I graduated in 2006 from UC Davis (at the age of 46) with a degree in psychology, biopsychology emphasis. My special interest is autism spectrum disorders and the brain. I sit on a "task force" devoted to discussions of autism prevalence and epidemiology at the UC Davis MIND Institute. I am a blogger, or rather, I sort of am an ex-blogger. I have the blog called "Autism Diva". I started the blog as a response to all the "experts" out there who got all kinds of angry and uppity if one dared to question them in any fashion. I thought of them as "autism divas" so Autism Diva is sort of a mock persona, set up to mock the supercilious autism divas out there. One thing that separates me from the real autism divas is that I am not selling anything and I'm not making any money off of autism in any way, shape, manner or fashion. I also admit that I can be wrong and have been wrong about things, whereas the real autism divas are not capable of this. I generally consider my opinions carefully for a long time before I express them, and if I haven't had time to form a well supported opinion, I usually state that I have a feeling that something might be so, or that it could be true, or something like that.

Lots of people hate Autism Diva, but on the other hand, lots of people liked her blog, too. I quit partly because of the former group. It's hard being hated by people who never met me. :-) Blogging on the front line of the "autism wars" is stressful. They are killing autistic kids out there... no joke. It's bad. And I take it very personally when any kids are put in harm's way. Almost no expert is "getting" autism "right" out there. A few are, but they are very few and they aren't part of the big autism organizations and they aren't so famous. I think the "silent majority" of parents and caregivers and autistic people themselves do get it, but they aren't the ones getting the press for the most part.

I am a big believer in evidence based medicine, and yes, I realize that it has limitations. I have been a big believer in alternative medicine, especially in the use of herbal concoctions and accupressure, somewhat in reflexology and high doses of vitamins. I have found that much of what is sold in health food stores is useless, not all of it, of course, but much of it, and some "alternative" medicine is downright dangerous (and yes, the same can be said about many prescription drugs, of course.) I am not a big fan of going to doctors and I'm really not a big fan of taking prescription pills, though I think in some cases they are life saving. I think the trick is to find a good doctor who is board certified. At some point our lives depend on trusting someone who actually understands what a mitochondria is, and what a B-cell is and can perform an angiogram or brain surgery. I think it's a big mistake to insult and downgrade the skills of doctors who have trained for years and spent years dealing with difficult cases, and worse difficult patients. I have had horrible experiences with MDs both my own doctors (the few that I have seen) and among the many my disabled child has seen. No one needs to tell me how awful a bad doctor is, but thankfully, they are the minority and just because there are bad doctors it doesn't mean that we all have a license to belittle and attack any and all of them we choose to. Sorry, but I see this a lot in autism discussions online. Doctors do deserve our respect in many cases, not worship, but respect.

I have seen and followed some hideous advice from vitamin and herb books. No doubt many who give out bad "health food store based" advice are well meaning, but they often give themselves credit for intelligence and insight they flat do not have. I still think avoiding doctors and avoiding taking antibiotics for instance is usually good advice, and in many cases now, at least as far as avoiding antibiotics when not necessary is common advice coming from the MDs themselves. Ear infections and bladder infections are two things that doctors seem to be trying to get patients to wait on to see if they resolve wtihout a medication. That's good news all around if patients will understand and follow that advice (and not take it from me, but from them after consulting on the symptoms, etc).

I have asthma (reactive airways, allergy induced) and pretty bad allergies. Mostly I suffer through the allergies. I take OTC benedryl type stuff mostly at night, and sometimes OTC loratadine. I have a prescription asthma inhaler (albuterol) I keep with me, but I don't use it very often. I have seasonal affective disorder (seasonal depression) that was diagnosed before the Asperger's and I've had pretty significant problems with anxiety.... goes with the autism territory. I have taken Prozac a couple of times, I got hot flashes while on Prozac that stopped when I went off. No really, the Prozac caused me to have major hot flashes for over a year, they started right when I went on it the last time and stopped right when I went off the Prozac and they've stayed gone for a couple of years now almost entirely. I went off the Prozac when I started having minor seizures (sort of significant muscle jerks, but not grand mal seizures). Those stopped.

I think I have might have Meniere's disease, too. I have tinnitus and get pressure behind one ear drum or the other from when I get stressed, and I've had bad vertigo attacks a couple of times that lasted a day or two, but not recently.