'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)?

No, there isn't a lot of money in it, particularly not in the UK. With the assessments themselves, the clinic already has the money by the time the assessment is conducted.

There is no medication for autism, so there's no profit to be made there. And ADHD medication is overwhelmingly provided through the NHS, which costs them money and the clinic will never see that, so there's no benefit there either (unless you're the conspiracy-theory type who thinks that Big Pharma are paying all the clinics backhanders to overdiagnose so they can make money out of the NHS, and nobody's noticed).

When it comes to support for autistic and ADHD individuals, that only exists for children and is almost exclusively provided by the state, and ND folk are essentially abandoned once we become adults.

There is literally no advantage for anybody to over-diagnosis.

@Spikeyball

Hmm, not specifically but anti depressants and stimulants will be given much more freely to those with ASD/ADHD diagnoses. But let’s be honest they’re already dished out like smarties.

Society is fucked. I think there are huge swathes of young people burdened with HUGE expectations and stress and they break down completely. They become suicidal, they self harm. Again, this isn’t totally diagnostic of a neurodevelopmental condition. It most certainly is a mental health condition.

Times are bleak. Adults are suffering. Kids are suffering. I am not at all convinced it’s all neurodevelopmental in nature.

It's literally impossible for the overdiagnosis you describe to occur - because "to a level it affects their lives" is a mandatory requirement for a positive diagnosis of both autism and ADHD.

Gp fobbed off any other cause i suggested ie i wanted hearing test for dd with several burst drums. She is also gifted. Which imo also could be case for her classmate.
I think culture in schools doesnt help sp parents dont discuss kids like they could so really you have no idea what average looks like.
With adhd and asd traits the frequency isnt highlighted nor the need for affect on life (to what extent).
If a cause is having kids later that will affect some areas of uk more than others.
Likewise if birth injury or parental weight etc.

we need to get on top of the referral of kids so we are not all left in limbo accused of self diagnosis. It was supposed to be like 8w referral pre covid.
my dc were both clearly adhd as toddlers but my sister was similar and grew out of it. Though is likely actually asd (ED and perfectionist etc)

our school was useless its obvious now probably nursery should have referred. Certainly reception. And ended up requesting at 10yo. So 7yrs later. Even then cant get ehcp and secondary have made no adjustment.

You're spot on there;I have 2 children with ASD;one boy;one girl;can you guess which one has a diagnosis and which one we've been fighting 16 years for a diagnosis for?;one of the reasons for an "increase" in ASD/ADHD is because so many people have gone undiagnosed for far too long especially women.

My aunt was diagnosed in her early 50's at long last;she has struggled her entire life and had as a child the cover all label they use to slap on people of having "learning difficulties";she was sent to a "special" school.

Maybe if my aunt had been better supported by those around her she wouldn't have been taken advantage of by a pervert of a married man at 16 who knocked her up and left her alone.

Maybe she wouldn't have been pressured into keeping the baby and quickly married off to a friend of the family 10 years older than hurt who then bullied her her entire life;he died earlier this year and my aunt hasn't a clue how to look after herself.

I'm pretty fed up with BS threads like this;OP what was the point of posting this thread other than trying to make yourself feel high and mighty?

This is blatantly not true though. Talking specifically about adhd, there is a large amount of money being made by the private sector and this is what is driving an increase. Have you not read the threads on here about how much money it’s costing people to get adhd meds? £100’s per month and that’s after forking out thousands for the diagnosis.

It stared in the US (of course) and because of the gaps in the nhs and huge demand we’ve allowed the private sector to run riot over here too. Have a look at some of the figures in the US for rates of diagnosis and tell me it’s not being over diagnosed.

Also it’s not conspiracy to believe that ‘big pharma’ push the idea of diagnosing certain conditions and subsequent medication. They play a big role in ‘educating’ HCPs etc. This happens all the time. See the current OxyContin scandal. There will 100% be lawsuits in the future when people end up with all sorts of problems from taking amphetamines for years, many unnecessarily.

Your child could be hyperlexic rather than "gifted" which is actually a symptom of ASD especially in girls.

It's nothing to do with hypochondria either. I don't think you're in a position to question other people's language use here...

Pharma has come to the end of the road mass marketing opioids and have moved on to amphetamines. And no one is allowed to question it because it’s ‘ableist’. They’ve really pulled a blinder there.

There kind of is, as the clinics who over-diagnose do less thorough assessments which take less time.

So their throughput is greater.

When DS was diagnosed (by an actual doctor, in case anyone is wondering) one of the things he said was that they base their decision making re interventions and treatment, not on the "severity" of the condition but on the level of impact it has on the child. I think this is a really useful point because a lot of people with ADHD can probably function quite well or the things they can't function so well at, are less important and/or can be avoided long term.

We have ADHD in my family and, I suspect, also on DH's side. DH has done okay but I often find myself thinking that if his parents had known the things we know now, perhaps his life would have gone a different way. He's a very intelligent man but struggled with school - the one and only time he managed to get straight As in exams, it involved intense effort from him that he tells me absolutely exhausted him (and not because he was studying all hours but because the focus and the organisation required was hard for him). Yesterday, for example, he was completely and totally derailed for the entire afternoon because he and DD could not find ONE library book that needed to be returned. In the end, I had to get involved even though I was working - found it within 3 minutes, under her bed, then went back to work. But that led to him deciding he had to move all the furniture, look for all the lost stuff, vacuum etc... missing library open times. I am pretty sure that this sort of thing has happened his entire life, including while trying to study for exams.

Good job we use the DSM-5 and not your thoughts to assess people then.

Take a look at the FB pages and websites for ‘Fiightback’ and ‘not fine in school’

Many SEN parents are being accused of FII , it’s a national scandal and professionals are gaslighting parents

As someone waiting for an assessment as an adult:

Increasing awareness

Lifestyles that make it harder to hide as a ND person

Lifestyles that lead to things that may look like Adhd/ASD - phone use screwing attention span for example.

Unscrupluous clinics because of NHS backlogs.

I don't think many people appreciate just how hard it is and how long it takes to be assessed for both ADHD and ASC. To be seen by CAMHS or an NHS paediatrician takes months and sometimes years. The waiting lists are long!

IF you get a diagnosis then that is that as far as the NHS is concerned. You are not given any follow up or support.

You can then join the very long queue to be assessed for an EHCP (without a guarantee of getting one).

And as for everyone being a little bit autistic......your life is clearly not run around hospital appointments/mental health problems/anxiety/school refusal as many ASC childrens' parents are.

Duckingella
I was in agreement with your post. Sorry for confusion!

It causes confusion to refer to ASD/ADHD as a single entity - ASD is not medicated and ADHD is not on the autistic spectrum although there is some overlap of symptoms and some DC have multiple ND conditions - DS2 is autistic and has ADHD.

He is not comfortable with his diagnoses and wants to hide them in case people think he is trying to gain unfair advantage eg extra time in assessments and exams. His psychiatrist (monitors ADHD medication) has had to make it clear to him that there is no way he would pass uni interview (he is applying to Cambridge) unless they are told he is autistic in advance.

I'm not convinced that this is due to self diagnosis of some peers (they wouldn't be able to get medication or extra time) rather than the messages he was constantly fed by school staff and LA professionals who argued that providing support would be wrong as it would make him look different (they could then claim the moral high ground - the child comes first and he didn't want support).

Before anyone claims that this must have been the right approach given that he is now at 6th form and applying to university - his placement in mainstream collapsed in the first term of year 7 and the LA funded alternative placement for the rest of secondary.

Parental blame is the easy option for the so called professionals. FII has been hightlighted in many SARS and it's outrageous.

Yes you're right. Your ability to actually have a job, a home, a conversation with someone, a life independent of caregivers, being able to emotionally prepare, to even understand concept of death is definitely on par with my child who will NEVER be able to do these things.

She is the child who people stare at because of the sounds she makes. The tall 8 year old in the Bluey or Peppa clothes. The child who will literally walk away with ANYONE. Who will never understand road safety. Who eats vegetation from ANYWHERE (grass,leaves etc). She will be reliant on others for her whole life.

BUT how fucking dare you call people with those needs an "inconvenience".

Your autism not insignificant. BUT. Your autism is not my daughter's autism.

I was falsely accused of it , so much was made up by school etc ! Luckily I had evidence to prove otherwise for each allegation (eg that allergies were made up - had blood and skin test results, and that they hadn’t been told certain things - I had emails to and from etc ) it took months for it all to be dropped and they told me that if I made a complaint that that would be a red flag for FII as it added to the ‘attention seeking’

"You can tell by looking" - fucking hell, that needs to be on a baseball cap 🤣

Jesus Christ on an electric bike. So many trash opinions spouted as fact on this thread. I fucking love it. Armchair sociologists are my favourite branch of the University of Life.

Binfire of the inanities.

Actually there is. For severe autism it's becoming more common in the USA to medicate with anti psychotics there are a few cases here in the UK too I personally know a family this applies to. However this only applies to severe autism that would be obvious to the eyes of even the most judgemental stranger so doesn't really apply to this thread about people allegedly faking it

There was a BBC panorama about over diagnosis of ADHD by private clinics.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001m0f9

I think you’re taking what @Catza said out of context. Having a child with severe presenting autism is difficult (for parent and child) and heartbreaking to know they will never grow up and do all the adult things their peers do. But (and it’s very very evident by this thread and its replies), those with autism with higher social functioning are so diminished in their autism experiences and day to day life. The expectations are so much higher and the consequences can be horribly severe on mental and physical health.

Every autistic person’s living experience is different but I do see what this poster is saying because I’ve seen it myself - autism seems to still only be generally accepted or even ‘sympathised’ with if the person is presenting as ‘classically autistic enough’. It seems that if you can adequately mask and make yourself fit in, you shouldn’t even openly say you’re autistic - there are actually people on this thread who say people who can hold some semblance of a typical life shouldn’t even have an autism diagnosis. It’s not about the cost to the person, it’s about the social performance of ‘normality’, and I can imagine that is very difficult for someone like this poster to read. Infuriating even.

Correct. But this does not make anybody else's experiences invalid. In fact, every person benefits from individualised approach to address specific difficulties they are having. Dismissing anybody who doesn't have a specific severity of a condition as "faking it" is exactly what ensures nobody gets the support they need.
How would you feel if someone told you your child is not deserving of support because they can walk and eat. As opposed to someone who is in the wheelchair and has to be fed through PEG? I bet you would fight tooth and nail for your right to equitable access to support. That is all I am saying.
And my comment about inconvenience was not in relation to the person who is affected by neurodevelopmental disorder but in response to highly insensitive comment suggesting that unless someone is smearing or violent, their diagnosis is invalid which was an ableist remark suggesting to me that as long as we keep everything quiet, we are alright. I have very little patience for someone who adopts this line of thinking because they concern themselves with their own convenience not with the wellbeing of another person.
You misunderstood my comment and I find your reaction to be disproportionate.