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Getting harder to get diagnosed?

Ame568

Ame568

Well-Known Member
I don't know where to put this so if this is in the wrong topic I apologize. I heard recently that some yahoo somewhere said "autism is overdiagnosed so we have to make the diagnosis stricter" and that makes me so angry. It's hard enough for girls/women and BIPOC people to get diagnosed! Even those that aren't cisgender have a hard time getting diagnosed! This is a bunch of bull....
 
This young woman does a great job at explaining the new DSM V changes. A fellow autistic friend of mine liked on of this woman's videos to me.


The same woman has a great video on the ever-expanding "umbrella" of what things are considered to be "Neurodiverse" There's a pride that many autistic people feel being autistic as part of their identity and as such there are autistic people that "celebrate" being autistic. In the other video she makes a great point that few if anyone (and rightly so) "celebrates" a diagnosis of major depression, bi-polar or a list of other disorders that are recently being included as being "neurodiverse".
 
Ame568 said:
I don't know where to put this so if this is in the wrong topic I apologize. I heard recently that some yahoo somewhere said "autism is overdiagnosed so we have to make the diagnosis stricter" and that makes me so angry. It's hard enough for girls/women and BIPOC people to get diagnosed! Even those that aren't cisgender have a hard time getting diagnosed! This is a bunch of bull....
Click to expand...
In Germany adults have to wait for almost 2 years. Children can be diagnosed rather quickly.
Autistic women tend to get the diagnosis of "social anxiety".
 
Ame568 said:
I don't know where to put this so if this is in the wrong topic I apologize. I heard recently that some yahoo somewhere said "autism is overdiagnosed so we have to make the diagnosis stricter" and that makes me so angry. It's hard enough for girls/women and BIPOC people to get diagnosed! Even those that aren't cisgender have a hard time getting diagnosed! This is a bunch of bull....
Click to expand...

As the criteria to diagnose Autism have been "expanded" to include more people of the autism spectrum there (like aspies), and have become more clear, and the condition is best known by medics, parents and public, and adults are seeking for diagnoses, and schools have tools to detect us... the number of diagnoses has increased a lot in the last years. Almost exponentially.

Some people still see autists just as those very severe cases with very low functionality that appear in movies. To them, there is overdiagnose.

Some other people see autists untill they nearly blend with NT. For those people there is still underdiagnose.

The book "Neurotribes" explains the issue very well, as it explains the history of autism.
 
Ame568 said:
I don't know where to put this so if this is in the wrong topic I apologize. I heard recently that some yahoo somewhere said "autism is overdiagnosed so we have to make the diagnosis stricter" and that makes me so angry. It's hard enough for girls/women and BIPOC people to get diagnosed! Even those that aren't cisgender have a hard time getting diagnosed! This is a bunch of bull....
Click to expand...
Never heard that in the country I live in, just a long waiting list
 
Ame568 said:
I heard recently that some yahoo somewhere said "autism is overdiagnosed so we have to make the diagnosis stricter"
Click to expand...

Consider the source. Probably someone looking for a reaction. Probably someone without any understanding of autism. Unless there is an actual change in the DSM criteria,...I wouldn't give much thought to statements from a "Yahoo".

EDIT: After viewing the video posted by @Magna, it looks to be the most recent DSM merely clarified some language, but functionally, these seemingly minor changes may not affect an ASD diagnosis, as compared to the previous version of the DSM.
 
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It is hard enough to get a diagnosis that you can trust without adding needed worry to it. I was not even aware that I was on the spectrum until I was in my early 40s (quite self unaware in my youth). Even then it was only because someone prodded me to get tested.

I am relatively sure that it runs in my family, but I am the only one who ever took the steps to be evaluated. Those that think that it is being over diagnosed are being less than rigorously scientific. How the H would they know. That worry is coming from an economic criteria, in my estimation.

If Asperger's/HFA is on the rise, especially in women, then I see it as an indication that Autism is evolutionary and thus should be on the rise. I refuse to see it being treated as an abnormality. That just raises my ire and I steadfastly reject any suggestion that it is. We on the spectrum are as consistent and worthy as those that are not. I wish the mental health community would just stop struggling with it and just treat it as it should be, just a different way of experiencing the world that is just as valid as what they perceive as the norm.

Boo Hoo, if all these new cases are overburdening them and they can't hack it, then find another profession and don't say something stupid like 'it's being over diagnosed'!

Edited addendum: If anything, I think it is still being underdiagnosed!
 
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Everyone thinks it suddenly appeared in the 90's, that's our problem. When people think of autism they think of a kid or at least someone under 30, not an older adult. Just like being LGBTQ it's not legitimate because it's a "flaw" in "the new generation", not something that's always been there. I even believed that until I came here and saw the sea of gray hair (I'm joking, I'm joking!). I'm glad I know better now.

They say 1.5% of kids are getting diagnosed. If we assume it's more like 2% cause I'm sure the girls are underdiagnosed, is one in 50 really shocking when you think about how many "weird kids" there are?
 
Perhaps it would be wise to try and not allow yourself to be affected by the comments of random people who I have to assume are entirely irrelevant to the issue at hand.

If it was a statement by a medical association or something like it, then maybe.

But if we're going to get upset at every random opinion said by literally anyone then we'll be endlessly upset.
 
There is no doubt that autism has become a much more popular topic than it used to be.

When I was a kid, (1960s-70s) for practical purposes it didn't exist unless you were so severe you couldn't function in society. And then you were simply considered retarded, not severely autistic.The psycho-social problems you experienced were you're own fault for being willfully antisocial.

Today every school in the country has autism screening of some sort or it doesn't get federal funds. I think it is still under-diagnosed because schools in many states do not get enough money to operate the speciallty classes they are supposed to have. But now the underdiagnosis is on the margins, the area where NT slowly blends into autistic. Borderline cases. And in females. There is still a prejudice among psychiatric professionals against diagnosing women as autistic. They want to feel that autism is sex-linked because that's what they were taught 30 years ago and change comes hard.

If you are affluent it is much easier to get diagnosed as such. Autism is also starting to be used as a defense in criminal cases.

Personally I think the DSM-V did us a great disservice by eliminating Aspereger's as a separate diagnosis. The public is not going to think of autism as a spectrum, regardless of how we try to educate them. They will look at the more extreme cases, say that is autism and if you don't have that then your problem is in your bad choices.

As far as autism identity and autistic pride, having pride in anything that is not freely chosen or accomplished after effort is just absurd.
 
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It's important though, it changes what drugs are prescribed to you. You can have OCD, but if you have Autism you it often comes with an umbrella of things, and the drug completely changes from just someone with OCD.
 
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