Louder Than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism by Jenny McCarthy
I picked up this book at Blockbuster of all places. I didn't even know they sold books, but, alas, they do. It was way marked down (all the books were), and I had been wanting to educate myself since I'm starting a new job this summer and will be working with a little girl on the autism spectrum.
We were flying to Vegas the next week, and I ended up reading the whole book - start to finish - while on the plane. I couldn't put it down. My props to Jenny -- I didn't expect this out of her. It was well-written, easy to read, and educating -- not necessarily in the "Wow, I know all the ins and outs of autism" but in the "Wow, I learned a lot about a family's experiences dealing with autism."
For as fast as one can read this book, I'd recommend it to everyone. Whether or not you are in any way connected to autism, it is a rapidly growing section of our population, and I think everyone would benefit from educating themselves in even the smallest ways.
Stolen from Amazon.com:
“Emotional, devastating…a story of hope.”—People
“Honest, informative, down-to-earth, and sometimes painful… Mothers everywhere thank her.”—The Chicago Sun-Times
“Surprisingly fun to read, realistic, and engaging… a good introduction to the ups and downs that autism brings to everyday life.”—autism.about.com
I've been hesitant to read this book because I've heard that she 1) blames her son's autism on vaccines and 2) claims she can "cure" autism through a strict diet. Is that true? I'm not sure I believe either of those things...
ReplyDeleteShe does seem to think that vaccines caused her son's autism, and, to be honest, I thought her reasoning made sense. But it wasn't necessarily that the vaccines were at fault, but that her son's individual body couldn't handle the intensity of the drugs. The strict diet actually goes hand in hand with that theory, and it was pretty convincing as well. That being said, she is the first to say that these are her thoughts of why HER son is autistic and what works well for HIM. She continually backs her claims that she is not trying to preach a theory about all children. She found something that was working for her family, and after reading her story, my overall feeling was, "More power to you." It's kind of one of those books you read, and at the end, you don't have an "I agree" or "I disagree" feeling. More of a "I learned something and feel better because of it."
ReplyDeleteBut, like any book, I'm sure it impacts each person differently.
Sounds like a good read. Autism is such a mysterious thing...it's great she has found something that works for Evan and that she is so vocal about advocating for him. Was it the MMR vaccine she took issue with? We have that one coming up at our next appointment and - even though the autism/MMR link has been debunked - it still makes me nervous...
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