Anyone else noticing the uptick in open hostility towards people with ASD?

[FFSakeDrinkSake]

As the title says. It feels like it's open season recently. In the last few weeks alone I've seen many threads questioning the validity of Asd, the credentials of those diagnosing the condition, the 'explosion' of diagnosis', the 'fact' that you qualify for extra benefits if you are autistic and/or have ADHD, the apparent drain on resources kids with ASD have on the educational sector depriving others and most recently the idea that someone (self diagnosed) can 'outgrow' autism. Most of which contain the worst misinformation about what we're trying to deal with on a daily basis and making it sound like we're just trying to .. i dont even know tbh.. scam our way through life?

Disclaimer NATAAT.

I think it’s very possible to know you have ADHD or Autism without a diagnosis. My DD knew. I know I am probably neurodivergent. It’s possible to know without a piece of paper confirming it. It’s not like they do brain scans.

I’m not able to pursue a diagnosis, nor do I wish to. I know I am autistic and that is enough for me at this stage in my life. If you know, you know. Now I have my son to advocate for, which is the more important path. There is a big barrier for undiagnosed adults being able to access a diagnosis pathway, and so this is why many feel empowered by being able to openly acknowledge that they are autistic. By the way, doctors, psychologists, and many other professionals get it wrong about autism, all the time.

More than 50% of autistic people also have an intellectual disability and even if not, it presents the vast majority of people with ASD have many many challenges. The 'superpower' discourse is often unhelpful, particularly in a world designed for NT people.

By the way, YANBU. Just look at so many of the nasty comments on here.

We didn't either. He was suspected from the age of 4 and they did want to do a watchful wait which was understandable as although he had speech issues, he wasn't non verbal and he was in a mainstream school. He did have mini assessments over the years, but the school supported him regardless. Once he turned 8 they started down the assessment pathway and we got a diagnosis pretty fast from there, and he's high functioning which apparently can be harder to diagnose.

Hasn't changed anything apart from knowing when he has meltdowns and certain struggles, I deal with them a little differently. It's also enabled school to support him (things like pre warning for change, can't be surprised with tests, they know he's stressed if his verbal tics begin etc)

What an awful, ignorant post.

Do you realise how long it takes to get a diagnosis? In my county the average wait to be assessed is around 36-42 months - that's over 3 years before you can even begin to access help and support. Do you have any idea how rigorous the assessments are? The level of detail that they go into in several different settings, with several different observers? It's no wonder that people pay privately - it's because they are completely desperate and being utterly failed.

The idea that people want a diagnosis because it 'sounds good' or because they can't be bothered to parent is just laughable.

Posts like this are exactly what the OP is talking about.

@FanFckingTastic I do. My daughter is autistic.

You can also pay a couple of grand and get a diagnosis the same day.

I agree with you OP but I try my best to ignore it. My daughter is 3 years old and I was told that she wouldn’t get an EHCP at her age yet somehow I’ll get a diagnosis in 0.2 seconds. Both were wrong because people love to talk out of their arse about things they know nothing about

Does it? The vast majority of people I know are not autistic.

Sorry to inform you but a good lot of us are hiding in plain sight 😁

What you on about mate?!!!

The issue is that some parents are like this. I know one, and know enough to know that is exactly how they behave.

No one doubts SEN parents work hard to get what they need for their kids. But some parents are as described above. No one wants to say it, but they are.

They

Well sure some parents are awful—some percentage of all humans are awful. Why blow a tiny minority out of proportion to tar the rest of parents with the insult?

What do you think the stress of unmet needs at school does to the child and the family?

They don’t, hence the use of the quotation marks around the word ‘Fact’

I’ve seen a ridiculous amount of people claiming that you get benefits when you get a diagnosis and that’s why so many people ‘want’ to be diagnosed.

It's not a paid for diagnosis.
It's a paid for assessment - the same assessment as the NHS without the wait list.
Normally a last resort for families on breaking point

There is an uptick in hateful language, along with a sneeriness as though the majority are putting it on. This is exacerbated by politicians and media. I don't have direct experience of trying to get help or a diagnosis, but from those that do it sounds like wading through mud to get a crumb of help. As for the disability benefit fraud, that's pretty much zero isn't it?

Those that have mentioned behaviour - along with all the other factors that may influence behaviour and behavioural changes is we have had covid in the mix for the last few years - a virus for which one of the impacts affecting a proportion of people is brain injury and behavioural change.

I've been following this thread now. The summary seems to me to be that hostility has increased and is justified because:

More people have autism because diagnostic criteria merged 3 conditions and female presentations are more understood.

Some people say they have autism but they actually have a different serious mental health disorder and it's misdiagnosed.

Some people say that they have autism but they don't really and managed to pay a corrupt medical professional.

Some people have diagnosed themselves. They might have autism. They might also just want tik tok fame.

They don't like one particular autistic person they know.

Where did you do your medical training?

Absolutely!

Plus PP saying ADHD meds give better grades in exams regardless of who takes them?

Maybe this is why people are so keen for a diagnosis?

Meds to help pass exams and extra time in exams.

Surely if ADHD meds are capable of inflating grades everyone should be on them?! {sarcasm}

‘A world designed for NT people.’

well, yes, but that’s a tautology. ‘Typical ‘ is the description of those who fit the majority typology. The majority are obviously those who have ‘designed’ the world - although of course many intellectual and technological innovations have stemmed from the exceptional, rather than the mean line. But the ‘majority’ have adopted them, presumably because of a perceived or actual benefit. It’s not some sort of conspiracy against a minority.

it’s questionable to me whether the latest round of innovations have benefitted the majority of users socially or psychologically, but that’s another thread.

YANBU and some of the comments are proving your point. So much ableism, i should play bingo...

I'm ADHD and have the same experience as you in regards to people looking down on it and scoffing.

It's also such a binary way of thinking isn't it. Everyone has their struggles. Some may be temporary (eg.following a trauma or during a period of stress) others may be permanent but may or may not reach a threshold for diagnosis.

No official credentials but I am (late diagnosed) AuDHD, and have DC diagnosed in their teens with AuDHD/ADHD as well as a partner with (late diagnosed) ADHD. All private diagnoses (because I'm not in the UK and that's the only option).

First, "autism is a superpower" drives me completely and absolutely nuts. I haven't met anyone diagnosed with autism who considers it a superpower. These people must exist I'm sure but they're not people I now.

Second, I just don't believe you can buy an autism diagnosis unless we're talking about medical professionals who allow themselves to be bought (i.e. malpractice) which is a different thing entirely. I also haven't yet met an adult who is reasonably certain they're autistic who hasn't had that confirmed on a diagnosis (they must exist but I think rare). I think when you're talking about yourself you do know. It took me 10 years to go for diagnosis and the push was being in autistic burnout following the end of covid working from home (i.e. similar to the impact of return to school post covid on ND children a previous poster mentioned). Parents can be wrong though (they're working on observed behavior and don't actually know how their child thinks/feels), and I suspect it's fairly common that a parent thinks their child has autism, but actually they don't. I say this because I myself was that parent! I thought both my children were autistic, but I was 90% certain on DS, and on the fence on DD. DS isn't autistic: ultimately he doesn't have social communication issues (diagnosis was primarily 'he's a teenage boy' :)). DD is autistic. Ultimately, as someone who is autistic myself, I don't know what not-autistic really looks like. Stands to reason that someone non-autistic doesn't know what autistic looks like (absent professional training). Interestingly, my DS himself was strongly resistant to the idea he was autistic - i.e. he knows himself better than I know him (shock horror). Also interestingly, the psychologist said that they had never seen a better set of teacher feedback than they got for DD i.e. school not just missed it but completely and utterly missed it.

Third, personally, I do think that an ADHD diagnosis can be manipulated. There's not the same cross-functional approach to assessment as for autism. I can't comment for sure on the UK private assessment protocols, but my son's first ADHD diagnosis was made by simply asking him the questions on the questionnaire. Parents weren't asked to complete and there was no assessment by an independent party (eg school). Given that both children and parents don't know what 'normal' really is for an age, I do believe that I could easily have gotten the first psychiatrist to diagnose even if DS was NT (he was diagnosed again through an more intensive process when we assessed for autism). As I said, I don't know how it works in the UK, but I do personally believe there is over diagnosis of ADHD. I'm not even convinced I have it myself rather than having sub-consciously known what to say on the questions.

Fourth, bullshit an autism diagnosis doesn't help anyone. It's not magic but understanding yourself and knowing that your reactions aren't just because you're a bad person who is failing at life is massively valuable. The big things for me were stopping the obsession about whether I was or not, and helping me to recognize that I needed to allow myself leniency when recovering from a meltdown or similar. It's brought it's own problems in some ways as I'm working on accepting that I may have actual limits in reality that I can't force myself through by just working harder, but overall it has definitely helped. Obviously being autistic isn't an excuse for being a horrible person.

Fifth, I don't think I'd say autism is being diagnosed instead of mental health disorders. If anything it seems more common for adults with a long history of (diagnosed) mental health issues to be late diagnosed with autism, which often is a triggering factor for anxiety and depression in particular.

And finally, to go back to the original question - I think that the potential over-diagnosis of ADHD/uptick in people self-diagnosing as ADHD or other ND (or the trend that will hopefully die a death that you can somehow identify as ND) is fueling the fire that all ND is over diagnosed and that includes autism. People who have talked to friends/family about ADHD assessments don't realize how much more involved an autism assessment is. Even on this thread we've had people think that their experience of an ADHD assessment is somehow relevant to an autism assessment. Parents holding out that their kids are autistic without any form of assessment (and I do understand the waitlist issues) is also problematic because some of these kids have other issues or it actually is (shock horror) a parenting issue, particularly with over reliance on screens for children under 2. Again we've seen on this thread people refusing to believe that it is actually common for parents to be wrong. I hate the fact that all ND tends to get lumped into one bundle as if it's somehow all the same. And then we get back to the stupid 'superpower' type language! And don't get me started on 'neurospicy'...