so many different reasons that in general I am highly cautious about them. There are entire classes of drugs that I utterly refuse to take at all. Others I will only take in emergencies, and some only in the sort of emergencies where I’m going to have round-the-clock medical monitoring if I’m on them.
The fun thing is, of course, when I know more about a drug than some harried emergency-room doctor does. This past spring I was on a drug that causes edema all over the body, and he was trying to treat it as an allergic reaction. I finally had to pretty much pester him to give me a diuretic — which fixed everything — instead of sending me home with Benadryl, which would not have done a thing. (Of course, this is the same emergency room that ordered police — with guns — to come tell a friend of mine to leave under her own power because she was now “discharged”, when she had no use of her arms or legs at the time. That is a place where I now flat-out refuse to go alone.)
But… yeah. I do avoid most drugs, and the fact that I take a few (including a few herbal ones, not because they’re herbal but because for what I use them for they work better — herbal does not mean safer and I get really irritated when people assume it does) doesn’t mean I’m some big champion of the pharmaceutical industry.
Alison; Autism Diva is a 60 year old college student. There are better educated sources to learn the truth about thimerosal. The main thing you should be aware of is that many children are being cured by removing the mercury from their brains. It is probably too late for Autism Diva to be helped. She’s at the age where her mercury poisoning will probably turn into Alzheimer’s any minute.
JB or whatever: that’s just RUDE. To AutismDiva, to people with Alzheimers, and in general. I am a college teacher, and usually my 60-year-old students (no matter how much previous academic education they’ve had) are the cleverest of the bunch. Also, you should know that continued learning actually can help people avoid Alzheimers.
“… continued learning actually can help people avoid Alzheimers.” That is an old wives tale. Learning does not remove mercury which is the cause of Alzheimer’s.
Autism Diva quoted from a peer-reviewed article that actually says what she said it does (which is more than the “mercury causes autism, alzheimer’s and what-all” chorus can do); attacking her as a source is moot. That’s the only morsel I’m slipping trollward. G’day.
The Diva is a jealous old woman with an aging child still in diapers. She can’t cure her own kid and doesn’t want anyone else to cure their’s. The proof about thimerosal is all around you, Butler. You just can’t see it through the smokescreen thrown up by a bunch of nitwits.
hello john best, we’ve gone through much biomed stuff to trys to help with issues, maybe some stuff helped other issues, but it never affected our autism, also my sisters youngest autistic, never been vaccinated, organic whole food vegetarian eating, still diagnosed autistic, also my brothers youngest son, also never been vaccinated, again also just diagnosed. we’ve had complex conditions that healthwise gave us much to deal with, and we blamed vaccines for some time only now we’ve got two more autistic youngsters that never been vaccinated and yet still are as autistic as the rest. and no, we didn’t get mercury from the fish because they don’t eat fish of any kind, and we usually drink distilled water and even put filters in our showerheads, soooooo….. that takes a turn away from the mercury theory, because we’ve got two here who’ve never so much as gotten any shot whatsoever and are still autistic. i don’t know what to say, i did discover another site that had the same thing happen where a man didn’t vaccinate his younger son and he also turned out autistic, just like in our family and the whole mercury argument just fall apart after that.
it was great seeing you at Autcom, Amanda, loved seeing you there.
crabtail