General Autism Discussion

Reading more articles, and I saw one about a documentary on an autistic individual with a lot of input from the individual herself.

The comments section was where a lot of the interesting stuff was, as is often the case on articles like these. One major point of contention is the idea that autistic self-advocates are taking the megaphone, so to speak, for themselves and distorting the view of autism to include only those who are "high functioning".

While I understand the controversy around the use of terms such as "high" and "low" "functioning" (and the author of NeuroTribes pointed out the flaws in such terms), the fact remains that we get situations like this:

Historically, it was psychologist Lorna Wing who discovered the sheer breadth of the autism spectrum and insisted on the term "Aspergers Syndrome" being invented so parents won't have to claim their little professors had "autism". Even though she recognized Aspergers was in fact a form of autism. She played politics to help others.

What do you think about the idea of splitting autism into multiple labels/descriptions? To claim that two people with a massive gulf in their needs have the same condition, particularly when there's massive differences between them that drastically affect their abilities and needs, is in my opinion a bad idea. At the same time, it's called a "spectrum" for a reason, and I myself was nonverbal at the age of 3, having been diagnosed with autism before people in the US had heard of Aspergers Syndrome. You had to be pretty damn profoundly affected to be diagnosed at the age of 3, when I was a kid. And yet I'm obviously not the same now as I was then.

It's already a spectrum, you've explained why it is one so I fail to see the issue. Yeah it's a broad label and maybe giving it types and offical internal categorisation would be a good idea, but I see no need to split it up.

Allistic people have a massive gulf in their needs as well. It does not surprise me that there is huge diversity under autism. It is a broad categorisation, and I do not see that as problematic.

But research into establishing internal categorisation could be important for the general purposes of advancing science and improving medicine.

The problem stems from the fact that lay people are a bit lazy, and want to avoid having to use two or three complicated sounding words when a single simple one would do. "Aspergers" worked as a handy lay term for "high functioning autism". If we had a similar label for the low functioning end, lay people could use those terms and feel comfortable doing so. Professionals will continue to use the proper terminology from the DSM, of course.

I don't think either high functioning, low functioning, or even aspergers, are currently in the diagnostics standards manual. If you follow the current guidelines, you are either on the spectrum, or off it.

I haven't actually read the current version though.

This isn't about what the DSM says, though. This is about helping laypeople understand the differences easily. After all, laypeople are who autistics are in contact with more than anyone else.

Laypeople are most people. If they don't understand what autism is, all the experts in the world knowing won't change how mainstream society reacts to someone who's obviously autistic, or not obviously so but still affected by it in ways that influence their interactions.

It's like... imagine having a severe food allergy, and only the doctors know what it is and how it works and how it affects you. That won't help if you go to a food store or a restaurant or an event where food is served. Helping the public know, however, results in situations like my coworker's daughter with celiac disease being able to attend birthday parties and still be able to eat something there.

A psychologist who's used to diagnosing her patients, finds autism in her own son.

When I attended university I had to get rediagnosed by the woman who diagnosed me the first time. Good lord is she herself ever on the spectrum. As in about as obviously autistic as you can be while remaining socially functional.

Really? I realize it can be difficult to describe at times, but if you can, what about her stuck out?

I don't know if this is the right thread, but what do you guys think of ADHD and/or Ritalin?

What about it?

The idea that ADHD is being over diagnosed and likewise Ritalin being over prescribed. I don't know if this is related or not to the idea that autism is being overdiagnosed or just suddenly started appearing everywhere within the last decade. I just hear all these jokes about ADHD and college students taking Ritalin (even though I and my friends, as far as I know, have never done that ).

Isn't over percription of drugs for every tiny thing a massive problem in the US? Regardless of what the drugs are technically being given for.

The ritalin thing is something I've heard of, yes. Apparenty the UN dinged Switzerland because we have a habit of over-prescribing such medication to children.

I've certainly heard people declare that we overmedicate for every little thing, particularly for mental health problems. I can kind of see their point in that drugs, but my concern is that such arguments tend to act like mental illnesses aren't "real illnesses". Taking medication for depression or ADD is no different than taking a cold pill or painkillers for medicine.

ADHD really is overdiagnosed, though. It is a real thing, but you get some people who mistake a really fidgety kid in first grade for having ADHD when it's really that the kid has never had to sit for four to six hours straight before.

Which isn't a healthy thing to be doing , but that's another story

Sure, and you guys hand out perception painkillers and other drugs for physical pain, it's just as bonkers.

It's actually not so much misdiagnosing a fidgety kid as having ADHD (or a socially awkward kid as autistic)- we have a reasonably reliable diagnosis process in the US. It's more a case of going directly to medication as the first course of treatment, and not exploring alternatives that might work as well or better in the long run.

@Bonsai

Tone of voice, hand motions, physical twitches, take your pick. She had the full laundry list of the visual and audio symptoms that you tend to see in people towards the more extreme end of the spectrum.

My personal psychiatrist, who was treating me for depression at the time, actually knew her. When she came up in conversation I commented to him that I thought she was on the spectrum. There was this lengthy pause, followed by him commenting that "I may need to tell her that."

You mean like Therapy and Counselling? I'm guessing this comes from a societal pressure to have instant results.

edited 6th Jul '16 10:06:01 AM by Greenmantle

It's natural. Medication is simpler to administer, acts faster, and is often cheaper. It's just not necessarily in the best interest of the kid or society.

I wouldn't say that. In my experience (on the other side of the Atlantic), medication is viewed as a last (permanent) resort.

@Ambar: Holy crap. I'm impressed that she was able to get the job she did despite those quirks. Many employers fire people for being "weird" or refuse to hire them just for that stuff. Great on her for getting that job.

Interesting if she doesn't know that she may have it. Or, maybe she does and never brought it up. I can't imagine her not knowing if she knows what it is and had the same issues growing up.

Dispelling some myths about the autistic wunderkind programmer

I read it on my phone since it's blocked at work. Basically, positive stereotypes about autism hide some of the real problems that autistics face, including the smart ones. One man said that his son isn't some kind of genius or savant, but rather "an average IQ kid with severe autism." And while there are employers who do go out of their way to hire autistic programmers, many end up shocked by the reality of what autistic employees are actually like.

There's more, both good and bad. I can't view directly at work and copy/paste, so I'm just bringing up some of its points.

I was falsely diagnosed with ADD and prescribed an alternative to ritalin. It did absolutely nothing for me.