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Suspected autism and vaccination

ConcernedMum

Hi, new here and would welcome some advice. My son is almost 20 and I've suspected since about 15/16 that he may be autistic. He's high functioning and did well academically and sports wise at school, but struggled socially. I tried to discuss it with him when he was about 17 but he dismissed it and that was the end of the subject. He's immature for his age.

Covid happened and his plans for his gap year (achieving a sporting goal) were grounded which made him very angry and agitated - all of the time. Fast forward to now. For various reasons, he has now come to the conclusion that he is on the spectrum. He has done an online assessment which has confirmed to him that there is a "high probability" but he doesn't (yet) want to consider getting a diagnosis. He has really struggled with Covid and is completely against getting the vaccine, and has got sucked into the anti-vax conspiracy theories online. While doing his research he has come across the Andrew Wakefield/Autism/Vaccine information. He had single jabs as a baby (it was at the time of the scandal) and didn't have the MMR booster until the age of 10. He is now convinced that having the MMR at 10 'gave' him Autism as the 'traits' didn't really become obvious until he was well into his teens. I've told him that that's not the case as he definitely had the characteristics before the age of 10 but I just didn't know enough about it at that stage. 

The problem now is that he is very distrustful (and fearful) of any medical intervention.  Not only is he refusing to get vaccinated, but he won't take any Covid tests either (sensory sensitivity) so has pretty much become reclusive as the restrictions are increasingly requiring testing or Covid passports.  I am really worried about what his future looks like - how will he get a job or even function in society?  And to make matters worse, all of our family lives outside the UK and he won't be able to travel if he won't be vaccinated or tested.

Any advice would be welcomed.  He's not receptive to help from me or a third party at this stage.

  • I knew one of Wakefield's former PhD students. He, very bravely, refused to have his name added to the authors of the Lancet paper. At the time he thought that the study was poorly conducted and that the conclusions drawn from the data were entirely erroneous. There is no connection between any vaccine and autism. This is just a scientific fact. Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition and is there from birth. There is no conceivable way in which a vaccine could alter the architecture of the brain. In many children it becomes noticeable around the time they generally get childhood vaccinations, but this is pure coincidence, not causation. Conspiracy theories act to bolster self-worth and self-regard. Believers think that they know some special information that is unknown to, or rejected by, the 'deluded masses'. This effect on self-esteem makes conspiracy theories particularly insidious and difficult to be rescued from.

  • Our son was assessed as a child for Autism and it was ruled out but has now been diagnosed with Aspegers aged 22. I wish we had got the diagnosis when he was younger as I feel like their would have been more support and advice available for him and us. Instead we are all trying to find a way to embrace his diagnosis. He too was against the vaccine although he did finally agree to it on his own terms. He attends counselling sessions for OCD and takes part in a support group for people who have ASD. He has found this helpful speaking to people who understand how he feels. Is this something your son might consider? It only lasts for a few weeks but might be worth trying. The NAS also run sessions that he might find helpful.

  • vaccines cannot change your personality though, so autism cant be caused by vaccine, and thus cannot be "cured" as its your personality trait....  try to imagine a pill or injection that changes your personality, thats impossible and if it was possible the gov would have used it to make us all into worker drone robots with no free will anyway lol

  • It wasn't MMR Vaccine it was puberty,  

  • in reply to JuniperFromGallifrey

    Thank you, this is very helpful.  And while reading this I've also discovered Autistamatic.  I've just watched the video about alexithymia (which I'd never heard of) and so much about how my son responds (or doesn't) to things suddenly becomes clear.

  • I would start follwing #ActuallyAutistic on Twitter. It's fun and educational!

    As a mother, I might suggest all 17 year olds are immature. Even the ones 'wise' for their age. Adulting is hard at any age, but maturity is something I might afford anyone close to or over 40... maybe!

    As for social complications, what to do! One either simply has bad manners, a lack of ethics and/or no discipline, etc., or their brains aren't recieving the coded elements of linguistics to properly teach them how to operate in a NeuroTypical, Oedipalised social heirarchial construct.  Perhaps if he's easily swayed by the 'infected with autisim' argument without the objective research into how society has changed to favour Neurotic Exchange and behaviour, changed to actually make daily life more difficult than 100 years ago for people with these clever Everything-Is-Connected neuro-connexion differences autistic humans seem to have, then perhaps the lack of obejctive reasoning is enough to put his mind at ease: No "super-powers" (another myth), nothing extra interesting or profound. 

    Unfortunately we can't convince someone who wants to believe a thing otherwise. I've found I can help my own son question by responding to him with questions: "I wonder why they believe x to be true", "I wonder how they discovered _____". "I wonder who's on the forefront of this research", "I wonder if we're even thinking about this correctly to begin with". 

    I'll leave you with a few favourite links :) 

    https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-32/august-2019/me-and-monotropism-unified-theory-autism 

    https://autcollab.org/2020/04/30/autism-the-cultural-immune-system-of-human-societies/?fbclid=IwAR2ysdye82NovXJlXOeKtQYa96UIObE4CWQsJiVR-Bbd_bLNa3Rn_7XCs6Q