Monday, April 2, 2012

Is there a link between Autism and Cushing's?


This is my other darling sister, Victoria. She has high-functioning Autism, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. Today is Autism Awareness Day, so I thought I'd talk about how things like Cushing's and Autism could relate. She weighed maybe 130lbs in this picture or less. Now she's bordering around 200lbs. We had her see my specialist when her Cortisol was high once. It wasn't high when we re-checked it, but her FSH (Follicle-stimulating hormone) is usually low or non-existent. It basically means she can't get pregnant or is going through menopause. She's only 22 years old! We took her off her birth control and she hasn't had a menstrual cycle since. We are insisting she get tested for Poly Ovarian Cyst Syndrome. Her moods and irrational thoughts have become a lot worse in the past couple years. She's even become violent and never really was before. When I asked her one night if she was seeing something upsetting or just felt bad, she said the latter. Sounds more emotional than psychotic, doesn't it? She takes thyroid replacements and we always blamed the Lithium for that problem. There are theories about connections between thyroid diseases and Autism. The day I read about Neonatal hypothyroidism, my heart sank, because she had many of those symptoms as a baby and continues to show them. Recently, we have her on this horrible drug called Clozapine. She's behaving better mostly because it makes her want to sleep ALL THE TIME. She rarely exercises and seems to get very upset even over a short walk. She used to play many sports and smile and laugh more. Her future is looking grim if we can't help her compensate. Our doctors can claim her medications cause all of this, yet I highly doubt that knowing what I know now. I've heard many Cushing's patients say it's worse watching their children suffer the same fate. As an older sister, it's awful watching my younger sisters suffer!

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