"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along" (Eleanor Roosevelt). This is a good quote to resemble what kids and adults are going through when they have been diagnosed with a disease. Many children around the world are diagnosed with a different type of disease each year. Every year there are approximately 36,500 children born with the disease of autism. Scientists continue to study what autism is, what causes it, and how effective the treatments are.
Autism is a difficult disease for most people to understand completely. A Swiss psychiatrist by the name of Eugen Bleuler was the first person to introduce the world to autism. Autism was discovered in 1911. Bleuler used autism to describe what adult schizophrenia is, adults who are withdrawn socially and generally keep to themselves (Parks 21). Autism is generally found in people at a young age and to this day there has been several studies performed revolving around autism going on for years. The first study every done was performed on twins. The study was to get answers revolved around the genetic explanation of autism (Bumiller 4). Since a lot of people have little to no knowledge about autism, they have dedicated a month to the awareness of it. Throughout the United States, awareness for autism is aroused during the month of April (Autism 1). This provides people with information and support for the parents and people with autism. Most parents don't like to admit to themselves that their child has a problem. They also tend to become easily frustrated with certain symptoms. Their child is said to be mentally retarded. Parents like to diagnose their child with everything besides autism (Parks 25,27). It is common for parents to accept the fact that their child has a disease that does not have a cure yet either.