Jezebel 
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New York, 7:42 AM
Mon Nov 30
18 posts in the last 24 hours
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10/05/09
When someone says " Hello ", it's best to say " Hello " back, and not to respond by reciting that various colors of light sabers found amongst the various Jedi nights.
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10/05/09
I'm oblivious to tiny little offenses I've committed over the years, where people show their distaste with expressions (like when I, as a teenager, didn't understand that to people, saying "X is worse than Y" implies both are bad, and isn't a synonym with "Y is better than X"), but I certainly *care* that I offended people, and want to avoid it in the future. If anything, I care more than the average person, cause I keep an exhausting mental log of all the ways I've offended people since childhood, to make sure I don't do them again.
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My brother was diagnosed with Asperger's at 27. The diagnosis has not only stopped my mom from helping my brother get over his fears, she actually babies any and all bad behavior he does (such as throwing a fit because we are eating something he doesn't want to or getting verbally, not yet physically, violent when we do something he doesn't like) and says it's his disorder and there is nothing that can be done.
I hear about those getting treatment and being re-socialized but I only often see the erratic behaviour not being treated or "Oh, it's the Asperger's, nothing we can do." I have met those who are diagnosed as with it who have perfectly normal social lives.
I have nothing against the diagnosis, just why it is diagnosed and often times how it is (not) treated.
10/05/09
I realize that many people truly are on the spectrum, but I have never seen such a blatant case of misdiagnosis in my entire life.
10/05/09
Second, that it would be interesting if the concern about "what we'll do" with autism spectrum kids as they age actually led to an examination of adults who currently fit the diagnostic criteria or would have as children (a much larger group than we think, I suspect). This is a largely ignored group, but vital to determining what kinds of services actually help adults with autism spectrum disorders thrive.
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10/05/09
I was accidentally diagnosed as Asperger's at 28 years old, when I drove a friend and her 4 year old boy to an autism specialist, and he asked that we normal people take his autism diagnosis questionnaire alongside with her answers for him. He scored 32 out of 111, and he is now at 8 a non-verbal, severe autist; I scored 87 out of 111, which was the second highest score the doctor had ever seen.
It was freeing though, to realize that my lack of coordination and feelings of being overwhelmed with too much sensory input had an explanation, but I wonder if I'd been given the diagnosis at a young age, like a 20-year-old acquaintance was, if I'd be different - he was homeschooled and basically told he'd never work or date so he lives up to those expectations, whereas I was expected to go to a regular school and check my latest obsession to do homework, chores, and show up for work, and to swim since I wasn't coordinated enough to play volleyball, and other things like that. I wonder if for high-functioning ASD and Asperger's people, an early diagnosis with the low expectations that usually go with it isn't shortchanging them.
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Sorry, autism is (ha, irony) one of my special interests, as an autistic person (Asperger's being my diagnosis).
10/05/09
My son has been diagnosed with autism, and there is no evidence that his disorder is genetic. There is no history of autism in my family. There is no history of autism in my husband's family. My son, like many other children diagnosed with autism, is considered to be "high-functioning". This term simply means that his IQ is average or above-average. So, no, he didn't receive the diagnosis rather than a diagnosis of mental retardation. He's quite bright, as are the other children on the spectrum that I have met.
I do think that the threshold for diagnosing is growing ever lower/more sensitive, and that is one factor for the increase in diagnoses. However, I also think that something has changed in the environment that is triggering more cases of autism. I do not know what that is. I don't think it is vaccines.
This is a very frustrating disorder to deal with, as there is no definitive way to diagnose it, no clear-cut treatments, and insurance companies deny benefits with impunity.
10/05/09
So none of these theories are right, it is just more diagnosis. Only severely non-verbal autists were called autists in the 70s, and now everyone on the spectrum gets diagnosed.
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10/05/09
" cured " and that she and her husband are " bad " parents because they don't home school , shop at Whole Foods, and can't afford the alternative therapies that Ms. McCarthys son gets. That broke my heart. Here is a mom doing the best that she can - being made to feel like a " bad mom " because of people like McCarthy. ( off my Soap Box now )
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10/05/09
I'm going to blame high fructose corn syrup. Because it's convenient for me and my distaste for the sheer number of products that use it. I admit to having no scientific basis to blame it, I just don't like the junk.
But truthfully, is it really becoming more widespread, or is there just more awareness of the autism spectrum? Or possibly diagnosis-happy parents and docs (as we experienced with a lot of false ADD kids in the 90s and early 00s)? Genetic testing will be great to have and I certainly hope they get it down pat relatively soon.
10/05/09
I also think it's compounded by the fact that in our lifetimes we have to encounter so many more strangers and have more advanced social skills. I can see how an autistic child would just be kept at home 100 years ago and considered "funny" but without something "medically" wrong with him. It's the nature of modern society that any kind of unusual behavior must have a disease behind it and be dealt with accordingly.
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The spectrum means that people like me--a bit odd, a bit obsessive, socially inept--are autistic, along with people like my patients at work, who may be nonverbal and not completely toilet trained at 10, or 15.
10/05/09
I don't know nearly enough about autism to have an opinion on those questions, but they seem like potential reasons why thinking about autism with a spectrum model might give a lot of false positives. It is probably the best way to approach it - but it still may have this problem.
10/05/09
@Her Grace: I would be shocked if there weren't any people with Autism on Jez.
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That's a reason why this methodology is not a good one, but that defect would cause an underestimation of how many are affected, so it would not explain the increase, only point to this increase being even bigger.
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10/05/09
I mean they seem present this as a possible mistake that would cause the figures to be so high, when that it would cause them to be lower, not higher.
I know the post doesn't explicitly say that, but it seems to point in that direction, which is a wrong one.
10/05/09
But I don't believe that this is a new or epidemic phenomenon. Just that there is a wider and wider net for the diagnosis of folks who would never have been considered autistic when I was a kid.
I can easily name 5 people I knew growing up who I would consider to be candidates for the diagnosis. Probably more. And the ones I've kept track of are doing just fine as adults.
10/05/09
If these people represent one end of the spectrum, the numbers seem about right.
10/05/09
If someone displaying those symptoms is considered for the intent of this study to be autistic, then I can believe those stats.
10/05/09
The solid diagnoses (autism and Asperger's, which really is a legacy diagnosis and would be better fit in with autism itself) and the two other pervasive developmental conditions (Rett's and childhood disintegrative disorder) tend to stick.
10/05/09
I understand the problem of fear resulting from over-reporting of autism numbers. But I would rather some over-reporting if it means we can get more research into the condition.
10/05/09
Sucks that the actual study wasn't all that different. Why didn't they ask diagnosticians how many cases they see per year? That seems much less biased and an M.D. might have a better understanding of what constitutes autism or the autism spectrum.
Plus, they probably had actual paperwork/records/questionnaires on file to back up the data.
C'mon statisticians!
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I just think asking parents opens a can of worms because autism is kind of the popular self-diagnosis (or lay-diagnosis) for any kind of childhood awkwardness.
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Also, my mom is currently convinced my younger brother has Asperger's, despite his psychiatrist disagreeing with her, so I could see how just those two questions could get very unreliable results
10/05/09
PDD-NOS, however, is totally subjective. It's a catch-all for the kids and adults who have some autistic traits but not enough to meet criteria (so this includes kids who are a bit socially off, a bit communicatively off, might be anything from severely impaired to incredibly mild).
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