It’s very important when you have an autistic child to make sure that any treatments you give them are valid.  

Meet Kerri Rivera. She’s a social media influencer who believes autism is curable and is caused by parasites. She also believes that giving children chlorine dioxide, a poisonous chemical used as bleach and disinfectant, would cure them of their autism. Predictably, when this influencer’s followers used this method on their children, the kids threw up, got seizures, had weird-smelling urine, and developed rashes.

What this woman did is horrendous. I cannot believe she spread lies about a disability and believed it could be cured. She even claimed that the bad symptoms that came with the method she told her followers to use were signs that it worked. That’s obviously a lie. If I could describe this woman, she is absolutely delusional.

One of the worst misconceptions that some people like Kerri have about autism is that it can be cured. People also see it as a curse on their children.  

As an autistic person myself, I don’t see autism as a curse. It has made me knowledgeable about many things, made me very creative, and has even given me the intellect to succeed in places like school and college.  

Honestly, I think people shouldn’t listen to ableist people like Kerri. They’re just giving false information on a disease that is perfectly fine in some people’s eyes. We should focus on the positives of autism, and not the negative.