Just facts on vax.

Just the facts on vax and Autism – No Relationship. Period. Try Acceptance instead.

Well, just the facts on vax and how it relates to autism!

It doesn’t.

It just doesn’t. It has no connection. Zero. Nil. Nada. Zilch.

Not much more to say really on that point, in terms of the facts. Still it seems so many are ready to blame autism on vaccines even in the face of tomes of evidence to the contrary.

Why so?

I don’t have the actual facts on that. I have an inkling, though. I have an idea a theory if you will.

My theory is that as humans we fear the unknown. We fear what we don’t know and we worry about it coming to hurt us, to control us, to take away what we have.

So, we have a tendency then to grasp at any explanation, any possible reasoning to explain how this terrible unknown thing happened, what caused it.

It seems vaccines are the victim of that.

So many times I hear the story that goes along the lines of – my child was fine, developing normally and then the vaccine and I brought home a different child.

The story goes like that, but the scientific research says something completely different. The research says overwhelmingly there is no link between autism and vaccines whether as a trigger or as a cause. It just doesn’t exist.

There is no question that vaccine injury is a real thing. A very rare thing but a real thing nevertheless.

Yes, it’s a real thing. But what it is not is autism.

I think there is a reason we hear that story so often. I believe that it is due to a similarity in the timing of when vaccines are administered and when the signs of autism in children commonly become observable.

And no I don’t think that means that parents didn’t know their kids, didn’t observe them properly. No, I don’t think that at all.

What I do think is that we want to see our kids develop according to the typical timelines. As humans, we are conditioned to fear the different and so we have a tendency, I think, to not see things that are there because we don’t want to see them. We have a tendency to be hopeful that it will work out and what we have an inkling of is just our imagination.

It’s not that we are ignorant, it’s not that we don’t know our own kids. It’s that we just hope for the best for them and so often we imagine that best to be a so-called normality. A boy or girl next door idea of a smart and sporty successful etc child.

And of course, there is nothing wrong with that at all. What parent doesn’t want that?

But here’s the thing. If we refuse to let go of that and remain committed to not accepting that our child is different neurologically and spend time fighting it, looking for the reason, the cause and possibly the cure, if we do this we send a very particular message to our children.

That message is that you are broken, you are abnormal, there is something wrong with you and I wish you would go away and my real child would emerge from the depths.

Of course, we don’t intend to send that message, no not at all. But nevertheless that message is sent, and it is received.

That message is incredibly damaging to the autistic child. It is like a loop tape playing that can’t be stopped, playing on a tape deck that has no pause or stop button.

In the end, it’s autism, it’s neurology, it’s different. It’s not less, it’s different.

Yes, it’s not what you expected but it’s not worse, it’s different.

Please stop searching for the cause, the cure, the reason. Please start seeking acceptance and celebration and success.

I am autistic. I am different I am not less.

If you have a child diagnosed autistic they too are different not less.

Acceptance is what I seek, not just awareness, not just tolerance. Acceptance. Yes, acceptance.

Because awareness and tolerance don’t say to me you are just another human person and you are entitled to the same expectations of life outcomes as me. Acceptance does.

Acceptance. Yes, Acceptance.

Just the facts on vax-  autism has nothing to do with vaccines.

Just the facts on autism – acceptance is the light that guides us on the path to celebration and inclusion.