I was so excited to kick-off my autism guest blog series this month with a story of hope and recovery. I cannot think of a better way to conclude it than with a story of hope for a sea change, for truth and justice for our children. And there is no one better to tell that story than Laura Hirsch. The best word I can think of to describe her is “kick-ass” (and I won’t even try to hide my girl-crush) and I am honored that she agreed to write the final guest post this month.

(The first part of this guest blog is taken from my book blog, The Other Side of Autism, that I wrote in 2013. It got zero likes or comments. Not much has changed in that time, until this year.)

“It’s April, which is known as Autism Awareness Month. Autism Speaks started the ‘Light It Up Blue’ campaign for Autism Awareness. You will see buildings ‘Light It Up Blue’ for autism awareness, people with blue hair, blue fingernails, wearing puzzle pieces, etc….The problem with all this awareness is that nothing is being done to stop the autism epidemic. Veteran parents of children with regressive autism can tell our truths until we are ‘blue’ in the face, warning other potential parents of the dangers that caused our own precious, once-healthy children to decline in health and become ‘autistic,’ but it mostly falls on deaf ears. Albert Einstein famously said that the definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting different results. The new autism rate is now 1 in 50!!! 1 in 31 boys. This number is going to continue to get worse every year because we have not changed what is causing regressive autism.

I like to call April ‘Autism UN-Awareness Month’ because the majority of the people out there are unaware that regressive autism is MEDICAL, not a psychological disorder or a genetic disorder. This inaccurate label is preventing many children from ameliorating many of their ‘autistic’ symptoms, or dare I say recovering. When addressing the reasons for the symptoms and behaviors and treating them, the child improves. Imagine that! They include, but are not limited to: infections (bacterial, viral, fungal, parasites), food allergies and intolerances, numerous GI issues (inflammation, leaky gut, absorption, dysbiosis), brain damage, and immune system dysfunction. We are talking about a disease process here. Let me make my definition of autism very clear…I am talking about children who were born healthy and then became sick (autistic) afterwards. Not adults with autism (not the same thing), not people with Asperger’s (not the same thing), not children who had birth trauma and were damaged at birth (not the same thing). Regressive autism: children who were born healthy, then regressed and were not healthy. These differences are vital, but they all get lumped together, causing more confusion.

What hasn’t changed that’s contributing to the autism epidemic? For starters, our government’s health agencies are still recommending (mandating) that all children receive an onslaught of over 30 vaccines before age two, filled with toxins and genetically engineered foreign DNA, aborted fetal tissue, chemicals, heavy metals, antibiotics, and other nasties that were never tested for safety and efficacy. Don’t believe the pharma propaganda and outright lies. There are numerous studies that show links between vaccines and autism, but you won’t see them on the news. Have you seen all the pharmaceutical ads? Who do you think is paying for the programming? They’re certainly not going to point the finger at themselves and take any of the blame. Blame the parents! That seems to be working! They keep deflecting and suggesting that everything else under the sun increases the risk for autism EXCEPT the elephant in the room: vaccines. Old parents, overweight moms, moms on antidepressants, living near a freeway, pollution, having a brain (okay, that last one I made up, but you get the picture.) None of the items in those ‘studies’ were true for me, and yet I had a child who regressed into autism. People are so gullible and believe what they hear because it was on TV, or because their Doctor told them so. Critical thinking is dead, but blind faith and cognitive dissonance are alive and well.

It’s not just the vaccines causing autism. There are many factors. For instance, foods that are genetically engineered to rip open the stomachs of bugs that eat it cannot be safe for an infant to eat, especially one with a compromised immune system. A child with thrush (fungal infection) or eczema has a compromised immune system. We need to take a hard look at what we are doing to our children. They are our future, and that future looks bleak when two percent of them have autism, and one in six have other developmental disorders. It is only going to get worse until we stop and make some fundamental changes and clean up their food, water and environment. Start listening to the eye witnesses, the parents, who watched and lived through what happened to their child, not the very people who are vested in the lies.

So, ‘Light It Up Blue’ if it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, but unawareness is going to do absolutely nothing to help recover sick children or prevent more children from succumbing to the same fate. I can only pray that it is not too late to unravel this mess and stop this preventable disaster from devastating more families.”

Wow, I was pretty fired up! I still am, but this year is different. As we wrap up Autism (Un) Awareness Month in 2016, I can honestly say that I didn’t want to just bury my head in the sand all month and drink a shit-ton of wine to make it all go away. This year, there was actually some awareness happening! April 1st, no joke, was the release of the documentary Vaxxed: From Cover-up to Catastrophe. The film is about the corruption and cover-up by the CDC, and the confession from CDC Senior Scientist and Whistleblower Dr. William Thompson that the CDC omitted and destroyed data proving a causal relationship between MMR and autism. Vaxxed was accepted to be shown at (autism dad) Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Film Festival, and was then mysteriously removed a day later, only to be picked up by other film festivals and movie theaters around the country in short order. The media shit-storm that followed the removal of the film was nothing short of legendary to veteran autism moms like myself.

I celebrated with some of my fellow warriors who hosted a private virtual Facebook “Drinks for De Niro” night after the Tribeca Film Festival buffoonery, which actually brought more publicity to the film than anyone could imagine. None of us could ever dream of getting on the Today Show (owned by pHARMa) and get away with talking about CDC fraud and autism, but he could and did, so we celebrated because ‘De Niro the Hero’ was on our side. Here is a fantastic movie review of Vaxxed from one of my fellow TEAM TMR authors who was at the Vaxxed premier in New York. Here is another TMR movie review that you must read. I will be seeing it myself in a month at the screening at the Autism One conference in Chicago. I am also presenting on the Thinking Moms’ Revolution puberty panel at the conference.

Bob Wright, founder of Autism Speaks, on The Today Show

In addition, Bob Wright, founder of Autism Speaks (the largest autism organization in the world, founded for his vaccine-injured grandson), also went on the Today Show and stepped on Matt Lauer’s dick and questioned the safety of vaccines. Clear! Okay, my heart restarted. He brought up the existence of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program which has paid out huge sums of money each year for damage done to people by vaccines. I celebrated this with many others because for years, A$ (some get the joke) has spent un-Godly amounts of money on genetic research which never amounted to anything, and completely dismissed the vaccine-autism connection or any other legitimate environmental concerns because of $.

Del Bigtree, Polly Tommey, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, and Dr. Brian Hooker
(Photo Credit: The Thinking Moms’ Revolution, used with permission)

So, as this month winds down, I can honestly say that, because of the unrelenting efforts of some of my biggest heroes: Vaxxed director, Dr. Andrew Wakefield; the scientist who made it all possible, Dr. Brian Hooker; fellow autism mom, Polly Tommey; and Vaxxed producer (who left his job producing the TV show The Doctors for this endeavor), Del Bigtree (perfect name, btw), April 2016 DID NOT SUCK for the enlightened autism parents out there. Oracle predicts that this month is a turning point that will usher in big changes in the trajectory of “health care.” A line is being drawn in the sand. Which side are you on?

Laura Hirsch is an author and blogger for The Thinking Moms’ Revolution. Her TMR nickname is Oracle, and she wrote chapters for the TEAM TMR book, Evolution of a Revolution and the upcoming TMR puberty book, along with numerous TMR blogs. She has also written three books of her own: Widowed Too Soon, Foundation of Discovery: The Cause of Autism – Channeled, and The Other Side of Autism. She is the mom of a 17-year-old son with regressive autism.