'Increase' in ASD/ADHD

@newbeginnings20 oh dear god you cannot “buy” an adhd diagnosis.

Yes you can go online and have some shitty assessment which may say you have it… but it isn’t valid for NHS, school etc purposes - you have to go through the proper channels which are exhausting.

People can self identify as much as they like, this doesn’t translate to anything useful at all for them.

IME the only private clinics offering assessments that lead to support are ones where clinicians also work through the NHS, as otherwise the diagnosis lacks credibility and support cannot be accessed.

An assessment is in three parts, looking at different areas of the child’s life, so unlikely to be diagnosed unless they actually are autistic.

You’ll probably be delighted to hear that there is very little support out there. There aren’t enough special schools around, and mainstream schools are often shit for children.
Even with a diagnosis it’s nigh on impossible to find anything like adequate support. Many schools won’t support unless there’s a diagnosis in place - they’re supposed to be needs led, not diagnosis led, but they lie, or the child isn’t likeable enough so they’d rather punish and make them suffer.

There are children being assessed now who wouldn’t have needed it 30/40 years ago, because schools and life weren’t as high pressured as they are now. That’s not to say these children aren’t autistic, it’s to point out that life for many has become intolerable for many.

The people who repeatedly start these threads (banging on about the “explosion “ in autistic children, how it’s “often” munchausens, how us mothers are weak, need to discipline our children, are diagnosis chasing, money chasing, junk food feeding, pushy snowflakes (basically whatever is on the MN autism bashing thread of the day week)) need to give their heads a big fucking wobble. If you want to moan about something try making changes to make life better for all school children instead of beating those seeking help 🤬

Look to be blunt about it until the 1980s it was common to institutionalise people with autism.

Autistic stereotypes of the severely impacted institutionalised individual persisted for a few decades after that stopped being common practice.

I should have been diagnosed in childhood/teens but my family didn’t clock it, and then I was highly against diagnosis as I was frightened and didn’t want to be stereotyped or treated badly.

Only when I saw DC be diagnosed, have such a good experience and be so well supported did I feel safe enough to come forward and address my own issues.

Honestly, it is no big mystery - if people are treated badly/locked up/called nut jobs and the like you see less diagnoses as they won’t want to come forward and their families will protect them. If you treat them well and they are offered support throughout society then of course you’ll see an uptick.

It is not just “heightened awareness” and people knowing more now or being better trained…. It is heightened common decency which is bringing people to the fore. Autistic people are not written off anymore and so there is less of a problem with being one.

🙄

@PurpleWisteria1
My son received a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome in the 90's. I'd never heard of it before.
He is extremely intelligent and has a higher than average IQ. Now I suppose he would be diagnosed with HFA.

But despite his intelligence he cannot do simple tasks. Eating,showering, getting dressed etc. They are not important to him.

He is so unaware of his condition he wouldn't mask as he doesn't think he's different. It's everyone else with a problem iyswim.

The debate you describe is fundamentally different to the one the OP asked.

The OP asked if lots of people were faking it.

You can't just 'fake it'.

You can be misdiagnosed. But that's not faking. There has to be some kind of problem in order to be reaching a threshold of something for a child to misdiagnosis OR a diagnosis.

Same situation with my old neighbours who self-diagnosed their out of control child with autism/ADHD. "Oh she screams on the trampoline all day because we think she has that thing - what's it called again?".

I also know someone who has decided her husband has Aspergers, backed up by the "professional opinion" of her retired nurse botox lady who hasn't even met her husband. This person has actually joined a FB support group for spouses of people with Aspergers, it's an absolute joke.

There are serious questions to be asked about the explosion in diagnosis of both conditions but unfortunately these questions are lost in a sea of accusations and counter accusations.

I think it’s an incredibly complex area and I do think there are environmental factors at play in the ADHD issue - children exposed to the level of stimulation that our children are now exposed to are going to be affected - but when it’s accompanied by the “we’re all a little bit more autistic” 🙄 line it’s not helpful.

This forum is probably not the place for that nuanced debate.

Oh, this thread….again.

Do you question if the rise in diabetes is being faked? Or if the rise in heart disease is being faked?

It’s bloody ridiculous. I hate that people might question my diagnosis. Mind your own business.

Also given that ADHD assessments in our council, require you to have two terms of your child being observed at school BEFORE they will even refer, I'd like to know how in gods name do parents manage to fake ADHD?

They aren't even on the premises whilst their child is being monitored by the teacher, who has to then record behavior and why they have cause for concern.

@ManchesterLu

No we’re not ‘all on the spectrum’, why do people keep coming out with this BS? You don’t know what ‘the spectrum’ is so stop with your ableist nonsense. It’s absolutely no different from saying ‘we’ve all got a bit of Down syndrome’ or ‘I forgot where I put my keys this morning, got a bit of that Alzheimer’s’. Insufferably rude and ignorant.

What evidence do you have that there has been a rise in 'faking ADHD'?

This is important.

Otherwise your OP is total nonsense designed to be a windup.

This whole thread is bananas.

ASD/ADHD cannot be faked the assessments are multidisciplinary and very robust.

Any “online” assessments or from unscrupulous providers that do not follow NICE guidelines etc would not be accepted for ratification by NHS and for implementation of support within schools.

Therefore the increase seen is real and stats are based on proper assessments.

Yes there are idiots out there portraying that they and/or their children have asd/adhd but they won’t receive a diagnosis or support because they don’t have it… even if they stand all day at the school gate going on about it. It would stand out a mile to any psychologist/teacher etc involved in the assessment process.

Something I notice is that sometimes it's the opposite - I've met a few children over the years who I think are most likely ND and the parents are in complete denial or use words like, "spirited" or "enthusiastic". One family, the child is, frankly very very challenging and often very very inappropriate in the way he behaves which is, from what we can tell, becoming more and more of a problem as he gets older. This is made worse because the parent thinks it's "cute". To be fair, this also makes me question my own concern that the child might be ND - it might just be very poor parenting.

The other thing with lots of ADHD or ASD diagnoses is when they're used as an excuse to not parent or to allow the child to behave badly. I'm not talking about where everyone is doing their best and that's obvious but the ones who don't try or smile indulgently as their little darling is ripping the house up, "oooh, his emotions are just so BIG, he can't help it"

There is not a big increase in people faking autism or ADHD.

There is an increase in awareness and people are realising they or their family are neurodivergent and in the case of children people are trying to get their kids support before their children to have mental illness as a result of not having accomodations in place.

I think what people don't realise is that we're all on the spectrum. Every single one of us has traits.

Ofgs not this again 🙄 you're not on the autistic spectrum if you're not autistic.

One of these days, I'll learn not to click on one of these threads but today is not that day

If "we're all on the spectrum" why is it a diagnosis?

You either have it or you don't.

PLEASE, for the love of god, will some of you learn what a spectrum is! It is not a linear scale or gradient!

That's a complete misunderstanding of what "the spectrum" is. The only people on the autism spectrum are autistic people.

It's not a question of having "enough traits to require a diagnosis". The requirements for a positive diagnosis are very, very specific.

I'm really really pleased more people are getting the help they need, but I do switch off and assume a person has a tiktok addiction when they talk about ADHD, Trauma and narcissism a lot.

I think what people don't realise is that we're all on the spectrum. Every single one of us has traits. So of these traits will be on a very long list of traits that can help diagnose autism etc. Depending on where on the spectrum you are, you may have more or less of the traits on the list than someone else.

It's up to the experts to decide if you have enough traits to require a diagnosis. A diagnosis can help you to understand yourself/your child and to put things in place to help them. That's all it's for.

There would be people who saw or heard me describe my nearly 6 year old and believe the same. He is globally delayed with his autism, he is cognitively around 24 months old (this is from numerous assessments).

I have friends/family members with autistic children, I'm not talking about children with a diagnosis here.
Bear in mind the children I have mentioned as parents letting the children do whatever they want and saying "he has ADHD" when challenged, I've watched how they have been parented. There has never been a single attempt to parent them at all, they are varying ages 16 - 7, and no actual assessments at any point in life. They just say they have ADHD or ASD. They don't, and it is unfair on those who do struggle to parent their ASD children sometimes and it undermines their reality.

I think thats true amy.
Also personality of the child plays a part.
Rigidity can be seen as naughty.
Running laps of classroom looks like adhd but may not be.
D2 was a bolter and if the school were unlocked or nursery then she might have run off there.
Neither were safe around roads for years but again not something school would know.

The more obvious child - the one in class photo either sat with teacher or away almost off the photo. Who couldnt join in on school performances - off to the side or wouldnt sing or mime.

Diet and lack of exercise is probably causing some symptoms that look like adhd.

I think for the child though everyones assumption that they can control themself is what is most damaging.