4 ms·

Exactly I too believe everything is being classified as Autism nowadays. Instead of focussing on improving the life for those who truly struggle.

SubiculumCode 9y ago
Your first point is not quite what I meant, but the spectrum part of Autism is real, and so an expansion of what is diagnosed as Autism is probably justified until such time (hopefully soon!) where we can really fulfill the dream of identifying separable phenotypes of autism.
- drieddust 9y ago
  Perhaps then I respectfully disagree. Classifying everything as Autism means huge medical spend which could be used better. Trying to classify every deviation from the narrowly definition "normal" is just lazy.
  - SubiculumCode 9y ago
    I believe you are over estimating the degree that the diagnosis has widened. Instead, awareness of autism is leading to more diagnoses. The instruments have not changed.
srtjstjsj 9y ago
"everything is being classified as Autism" because autism diagnosis opens the door to insurance coverage for therapy and special-education services in the schools.
- drieddust 9y ago
  Yes and that's what I meant. I have Personally experienced this recently. Doctors wants to classify any deviation from their checklist as Autism.
- SubiculumCode 9y ago
  And early behavioral intervention is one of the few things we know yields tangible benefits to quality of life outcomes
mercer 9y ago
Could you give some evidence of how 'everything' is classified as autism nowadays? And could you also give some examples of how this prevents those who 'truly struggle' from improvement? In fact, could you explain what you mean with 'truly struggle'? I've found that a pretty significant part of the struggle of people with mental health issues (even severe ones) is people who claim their struggles aren't 'real' (for some reason that always strikes me as either self-serving or somewhat arbitrary/based on pop-skepticism).
- drieddust 9y ago
  Autism is a serious condition and should be treated as such. But now as it is defined spectrum doctors muddle minor deviations and real serious issues together. In my view this does not help either as treatments are very different depending upon where exactly on the spectrum issue is. This gives rise to lazy labeling. I am all for early intervention. Its rather that because now Autism is classified on a spectrum. Most doctors have got a lazy attitude of classifying any deviation from the normal as Autism. Instead of trying to go deeper they just start with default assumption of putting the patient on ASD spectrum. - First born with minimum eye contact is Autism. Why it cannot be shyness? - Doesn't pay attention unless Adult makes it interesting for the Child. Why it cannot be you are boring and I don't like you? - Speech difficulty because of child is multilingual and mixes them two languages together. Please look at family background of the child first without declaring the judgement. Doctors also have this issue of not crossing each other. Once one of them does a wrong diagnostic, others tends to agree with it rather than taking a contrarian view.
  - mercer 9y ago
    So, I can agree that broadening the concept of 'autism' can be detrimental, but mostly because it's seen as such a 'big' thing. I personally think it was maybe better to separate 'classical autism' from things like 'asperger's' as a label. But don't forget that these distinctions do exist in the actual field. But everything else you're saying just isn't true in both my personal experience, that of couples I know with high-functioning children, and what I've found in my research of the matter. I asked you for evidence (and personal experience does count, to me), but instead you're just listing/reiterating all the same things that I also keep hearing over and over from people who generally don't know what they're talking about. Again, I do see some of your points, but for me these have become basically a 'meme' that is spread by people who are stuck with pop-psychology knowledge from sometimes decades ago. Stuff like 'ADD isn't a thing, it's just that boys need to be free' etc. Not all untrue, but way too one-sided to be helpful or informative. It does make one feel like a clever contrarian though... EDIT: To be clear, I'm not saying you're uninformed, but rather that I hear these things a lot from people who base their opinion on the pop-contrarian articles du jour.

SubiculumCode 9y ago

Your first point is not quite what I meant, but the spectrum part of Autism is real, and so an expansion of what is diagnosed as Autism is probably justified until such time (hopefully soon!) where we can really fulfill the dream of identifying separable phenotypes of autism.

drieddust 9y ago
Perhaps then I respectfully disagree. Classifying everything as Autism means huge medical spend which could be used better. Trying to classify every deviation from the narrowly definition "normal" is just lazy.
- SubiculumCode 9y ago
  I believe you are over estimating the degree that the diagnosis has widened. Instead, awareness of autism is leading to more diagnoses. The instruments have not changed.

srtjstjsj 9y ago

"everything is being classified as Autism" because autism diagnosis opens the door to insurance coverage for therapy and special-education services in the schools.

drieddust 9y ago
Yes and that's what I meant. I have Personally experienced this recently. Doctors wants to classify any deviation from their checklist as Autism.
SubiculumCode 9y ago
And early behavioral intervention is one of the few things we know yields tangible benefits to quality of life outcomes

mercer 9y ago

Could you give some evidence of how 'everything' is classified as autism nowadays? And could you also give some examples of how this prevents those who 'truly struggle' from improvement? In fact, could you explain what you mean with 'truly struggle'? I've found that a pretty significant part of the struggle of people with mental health issues (even severe ones) is people who claim their struggles aren't 'real' (for some reason that always strikes me as either self-serving or somewhat arbitrary/based on pop-skepticism).

drieddust 9y ago
Autism is a serious condition and should be treated as such. But now as it is defined spectrum doctors muddle minor deviations and real serious issues together. In my view this does not help either as treatments are very different depending upon where exactly on the spectrum issue is. This gives rise to lazy labeling. I am all for early intervention. Its rather that because now Autism is classified on a spectrum. Most doctors have got a lazy attitude of classifying any deviation from the normal as Autism. Instead of trying to go deeper they just start with default assumption of putting the patient on ASD spectrum. - First born with minimum eye contact is Autism. Why it cannot be shyness? - Doesn't pay attention unless Adult makes it interesting for the Child. Why it cannot be you are boring and I don't like you? - Speech difficulty because of child is multilingual and mixes them two languages together. Please look at family background of the child first without declaring the judgement. Doctors also have this issue of not crossing each other. Once one of them does a wrong diagnostic, others tends to agree with it rather than taking a contrarian view.
- mercer 9y ago
  So, I can agree that broadening the concept of 'autism' can be detrimental, but mostly because it's seen as such a 'big' thing. I personally think it was maybe better to separate 'classical autism' from things like 'asperger's' as a label. But don't forget that these distinctions do exist in the actual field. But everything else you're saying just isn't true in both my personal experience, that of couples I know with high-functioning children, and what I've found in my research of the matter. I asked you for evidence (and personal experience does count, to me), but instead you're just listing/reiterating all the same things that I also keep hearing over and over from people who generally don't know what they're talking about. Again, I do see some of your points, but for me these have become basically a 'meme' that is spread by people who are stuck with pop-psychology knowledge from sometimes decades ago. Stuff like 'ADD isn't a thing, it's just that boys need to be free' etc. Not all untrue, but way too one-sided to be helpful or informative. It does make one feel like a clever contrarian though... EDIT: To be clear, I'm not saying you're uninformed, but rather that I hear these things a lot from people who base their opinion on the pop-contrarian articles du jour.