NT people don’t exist

My son FINALLY got his ADHD diagnosis and started on the lowest dose of meds. It's been completely transformative ..he's only weeks away from his GCSEs now so it's v v late but it may just mean he passes a few. It's a travesty that children have waste their crucial years in education with these wait lists and labyrinthine systems.

I assume you are talking to me.

I have a different opinion to you. Why resort to name calling. We are allowed to all think differently.

I think you know zero about autism. What a bloody stupid thing to say.

If someone is born different to someone else, why can't we as a society just accept them for who they are? (I'm not talking about your specific children). Why do we need to label them with an illness? Why can't we just say 'oh that's frank, he doesn't speak, we help him communicate by using maketon/x/y/x'. Or 'oh that's James, he isn't good at picking up social cues, but everyone loves him! He tells great stories'.. etc..

Why diagnose everyone all the time? I just wish we could all accept each other without the need to medicalise everyone's differences.

Do you share many random thoughts online?
Can you please back up your post with some evidence that would support your claim/thought?

And you often need a diagnosis for treatment and care to be adjusted.

Nothing has contributed to the way they see the world. They are autistic and were born with it.

Well you need a diagnosis for adhd meds

I didn't say anything about your children experiencing trauma.

You forgot this line ....or whatever else might have contributed to their own distinct way of seeing the world and responding to it.

Ps. Yes I do understand what it's like for life to be blighted. I have a sibling who hears hellish voices day in day out every single day of his life. He has a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Which is a shame because in reality he has just experienced significant trauma and the voices and his other symptoms are pretty normal reactions to the trauma he has endured. However, society decides he's 'ill' rather than just accepts his differences. Society would rather see him is suffering an illness than reacting to trauma.

We are all products of our experience and biology. Some experi inches are extreme so the result is extreme behaviour and extreme 'symptoms'.

I wish we lived in a world where we didn't need to diagnose everyone with 'illnesses' all the time and could just accept individual difference, acknowledge the impacts of trauma, and support each other

First of all, everyone isn’t on the spectrum somewhere. It’s the autistic spectrum, so only autistic people are on it. It describes the ‘spiky profiles’ (i.e. strengths and difficulties) of autistic people.

Secondly, there is no ‘far end’ of it; it’s not a scale that goes from ‘a bit autistic’ to ‘very autistic’. It looks more like the attached picture (it might take a minute to load).

I think it's fair to say that we all have problems but some people have more problems than others. That's life, sadly.

Do not dismiss my children’s disability as trauma or disrupted attachment!! They were perfectly attached to me as babies.

I fully empathise with people's life struggles. I just don't see the need to label them. It's just my view. I find the medicalisation of distress and neurodiversity quite offensive to be honest and I find that for some people it places blame on them rather than acknowledge the trauma they've endured, the disrupted attachments they've had, or whatever else might have contributed to their own distinct way of seeing the world and responding to it.

I fully appreciate some people may see my view as offensive. I see others views as offensive. I disagree with diagnoses, and others disagree with me. That's all ok!

Truly, don't be offended by some random on Mumsnet. I'm not worth it!

Do you know how offensive your posts aee? Do you know what it’s like to have lives blighted and what living with this disability is like?

No. I just don't agree with diagnoses on the whole and particularly the large numbers of people being diagnosed with neuro diverse conditions. I just don't think they really exist for many people. We are all neurodiverse.

I just disagree with the explosion of diagnoses and the medicalisation of diversity (and trauma) in the modern world. I think it's all bonkers and nonsense and one day a few hundred years from now the world will.wake up to this strange era in time.

Why cant we all just accept each other and support each other as we are. Why do we need to medicalise and label everyone's differences? Nonsense

You don’t get anything extra with a diagnosis.

Uour posts are hugely ableist. Are you this dismissive of all disabilities?

I would disagree with these definitions based on my experience of my own personality and those of others around me.

I just disagree. That's all. I get that you are in favour of these diagnoses and find it helpful for your children, particularly in trying to access them the support they need. I understand that. I just don't agree with these labels for the most part.

I personally just don't think diagnosing everyone is the answer. I think support should be given based on need not labels/diagnoses.what happens to kids in school who aren't diagnosed with anything but are still expressing needs? Eventually someone will get them a diagnosis, or they won't get the support they need. In reality neither of those outcomes may be most beneficial for the child.

They really couldn’t and it needs to have been persistent from early develppment. It’s a thorough assessment lengthy assessment involving a developmental history, ADOS, lengthy assessment sessions, evidence from clinicians and school where appropriate.

And re your other ignorant post only 1 in 100 children have a diagnosis and the wait lists are far too long with children waiting far too long for the diagnosis they need. For those like my children that is catastrophic and ruins lives

Most people could tick those boxes if they chose to reflect on their life that way or see themself that way.

This is completely untrue and abelist

“But I do think that absolutely everyone could pick up an ASC, ADHD or other neuro diverse label these days if they wanted too. I definitely could, so could my husband and both my kids and my siblings and everyone I know.”

They really couldn’t.

And it’s massively under diagnosed not over diagnosed as many professionals and ND people stuck on waiting lists will tell you.

Well for a start I know they won’t have -

• persistent deficits in initiating and sustaining social communication and reciprocal social interactions that are outside the range of typical functioning given the person’s age and level of intellectual development

• persistent restricted, repetitive and inflexible patterns of behaviour, interests, or activities that are clearly atypical or excessive for the person’s age and sociocultural context

and these symptoms won’t cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Ultimately, except at the far end of the spectrum where it manifests in profound intellectual and developmental disability, I think at some level it becomes a bit like the trans / gender identity debate: how do we know other people’s experiences and realities. Nobody really knows how “typical” people think and feel, whether they all think and feel the same way, and therefore nobody can ever really know that the way they think and feel is “divergent”, or to what extent on the spectrum they diverge from typical, or whether their divergent is in fact what somebody else thinks is typical or vice versa.