And despite growing up in the USA I feel lost, I mean really? Its almost like voodoo or something, do you wear sunglasses? Well you probably have Irlen syndrome - Wikipedia :dubious:
A bunch of parents almost demanding their children have disorders based on almost nothing, a straight A student isn’t fast enough on his feet to be on Jeopardy! so he has Aspergers? It makes me think these people have very comfortable lives to worry about stuff like that.
I guess if you look hard enough absolutely ANYTHING can be a “problem”, does your child prefer mayo instead of ketchup on fries? Is it causing problems for you at dinner time? He might have Greasy Condiment Preference Disorder!:smack:
What funny about that link is it says the syndrome is mainly studied at Cambridge, you know, the one in ENGLAND? And that it is a commonly accepted syndrome by eye professionals in the United Kingdom. The UK, you might have heard, is not in the United States. In fact, the article goes on to say, the relevant US medical societies are dubious about both the existence of a unique syndrome and the proposed treatments. So that would tend to go against your theory that the US, and only the US, is engaged in the formalization of trivial complaints into medical diagnoses.
And finally, neither Scotopic Syndrome nor autism are a “mental illness.”
Yeah, there’s a new law in the US. What we used to call “quirks” or “goofy kid stuff” or “brattiness” must now be labeled as a specific disorder, preferably one that will require a lengthy course of pharmaceuticals to cure. Or at least it feels that way.
:rolleyes:
Sometimes people are just, I dunno, different. But that’s not good enough - it has to have a fancy-pants name and associated drug. Thanks, Oprah…
OK, maybe it’s not fair to blame Oprah, but she and her ilk do their share when it comes to promoting silly ideas, right?
That mother’s concerns don’t sound out of line to me. The most she may want is to get some counseling for her child (which insurance probably wouldn’t pay for unless there is a diagnosis of Asperger’s or whatever). I’m sure there have been lots of kids like this over the years who were never diagnosed with any mental disorders and turned out fine, and others who had miserable childhoods and could have been spared trouble had they gotten counseling and understood why they were “different”.
What will be interesting is to see what mental health/psychiatric professionals do, now that they are planning a revision to the DSM manual of disorders, which reportedly will narrow the definitions of disease (including autism). There’s a lot at stake here, not the least of which is money (if parents don’t get a diagnosis of “autism spectrum” for their child, they could wind up paying for counseling/treatment).
A poster in the thread diagnoses the posters son with Irlen syndrome based on light sensitivity, I looked it up and its AKA Scotopic Syndrome(it appears to be associated with autism spectrum disorders). I make no claims as to the validity of the syndrome, but diagnosing someone over the internet based on well jack and shit is the cultural trait I was discussing.
I think if you study a kid, especially one in the middle school years, as closely as she is doing to her son, you’re going to find all kinds of potential “disorders”. And it seems like she’s picking on all the “weird” qualities, but ignoring the ones that aren’t. Confirmation bias big time.
I don’t know if this is an American thing or not. Maybe it’s a symptom of a society where everything has to have an explanation and can’t just “be”. A person can’t just be a loner or sensitive or “spacy”. They have to have a syndrome with a specific name. Maybe categorizing things “correctly” is an inherent character of our culture. I don’t know.
I will say this, and I say this as someone who has something unusual going on with her brain (no, I don’t call myself “neurologically atypical”). I’m sick of hearing about Asperger’s Syndrome. For real. I was listening to one of my favorite radio programs a couple of days ago, and they had an hour devoted to “Love and Asperger’s”. Two teenagers with Asperger’s, highly functional and articulate, who are currently boyfriend and girlfriend. Both had a history with dating and past relationships. Both had friends. The young lady had only been diagnosed a couple of years ago, after her boyfriend “diagnosed” her, and only after searching for a doctor willing to give her the label (most had refused). I found their stories to be very unremarkable, to be honest, and I couldn’t figure out why I should be impressed with them and their “overcoming”. I thought to myself, “You know, if I were autistic and I had to listen to these two people “representing” me, I’d want to throw a shoe.” And then I realized that although I am not autistic, I can still throw a shoe.
But some insurers don’t cover autism therapies. She’s better off taking the kid to a shrink and hoping he meets the criteria for a more common problem, like depression or anxiety disorder. That won’t mean he can’t still be diagnosed with Asperger’s, but he’d better off with getting diagnosed with a “treatable” condition first. (And in the absence of depression and anxiety, what would be the point of therapy? Just to make him “normal”?)
But based on her description, he sounds like a normal kid to me. Perhaps I am biased because all of those things described me when I was a kid (especially the lack of desire to play with the other kids). I do not think I am developmentally delayed.
ABA therapy for autism, which seems to demonstrably help, is very expensive. Ballpark tens of thousands of dollars per year. It’s been a godsend for my daughter and family. And the special needs group in our public school district were relieved when she went from “undiagnosed but has obvious problems that keep her out of a regular classroom” to “autism spectrum diagnosis” because they could access a different budget bucket with more resources to help her with the official diagnosis.
There is a lot of debate on the new autism guidelines under discussion within the autism community. From my understanding, my daughter won’t have a challenge under the new guidelines.
It is extremely difficult because there are children that are obviously on the autism spectrum or some other malaise. However, kids that are borderline, mild, have paranoid parents or mostly okay make it much less black and white.
I am a professional who works with children and teenagers with autism, and I think the mother’s concerns do sound valid. A few things really stand out to me: 1) he has no friends, 2) he is not interested in relationships with peers, 3) he plays alone and makes “weird noises,” and 4) obsessive and consuming interests.
All those things are right on the mark for Asperger’s. Some people might say, what’s the big deal, he seems to be functioning well in school, he’s just a little different, etc. However, the overarching problem for him in the future is going to be social relationships. If he can’t form good interpersonal relationships, he is going to have a hard time navigating the adult world when he has to leave the supportive environment of his family home.
Monstro, you say he sounds like you as a child, but you have been diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder.
I think we’re definitely seeing a trend towards labelling anything not 100% Grade A “normal” a disorder of some sort, with a lot less respect given to people (and kids) having personalities and quirks. My husband probably would have been diagnosed with Asperger’s or something as a kid - he liked playing quietly by himself, and he has interests that he is totally interested in (he probably made a lot of weird noises while playing with his Deathstar, too). He’s more-or-less a normal guy, living a normal life.
You think playing quietly by yourself and making weird noises is concerned autistic behavior? Are you sure you’re not stretching facts to fit a conclusion you’ve already decided upon?
That’s “oversimplificationosis”; you clearly have Suffix Insufficiency Complex. In the future, you can avoid criticism by annotating words you’re not sure of.
If this was addressed to me: The mother says he has NEVER played with other kids. Do you think that sounds normal?
As for “weird noises”- that rings an alarm bell in my head for self-stimulatory behavior, another hallmark of autism. However, I wouldn’t be able to tell if those “weird noises” were vocal stims unless I actually observed the kid.
Another thing: why would I have already decided upon a conclusion before reading the post? If anything, as a professional in the field, I see more overdiagnosis of autism. I’ve worked with many kids with an autism diagnosis who I personally feel were simply mentally retarded or simply had speech or other cognitive delay.
No, I got the point of your post. Your husband played quietly by himself when he was little and was extremely focused. You think that if he were a kid nowadays, teachers, doctors and maybe even his parents would label him as autistic and demand lots of drugs and therapy. But that’s all unnecessary because he never had all that and he turned out fine.
And I’m saying horsehockey. You have no idea whether or not he’d be diagnosed with a mental illness if he were a child today, you’re simply concocting a scenario in an attempt to prove your point that society won’t let people be themselves.
