Just call me “Captain Buzz-Kill”
July 24th, 2009
Over the years that I’ve been writing this ‘blog, I’ve often been accused of keeping people from “curing” or “helping” their autistic children. I’ve always wondered what they meant by that, since I’m not doing anything I know of to prevent people from seeking whatever treatments they want for themselves or their children.
All I’m trying to do is give people information. If they are already happy with the information they have, if they have already found “The Truth”, all they have to do is ignore me.
It’s really that simple.
During a recent conversation, it finally came to me what all of those parents (and not a few practitioners) have really been telling me.
What actually bothers people is not that I am somehow standing in the way of them getting the treatments they think their children need – which is patently ridiculous - but that I am threatening their false hope. To borrow from the jargon of my youth, I’m killing their buzz. [Note: for people who were not part of the psychedelic '60's, this means that I am interfering with their enjoyment of an unreal state of mind]
Now it all makes sense! You see, while real hope is based in reality, false hope is destroyed by reality.
At some level, these angry parents know that their hope isn’t real - that’s why they are so angry with me for speaking truth to fantasy. If they were truly convinced that they were right, they wouldn’t get so upset.
If - for example - they were treating their child with antibiotics for pneumonia and somebody on a ‘blog somewhere in cyberspace was writing that antibiotics are worthless for treating infections and are all just a sham to make money for doctors and “Big Pharma” (which, sad to say, has been written on at least one ‘blog), I doubt that they would be upset. Amused, perhaps, but not upset.
One of the problems with false hope is that it is - at its heart - a lie. The people who provide the false hope may not consciously know that it is a lie and the people who believe in the false hope almost certainly aren’t consciously aware that it’s a lie, but it is a lie nonetheless. And, as most of us have discovered, one lie is never enough - to keep the first lie going, you have to tell more lies. This is true even when you are lying to yourself. You can see this in the way that many of the so-called “alternative” autism therapies are rationalized.
Let’s look at thimerosal and chelation, as an example. First, it was claimed that the rise in autism prevalence was due to mercury in the vaccines and that chelation would produce a cure. At first, it was claimed that a “few months” of chelation would “cure” or “recover” most autistic children. When this didn’t happen, the claims slipped from “months” to “years” without explanation.
When thimerosal was taken out of children’s vaccines, it was claimed that the continued rise in autism prevalence was due to “trace” amounts of mercury still in vaccines (disregarding the fact that the amount of mercury was far less than before the “autism epidemic”). When that was challenged, it was claimed that mercury from power plants, crematoria and even drifting across the ocean from China was the source.
When that proved untenable, the claim morphed from mercury to more vague (and harder to refute) “toxins” and then to the lamentable “too many, too soon” argument - the acme of vague and undefined. All this to prevent a group of people from confronting the fact that they are living on (or profiting by) false hope.
This is probably a good time to introduce the concept of “cognitive dissonance”. Cognitive dissonance – in simple terms – is the sense of unease people feel when they are trying to reconcile two contradictory ideas. In most people, this occurs when what they believe to be true (fantasy) is in conflict with what they know is true (reality). This is an uncomfortable place to be, psychologically, and most people (so my psychologist friends tell me) will avoid it if they can.
The best way to deal with cognitive dissonance is to resolve it – to consciously decide which of the contradictory ideas to keep and which to discard. Apparently, in conflicts between fantasy and reality, it makes no difference to your sense of well-being whether you discard the fantasy or the reality. Of course, if you discard reality in favor of fantasy, you will sooner or later encounter new opportunities to experience cognitive dissonance, as your false view of reality repeatedly comes in conflict with reality itself. It’s a bit like someone deciding that they would rather be driving through Colorado and so uses a Colorado road map, despite the fact that they are in Kansas – they keep bumping into situations where their false reality is contradicted (often quite forcefully).
However, my psychologist friends tell me that most people faced with cognitive dissonance use “avoidance” rather than facing their conflict and resolving it. They simply avoid, ignore or flee from situations where their fantasy is in conflict with reality. Over time, the “places” (physical and psychological) that they have to avoid grow in number. Interestingly, they also tend to lash out at people who remind them of their unresolved conflict, often accusing them of some sort of personal attack when none exists.
Does this sound like anyone you know?
Strangely enough, this insight provides me with a faint glimmer of hope. Clearly, the people who lash out when they are confronted with information have not yet resolved to abandon reality. They are still bothered – at some level – by the fact that their fantasies about autism are not supported by reality. There is still some hope that they will eventually – when the pain of their cognitive dissonance is severe enough – decide to give reality a chance.
I guess my job is to keep flinging reality at these folks until they are forced to make a choice. And hope they choose reality.
Just call me “Captain Buzz-Kill”.
Before someone accuses me of gloating or schadenfreude, let me say that I was one of those parents who bought the false hope and experienced the cognitive dissonance. I have immense sympathy for parents who find themselves in the same position today (or tomorrow). My purpose is not to ridicule them but to help them to find a way out of their dilemma. I’ve been there and I know a way out.
Of course, there are a few people who will be unable to make a choice – or will feel compelled to choose fantasy over reality. They are people who have stepped so far into the false hope of autism that they feel they cannot turn away. Some of them have “invested” their reputations in a very public way (often publically excoriating – and even slandering – people who disagreed with them) and may feel that the humiliation of admitting that they were wrong would be greater than the humiliation of persisting in error.
Others have profited greatly from the false hope they believed in and feel they cannot choose reality without facing real consequences. For these people, the cognitive dissonance is far less than the fear of the wrath of the parents who bought their false hope. I note that while several ”DAN!” (a group emphasizing the “alternative” and “biomedical” treatment of autism) practitioners have quietly dropped out of the “autism business”, few (or none) have publically admitted they were wrong. Perhaps none of them do think that they were wrong and they really dropped out of “alternative” autism practice to “spend more time with their family” or “to limit their practice”, but I like to think that at least one or two of them “saw the light” and quietly slipped away.
I don’t have any easy solutions for those “alternative” autism practitioners who find themselves facing the conflict between their autism fantasies and cold reality. They should have known better - at least better that the parents who trusted their expertise and followed their suggestions. However, even doctors are human and make mistakes. The best solution is to admit the mistake – at least to themselves – and move on in the proper direction. It would be an even larger mistake to keep on “believing” in order to evade the consequences.
Prometheus
Filed under: Autism Practitioners, Autism Treatments, Critical Thinking, Help for the bewildered | 33 Comments »