Date: 27th September 2009
I will be 22 in November. I have had numerous diagnosis over my life.
I had chronic ear infections as a kid. They originally thought I was deaf but hearing tests ruled that out. And I had other immune problems as well. I had speech and language therapy from the ages of 3 1/2 to about 8 1/2. At age 10 I was diagnosed with Dyspraxia and Dyslexia.
At age 12 I was diagnosed with Asperger’s over in Australia at the ISADD. But my mum did not want to believe it at the time because Dad only tested me to try and keep me in Australia saying my mum was a bad mum. So I don’t blame my mum for not wanting to believe. At age 16 I was diagnosed with Asperger’s and borderline Global Intellectual Impairment. But I believe that the diagnosis should of been High Functioning Autism as I showed many signs of Autism as a baby. There are pictures of me as a baby being totally spaced out and staring out to space. I talked and walked late. I did not crawl at all. I also chewed on my hands constantly all the time when I was a baby, even showed that sign when I was maybe not even 6 months old. Half the time I was in a world of my own. I believe the speech and language therapy moved be along the spectrum. Halfway through 20
08 I attended a seminar on Biomedical Interventions to treat Autistic Spectrum Disorders and other varying disorders out there. The Biomedical seminar was very beneficial to me and I got a lot out of it then I would off from other specialists that I have dealt with in the past. I found out loads of information about why I had an Autistic Spectrum Disorder and other disorders I had been diagnosed with over the years in the first place. This was the only implantation to actually make sense to me. When I was diagnosed with an ASD and a borderline Global Intellectual Impairment at age 16, all they could do was to suggest to me and my family that information on ASD should be provided to us. That was really no help to me at all. I am not saying that the people that diagnosed are not good people, all I’m saying is that, that approach did not work with me because it was not helping me to achieve the goals I needed to survive in this world. After the seminar Natasha Delgarno introduced me to Gina Wilson, and I set up an appointment with her. The first thing Gina told me to do was to go on the Gluten Free and Casein Free diet, and also to stay off Aspartame and Flavour Enhancers. She also got me to have a blood test done to see what supplements I would need. Gina consulted with Dr Lelia Mason (Although I didn’t see the Dr Lelia Mason as she works with children I want to thank her anyway for her help.) I was on the GFCF diet for about a month before I started the supplements. Just that alone made a real difference in my life. In that first month my racing thoughts started to go down, as well as eliminating the exscma, chronic migraines, and the other immunity problems I had. The blood test revealed that I was extremely low in vitamin D, low in zinc, and other important nutrients. So Gina got me started on B Complex Forte, Cod Liver Oil, Zinc oral drops, and a Probiotic to help with the gut. At age 16 I was diagnosed with Asperger’s and borderline Global Intellectual Impairment. My high school at the time thought that I wouldn’t be able to even go to university or do anything else, they didn’t exactly tell me that but that’s certainly how they treated me. (But it’s not their fault, they were just under educated when came to students with an ASD). I also overheard at one stage in my life that I should have been put into a group home as they thought I would not be able to cope. Going onto the GFCF diet and taking supplements to help myself and the ASD behaviours, has improved my IQ, I am no longer considered intellectually impaired and I fall in the average range now. Also before I started the biomedical intervention I had chronic migraines every single day I could not think clearly, I was in selective mustism half the time because of chronic anxiety I could not com
municate to my family whether I was hot/cold well anything along the lines of feelings, but now since I have been on the diet my migraines have vertically gone, I’m starting to think more clearly, the anxiety is starting to go down. My communication is getting way better as my mental health support worker says ‘that she has noticed that I’m beginning to communicate more and more, it may not be in the conventional ways of what NT’s would communicate” but this wanting to find ways of communicating is very new for me and I have never done what I am doing at the moment before, and best of all I can actually start to look people in the EYES, I may not be able to read the eyes yet, but I have never been able to look in a persons eyes before, and now I’m noticing that I can look in peoples eyes with out freaking out as I say I was doing before I started biomedical intervention. And I put this all down to the biomedical intervention and I believe there is still more that I can achieve going the biomedical way. But I also know that it will never take away who I am, ASD will always be apart of my journey in life, biomedical will always be apart of a long life journey as well, I know I always will be different from other people, but I also know that the biomedical intervention can stop and prevent alot of the behaviors in ASD that I don’t like, for example the
constant biting of my fingers because of high anxiety and also the rocking backward and forwards and the thumb sucking. I know biomedical doesn’t cure ASD but what it does do is lessen the severity of it and stop the stomach pains, the constant immune system problems, etc. By me going the biomedical way does not mean that I don’t like ASD or ASD people, all it means is that I’m wanting to help myself to become a better person that I can be, that God created to be. As my friends in church say that “anyone can be cured from any disorder they have if this is God’s will to be done, if that means going the biomedical way, let that be”. Although there have been times where people have not supported me in choosing the biomedical over conventional ways, including the time when over in Australia when I wanted to go live there, my family there did not choose to want to support me, so I regressed over that 4 weeks while I was there. It ended up with me coming back to New Zealand as I knew my family and friends over here would support me in what I want to do with helping with my ASD. Believe when I say it has been a hard road, I never want to go off the GFCF diet ever again, it was hard enough to get back on it when came back to New Zealand. I know the consequences if I do choose to eat the foods that I’m not allowed to have, and I have a personal choice to not make myself sick any more then what I am based on how my mother brought me up as a child, my mother used to always say “you need to look after yourself including your body because God has loaned us the bodies we have until we get to heaven and we need to respect that”, I believe that also means we need look after our bodies by what we put into our bodies for example the foods we eat. There is still a long road ahead of myself; I’m willing and committed to taking this journey to healing myself. Who else will join me on my walk to healing myself? Whether it be that you have ASD yourself, or you have family members with ASD, are a professional and want to learn the ways of biomedical, or you simply are a kind enough person to join us in the walk together to healing ASD and others disorders. Those of you who already chose this walk with me and those of you that want to join us in the walk, I commend you all for your hard work, patience, tolerance, and understanding to make it a better world for those of us that experience an ASD on a regular basis.
I want to especially to thank Gina Wilson for getting me onto this pathway with the rest of the professionals, families and other kind people out there. Thank you for your continuing support for helping those families and people in need and especially the children with ASD and other disorders and of course myself.

Gabrielle Hogg