'Increase' in ASD/ADHD

[Sunsnet]

There are a lot of discussion at the moment on this subject and many people who believe that people are faking these conditions in themself or their children. This makes it very difficult for those with these diagnoses to be taken seriously and feels like a massive attack and dismissal of their genuine struggles so shouldn't the question actually be, why is there a massive increase in Munchausen's and Munchausen's by Proxy (child abuse)?

Have the people who believe they’re being faked conducted hours of extensive assessment across different environments, and consulted with multi disciplinary teams to reach these conclusions?

Or are they just dismissing the findings of the highly qualified professionals who did?

why is there a massive increase in Munchausen's and Munchausen's by Proxy (child abuse)?

That's a bit of a leap from people feeling they or their kids may be ND and/or latching onto certain traits of their personality and jumping to conclusions.

I'm seeing this come up all the time at the moment. In real life i don't see this. I see an increase in diagnosis and better awareness and understanding (although we clearly still have a long way to go). I haven't really met many people who 'want' themselves or kids to be ND. However i do sometimes see people make assumptions based on not very much evidence. It's for an assessment team to say wether they are correct or not. I don't think this is the same as Munchausen's.

I think there’s a lot more young people getting convinced that any little quirk is ASD/adhd. However I believe anyone who thinks they’re ND should approach a doctor, at least see if they meet the threshold for referral.

However the dismissing of children who have been referred or diagnosed on the bases of their parents suspicions is infuriating and quite frankly offensive. So many times I read the word ‘label’ on here, ASD and adhd are medical conditions. You don’t ‘label’ a child deaf, blind, having Down Syndrome… im not sure where some posters here get off on undermining autism and attention deficit. Oh, it’s all about the easy to get money though isn’t it 🙄.

I mean the people who are being accused of actively lying and diagnoses shopping from unscrupulous clinics. I personally don't think this is happening anywhere near as much as people make out, but I want to know why the people who believe this are attacking ASD and ADHD in particular when what they are describing could happen with any condition and points to an underlying mental health problem. They are doing damage and f they really believe what they are saying, they are attacking the wrong thing.

How would you "fake" ASD/ADHD? The most likely scenario here is that a person suspects there may be a neurological disorder based on set of symptoms/behaviours and then spends 2-3 years waiting for an assessment with a neurology team to confirm or decline the diagnosis. It is no more an abusive behaviour than someone having a persistent cough and wanting to talk to their GP about it in case they have a lung disease.
As an autistic person myself, I have zero issues with that. I was diagnosed in adulthood because things like that just weren't discussed or considered in the 80s. I am all for raising awareness. What is more problematic is that services aren't catching up with the demand so these diagnoses can be confirmed or ruled out quicker.

As to "unscrupulous clinics", I am not sure where this information is coming from. People go to private practitioners to get a quicker service. The assessment protocols are the same. I work clinically and have access to diagnostic letters and outcomes of assessment forms. The processes are identical to what we would use in the NHS.

I know a fair children with ASD / ADHD or whose parents have labelled them as such without a diagnosis because no joke, over 3/4 of my child’s class have one or the other.
A good few have been diagnosed others on the pathway or just parents who keep saying they are goijg to get their child assessed.
What I do feel, is sorry for those who have actually been assessed - it seems almost every parent in the class is saying their child has asd. I feel those with actual asd are not getting enough support / being heard sometimes. It’s getting watered down.
Also, IME most people have traits of mild ASD / ADHD. Look hard enough and you will find something in everybody. But that doesn’t mean you are ND.
It seems IME that NT is actually becoming more rare. With so many now declaring themselves ND, what exactly is NT? Typical means most people are that thing. In my DC class, a NT child is hard to find.
Im afraid I have also experienced some parents in the last few years who struggle with their child behaviour wise to declare them ASD (no assessment) and that excuses all undesirable behaviours, including violence to other children. It seems to be more and more common. Again, I feel it waters down support for those who have been diagnosed and are struggling is multiple areas.

You could look hard enough and find traits of practically any disability but you wouldn't then use that to dismiss those who have a medical diagnosis.

You will see in the future the serious consequences of people being misdiagnosed. If there are genuinely more people it is something happening because in the past even though not diagnoses were made. There were not so many people with odd behaviour in a classroom. On the other hand, There are two things one Pharma is happy with people being medicated. Plus, two some twisted pushy parents or students themselves may be looking a way to enhance performance at school and university. Specially in North America but now seen an increased trend in other countries too.

I know someone who I suspect has Munchausens or something similar. She told me the HV diagnosed her 5 year old with global development delay, this same 5 year old can do things like ride a bike with no stabilisers, talks like a child a year or 2 older, reads, writes, does puzzles, if anything I'd say this kid is ahead of most milestones. He also has an array of other health issues, none of which have been actually diagnosed and she has demanded second, third, fourth and probably more opinions from different doctors. She is also convinced he has both ASD and ADHD. I think this is becoming more common as I know another person who is similar.

I think it's the private clinics over diagnosing.
There's a lot of money in it.

Also parents who are looking for an excuse for bad parenting. It seems no child is naughty or badly behaved now.

Highsandlows
What medication do you think there is for autism?

I think in a time where society is focusing on identity above all else there are increasing numbers of young people who are identifying as ND when they are not because, in some areas, it's seen as being cool, a bit like a social contagion or saying things like your non- binary which is pretty meaningless.

The problem with that is that this detracts from the very genuine issues that ND young people (and of all ages) have. I have a teenage boy and girl who are both autistic, they are both NHS panel diagnosed who most definitely have the correct diagnosis. Conversely and contrary to how we are told the sexes present my daughter is much more obviously autistic than my son who is a master masker and people might think on this basis alone that he is incorrectly diagnosed.

I can't comment on private diagnosis BUT I am wary of headlines putting them in doubt coming from the position of having to fight tooth and nail for my kids to have a fair education with an NHS diagnosis. I think this is all part of trying to deny kids access to what they need to succeed. As a society we are very backwards in this. LAs ALREADY try to deny the reality of any private reports to avoid putting in provisions, this is further ammunition to them to avoid helping kids. It's all so backwards, keeping kids down doesn't turn them into adults who can contribute their best to society.

As for Muchausen's or FII as it is now called. I think most parents of kids with additional needs will have been made to feel like this already. I have. Especially in the sense that by trying to get our kids needs met we are told we are stoking anxiety and the like. It is a real concern.

As a parent to children diagnosed with ASD, I find some of these comments ridiculous. The hoops you have to jump through to get a diagnosis and support can’t be faked.

I do however, feel more undiagnosed adults are meeting and reproducing together and end up getting diagnosed once their kids are and they realize they themselves are autistic.

I also think a lot of it comes down to our heavy metal intake/ lifestyle/ parenting - in the sense we don’t shame/force/ put pressure on our children to conform anymore. They’re more free to not hold everything in

I think Covid had a lot to do with it, creating a back log of cases for assessments, children not coping over lockdown, children thriving over lockdown but struggling going back to normal.

DD was always quirky but it was subtle, she loved lockdown and would happily go back to not spending time with people, she got covid quite badly 2nd week into year 7 (temp over 40C for 6 days) , I've always sort of wondered if it's that that 'activated' her autism to be more challenging or the more traditional move to Secondary that often precedes autism struggles, she was diagnosed in year 8.

There is also Pandas which has a lot of cross over with signs of autism and I wonder if there is a similar covid linked one. However, to get the diagnosis the signs have to be there from a young age so that probably wouldn't fit the pattern of influx of diagnosis but could fit the influx of people thinking they have autism without a diagnosis.

There are large communities of self diagnosed teens on tictok and similar which probably explain some teens feeling they have it without the diagnosis too who didn't have the quirks in younger life.

Ha I'd bet you'd say that about my son.

The reality is that unless his needs are met his anxiety is crippling and he can't leave his bedroom and tries to kill himself.

Of course you don't see that part. What you see when his needs are managed is an extremely bright, slightly awkward, young man who gets extra time in exams because he's dyslexic not because he's autistic but you won't know that you'll make assumptions, who is top of the class and applying to Oxford University.

I have had ex- friends imply similar. Walk a mile in his shoes.

As for medication for autism, there is none. My son is medicated for crippling anxiety caused by low seratonin levels which often comes hand in hand with so called high functioning autism. He can't function and tries to kill himself without it.

Honestly I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't have a single ASD/ADHD trait. I think all of us carry traits of both conditions, some more than others. I think there is an over diagnosis, especially self diagnosis of ASD/ADHD in people with a few traits and feel they can relate to aspects, usually the more quirky aspects of these conditions. I think, diagnosis should be reserved for people whose lives are genuinely affected/hindered by the condition. My son has a couple of traits, and a friend (with two ASD children) suggested I speak to someone about it. The thing is, he's happy, thriving in main stream school, has lots of friends, is smart, funny and confident. If he is somewhere on a spectrum he's so far to the bottom end of it why would I want to force a label on him? It's one thing if you need support, but if you don't it's quite another.

And that's not to belittle ASD, I actually think it belittles those genuinely affected to be lumped in with little Tommy who walks on tiptoes sometimes and likes to line his cars up. You can't compare that to 'severe' autism with smearing, non-verbal or violent children.

I have two dc who are diagnosed with ASD and ADHD among other things. When dc 1 was diagnosed 20 years ago ( they are now 30) i had never heard of these and they were one of only two dc in the whole school with these diagnoses. People would be interested when i talked about their issues etc. when dc 2 was diagnosed 10 years ago ( they are 16) it seemed like every other child had a diagnosis and when you tell people their diagnosis you simply get eye rolls and the look of " oh look here's another parent who can't parent properly and wants a label as an excuse".

You realise there's a middle ground between just lining up cars and the more severe autism you describe? You can be relatively "high functioning" and still struggling.

The problem with waiting until people are being hindered it's often too late to undo the damage. Most girls are diagnosed as teenagers when they have a catastrophic mental breakdown due to the pressures of masking their entire lives. The knock on effect on their education, mental health and career prospects lasts years sometimes forever and result in only 22% of autistic adults being in any sort of employment. Early diagnosis and intervention is key.

I think the issue comes from situations like this...

...a family member of mine has 4 children. She says that all of them have ASD or ADHD. I have seen how these children are parented - they aren't. They run absolutely riot, there's never been any boundaries, they do what they want, when they want. When they started school and these issues were brought to a head, suddenly, they all had something like ADHD. This has never been diagnosed and I can say with a some confidence that it is actually the lack of parenting that has created their behaviour.

Goodness. It's so very hard to get a diagnosis. It was only recently in 2017 that female diagnosis was properly researched and it was realised that autism in females can present slightly differently to males.

I'm hoping the increase in diagnosing might help all those poor women and girls who heavily masked and then burnt out. Usually diagnosed with bi-polar, depression, anxiety, and all other mental health issues. When what they actually had was autism which is developmental. Undiagnosed autism can cause mental health issues because the issues faced are not being addressed correctly.

I'm at relived that appropriate diagnosis is being made now. It's a bit late but at least it's balanced now.

Suicide in people with autism is high. I suspect in undiagnosed autism it will be even higher.

More diagnosis, more support, more education, more equal opportunities, more recognition. More is needed, not less.

Absolutely this- that is part of what I was trying to say but you have worded it much better.
My son also has some ADHD traits. I’ve also been told to get him assess by a well meaning friend but he’s happy in mainstream and doing really well. Maybe on the spectrum but very low down. I think almost everyone is on the spectrum if you look hard enough!

Yes that could be the case as you say… but could also be the case that the autism created the parenting. Lots of children with ASD / ADHD are very challenging and parents are at a loss with no support. Sometimes this leads to giving in so as to not have meltdowns and then this spirals into no boundaries.
Tricky to figure out which it is until the child is older sometimes

Munchausens is correlated with narcissism and narcissism really has exploded in recent years. It’s all me, me, me. There are a group of parents who are hell bent on getting their child some sort of diagnosis to feed their entitlement or excuse their lazy parenting with zero boundaries. It isn’t that hard to pay for a private diagnosis either, not if you’re determined.

Disclaimer: Of course there are children and young people with autism and adhd but I don’t believe for one moment the “explosion of it all”.