Autism caused by parental neglect?

[AngelaS267]

Doesn't it come down to the fact that it was a misdiagnosis of autism if there was a diagnosis of autism at all? Presenting as though the boy had autism didn't mean he had it, and according to people who read the book, the doctor didn't say he had it, he said that he had symptoms that might have matched the criteria (Criteria which continues to change might I add.) He didn't cure the autism because he never had it. It come down to this; If you were misdiagnosed with autism, then you may be able to cure what the real issue is once you discover what that thing actually is.

Childhood neglect doesn't cause autism, but it can lead to a false diagnosis of autism. In this case, you still didn't "cure autism," you worked through the trauma.

 

[Matthias]

I know that autism is bandied about by the media, when school shooters kill. Very often it's difficult to discover if they had in fact been diagnosed with ASD. Adam Lanza, Alexander Bissonnette to name some recent shooters.

It's obvious that they both had ASD, one verified and another assumed.

If Dr. Perry is right that early childhood emotional neglect causes the same symptoms as autism, that means all of those school shooters diagnosed with ASD may have met the criteria due to parental neglect and may have been able to recover from their symptoms through psychological interventions which could have prevented those school shootings.

Yet it was not their autism that caused that to happen. They had other difficulties, including neglect and bullying and were somewhat easily influenced by other shooters. Who they seemed to look up to. But there were other psychotic breaks that were unknown by those around them, unfortunately.

And yes they can be co-morbid with autism. But they are not part of autism. They are not connected.

I realize it wasn't autism but what they thought about the way they were treated (feeling like they were treated unfairly and rejected because of differences that weren't their fault) that made them get angry and feel the need to bring others to justice.

 

[The Notorious LFC]

Doesn't it come down to the fact that it was a misdiagnosis of autism if there was a diagnosis of autism at all? Presenting as though the boy had autism didn't mean he had it, and according to people who read the book, the doctor didn't say he had it, he said that he had symptoms that might have matched the criteria (Criteria which continues to change might I add.) He didn't cure the autism because he never had it. It come down to this; If you were misdiagnosed with autism, then you may be able to cure what the real issue is once you discover what that thing actually is.

Childhood neglect doesn't cause autism, but it can lead to a false diagnosis of autism. In this case, you still didn't "cure autism," you worked through the trauma.

That sounds quite reasonable, although I'd also suggest that misdiagnosis doesn't even need to have occurred.

Take someone who is predisposed and shows enough traits to maybe pursue testing, but they're subclinical. Now add a bunch of stressors that compound with their innate tendencies with the result being that they now qualify.

Now remove those stressors or improve their coping mechanisms or otherwise alter that dynamic. They should appear 'cured', but it doesn't suggest that everyone can be because some people will always qualify even under best case circumstances.

 

[The Notorious LFC]

If Dr. Perry is right that early childhood emotional neglect causes the same symptoms as autism, that means all of those school shooters diagnosed with ASD may have met the criteria due to parental neglect and may have been able to recover from their symptoms through psychological interventions which could have prevented those school shootings.

It doesn't mean all, it might mean some; your conclusions appear to be an optimistic oversimplification with the goal of removing ASD as a relevant consideration for understanding school shootings.

 

[Matthias]

Doesn't it come down to the fact that it was a misdiagnosis of autism if there was a diagnosis of autism at all? Presenting as though the boy had autism didn't mean he had it, and according to people who read the book, the doctor didn't say he had it, he said that he had symptoms that might have matched the criteria (Criteria which continues to change might I add.) He didn't cure the autism because he never had it. It come down to this; If you were misdiagnosed with autism, then you may be able to cure what the real issue is once you discover what that thing actually is.

Refer to OP.

Childhood neglect doesn't cause autism, but it can lead to a false diagnosis of autism. In this case, you still didn't "cure autism," you worked through the trauma.

What would make it a false diagnosis? According to the current DSM-V criteria, those who suffered from childhood neglect can be correctly diagnosed with autism and lose that diagnosis once they recover from the effects of being neglected.

 

[Matthias]

That sounds quite reasonable, although I'd also suggest that misdiagnosis doesn't even need to have occurred.

Take someone who is predisposed and shows enough traits to maybe pursue testing, but they're subclinical. Now add a bunch of stressors that compound with their innate tendencies with the result being that they now qualify.

Now remove those stressors or improve their coping mechanisms or otherwise alter that dynamic. They should appear 'cured', but it doesn't suggest that everyone can be because some people will always qualify even under best case circumstances.

I think this happens with the majority of people, if not everyone, diagnosed with autism. No one meets the criteria during their first year of life. The autistic traits are genetic but you have to add depression, anxiety, or stress to get the symptoms severe enough to meet the criteria for autism.

 

[Matthias]

It doesn't mean all, it might mean some; your conclusions appear to be an optimistic oversimplification with the goal of removing ASD as a relevant consideration for understanding school shootings.

I wrote, "all of those school shooters diagnosed with ASD may have met the criteria due to parental neglect." That means some, or all, of them may not have met the criteria due to parental neglect.

 

[The Notorious LFC]

There's definitely people deep enough into the spectrum that they'd qualify no matter what, but there are other people who are more questionable for certain, but if we can't fix the compounding issues it would make me question how well we can really discuss 'cures' like they apply on more than an individual and potentially non-permanent level.

 

[Matthias]

There's definitely people deep enough into the spectrum that they'd qualify no matter what...

What's important is they could qualify for an autism diagnosis due to parental neglect. It would be sad if someone diagnosed with low functioning autism met the criteria due to parental neglect and suffered their entire life because they thought their problems were genetic when they could have recovered from them through psychological interventions.

The way things stand currently, it's impossible for anyone on this forum who was neglected during the first two years of their life and correctly diagnosed with autism, to know whether their autism symptoms are due to genetics or being neglected when they were a baby.

 

[Fino]

If it's due to neglect, it would be a misdiagnosis.

 

[The Notorious LFC]

If it's due to neglect, it would be a misdiagnosis.

Assuming neglect is the sole cause, yes. But i'm not sure that's what's been suggested.

 

[AngelaS267]

What's important is they could qualify for an autism diagnosis due to parental neglect. It would be sad if someone diagnosed with low functioning autism met the criteria due to parental neglect and suffered their entire life because they thought their problems were genetic when they could have recovered from them through psychological interventions.

The way things stand currently, it's impossible for anyone on this forum who was neglected during the first two years of their life and correctly diagnosed with autism, to know whether their autism symptoms are due to genetics or being neglected when they were a baby.

I'm sure there is a way to differentiate between childhood neglect and autism. They aren't mutually exclusive.

 

[Matthias]

If it's due to neglect, it would be a misdiagnosis.

Why? Neglect isn't listed as an exclusionary criteria in the DSM-V.

If someone who was neglected met the criteria for autism, how would you tell whether the neglect caused their autism symptoms?

 

[The Notorious LFC]

What's important is they could qualify for an autism diagnosis due to parental neglect. It would be sad if someone diagnosed with low functioning autism met the criteria due to parental neglect and suffered their entire life because they thought their problems were genetic when they could have recovered from them through psychological interventions.

The way things stand currently, it's impossible for anyone on this forum who was neglected during the first two years of their life and correctly diagnosed with autism, to know whether their autism symptoms are due to genetics or being neglected when they were a baby.

What I'm suggesting is that they can't even know if that neglect was due to their parents also having it, or having it and additional comorbidities.

 

[Matthias]

I'm sure there is a way to differentiate between childhood neglect and autism. They aren't mutually exclusive.

If someone who suffered emotional neglect during their first two years of life met the criteria for autism, there is currently no known way to tell whether their neglect caused their autism symptoms.

 

[Matthias]

What I'm suggesting is that they can't even know if that neglect was due to their parents also having it, or having it and additional comorbidities.

I agree. That means if they met the criteria for autism, it wouldn't be a misdiagnosis. Since the effects of neglect are treatable, it also means they could recover from autism.

 

[AngelaS267]

What I'm suggesting is that they can't even know if that neglect was due to their parents also having it, or having it and additional comorbidities.

But it wouldn't matter what the cause of the neglect was.

If someone who suffered emotional neglect during their first two years of life met the criteria for autism, there is currently no known way to tell whether their neglect caused their autism symptoms.

Thats a sweeping generalization of the two circumstances. There are absolutely cases of people suffering with childhood neglect who you could most likely differentiate their autistic symptoms from their trauma. People don't express their trauma the same way, and people's autism doesn't present the same way either. It doesn't seem far fetched at all that someone who suffered with neglect can't have their diagnosis of autism be correct as well. Maybe you are projecting your personal experience onto this particular circumstance to make sense of your situation. I think you need more articles to back your claim because the only think that the book you shared provides is that a child was thought to be autistic but really wasn't. The doctor was able to determine that. It only proves that it would've been a misdiagnosis if he had been diagnosed with autism. I think it would be good if you could share more articles that could further back those claims.

 

[The Notorious LFC]

But it wouldn't matter what the cause of the neglect was.

Not for the kid, at least not for their diagnosis, but it matters from a perspective of fault and sympathy.

 

[Adora]

I have a diagnosis of both Aspergers and Complex PTSD and both have symptoms that overlap with each other. While I did grow up in a abusive household I believe not all my symptoms are due to just trauma and have been there before the trauma part started to show. My older brother is on the spectrum himself and while he has not been diagnosed with PTSD he does have some trauma from the abuse that he went through with our father.

 

[Ezra]

There are psychological disorders that have very similar traits to autism. The first thing in evaluating someone, is to find out if they had experienced early childhood neglect and or trauma. If the person being evaluated has no such history, then it is probable that their condition is neurological rather than psychological.