Sorry, late reply to comment, just in case no one will read it:
“I asked you to give me the name of one of Amanda Baggs doctors. She must have one that knows everything about her considering her conditions.
I can give Ari the name of my psychiatrist: he can talk to him personally if he so wishes.
Can Amanda give me the name of one of her doctors?
Has anyone ever spoken to one of her doctors?”
And you know, my “bad behavior/attitude” is only more proof that what I say I have experienced is real because only someone who has truly experienced what I have can have these sorts of problems.
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Stephanie,
You’re asking to invade someone’s privacy. Amanda Baggs does not need to prove herself to you. Why should she?
Why are you so concerned about her? If you don’t trust her, fine. Don’t read her work and avoid her when possible. Why harrass someone else when you’re so upset about the people who harrass you?
In regards to your behavior being proof. Behavior, to a great degree, is a matter of choice. Not everyone who’s experienced abuse takes it out on everyone else for the rest of their lives. You need to heal; you don’t need to hurt others.
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Because Amanda is abusing other people, that’s why.
Am I the only one who cares?
Why should she not?
I’m offering: why doesn’t she?
I don’t understand.
I’m not “harassing” Amanda: I’m only trying to help her and everyone else.
“Rest of my life:” I’m 21 so…there you go: no explanation needed for that, I suppose.
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Not everyone who was abused has my symptoms, I know, but not everyone has experienced the extent of the abuse I have, either.
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Stephanie,
“Because Amanda is abusing other people, that’s why.”
How is Amanda abusing other people? I’ve read your complaints about her, claims that she takes advantage of others, but have never seen you cite a single example. How does she take advantage of Ari or anyone else?
“Why should she not?”
There are a lot of reasons she might not choose to do so. I’m not her, so I cannot tell you which reasons she has. Some possible reasons are 1) a belief in her right to privacy, 2) no interest in someone who makes attacks against her personhood, and 3) respecting her doctors’ time enough to not provide someone with his/her contact information.
There are many more possible reasons. However, there’s one big factor you may not have considered. Even if she gave you the name and contact information of her medical providers, they could not talk to you without a written, signed consent form (unless that’s just a Wisconsin thing, which I doubt). They couldn’t even verify that she was their patient without such a form. Neither can yours. And that form is not a blanket form–it’s specific to a single individual/organization for a very specific length of time.
For example, I take my children to a Children’s Hospital. It’s all one big complex system. Yet, the doctor’s at one clinic cannot talk to the doctor’s at another clinic within the same system about my child, their mutual patient, without a written, signed consent form from me.
“I’m not “harassing” Amanda: I’m only trying to help her and everyone else.”
I’ve seen posts where you call Amanda a liar. This accusation is based solely on your lack of understand (and lack of belief in the understanding you do have) of her complex medical/developmental history. You cannot prove your claims are true. They’re merely an attack against her personhood–her sense of self and her online identity. That is harrassment.
Your intent may be to help. I’m not saying it isn’t. Your approach is hurtful. That you do not understand this or intend to cause harm (if that is the case) does not make it any less hurtful and harmful.
“I’m 21 so…there you go”
Stephanie, I know a lot of people who have grown up in abusive environments. I grew up in an abusive environment myself.
In all of the people I’ve ever known that have lived with abuse there are three reactions:
–Some become life-long abusers
–Some become life-long victims
–Some heal and become their own personThe patterns you forge now in how you choose to live and how you choose to react to your experiences will be hard to break. Choose wisely.
It’s easy–so very easy–to attack others. When you feel so low and so unworthy of love/respect/fair treatment/goodness/life attacking others helps you make yourself feel better. “I may be trash, but they’re less than trash.” The pattern of behavior, if it does not change, leads you down the path of being a life-long abuser. You re-live all your experiences, but this time you are in control, you have the power. And you reinforce and repeat the cycle of harm.
No matter what you’ve experienced–no matter how extensive the abuse you faced–it does not and never will justify your choice to become an abuser.
People will help you heal if you let them. I will help you heal if you let me. But, you cannot heal your internal wounds by attacking others.
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“There are a lot of reasons she might not choose to do so. I’m not her, so I cannot tell you which reasons she has. Some possible reasons are 1) a belief in her right to privacy, 2) no interest in someone who makes attacks against her personhood, and 3) respecting her doctors’ time enough to not provide someone with his/her contact information.”
4) She doesn’t know Stephanie Keil asked because Ms. Keil didn’t ask *her*.
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Amanda is abusing others because she lies to them. I’m not “attacking” her: I’m merely asking that, once and for all, true “proof” is given.
Then all of this can be put to rest, once and for all.
“You cannot prove your claims are true.”
Oh yes I can: I offered to give Ari the name of my psychiatrist and even talk to him personally if he wishes.
I don’t understand why Amanda can’t offer the same.
I’m more than willing to let people help me heal; I’d like that more than anything: I just want all of this t be put to rest because I have seen a lot of *credible* evidence that she is a fraud.
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Instead of asking “A.B., can you give me the name of one of your doctors then?” in an email to her, you asked the readers of your blog “Can A.B. give me the name of one of her doctors then?” at http://www.stephanielynnkeil.com/blog/?p=35#comment-24
What if Amanda doesn’t read your blog and so didn’t see your question in the first place? Do you routinely search the web to see if anyone out there asked you a question by posting a comment to one of his or her blog posts instead of sending you the question directly?
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When I said–”You cannot prove your claims are true.”–I was talking about your claims concerning Amanda, not your claims concerning yourself.
As I said, giving Ari or anyone else the name of your psychiatrist does not allow the psychiatrist to discuss your medical history with that person. Your offer is an empty gesture.
I realize you do not understand why Amanda chooses not to do the same; however, that does not make her a fraud. See the list of possible reasons I gave above. In the end, I see no reason why she should feel the need or desire to prove herself to you.
This will be put to rest when you let it go. If you choose not to believe the publicly available information regarding Amanda, I see no reason why you would choose to believe a doctor. After all, you could always claim the person you talked to wasn’t really a doctor.
I’ve seen you make claims to have “credible” evidence, but I’ve never seen an example of this evidence. Yet the evidence in Amanda’s favor is abundant.
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You can discuss a person’s medical history of such a person gives permission.
And if the person actually was a doctor that would be pretty easy to prove: you can do this via the internet.
It would take less than 10 minutes for a doctor to do this: hardly “wasting” anyone’s time.
This is credible evidence that Amanda is a fraud.
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You can discuss a person’s medical history with legally binding permission, but that permission must be in writing in the appropriate legal format. Saying “I give permission” on a blog is not sufficient. At least not in Wisconsin.
As far as a doctor’s time, 10 minutes that doesn’t add value for his or her patient or clinic is a waste of time considering how much a doctor is paid. It is not his/her/their job to satisfy your curiousity.
The site you linked to is not credible evidence that Amanda is a fraud. It’s an accusation that Amanda is a fraud. If these accusations were true and provable, then CNN would have done a retraction. I could find no evidence of a retraction. Nor could I find any credible source (i.e. publication without strong bias) reporting about this. One web site supported by an anti-autistic organization with a bunch of e-mail addresses does not make for credible proof. Have you e-mailed these people and gotten a response? Are these e-mail accounts even active? What proof do they have that their claims are true and Amanda’s are false?
Anybody could put up a web site and make false accusations. Autism Speaks would latch on to such a site very quickly if it denounced one of their very public and credible detractors. It would take an incredibly talented liar to “snow” CNN on a human interest story.
Believe what you want. But Amanda has very little incentive to proof herself to you. I see no reason why she should.
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A lot of this Amanda Baggs controversy is making it hard for me to believe she is real. I always loved her writing and found it very inspirational. I cannot imagine how a fraud could ever come up with such amazing stuff. Some autistics claim that she does not resemble autism at all, but I strongly disagree. It manifests itself in so many different ways. I hum and stim the same way as Amanda when I am enjoying my home alone time. I have very uneven skills (can do X but not Y). Yet I agree that she is probably not what would be called severely autistic or LFA. Now even though I am not a huge fan of timelord, I think he has a point saying she could have went from Aspergers to nonverbal. Some people are arguing that she is actually schizophrenic or some other sort of mental illness, making her believe she is autistic. I know for sure she cannot possibly be a neurotypical faker looking for supports, otherwise they would not care to advocate for disability rights.
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“I know for sure she cannot possibly be a neurotypical faker looking for supports, otherwise they would not care to advocate for disability rights.”
You would be wrong about that.
In Amanda’s position she gains much attention, sympathy and fame: very common in people in suffer from factitious disorder. Perhaps her primary wish is attention, sympathy and fame, not to “advocate” for “disability rights.”
She may very well have mile AS but mild AS is vastly different from how she currently presents herself.
If Amanda claimed to have some sort of genetic disorder that caused regression, which is possible in certain rare genetic disorders, it would be a bit more believable. But she doesn’t: everything is chalked up to “autism.”
And Amanda is just making more excuses for her to not “prove” that she is who she says she is because she CAN’T.
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