Yes, and that goes both ways – one can’t decide a diagnosis is mistaken or “trendy” either, without the qualifications or the detailed examination.
Now, I wonder if it’s possible that someone, either a historical figure or a living person, may have the same causal factor(s) for autism but for some reason not the symptoms that make it disabling. That wouldn’t call for a diagnosis of autism, but it might be an interesting insight into what causes it.
I think the larger problem right now are the amateur doctors out there that are diagnosing themselves and close family members based on anonymous anecdotes on support group message boards and untrained celebrity spokespeople. Giving a real problem a false diagnosis wastes time, money, effort and sometimes human lives.
Yes, that’s just as bad. And it feeds into my complaint. When people are walking around saying they have X without a proper diagnosis, it makes it easier for people to say it’s just a fad, it’s not real, it’s overdiagnosed, etc.
Then there are those who decide they know the cause, like “vaccinations cause autism.”
Yep - and another person will discover that going lactose free cures them - and another will simply need to avoid high fat foods, and another will discover more fiber is the answer, and another will find that spicy foods sets it off.
IBS just means “something triggers an urgent need to go to the bathroom” what that trigger is will vary a lot from person to person - for many people, that thing turns out to be gluten. If it is - it may be worthwhile to eliminate it from your diet - or reduce it to the point where its less problematic.
I simply think that we are less tolerant now of a diagnosis like IBS - I had my diagnosis for 15 years before I started eliminating foods to figure out where my issue was. In the 15 years of diagnosis, the doctors I went to did very little - a colonoscopy to rule out something “serious,” a few other tests - but for the most part it was “yep, you have IBS” When I went back and said “I gave up gluten and the IBS is mostly gone” the doctor was all “well, that makes sense, don’t eat gluten.”
The old-time differential diagnosis of “idiocy” is, in hindsight, quite obviously describing autism.
I thought that way back before concern about terminology for handicaps evolved to what it is today, that idiocy, imbecility, and maybe one or two other terms (I don’t remember all the names used) were terms used by psychiatrists for particular ranges of “mentally retarded” below-normal IQs rather than necessarily pertaining to autism (not saying that autism was not considered a form of “mental retardation”, just that “mental retardation” was used for many conditions besides autism).
The Binet Scale was developed in the early 1900′s by Alfred Binet, a French psychologist and inventor of the first usable intelligence test, the basis of today’s IQ test. The Binet Scale went approximately as follows:
Normal —– IQ 85-115
Deficient —- IQ 71-84
Moron —— IQ 51-70
Imbecile —- IQ 26-50
Idiot ——– IQ 0-25
Yeah, every “I’m a little bit OCD” diminishes the respect people have for folks who really do suffer from OCD. Particular isn’t a form of OCD.
Some autistic people were described as “brain damaged” because nobody knew what else to call them.
Yes, but verbal descriptions of “the typical idiot” (which I last read decades ago, so I can’t give you a cite—this is way out of my field) talk of nonreactivity, etc., in a way that shows that the autistic were being lumped in.
Another problem with pinning down exactly what is, and is not, autism, is that because there were four things a family could do: 1) lie and get your child into a state funded program for the mentally retarded, which provided them with stimulation, some education, and some vocational training; 2) keep them home and hope for the best (these children often died young because they were unable to indicate distress of early onset of illness, or they got into accidents); 3) if the family could afford it, put them in a private institution run on Freudian principles, where they were harassed into disclosing the non-existent trauma that made them “withdraw”; 4) put them in a state institution, where they had no stimulation at all, and often were drugged or restrained, and engaged in “institutional behaviors,” like self-injury, or repetitive motion, which are even seen in normal people who become prisoners of war, or spend time in some kind of solitary confinement, but most commonly happen to people who already have a diagnosis, and so are assumed to be part of the diagnosis, and not a result of the institutional environment.
Studies of autistic people done on people who had been institutionalized still haunt the descriptive categories, or the “differential diagnosis” checklists, even though we have had a whole generation now grow up at home and in the community.
Also, “emotionally disturbed.” The disorder known as “reactive attachment disorder” has the same etiology that autism was suspected of having for a couple of decades. This is why doctors are very wary of making this diagnosis absent of a long paper trail documenting abuse, or of a child who grew up, say, in an East European orphanage.
“Brain-damaged” is a real diagnosis, but it means someone who had a head trauma or infection that actually damaged his (or her) brain, and affects his ability to function significantly. It’s usually reserved for people whose trauma happened as an adult, so their development was normal, and referring to them as “developmentally disabled” is not quite accurate, even though functionally they may have needs very similar to a mentally retarded adult who grew up retarded.
There was a residential facility for the “emotionally disturbed” in my neighborhood when I was growing up (and it’s still there) and the higher-functioning kids went to school with us, starting in about 3rd grade. Most of the time, we didn’t know they were from that facility unless and until they told us. The only common factor among them was that no matter what their IQ was, they were always several grade levels behind where they should have been. Most of them had also been in multiple failed foster home placements, but there are two who really stand out who I now believe were on the autistic spectrum.
I haven’t heard “emotionally disturbed” in a long time. I’ll bet all those kids would be labeled one of three: “Reactive Attachment disorder”; “Oppositional Defiance disorder”; or “Autism Spectrum disorder.”
They were probably several grades behind because they’d changed foster homes so many times, that they also changed schools a lot, and “failed” grades simply as a result of changing schools three times in one grade.
My aunt and uncle had a foster child who was behind, even though there was nothing wrong with her intellectually (other than lack of motivation because she was depressed). A couple of times when she changed foster homes and schools, she accidentally got put into the wrong grade, and no one would listen to her when she protested, because foster kids are chronic liars.
That school system finally passed a resolution a few years ago that foster kids should stay in one school for a full school year, even if they moved to a new home in a new district.
I’ll bet the non-disturbed kids in that home got put there just to stay in one school.
Agreed on all counts, and kids in the foster care system are going to come from unstable environments in the first place.
Those of us who have children with Autism will tell you the condition is pure hell. If it finally gets some attention even via mindless celebrities…it may mean some research money. I won’t complain.
I know parents who would disagree with you, but that’s one problem with having a “Spectrum.” Autism is really (IMHO, after a long time in the field) a collection of disorders, with different manifestations, and probably different etiologies. I would postulate at least six basic classifications, with degrees of severity within some of them (eg, Kanner’s Autism, Early Infantile Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, Obsessive-Compulsive Autism, Oppositional Defiance Disorder, and the type that involves injury to self or others, which is the rarest type, and also seems to involve a confusion of self vs. others).
I’m on the losing side of that one, though.
ODD and self-injurious autism are pure hell. Kanner’s autism, and EIA are easier to deal with, and respond well to ABA therapy. Asperger’s people are closest to normal, but have the burden of knowing they are different, and also, many Aspies have anxiety disorders as well.
I’d write more, but I have to get going.
And if the idiotic ramblings from some of them it cause doubt where there wasn’t any before…?
+1
We don’t need the 300,000th study demonstrating no link between autism and vaccines, because Rob Schneider went on a rip, while trying to revive his career.
Also, the slogan “green our vaccines” is meaningless. You want a vaccine to be as free from adulterants (which a preservative is not) as possible.
BTW, I actually did work with someone who got an award from the vaccine injury fund. Her symptoms were nothing resembling autism whatsoever. She got the award at the behest of her doctors, who initiated the process. There is a very tiny, albeit close to zero risk risk-- a risk so ow, the best description is “non-zero.” However, the risk is NOT autism.
In case anyone misinterpreted that, I think universal vaccination is a very good thing. The risk may be non-zero, but it’s still better than the risk of any disease. There are people with egg allergies, gelatin allergies, skin conditions, etc., who need special considerations, but they need the advice of a medical doctor, not Jenny McCarthy.