“So, what can I do to make you feel better?”, I asked the 6 year old sitting across from me. Sitting up straight, feet dangling, arms planted firmly on the rests of a chair that all but swallowed him up, little Zac (not his real name) was looking straight at me.“Give me a nice medicine to make me not hurt anybody,” came back the reply without a moment’s hesitation. “You hurt people?,” I asked with only slightly feigned surprise. “Yes. I banged a block on Logan at school because I didn’t want him touching my blocks. I’ll hurt my sister when we get in fights, too.” “And, why do you fight with your sister?” “I try to steal her money.” “No wonder you get in fights. Why do you try to steal her money?” “I want it.”
House of Cards
It sure feels like the house of cards is crumbling. Hardly a week goes by without some pharmaceutical drug or other turning out to have unacceptable side effects. Yesterday it was hormone replacement therapy, today it is Vioxx, tomorrow it’ll be Viagra. You think I’m joking? There used to be a myth (maybe there still is) that certain sexual practices would make you go blind. Well, the use of Viagra might be added to that list very soon. It turns out that Viagra regulates a chemical that constricts the body's arteries and ophthalmologists are now identifying certain types of people who are susceptible to having the blood supply to the optic nerve cut off if they use it.
Autism
At an alarming rate there appears to be an increase over the last decade in the number of children diagnosed with severely delayed or otherwise disturbed developmental disorders. Perhaps the most extreme and well known of these is autism, which is characterized by speech difficulties, an inability to develop normal social relationships leading to isolation, compulsive and ritualistic behaviors, and usually an abnormal intelligence.
It was once assumed that because persons suffering with autism generally have poor capacity to communicate and many unusual behaviors their intelligence was subnormal. While some autistics clearly are mentally disabled, this notion largely has been dispelled with the recognition that many autistic persons have quite the opposite: unusually keen intelligence and tremendous creative and/or mental capabilities.