"I Don't Want To Be This Way But I Am"

Not meaning to give the "chelation" crowd any more ammunition, but I did stumble across something that REALLY caught my attention.

CNN in their continued interest in autism stumbled across a 13-year-old girl who I presume most people would consider having been authentically autistic since age 2 or so. They are running a video showing how she is beginning to generate quite complex writing with the help of specially equipped computers.

She is shedding some light on some of the physical "tics" - because, for instance, she sometimes feels like her skin is on fire.

But - and this almost knocked me out the chair - she wrote, "I don't want to be this way but I am."

Oh wow.

Yes ... looks like some people with autism would like to be ... well ... less autistic.

Others, however, do not ... and will fight you tooth and nail to be allowed to be themselves.

I don't think I fault either group.

It's a little like when we get to talking about end-of-life issues. Once someone has expressed a clear preference one way or the other on their wishes vis a vis "heroic measures", they should be honored. If someone has clearly expressed they want to be a "full code" you should throw the works at them until they either come back or don't. And, similarly, once someone has clearly expressed that they want to be a "no code" you shoud ... well ... you should put them down if that is their preference, but clearly that's another topic.

Each has his or her own preferences and that should be respected ...