Dr. Martha Herbert - The Autism Revolution: Whole-Body Strategies for Making Life All It Can Be

No book can replace the diagnostic expertise and medical advice of a trusted physician. Please be certain to consult with your doctor before making any decisions that affect your health or the health of your children, particularly if you or they suffer from any medical condition or have any symptom that may require treatment.

Copyright 2012 by Harvard University

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

B ALLANTINE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Herbert, Martha R.
The autism revolution : whole-body strategies for making life all it can be / by Marth R. Herbert, with Karen Weintraub.
p. cm.

eISBN: 978-0-345-52721-9
1. Autism in childrenNutritional aspects. 2. Autism in childrenTreatment. 3. Autism in childrenPsychological aspects.
4. Self-care, Health. I. Weintraub, Karen. II. Title.
RJ506.A9H45 2012
616.8588206dc23 2011044922

www.ballantinebooks.com

Jacket design: Misa Erder
Jacket photograph: Shutterstock / Mandy Godbehear

v3.1

T his book is based on real stories of children and adults with autism who didnt follow the textbooks. They got bettersome dramatically so. Although I changed their names and was vague on details to protect their privacy, I was meticulous in sticking to the facts of their stories and letting their experiences direct how I explained the science.

Textbooks do not include the possibility that people with autism get this much better. Neither does a lot of scientific research.

In that sense, you may say that I have gotten ahead of the science. Not everyone will be able to get such fabulous results for themselves or their child. But I have confidence that science and medicine will make these advances possible to many more people going forward.

As I have dug into current research to write this book, I have been stunned by how much science there is to support the approaches parents are taking to get their kids better. Karen Weintraub, an experienced science journalist who has shared this journey with me, has been equally amazed. Every day our Internet alerts and Listservs overflow with research publications and news stories about every area we discuss, and their findings are largely resonant with what we are explaining in this book.

There are days when we feel that there is not simply an Autism Revolution, but a global groundswell, even a tidal wave of new thinking.

The autism world is filled with different groups that often disagree with one another. But they all make important points.

Theres the neurodiversity movement, which views autism as a way of being different. People with autism have a powerful and valid way of looking at the world; its just not the typical way.

Mainstream medicine wants treatment to be based on evidence and insists on proceeding cautiously and safely.

Advocates from the biomedical treatment world approach each person as an individual who deserves the best possible shot at maximal improvement.

There are the parents who want help for their kidsnot to fight insurance companies, school districts, and doctors who dont know what they dont know.

And there are the families that have managed to leave autism behind or transcend its limitations, who offer all of us endless hope and inspiration.

This book is based on the premise that all these groups are right about their part of the picture. But the whole picture is bigger than any one part.

We can all agree that many, many people with autism are extraordinarily gifted and have much to offer the rest of us. We would all like to know precisely what is going on in the biology of autism, and provide safe and effective treatments for it. We all want new ways to relieve autisms sometimes debilitating symptoms, and to help these children learn and flourish as much as possible. We would all like to spare parents the agony of being told that theres something wrong with their child, of having to clean up a dozen diarrhea-filled diapers a day, and of worrying that the love of their life will never be able to say I love you back.

I am not just paying lip service to this idea that every major point of view has something to contribute. I genuinely believe it. And I wish more people did, too. Addressing autism is such a daunting task that all of us who care about it need to be working together, instead of arguing among ourselves. I wrote this book in the hopes of providing a framework that can integrate everyones perspectives.

Most of what I offer here are strategies I think everyone can get behind. Theyre safe, relatively simple, and often effective. Systems science supports my belief that small adjustments can sometimes trigger big changes. My goal is to offer parents, caregivers, and adults facing autism themselves some new ways of thinking about what they do every day and how the parts interact.

Autism is so diverse that what works for one person wont work for another; youll have to cobble together your own distinct set of approaches. And autism is complicated, too, so no one approach is going to fix it. At the least, the organizing framework I suggest will help you make your child healthier and therefore better able to handle the autism symptoms that remain. The whole-body approach Ill show you dovetails with the scientifically proven behavioral therapies that are a critical part of any autism program.

Throughout the book, I address readers as if they are parents of children on the autism spectrum, but I hope that others will see themselves in the book, whether they are people on the spectrum, grandparents, pediatricians, teachers, therapists, doctors, or scientists.

This book is written in ten chapters, each framed around a different strategy or piece of the puzzle. Each chapter will include concrete advice on what you can do to help your child and/or yourself. And each chapter will tell a story meant to inspire you and show you that there are different ways to approach autism and your own reactions to it. The people I feature represent a range of ways of being autistic and a range of economic and cultural backgrounds. Many of them functioned low enough on the spectrum that no one would have predicted how well they are doing today. I am reporting here what each of these people or families thinks or didnot saying what I think they should have done. Im not going to tell you what medications you should or shouldnt be on, and Im not going to tell you what your doctor should do for you. Thats between you and your doctorand please do consult your doctor. Instead Im going to provide a framework for keeping track of the whole autistic person, while you analyze the pros and cons of each new treatment or therapy that comes your way. My goal is to get you to reframe what you think you know about autism, to connect you to a larger world of autism, to turn your answers and constraints into questions, and to open possibilities.