New view on mental health

[Finallylostit]

Read this today. This Doctor is refreshingly honest and a thought provoking perspective on the explosion in the mental health industry

www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-14576559/REAL-cause-explosion-autism-depression-psychiatrist-DR-ALISTAIR-SANTHOUSE.html

Thanks
I'm interested in this

It’s insulting to make judgement. To determine disability by ability to live independently. And to lump people into groups. But here you are. Doing just that.

You're taking this strangely personally. I have made no snap judgment about your child at all. I don't know her. Based on what you've written, it certainly seems that she has a high level of need.

That says nothing about the children that I do know and have interacted with.

interestingly it was my niece who has been told she is neurodiverse who sent it to me. She was questioning whether her anxiety etc were just normal emotions and needed to think of them as normal not abnormal.
She thinks, I do not get anxious but I explained everyone does - how we deal with it is individual and there is no right or wrong but anxiety in certain situations is normal

I am well aware of the daily mail and its sensational stories but this for once was actually saying something sensible

But she can’t have high needs by your logic. Because she goes to a mainstream school. Has friends. And will almost certainly go to university, get a job and live independently.

Thank you and there is indeed a cut off point, which you are happy about, as I would be that DC doesn't have any serious diagnosis.

I really would prefer my DC to not be ND, every day is a battle still but they are doing better within the best school environment.

As a secondary school teacher I really feel for so many students having to go to different classrooms, sit through PowerPoints, write. The fun and creativity has gone and I stand by that, like my previous students, all of whom I loved no matter their needs and behaviour ♥️

MRI scans do show differences in the brains of people with ND.

She can have high needs. Just that there are people with autism who have even higher needs than her. And others who have less.

Every time I mention this idea here on MN I get an outraged reaction. I really don't understand why it's controversial. There are milder/more severe forms of almost every disease or disability or indeed human experience, what makes autism different?

In any case, neither of us is going to convince the other. I'll be saying goodnight now.

My child went to a mainstream school.

Ended up in ND burnout and with an EHCP at 17. She appeared to not have high needs all through school. That’s why she ended up in burnout.

This is very interesting because I am HSP ( according ) to some online tests and we are the opposite of autistic, also we are NT yet many people with HSP ( it is not a diagnosis but a sensitive NT brain ) are putting themselves with ND and autism people because once they have social anxiety in the mix they cannot make the difference anymore and also Americans are mad going to therapists anyday it suits them.

I am almost sure my daughter is just sensitive soul like me and highly gifted rather than disabled. This is why I treat the symptoms as they come.

It honestly scares me society which cannot stand the different, the sensitive, the empaths, the quirky and does not let them be, but needs to call them abnormal.

It is actually highly shameful a society which regards itself civilised and inclusive to be so backwards.

Who cares though? If someone posts about the impact of cancer do you feel the need to try and down play cancer that is more curable?

if someone is depressed do you turn up and say severely or just a bit?

Deaf or just a bit of hearing impairment?

Paralysed in one arm or neck down?

What is the point you’re making? That being autistic impacts individuals individually? Ok… and?

I agree my niece has had some significant traumas/stresses in he life and it was me who encouraged her to go for some counselling to talk it through in a safe place. I have never considered her ND and was a little alarmed at the labelling of what i considered a normal reaction to stressful events in her life.
She is the one questioning her label and I think will decide now she has some coping mechanisms that she is not ND. She is a sensitive soul

You don’t need to tell me the impact of judgement. I’m very aware of it.

A diagnosis can solve or help those issues just because understanding yourself, and why you struggle with things other people seem to find easy, can be such a relief. It means there is a reason, not that you are defective. Knowing people late diagnosed in life I have seen the huge relief it brings and how much less depressed they are if they know the why. If you know the why, it can be helped.

I've seen young adults who were course hopping at university because they just couldn't manage go on to start PhDs just because they got a diagnosis that directed them to strategies that helped. No-one knew they needed that kind of help till they were diagnosed.

Marriages have been helped when one partner has been diagnosed and the reason for difficulties became apparent, and could be worked on.

Definitely much greater inner peace for the person who now understands why they feel such an oddball.

Understanding is powerful for the individual previously denied it.

Okay, I really do want to head to bed, but clearly am struggling to switch off.

To answer your question, I actually think it really matters how depressed someone is, how deaf they are etc.

For one thing, no matter how bad things are we can be grateful they're not worse. If I were paralysed in one arm I would be relieved that I wasn't paralysed from the neck down.

More personally, I lost my dad to cancer, and am honestly grateful that it was a slightly milder form, giving us extra years together.

Secondly, it makes a massive difference in the accommodations, care, and support needed. Someone depressed to the point of suicide definitely needs more intense, round-the-clock care than someone depressed but not suicidal.

Or appears not to have high needs because of intense masking and will hit burnout or mental health breakdown later. I've seen that happen.

Functioning labels are about how other people experience the person's autism, not about how the person who is autistic experiences it.

But when you consider there’s been something like a 900% rise in autism diagnoses in the last 10 years, is it ‘shameful’ the health services have struggled to cope?

Please may I ask, what is HSP?

It’s like EBSA; it is a mental health problem, not an educational one.

From a SEN law PoV, it is both. SEMH needs are a type of SEN.

An EHCP can provide therapeutic input DC wouldn’t otherwise receive. It can also enable DC to attend a specialist setting that is less overwhelming or provide education otherwise than in school. It can provide the flexibility, adapted/bespoke curriculum, less pressure, more downtime, and mental health support.

Or perhaps it is 900% under-diagnoses of girls for the last couple of decades?

The lack of funding is a separate issue.

For context, the ‘900% increase’ is just over 160,000 diagnoses between April 2023-2024 (increased from 40,300 in 2014 - both stats from NHS England). Across all age groups, not just children. So actually a 400% increase over all, in a period when new diagnostic tools and a new and increasing awareness that girls/women can also be autistic. My understanding is that this should, ultimately peak and then level off, though time will tell - but stats suggest that prevalence in 1:36 people have ASD.

By contrast, in around 295,000 were diagnosed with cancer in 2014 and over 400,000 were diagnosed in 2024. A 33% increase, not the dramatice 400-900%, but it equated to more than 100,000 lives impacted. Acc to McMillan, 1 in every 2 people will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. I:2. Compare that to the autism statistic. Is cancer also being ‘over diagnosed’? Should we also actively limit assessments and testing because we lack funding.

Or, in both cases, are we simply looking at a) increased awareness and b) improved diagnostic tools and c) a health service that cannot afford to properly support either ASD, cancer treatment (or pretty much most things) because it’s poorly managed/under funded/inadequately staffed?

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10210579/

MRI scans can reveal structural and functional differences in the brains of individuals with autism, such as variations in brain volume, cortical thickness, and connectivity patterns.

Despite these findings, there is no single "autism center" or biomarker in the brain that can be identified via MRI to confirm a diagnosis.

Functional MRI (fMRI) has identified atypical activation patterns during tasks involving social cognition and sensory processing.

Brain differences observed on MRI are not specific to autism and may overlap with other neurodevelopmental disorders or neurotypical individuals.

Exactly. So there's something going on, even if we or medical science doesn't yet understand it.

I could be scanned as a NT person in such a study, but I bet you I'm not. There are plenty of ND people who pass as NT and may not know any different. Maybe never will.

would this appeal more @IainTorontoNSW

exactly the same article but in the Telegraph?

No