Harbl the cat... only a very different man... TLDR

[blacksmithden]

The biggest thing you need to sacrifice is your time. It all boils down to that.

Agreed.

Harb…..I hate to tell you this, but there some pretty big brains already working on the autism issue and have been for a few decades now. A family acquaintance of ours is one of the leading autism researchers in the world and he's now working right here in Edmonton. He has more IQ points in his little finger than most of us could ever dream of having in our whole being. He doesn't work directly with kids in a therapy sense. He's in the research end of things. Brilliant man.

I'm not saying you couldn't make great contributions to helping (not necessarily curing) people with autism using your talents. As I'm sure you've already learned, autism is a genetic thing. Unless you plan on becoming a genetic engineer, you're not going to "cure" it. I'm going to be really blunt here, so I hope you're not offended. I think you're trying to hide from dealing with your daughter directly and your personal escape is telling yourself that you're going to work on a cure rather than working WITH her. I've seen other parents of autistic kids doing similar things....hiding in their work. Trust me on this. If you focus your energy on working WITH her, you'll yield far better results than trying to find an actual cure. She is going to need a lot of direct work and patience on your part. You are going to have to take her places, work on her speech, work with her on general life skills. Teaching her things like getting dressed and person hygiene are going to take a lot more effort than your average kid. The mistake I think you're about to make is you're going to try and bury yourself in work and leave all the other stuff up to your wife. I can't put into mere words how much I think that will be a huge mistake that you'll live to regret.

[NickYYC]

Agreed.

Harb…..I hate to tell you this, but there some pretty big brains already working on the autism issue and have been for a few decades now. A family acquaintance of ours is one of the leading autism researchers in the world and he's now working right here in Edmonton. He has more IQ points in his little finger than most of us could ever dream of having in our whole being. He doesn't work directly with kids in a therapy sense. He's in the research end of things. Brilliant man.

I'm not saying you couldn't make great contributions to helping (not necessarily curing) people with autism using your talents. As I'm sure you've already learned, autism is a genetic thing. Unless you plan on becoming a genetic engineer, you're not going to "cure" it. I'm going to be really blunt here, so I hope you're not offended. I think you're trying to hide from dealing with your daughter directly and your personal escape is telling yourself that you're going to work on a cure rather than working WITH her. I've seen other parents of autistic kids doing similar things....hiding in their work. Trust me on this. If you focus your energy on working WITH her, you'll yield far better results than trying to find an actual cure. She is going to need a lot of direct work and patience on your part. You are going to have to take her places, work on her speech, work with her on general life skills. Teaching her things like getting dressed and person hygiene are going to take a lot more effort than your average kid. The mistake I think you're about to make is you're going to try and bury yourself in work and leave it all the other stuff up to your wife. I can't put into mere words how much I think that will be a huge mistake that you'll live to regret.

Genetic engineering is not that dissimilar from software engineering. If anything, given the size and scope of the human genome, I'd say genetic engineering is quite amateurish in comparison to some of the systems I've worked on. That said, where I'm coming from was from burying myself in my work to become the best at what I was doing to contemplating completely abandoning my career to heal my child. Fortunately for me, there's massive overlap in the competencies in a genetic engineer and a software engineer.

What you're describing is more or less what I'm contemplating doing.

I'm leaning very heavily towards selling all my possessions and expending most of my wealth specifically so that I can focus on healing and teaching my daughters.

You see, the thing is there is no general "cure" for autism (that being, by Western medicine's standards, there's nothing that can be prescribed for it), but there is a unique way to cure each autistic child.

The key is to form a physical, mental, and spiritual bond with and enable genetic expression and neurogenesis of the brain to develop capabilities within the child to overcome the inherent "defects" in genetic expression that manifest as what we know as autism.

The thing is, it's bullshit that everything is genetic. Some things are, most things are not.

The vast majority of illness is manifest through unresolved trauma in one of the 3 elements of each human being: the mind, body, and spirit.

Cancer, diabetes, Alzheimers, heart disease and stroke - and yes, autism.

The problem with Western medicine is it's reliance on scientific empiricism through study of the physical properties of the body. However the mind and spirit don't operate under the rules of the physical world.

All science at it's core is the sampling of states of of matter and energy within linear units of time. The thing is, the mind, and with it, human consciousness demonstrably does not function within the boundaries of the time scale we rely on for scientific experimentation. Try some psychedelics like cannabis and develop a meditation practice and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

This is why so many illnesses, including the one's that are in the top 10 list of causes of death within the West (most specifically, Canada and the US) "have no cure."

Western medicine is great at healing mass physical trauma, but completely neglects mental and spiritual trauma. I am certain integrating treatment modalities for all 3 is key to remedying the worst symptoms of autism... challenge is, it all comes at a cost... mine may well be everything I've worked for the past 20 years.

[awndray]

After a huge THC vape session, meditating, and praying, God revealed to me that truth.

In my training as an engineer, I never learnt how mobile GIS platforms worked, nor military C4ISR systems, nor electrical grid power pool billing, hotel booking systems, construction management and fixture scoping management, or contracts for financial and physical commodities trading... oh and blockchain technology. I'm fully confident in saying I can demonstrate expertise in all of these fields close to or exceding an expert level.

Genetic engineering is not that dissimilar from software engineering. If anything, given the size and scope of the human genome, I'd say genetic engineering is quite amateurish in comparison to some of the systems I've worked on. That said, where I'm coming from was from burying myself in my work to become the best at what I was doing to contemplating completely abandoning my career to heal my child. Fortunately for me, there's massive overlap in the competencies in a genetic engineer and a software engineer.

The vast majority of illness is manifest through unresolved trauma in one of the 3 elements of each human being: the mind, body, and spirit.

Cancer, diabetes, Alzheimers, heart disease and stroke - and yes, autism.

The problem with Western medicine is it's reliance on scientific empiricism through study of the physical properties of the body. However the mind and spirit don't operate under the rules of the physical world.

Wow. Good luck. Unsubscribed.

[Grey_Wolf]

Wow. Good luck. Unsubscribed.

Yeah, I'm with ya

[R&R Rancher]

This isn’t the US where you read horror stories of people going 6 figures in debt to try and get help for their autistic children. There is financial aid available and if you advocate hard enough, trained workers who can do more good in those early years than you can. Quitting your job and selling off most of your worldly possessions will bite you later. You still need to provide a home for your family. Balance is needed.

[DanN]

It's difficult to say this without sounding like a complete a-hole.. but it's what I would say to the very best of my friends, even if it meant risking our friendship...

You gotta lay off the THC, man. Before you liquidate everything you own in the belief that you can fix something experts all over the world are working on, you need to clear your head. THC is a mind altering drug; Harbl the Cat was a much more intelligent sounding person than NickYYC. You sound like an old hippy now. I'm honestly concerned for your well being.

[DanN]

...once I had identified shooting as becoming a harmful addiction...

That might not be the only one at play here.

I wish you luck, and I wish you well. I'm sure you will do all you can to help your daughter - just don't forget to step back and not only enjoy watching her grow, but continue to enjoy life with your entire family.

[NickYYC]

That might not be the only one at play here.

Well the last time I checked in with my doctor, she told me my dosing was pretty typical of most patients, only she recommended I do more "off" days, which I'm on right now.

The thing about cannabis is that for recreational users, it's about inducing enough of a high to disassociate from reality.

As a medical user, I use it just enough to alleviate the symptoms of my illnesses: depression, anxiety, and insomnia.

To be honest, this attitude is why I'm not voting conservative (if I vote at all). Conservatives for years have held to this dogmatic belief that cannabis is this evil substance that rots your brain.

Certainly it has the potential (as do practically any pharmaceutical, as well as legal drugs, like alcohol and caffeine, but also environmental toxins, particularly news and social media), but dosed properly and with an informed mind, it is absolute miracle medicine.

The problem is all the propaganda on the War on Drugs basically lead to an intellectual black hole concerning something that should have been obvious.

Societies for hundreds of years before science was even invented knew cannabis was effective medicine, but with all our modern intellect and gadgetry we couldn't figure out something that pre-science societies figured out with ease.

You know when we talk about guns, "our side" likes to play up the idea that better mental health care is needed or that mental health is the cause of all gun violence; meanwhile, so many on "our side" hold to irrationally dogmatic and ill-informed beliefs about what is essentially a medical health panacea.

Medicinal cannabis saved my wife, my life, and my marriage.

When we first thought about using it, I was completely against the idea. I was a good "conservative."

Now I realize just how wrong "our side" has been, and how the consequence of that has been immeasurable human suffering.

If "our side" was wrong about that, what else have we been wrong about?

I wish you luck, and I wish you well. I'm sure you will do all you can to help your daughter - just don't forget to step back and not only enjoy watching her grow, but continue to enjoy life with your entire family.

Life isn't about enjoyment. I have very little enjoyment in my life.

I have purpose and meaning.

When enjoyment comes my way, I'm grateful for it.

But purpose and meaning, though not as enjoyable, vastly beat enjoyment.

[Dewey Cox]

You are coming across as a lunatic.
Please be aware of that.

[JustBen]

You are coming across as a lunatic.
Please be aware of that.

X2.

Also when you refer to software engineering it sounds like you're doing computer programming. Which is not engineering. If you aren't registered with APEGA (or the equivalent provincial body), you cannot call yourself an engineer anywhere in Canada.