OlderJenny McCarthy on Beating Autism
In the latest issue of Us Weekly, Jenny McCarthy tells her heartwarming story about how her son is beating autism.
Battling doctors, a failed marriage and her own guilt, the 35-year-old actress tells how her son Evan recovered from autism. Jenny said, “When he finally hugged me I prayed, ‘Please God don’t let this be the only time’.”
In related news, former Rescue Me star Denis Leary writes that autism is a joke in his new book, “Why We Suck: A Feel-Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid”. Here’s an excerpt from the 51-year-old actor’s book:
“There is a huge boom in autism right now because inattentive mothers and competitive dads want an explanation for why their dumb-ass kids can’t compete academically, so they throw money into the happy laps of shrinks . . . to get back diagnoses that help explain away the deficiencies of their junior morons. I don’t give a [bleep] what these crackerjack whack jobs tell you - yer kid is NOT autistic. He’s just stupid. Or lazy. Or both.”
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Wtf. Dumb ass kids? Moronic? What a *****.
Although I applaud Jenny M. for her efforts in bringing awareness to Autism, I think at the same time that her comments can give a false sense of hope to parents dealing with children on the Autistic Spectrum.
Yes, there are many interventions that have done wonders for Autistic children. With those interventions there can be incredible progress. Children that lived in a dark world, have a sense of light now.
However, despite all of the interventions, social skills classes, speech therapy, occupational therapy………there is not, as of yet, a cure for Autism.
As for D. Leary…………………………………………words cannot begin to describe how stupid, insenstive, and utterly wrong his comments are. It seem to me, that he made comments that he knew would outrage not only parents with an autistic child, but any person with common sense. In an effort to sell a book? Without Mr. Leary making those comments I never would have blinked twice passsing his book in a store, nor read one article about him, or this book on the web.
Many methods are employed by publishers to have their book in the press. However, to publish a book with such outrageous statements is wrong.
Leary has always done sarcastic comedy. I wouldn’t get too upset until you read the entire book not just an quote from it. A book with that title means to provoke something from readers. Autism has no cure but is most definitely over-diagnosed like ADD and many other
conditions. Let’s hope all children (and adults) with autism have the
ability to advance to their full potential with proper treatment.
I am happy Jenny’s son is doing well, but there is no “cure” for autism. Her son is obviously very high functioning and Jenny is going around saying he “beat it” and he is recovered- that is really misleading especially for parents who have children with autism. I think using words like that give false hope to some parents who may have children who are lower functioning with autism. this is a slippery slope and she should be advised not to make such blanket statements about a very serious and REAL disorder such as autism.
Oh and about Dennis Leary’s comments, well he is a BIG A S S for saying such horrible things about autism. He obviously does not know anyone with the disability nor does he know anything about it! What a pathetic man.
disgusting.
I saw Jenny on Oprah and my first thoughts when I aw the clip of her son was BULLSHIT he does NOT have autism! For one thing he has smiling eyes-the kids I have seen with this disease are void of feeling in their eyes. I thought why is this chick doing this? My son has Aspergers which is a mild form of Autism and her son was nothing like him. I think she is attention seeking.
Like every other “disease”/”illness” out there…it is added to the ever growing list of illnesses being over diagnosed. Sure. It is REAL. But it seems in the last 5 or 6 years I’ve known more “autistic” children than I have “normal” and healthy children. Parents are also a lot lazier these days. I knew a woman who refused to teach her child anything. She claimed “that is what kindergarten will be for.” So he went into school not even knowing his ABC’s. Then for years she desperately tried getting him diagnosed as autistic because his teachers said he was slow and very anti-social. End of the story…he was diagnosed autistic. Coincidence that she just happened to be a ****** lazy parent? You tell me. Or actually, don’t. Common sense tells me.
I find it funny that a woman like Garth cares now so much about her child but in one of her useless mainstream parenting books, she laughed about mutilating her child’s *****. Idiot! Women like that should not give birth. No wonder this child has problems.
Two Words: Us-Weekly.
Pretty much sums it up… nothing more to say, really.
Denis Leary is a f***ing idiot! Someone should sue his ass and take every penny from this f***er! He knows nothing about autism!
Autism is real.. I’d be really upset if I read those from Leary and if I had an autistic child.
I think what Jenny meant he was able to interact. Many autistic children just live in their own world. For a mother, even being called “mom” means the world as some children just repeat some words. They dont really communicate.
first of all we all have to have understanding of illnesses that exist both physical and mental. However with peoples assumingly rude and ignorant comments about autism you have to take a look at the entire picture. You have mccarthy here,as far as I know her life wasn’t one of science and being involved in medical science. As far as I can remember she made her life around her looks and while that’s fine, it doesn’t really qualify her to make attacks against those that may also be mis-informed about the science. Real science has proven that the majority of autistic cases are not correctly diagnosed and when you have numbers stated from big pharma stating that 1 in 3 children may/could be diagnosed with autism you have to ask yourself, is this real or a way to pander drugs? Well I think you can make your own decision. If Autism is as big as it’s said to be it doesn’t have any real merit because years ago we sure didn’t have this many autistic reports, it wasn’t until big pharma got it’s hands in the peddling of drugs to children that now everyone has it. If Jennys Kid has it, then god bless her and the child, but for hollywood to speak out against people they both show their absolute ignorance.
WAY TO GO NUMBER # 18……
Dennis Leary’s comments are disgusting and vile. He is an example of all that is wrong in society. As a father himself you would think that he would have compassion for other parents that deal with any child that has a disability, whether it be physical or mental.
I am a mother of a three year old autistic girl and have read Jenny McCarthy’s book, Mother Warriors and nowhere in there does she say that her son is recovered or cured, she says he is recovering. Recovering the developmental skills of neurotypical children his age. My daughter is also slowly recovering some of the skills she lost and she is beautiful inside and out, which is more than I can say for Mr. Dennis Leary.
You can’t beat autism. You have it for life. That washed up guy who wrote that book is loving all the people keeping his name in the spotlight. Very sick man.
I am sorry but “recovering from autism” doesn’t exist.
You are autistic or you’re not.
You can learn to cope with it (or parents can learn to cope with it) but it is not an illness. It is how someone is and always will be.
I do know from personal experience that we as parents should NEVER take any one persons diagnosis alone. We should never say one illness is never curable.
My child almost went on a drug that had side effects that were very dangerous. Only later to be found that she was allergic to milk.
Later they said she was ADD and that turned out to be a sugar issue.
I would love to tell them she is graduating at the top of her class in college now and without their drugs .
All it took was the help of a healthy diet!
DENNIS LEARY?
WHO?
HE JUST SOUNDS LIKE AN UNEDUCATED IDIOT!
miffed_33 - Wow. You say you have a child on the spectrum and then you go on to say that children who have autism are “void of feeling” in their eyes. You are an ignorant moron if you truly believe this. Please look into this before making such stupid comments again.
MANY children who have autism are incredibly loving and show lots of feeling with their eyes.
Honestly, I’d think that a parent with a child on the spectrum would know better. Leads me to believe you’re full of crap.
jenny mccarthy is just trying to sell her book people. she didn’t overcome autism, her child was treated intensively by therapists trained in behavioral intervention which was successful. she doesn’t credit any of the therapists who worked for hundreds of hours with her child to retrain his behavior and integrate him into appropriate social behavior. i know who these therapists are, and it is quite sad that she is promoting herself without even acknowledging the services that helped her son become integrated into normal schooling. often times parents want to treat their children lovingly like their normal children but only end up reinforcing the unsocial behavior. these parents who need to find something to do to help their child will blame other factors like diet, blood sugar issues, bad teachers, and think that if they LOVE THEM ENOUGH and FIGHT WITH EVERYONE IN THE WORLD that they will overcome their problems… and then what do you know, the results of the therapy start showing, and then the parents can say “hey i did it!” and pat themselves on the back. its a tough journey to go through, but it does cloud a parent’s logic when its their beloved child who has problems that can’t be solved by the parents alone.
I think that Dennis Leary is trying to stir up the same pot that Mike Savage did MONTHS ago,and unfortunately he’s giving all the same bs that Savage ranted about on his radio show. I have an 8 year old son with Asperger’s ( a form of autism that is high functioning ) and I didn’t get him diagnosed so that I could make excuses as to why he won’t be like the other children or because he’s not as smart. He’s the exact opposite of what Dennis Leary points out, he’s in a NORMAL class room doing better than the typical children are academic wise and he makes friends and I don’t think one gets their child diagnosed because the child is LAZY…. C’mon Dennis wake up and realize not many people give a care about you and stop trying to drum up attention in the wrong way…. From one Irish person to another, you should feel ashamed of yourself!
I love this website but this post is simply tasteless. Not only are the comments from Dennis Leary insensitive and disturbing the fact that justjared.com included them in such a happy and inspiring article really eats at your credibility and likability.
So Dennis Leary is just stupid and not autistic?!?!?!
I hope he was trying to make a joke in a round about way. Because some parents do make excuses for their childrens’ ill behaviour. We will soon be faced with a generation of people who have been raised to not be accountable or deal with consequences. It is quite scary and puzzling at the same time.
I hope she doesn’t believe the headlines. There is no cure for austism. Just being able to go to school and learning and mainstreaming. That helps but is not a cure.
Leary needs to spend time with an autism family before he opens his big mouth again. WHAT A LOSER!!!!!
Leary,
Please, stop publishing your ignorance.
Sincerely,
A loving sister of an autistic child.
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