EPTWhat does "Traits of autism" mean? its vague.
IMHO many disorders are over-diagnosed.
Autism as a "convenient" diagnosis? - Page 2
| Forum Index > General Forum |
|
Marcus420
Canada1923 Posts
What does "Traits of autism" mean? its vague. IMHO many disorders are over-diagnosed. | ||
|
Reaper9
United States1724 Posts
Autism, on the other hand, is not always a convenient excuse. I've taught kids with true Autism, they usually create their own world, and its extremely hard to pull them out of it. No, it's nothing like daydreaming, one girl with Autism "killed her mother" and tried to choke herself because she was fighting her "mother" (in her storyline her mother argued and was cruel to her).] Nobody at the school knows how much of it is true of course, it's hard to judge a person unless you really really know them. Mild Autism may or may not be sometimes mis-diagnosed, it's a difficult field of study, and fascinating in it's own right. | ||
|
Archas
United States6531 Posts
On May 10 2011 09:54 Fyodor wrote: Is X number inflated for convenience? Now that's a really, really stupid question. It's a statement about the motivations of the people making the statistics or the people making the diagnoses. Impossible to discuss this rationally. Of course, I'm not suggesting that the statistics are artificially inflated. What I was trying to say was more along the lines of "Are excessively broad guidelines resulting in a significant degree more of diagnoses than there are cases?" | ||
|
Belegorm
United States330 Posts
It seemed pretty obvious through my teen years that there wasn't something quite normal; I looked pretty normal just looking at me (well, except that I never wore what was in fashion) but once I opened my mouth you could tell that I was sometimes socially inept when talking to people of my own age. Sometimes I'd act far more mature than my age (so I conversed well with adults) and other times puerile. It's considerably better now, I never took prescription drugs for it and only had therapy for less than a year, but just going through life with the knowledge that I had that allowed me to kind of "copy" other people's behaviour so that now (college age) I usually act in a "normal" way (though I'm still a bit weird, but probably not more than most people on tl.net forums). | ||
|
Barbiero
Brazil5259 Posts
On the other hand, my brother suffered HARD due to ADD/Dyslexia, and because teachers wouldn't believe on it(even though he was stuffing himself in Ritalin), he repeated a year in school and had several problems doing tests - and now he goes to a private university because he couldn't do the public university test due to lack of school basis, even though he is even more intelligent than half people there. Yes, these things are being overdiagnosed specially because they are being diagnosed wrong. People with actual ADD/Dyslexia have a defective brain connection which is fixed by Ritalin. Autistic people aswell. I don't know where/how is this connection, but I know it is like this. You have to go to a neurologist to actually diagnose this kinda of problem, not just a psychiatric. | ||
|
Sega92
United States467 Posts
| ||
|
Rickilicious
United States220 Posts
| ||
|
bigjenk
United States1543 Posts
On May 10 2011 09:48 puckstop101 wrote: I was diagnosed as well with Asperger syndrome when i was younger. In relative terms I was one of the first of the kids diagnosed with it, 1993. In terms of medicine, i was on respidol for about 10 years, but i never liked how i felt on it. It made me feel less intelligent then i actually was, it did help with behavior problems i had, but i felt almost like i was floating sometimes, I don't mean like a high form drugs or anything, but..... man its hard to explain it really. In terms of the 1 to 100 or something, i always hoped that was wrong because I never wanted anyone to go though school or growing up like i did. I defiantly feel like that is a higher estimate then it actually is, Given in a town if 75000 there were only like 25-30 kids with asperger syndrome Edit: A couple people are asking what exactly are the symptoms of Asperger syndrome? It varies form person to person, but for me personnly, I had a very hard time being social with other kids growing up. I've always had problems with body language, even to this day and 'm 21 now. It has gotten better but there are plenty of times where i just miss signs your showing me, or not being able to tell whats going on. this made is very hard is school to making friends as i was constantly annoying people, so i was always an outsider growing up in school. I'm a very anti social person nowadays where i only have a few really good friends that i hang out with. I always been highly motivated in 1-2 subjects and absolute crap in others. I also have big problems with routine changes when i was younger. I'm better now with it, but it does annoy me sometimes. Well the mild diagnosis of aspergers fits almost any kid who is a nerd in high school tbh. It is sort of falling into the category of add on that side. It's not like there is a rise in people with the more serious symptoms just a rise in diagnosis on the light side in order to get money for research and perscriptions and such. The unfortunate side of mental health. | ||
|
arbitrageur
Australia1202 Posts
1 autistic out of 100 people as an estimate in the U.S. is already fairly difficult to believe, but 1 out of 38? To me, this statistic feels inflated, as if the definition for autism is too broad and is being applied to too many individuals. This paragraph baffles me. You have no idea what criterion they're using. They may be including the most mild on the AS in these statistics. Many diagnosed with ASD can go undetected in society, and there will be many undiagnosed. I don't see why you hvae to right to criticize the criterion they're using when you have no idea what that criterion is and how robustly it's being applied. Your disbelief is without any basis whatsoever at this point in time. | ||
|
Archas
United States6531 Posts
On May 10 2011 10:00 Rickilicious wrote: Whats you're special power? Just curious. I'm only aware of 1 person I know with autism and she's kinda kept 'a secret' if you will. Home schooled, isn't allowed out much. I guess severity is the case in a lot of this. Sounds like yours isn't severe at all. Special power? You might be referring to those "autistic savants" who have some extraordinary ability in some area, like constructing masterful LEGO castles or amazing woodwork. I'm not a savant. | ||
|
foxmeep
Australia2337 Posts
| ||
|
zodde
Sweden1908 Posts
The hard thing is to know where to draw the line. (just something I've thought about myself, haven't done any research on this at all) | ||
|
Rickilicious
United States220 Posts
| ||
|
puckstop101
Canada132 Posts
On May 10 2011 09:52 Aeres wrote: As a kid, I was far more introverted than everyone else. Pretty much all through grade school, I avoided social contact because I felt I didn't really need it; I was much more at ease just being by myself or with a couple of close friends, talking about relevant subjects, reading books, telling jokes, etc. I guess my social life in grade school was a drastically miniaturized version of your standard Joe Schmoe, in that I conversed normally with the few friends I had (about three or four), but far more often than not, I'd be playing on my DS, playing memory games, solving crossword puzzles, and all that. I did not react well to social stimuli from those I didn't know very well, so I tended to avoid them if at all possible. I was also a gigantic dick to people I disliked, and wasn't afraid to tell them that they were total sacks of shit. Mostly because I'm a blunt kind of person (I tell things like it is, and I despise euphemisms), but that sort of attitude led to other people describing me as strange. As for normal classes, I definitely feel that I could be enrolled in / excel in them. It wasn't my choice to be able to do that, though, because at least in the US, children diagnosed with any sort of mental disorder that makes them eligible for special education are automatically assigned an IEP (individual education program). The IEP is basically law, and as a child, you don't get to argue with it. At least in my case, I had no say in what went in it, and it was basically my mother and several special education teachers that decided my curriculum. Sure, I was allowed at those meetings and was supposedly given a say, but I don't think any of my feedback was really taken into consideration; many of the entries I openly rejected were included anyway, while many suggestions I gave were not included. I was the same way man, Hell i never even saw my IEP until grade 9, when i found out my parents and teachers had it in grade 1. I was pretty upset that day, and ended up just blowing off steam and yelling at anyone that even came close to me that day. I never had a meeting about the IEP until grade 9, and never really had any say in it when i was younger. Everyone seemed to believe they knew better then I because i was only a kid, even tho I was the one living through it | ||
|
Wonderballs
Canada253 Posts
| ||
|
Archas
United States6531 Posts
On May 10 2011 10:02 arbitrageur wrote: This paragraph baffles me. You have no idea what criterion they're using. They may be including the most mild on the AS in these statistics. Many diagnosed with ASD can go undetected in society, and there will be many undetected. I don't see why you hvae to right to criticise the criteron they're using when you have no idea what that criteron is and how robustly it's being applied. Your disbelief is without any basis whatsoever at this point in time. You're right, I don't have any real basis. I just feel that, even if they are including absolutely everyone who might fit onto the spectrum, that number is still quite vast. I'd love to figure out how they got that number, but that's not something I'm privy to at the moment, and for now, my opinion is that 1 in 38 is a bit farfetched. Then again, maybe I'm full of crap and it really is that common. I don't know, which is why I made this thread.  | ||
|
BrTarolg
United Kingdom3574 Posts
Most if not all people have some kind of autistic traits, but some people really REALLY have it. The only way to interact with them is to have a genuine understanding of what is going on in their brain, and if you can appreciate this, then all of a sudden what they say and do makes sense, but before that it can be a complete mystery. Once meeting someone with a fairly heavy form of aspergers (he literally didn't talk to anyone, and whenever he said anything it would basically be a nonsensical statement that made no sense to anyone else) - i got the comment that "thats the first meaningful conversation i've seen anyone have with him in ages" (obviously an exaggeration) It wasn't really difficult, you just had to appreciate the way he thinks and what that means. He had little to no concept of empathising with other peoples emotions and feelings and he said things in a seemingly odd, random order, rambling on about a particular topic in a very nonsensical fashion. Simply by directing his ramble into a percieved point he was trying to make and providing obvious cues as to particular points of interest on a topic which culminate on that point, it would seem as if he was able to talk very intelligently and seamlessly on a topic of common interest | ||
|
Archas
United States6531 Posts
On May 10 2011 10:04 Wonderballs wrote: Yes; my personal reasoning behind the "over-diagnosis" is to keep pharmacists and doctors making cash. Everything is motivated by money, everything. I'll assume that this is a jab at my "pharmaceutical conspiracy" remark. That was a joke, and from the looks of it, a pretty bad one. It wasn't really meant to be taken seriously. If this is your actual perspective on the matter, then we'd better put on those tinfoil caps. :D | ||
|
DarkPlasmaBall
United States45433 Posts
On May 10 2011 09:56 Reaper9 wrote: @DarkPlasmaBall Naturally when people are forced to sit for many hours, kids who eat so much sugar and consume so much caffeine are naturally inclined to be stir-crazy. I'm pretty ADHD though, when I get excited it's hard to stop me spewing a torrent of words from my mouth straight up from what I'm thinking. Autism, on the other hand, is not always a convenient excuse. I've taught kids with true Autism, they usually create their own world, and its extremely hard to pull them out of it. No, it's nothing like daydreaming, one girl with Autism "killed her mother" and tried to choke herself because she was fighting her "mother" (in her storyline her mother argued and was cruel to her).] Nobody at the school knows how much of it is true of course, it's hard to judge a person unless you really really know them. Mild Autism may or may not be sometimes mis-diagnosed, it's a difficult field of study, and fascinating in it's own right. I completely agree with you. From my experiences in teaching students with learning disabilities, the vast majority of those students need the extra help. The autistic children I've worked with, for example, clearly need special modifications, as do most other students. I have yet to see autism diagnosed unnecessarily in a classroom environment. As far as ADD and ADHD go, however, I'd say it's split 50/50 between students who actually have problems with these disorders, and students who really display no signs other than acting like every other kid (even when they're not on medication). A teacher who has good classroom management skills (smart and consistent rules and consequences) can control a class of these students. I fear that some doctors won't mind giving an easy diagnosis of this if they can make some money, and parents are eager to get their children any special treatment they possibly can when it comes to their education. But with the exception of ADD/ ADHD, I haven't seen any other disorders often be misdiagnosed (in my humble, non-medical, teacher-based opinion). | ||
|
OSM.OneManArmy
United States509 Posts
On May 10 2011 10:04 Wonderballs wrote: Yes; my personal reasoning behind the "over-diagnosis" is to keep pharmacists and doctors making cash. Everything is motivated by money, everything. To be honest, money makes this world go around son. Look at almost all business conducted today, and give any profitable career that isn't focused on the money. | ||
| ||
