'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)?

@Westernesse what was the outcome following your child’s assessment?

Did you receive guidance/support from NHS, school support, DLA etc to help your child?

Westernesse

Can we have links to data supporting your very offensive and ludicrous accusations.

I have been diagnosed with autism and adhd at 55 by the NHS. Why am I not allowed to know that I have these debilitating conditions and the reasons for the huge struggles I’ve had in every area of my life? Why am I just a “label seeking adult”? Why is it our fault that women and girls went undiagnosed for years causing many like me to end up getting diagnosed as adults?

Nothing from the NHS, school very supportive and he is doing very well. We do now get DLA.

I think we overall got the right outcome by sheer luck in the but the process gave me no confidence whatsoever that there is any real diagnostic robustness as to any of it.

No you may not. I wasn’t talking about you.

I see my message has been removed. That is absolutely ridiculous. I shared my experience and opinion as the parent of a child with an ASD diagnosis and this is the treatment I receive from Mumsnet. Wow.

how dare I not be absolutely 100% on message. Silly me with my wrongthink.

Westernesse

Well your post quite rightly got deleted. Your accusations are hugely inaccurate and offensive with or without data( which you’d never be able to find )as it’s just ableist shit stirring.

I didn’t make any accusations. None at all. Are you always in favour of censoring people when they say something you don’t agree with?

It’s not about censoring differing opinions but posters posting ableist shit stirring rubbish.

For me it wasn’t a box. It was a way to understand myself after years of feeling like a really useless, pointless human being because I struggled with normal things. If I ever complained that noise hurt my ears, lights hurt my eyes, that I couldn’t organise myself at all, I was told that we’re all like that, I just need to try harder.
I genuinely thought that everyone had this same shitty life experience but they were better at dealing with it - now I can understand that it’s not me that’s crap, and I can manage who I am better, and I can be forgiving of things that I beat myself up about for years.

There’s an increase because why on earth wouldn’t we want to understand ourselves?

My post was entirely in keeping with the thread and a response to the opening comment. Unreal.

I did nothing of the sort. I engaged with the topic of the thread.

For the relief of it really. No one really knows about my diagnosis, I haven’t told many people, but for me it is such a relief to be able to understand myself and ultimately, to forgive myself. I don’t use it as an excuse, but I do give myself a bit more of a break rather than not understanding why I fuck up so much

@Westernesse why scoff at the likes of the service provider who diagnosed your child and be dismissive of the autistic traits they have??

By your own account your child is now doing very well in school. And you are benefitting to the tune of about £3,500 - £5,000 a year. Over the course of your child’s lifetime that is a minimum of a quarter of a million quid. Plus all of the very many other benefits in terms of support and finance.

If the provider followed NICE guidelines I can assure you it was robust.

I didn’t report your post but I can see why it was offensive. Adults are entitled to a diagnosis just as much as children - many have been through the mental health merry-go-round, they’ve been diagnosed with eating disorders, many of the women have suffered sexual assault or rape, the majority will have not reached their potential in school or work. In short they deserve some dignity and decency, an understanding of why their lives have been difficult, and a route to a better life through correct diagnosis and support.

Stick a label on that!!

Why scoff at the private provider who carried out the assessment? Because it was an absolute joke. A shambles and there wasn’t a doctor involved in any way. It was a social worker and a couple of nurses who read his report to sign off on it. They never met my child. I have little doubt that this private provider finds everyone who is referred to them to be autistic. Is that not a concern.

There was absolutely nothing my post that would be offensive to a reasonable person and it did not break any forum rules. Therefore its deletion is censorship.

Hardly censorship, mumsnet can delete any post for any reason, it's a private business. There are plenty of other websites yoy can go to to complain about autistic people.

The two things you’ve said don’t connect. It can still be censorship when it’s a private business. The post broke absolutely no rules at all and was entirely in keeping with the thread and in line with the topic raised in the opening post.

Westernesse

Your post was ableist and autism is a protected disability. You said a lot of autistic people are faking it, it’s trendy, an excuse and you dismissed all adults as label seeking.

Are you as offensive to more visible disabilities?

@Westernesse there wouldn’t be a doctor involved except for a physiological exam which isn’t always done.

You’d expect a psychologist or behaviour therapist, speech therapist anything along those lines. Social workers can be trained to do assessments as well.

I don’t know why they didn’t meet your child face to face unless the assessment took place over the pandemic?

I think you’d need to look back through the report to see the occupations of those involved and the assessment protocol followed.

In any event, you did get the correct outcome and your child and family are benefitting from it so I don’t see why you would complain.

Being skeptical about people who’ve been diagnosed with autism and those who are desperately seeking diagnosis for some resolution is offensive and it attacks the community that your child is part of.

Saying you weren’t impressed with the rigour of the specific assessment that you received is one thing, attacking and invalidating those who have been diagnosed or are seeking diagnoses is another - that’s very apparent to reasonable people.

So Westernesse you did break rules clearly outlined.

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@Westernesse using the term ‘label’ when speaking about autism is so low and even worse when you claim you yourself are a parent of an autistic child. Just because some people may believe they’re autistic due to a lot of current talk about it doesn’t invalidate the diagnosis as a whole. It’s never a label. Quite frankly I don’t even understand why an adult would actively want to be diagnosed autistic like it’s getting a golden blue Peter badge. ADHD I can understand more people getting confused as to what the traits actually are as opposed to some ‘quirky ditziness’, but what exactly would be the end game of being diagnosed autistic for an adult that would make it such a fashionable ‘label’?

"...now has a diagnosis that no one else excepts." Then tell her that either she has been conned and the diagnosis was done by somebody not qualified to do it, in which case they broke the law and she can get a refund, or all the people who do not accept it are breaking the law.

"I think these private clinics are just in it for the money. Once they diagnose ADHD then there's the private prescriptions that cost." But the ASD ones are legitimate. Well, you're half right.

@newbeginnings20 Masking is very common. The whole world can see no issue with your child, but in your home there are issues. Because children mask when they’re around others. Just because no one else can see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there. You clearly just don’t understand how it works. Some people mask their arses off. I know because I’m one of them. A lot of people in my life would be very surprised to know I have ADHD. You cannot simply say your friends child shouldn’t have a diagnosis because no one else has seen the traits yet.

I don’t agree with you. Is that not allowed?
it’s never a label? Says who? Teenage kids might see that differently in a few years.

The entire premise of this thread is about false diagnoses, but you seem to be of the view that every single person who thinks they are autistic, or decides to say the are autistic, truly is autistic. I think that is unrealistic.

my child’s assessment was not during the pandemic and still was not face to face. And the provider would but say how many times, if ever, the find that a person is not autistic.

these are legitimate concerns.

I did not break any of those rules.

“Masking” is a very convenient catch all which means that absolutely anyone can be diagnosed with anything. We haven’t had problems at home. Nothing from health visitors, nothing from nursery. Struggled to settle at school and “autism”. Honestly, my concern is this. If my kid can be given an autism diagnosis then the bar is very very low.

I am only glad he is thriving and if the diagnosis has helped that, then that’s wonderful. I have real concerns about the wider issue based on my experiences. I genuinely believe a lot of people in his life, including teachers who had claimed he was autistic, would have been gutted by any other outcome.