How do people not "believe" in Autism?

[MissPollyHadADolly19]

Just that really, bit of a rant more than anything.
It's not the tooth fairy or Santa, it's a recognised disorder!!

Relative struggling with her DC who's on the spectrum and partner believes it's just shit parenting (obviously not from him cos he's perfect, only the mother gets blames of course )

How do people really not believe in Autism? Or any mental illness for that matter.

I was at school in the '60's (primary). There were a few children that might, these days have been diagnosed as ASD, but they disappeared, presumably sent to 'special school'. There were also the 'naughty boys' (it was always boys) who I think were probably ADD, and spent a lot of time in the headmaster's office.

My secondary school was all girls (otherwise known as a 'pressure cooker'), where any HFA students would probably have been marked as 'quirky' or 'difficult'.

It just wasn't used as a diagnosis back then. Children were given other labels, and those with particularly challenging behaviour were sent to 'special school' (I presume there were more of those about then?).

Low they don't just give a diagnosis just because the parent pushes for,it and although a diagnosis does help to get DLA for example,its based on need so a diagnosis alone won't be enough plus you need tons of evidence not just what the parents say h I'm trying to get my sons DLA levels reassessed ,he goes to a special school, is on 1:1 there ,non verbal.not ,zero awareness of danger etc and I'm struggling to get the assessors to agree he meets the criteria for high rate mobility under the SMI rules,

"I just don't believe every person diagnosed with one of these conditions, actually has it."
You medical knowledge is so much greater than the person doing the diagnosing.

Some people believe the world is flat. I'll file you in with them.

Well those that had severe autism ,such as my son would probably have been in an institution @blackchina ,others that were more high functioning might have been those children that never quite fitted in ,some might have been as a bit odd,some might have never gone to school because they couldn't cope .

because some people are morons, i could perhaps excuse someone very insular and elderly but theres simply no excuse in this day and age.

I think we can all look back to our school days, friends, family and realise why some DC were different.
I hate when I hear the younger generation say weirdo or in my day when clearly there is an issue.
My DD is well behaved, she is HF she asked "Mam am I a weirdo at home too" DC in her class tell her she is weird all the time.
DS is a wild rocket so his issues are more obvious.

In terms of allergies, life threatening allergies does seem to have increased. But in terms of milder allergies, I grew up hearing people say that certain foods disagreed with them. DH says this too. I suspect they are actually allergic to those foods.

I read that the number of children diagnosed with global developmental delays has decreased as the amount of children diagnosed with autism has risen.
I also know adults in my family who are 60 plus who I suspect would be diagnosed with autism now days. Then it was just seen as them being a bit different.

I do think the way schools used to be run was probably easier for a lot of autistic kids to cope with. When i started school at 4 we each had our own desk with a lift up top that you kept your own things in, the day was very regimented, and lots of periods of listening to the teacher.

And don't jump on me. I am just stating my opinions, based on what I see in society. And as I said, I believe autism and ADHD are genuine conditions. I just don't believe every person diagnosed with one of these conditions, actually has it.

Crikey

35 to 40 plus years ago, there were no children like this, very few badly behaved

Ha. 65 years ago my dad was getting the cane every other day for bad behaviour (doesn't seem to have worked at his grand old age!)

My mum and her best friend remember a boy who worked in the small village shop for over 60 years, had the exact same routine down to the minute, was always called simple. Both now convinced he had autism having seen it in grandchildren.

@blanktimes oh I know its not marketed for ASD. It's the standard go to "mood stabilizer" for the most part, regardless of whether there's any diagnosis or not.
I was taking it from around the age of 14/15 and it was only prescribed by a psychiatrist(not even my GP was able to)
Also tegretol is not a cure, even for it's "target audience" it's for managing symptoms.
I guess the same way Ritalin was prescribed for children with ADHD (not even sure if Ritalin still exists?!)

As for the PP who mentioned about parents pushing for a diagnosis for the DLA and/or help with social housing, it doesn't work like that.
It can sometimes take years for a diagnosis and rarely there's any help even after.

Also someone who mentioned about the dad's who are in denial being on the spectrum themself, I've heard that many a times! Strange as my DF I and other family members have suspected for years but he just calls himself emotionally constipated

Oh yes all the comments ‘we never had this or that in my day’ usually about allergies and asd

Well guess what, all those children who used to ‘choke’ on nuts - it wasn’t choking it was anaphylaxis
All those children who were ‘odd’ and ‘naughty’ etc they weren’t they probably had asd or adhd. Things weren’t recognised and children suffered.

We’ve had the ‘she will grow out of it’ comment and also ‘she’s fine in school’ when actually it’s just masking which is exhausting.

I think a LOT of people are conditioned to only believe what they can see. They only accept what they see and what is universally considered to not be typical behaviour. So a broken leg or obvious physical impairment is accepted anything invisible or variable is treated with scepticism

@Xalia No problem - I'm doing the best I have in years. I get to spend most of my time staying indoors and playing computer games!

Ok, I jest, but only in part - that is a huge part of how I rest up and recuperate my energy. The truth is that I did very badly once I left school - I was thrown into an excellent university with no support, and the result was that I tried to kill myself. It was very logical - all my life, people had been telling me that my only problem was that I just wasn't trying hard enough. But I'd tried as much as I could, for years, so I figured I must just not be capable of trying hard enough, and it was some sort of moral deficit in me that couldn't be fixed.

So, I crashed out, and blundered through inadequate mental health services for many years until about five or six years ago I finally got assessed by someone who thought to send me for an autism assessment.

And that was when I learnt I wasn't bad, or lazy, I was just different. I've spent the past few years playing computer games in my house while studying for a part time degree with the OU, and generally trying to get my head around the sudden change.

I'm slowly rebuilding my life, but in many ways I'm about ten years behind my peers, both practically and emotionally. I lost those ten years to the fact autism "didn't exist" then.

Place marking for later. Currently awaiting diagnosis myself at 41. Ds age 16 has ASD and just scored ZERO points after PIP assessment after receiving DLA since he was 9.

Asd is a spectrum - hence the name.

Some people cannot see that a disability can be invisible. They think asd means constant flapping and always there to see. Constant meltdowns and humming.

My ds autism was far more 'obvious' in his younger years. He's 15 now and learnt coping strategies.

But compare him to NT 15yo he's extremely introverted and his poor social communication skills are obvious.

Well those that had severe autism ,such as my son would probably have been in an institution
It is heartbreaking and very true.
My Nanny gave birth to my down syndrome uncle in 1948 she refused to send him away, the priest advised her to keep him in the house, she refused, he lived until he was 49 went to mainstream and got a job, my Nanny was abused by everyone, thankfully she was a strong lady.

another one that annoys me is the ones who only see extremes so only severe autism counts, it puts a lot of HF ASD adrift in terms of help.

Yes Staydazzling. My son’s nursery teacher had a nephew with severe non verbal autism and refused to consider anything less dramatic as autism. It made life very difficult until we finally found someone who knew what they were on about and didn’t kee saying “I’ve seen proper autism” and talking in terms of how bad it was.

I actually do believe what a PP said about bad parents trying to convince themselves their kids have ASD. I know a couple of them who stopped bleating about it once they'd seen enough of DS2's autistic traits to realise that I could see the difference between him and their NT children.

They've both had SS involved for their bad parenting, which the Drs also believed was causing the bad behaviour. One couple has been teetering on the edge of their kids being removed for ages. No, I don't think your 4y/o has SEN, I think that getting slapped across the face by his dad and watching his sister get hospitalised after eating pills off the floor is making an angry, scared little boy out of him.

If people refuse to accept that there were 100,000 children in specials schools in the 70s and that was a bigger percentage of the school population than the number in special school now they are going to insist it didnt exist.

Luke Kelly from the Dubliner sang about ASD, I used to listen to it in the 80's, he may not have the correct terminology but the words are perfect.

Incidentally, I'm convinced my dad is autistic (we are so very similar in our traits), suspicious that his father was too, and from family anecdotes, his father's mother also showed enough traits that it would have been worth having her assessed today. I can quite likely trace my autistic traits all the way back through the family to a time when Queen Victoria was still on the throne.

I can trace my asthma back as well, on the other side of the family, to my grandmother's father who had to have the bedroom fire on to keep the chill off his chest. But noone ever "doesn't believe" in that.

But by contrast @staydazzling, all the autism awareness in the media etc gives some people the impression that everybody with autism can be like Einstein or Anne Hegarty, it often focuses on people who are very successful and ignores the fact it's a huge spectrum and affects everyone differently.

The diagnosis criteria for ADHD includes -

been showing symptoms in at least 2 different settings – for example, at home and at school, to rule out the possibility that the behaviour is just a reaction to certain teachers or to parental control

shouldcolder, its so frustrating, my DM is similar as i have a sibling with severe LF ASD and nothing else could be ASD, i just don't go there now.