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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.

Parents

  • 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 

Reply

  • 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 

Children