I've never heard it referred to as an epidemic. I'm no medical scientist, but I don't consider it one.

However, if you simply mean that the large number of those diagnosed with autism is inaccurate, then that seems plausible. I'm under the impression that a lot of overdiagnosis is a big problem with a lot of mental conditions.

I think that person with autism can cure himself. I mean, dose are psihological [correct coz i'm sure I didn't spell that correcly] 'problems'. You just need to have strong personality.

'Normal' person uses only 3% of it's brain, so someone can use less or more. If you are using less, you are stupid and retarded, and if you are using more you are retarded and inteligent.
Retarded people can't use their inteligense, so you NEVER can have everything...

But not if it's a physical problem with the brain. It just like how the pressure form a brain tumor can make do thing you wouldn't, and never would, do. Autism is more physical.

Actually it's 10% I believe. But that's only the average, not necessarily the percent that everyone uses. If you use mroe, thenyou are more intelligent. If you use less, then you are not as intelligent.

NORMAL PEOPLE DO NOT ONLY USE 3% OF THEIR BRAINS!!!!!

Normal people use 100% of their brains. Only they don't use all of it at once. So this stupid myth started that people use only 10% of their brains; which apparently has been whittled down even further. For proof read here.


Sorry about the overreaction btw but that claim really pisses me off.

You seem to get pissed off by the most random of things. :confused:

I get pissed off by persistent ignorance. :p

Are you calling me persistantly ignorant? :p

Haha, thank you so much, Nate. I already had another window open for lookin up some proof to show that before I read your post. *whew*

Also, like Used said, autism is a more physical type of problem with the brain. It involves certain lobes, those that deal with language, communication, and the appropriate filter people have in social situations. The last one deals with the frontal lobes quite a bit but also one of the side lobes that deals with emotional control and behavior. Another type of lobe also on the side and near the front involves language and communication. Gah, sorry, I can't be bothered to look up what the two side lobes are named. Stupid memory.. always crapping out. Anyway, no one can control how their brain physically functions in that way. Not even the doctors are sure what causes it; they can just study the brain and learn which parts of it are affected by it.

I wouldn't think its an epidemic. You are born with it, there isn't really a cure and it itsn't a disease and it can't be passed on in any way. it is not affected by the parents you have in any way, its chance on the way the brain grows. And epidemic would be enviromental or diet change generally among pregnanat woman because these are the sorts of things that will affect a developing unborn child. So lets blame those motherf*ckers, McDonald*KO'd with Big Mac....yes they are rock hard enough to do that*
All the brain is used, sperate parts contribute to different things, scuh as one part for counting, another for socail actions etc.
We have an odd brain. Teh large, pink part you all know is teh thinking part. The senses are is a small part underneath. In animals, the senses aprt is usually large, depending on the animal, certain parts will be larger (seperate parts of THAT contribute to taste, smell etc.) than others.
People who are retarded probably have difficulty accessing or using certain parts of the brain, or they are damaged or altered in some way in comparison with a normal brain.

How you can be sure? Brain is the most unexplored thing on earth (not sure about the "thing on earth" but i'm certanly sure that you have a bunch of unexplored stuff there), so thinking of "Cecil Adams" it's not 100% correct.

to USED:)
I wached a BBC show, and i THINK I heard 3%.

And the BBC is contractually obliged NOT to lie. If they do Michael Grade has to officially get flogged, Mussolini Style.

BBC is the best (Doctor Who).:fuzgrin:

doctor who is the best, I had a great conversation about it today at my local comic book store.... was great....

I have a thread for it somewhere... hold on I'll have a look.
EDIT: Here it is.

And why do you think that that ADAMS is telling the truth and...
**** OFFFFF
stop folowing ME

Who is following you?

I'm starting to lose my already thin worn patience with you, Clutcher. STOP WITH YOUR DOCTER WHO CRAP IN EVERY TOPIC!

Mutual Friend. not you.
And yes. You're kinda boooooooooooooring with that Doctor.

Because medical scientists and doctors have crazy technology that can record the activity of the brain by producing images. Whatever parts are being used will be lit up different colors and whatnot. They can also test what percentage of the brain is damaged and/or dead by viewing the activity.

Sure, we don't know everything about the brain, but we know lots. The only live, physical exploration can be performed when people are injured and doctors start to play around and experiment a bit. I heart the Phinius Gage story.

Anyway, we know enough about the brain to tell what the lobes and what the inner brain do, so it's easy to make connections between the symptoms and what parts of the brain has the problem.

I'd say the most unexplored thing is either the ocean or the brain. There are certain areas of the brain we know nothing about, for example, there may be a part of the brain that generates physcic ability in some humans. However, we still cannot confirm nor deny if this is true. Probably the brain will never fully be explored and some parts will remain concealed to us forever.

Wow. Alot of people have Asperger's here. I have the symptom where you don't like to be touched, as does a friend of mine, but I don't think I am autistic.

However, the more I think about it, the more I wonder... is it really a disease? I mean, their minds function differently, but it seems to me that much of the stigma surrounding it is actually people's response and attitude to it, rather than the condition itself. I have heard of autistic pride rallies, and people with it who get very annoyed when it is referred to as a disease.

But then, what do I know?

On side note, wasn't Eintein considered to be autistic or something in the language department?

Well, he didn't speak until he was... was it three? It was quite late in life, and his acheivements in school were unremarkable.

Einstein was thought to be autistic because he didn't speak until age 4. But no, he was not actually retarded.

I once saw a ten year old with Asperger's appear on Mastermind. He did pretty well, though I can't remember if he won. Specialist subject: Star Wars.

I didn't speak until I was three also. But - just like Einstein - when I did start talking, I went straight into full sentences.

And, secondly, the thing about Einstein not doing well at school is a myth because the school he went to changed their grading system after he left so that scores of 1 or 2 (which were originally the best grades) became the lower end of the scale. So someone saw his report card and misinterpreted it.

As told here.

Okay.

My friend also did not speak until he was three, but then, that was about the time his sense of hearing finally manifested.

Well the type of autism, where you don´t talk until you are 3-4 years old, is called: "High Functioning Autism", it can really make the parents afraid, but when the child begin to speak, the child does catch up with the language.
It is just that thing that seperate it from Aspergers Syndrome.

Well here in Denmark we do not call autism "a disease", but we call it "a handicap", "a disorder", or more soft "a condition".
My self i do not think that autism like High Functioning Autism or Aspergers Syndrome should be considered disease, handicap, disorder, or at some other ways slighting.

I agree with you that autism should not be regarded as a disease - and I don't think it generally is to anyone who is not completely ignorant.

However, if you think we should not use the terms 'handicap' or 'disorder' because they are slighting, perhaps the problem is your perception of the terms rather than the fact that they are being used. People think these terms should not be used to describe disabled people and yet they're only percieved negatively because they've been associated with disabled people.

The fact is that people with autism do have difficulties performing some tasks that other people can do easily. Seems like a handicap to me.

But then again, they may well excell in other skills. Someone who can here a tune once, then realise it again on their piano immediately may see even the most skilled piano player as handicapped. If indeed the thought even occurs to them.