To find the growing narrative of over diagnosis (autism, adhd and mental health) upsetting and draining

[Frazzlesforever]

There seems to be a drip drip of press headlines and change in the conversation that too many people are getting diagnosed. And that some parents are being too pushy to get extra help or trying to get be benefits etc.

As the parent of a high masking autistic girl I had to push for diagnosis although the school just saw a highly compliant, quiet anxious child. My daughter is now extremely mentally unwell through not coping in school, has had to drop out of school missing her gcses, emergency CAMHs involvement - devastating for her and us.

She is exactly the type of child who would fall under the radar. Just an anxious child with over anxious parents. Apparently seeming to cope until she just couldn't. Surely if anything we need better understanding and support for these types of children not less. Otherwise we also risk kicking the problem down the road To severe problems in adulthood. - poor mental health/outcomes etc.

Surely its physiologists who are diagnosing people who are trained in all areas not people who are only trained to assess one area.

I assume you mean the biologicsl
parents are also ND too? But we can’t assume that.
We need to make sure any assessments are thorough and accurate, eg I know of case (private sector) where an adult seeking ADHD assessment has been told to return at a later date as their recent traumatic bereavement would cloud the diagnostic process.

absolutely, yes. And if their specialism is ASD/ADHD; that’s what they’re going to be primarily looking for. What aren’t they looking out for though and shouldn’t they be?

Sorry, what doors does a diagnosis open? I was actually refused reasonable adjustments because "you can't be that disabled if it's just been diagnosed". I was assessed because I was struggling. Social services won't help me because finding loud noise painful and needing more than 30 minutes notice makes me "awkward '

you’d be surprised! Yes, it’s a multidisciplinary team, but they’re not all experts on everything. Some have relatively narrow specialisms and are generalists in other areas. Yes, even the doctorate qualified ones!

I’ve had to fight for the last few years to get my son diagnosis.

3 years on the NHS waiting list and still waiting.

I’ve now paid privately for diagnosis and medical titration. There goes £7k

and still we have to wait for the NHS as no shared cared in our local authority and he needs a NHS diagnosis for prescriptions otherwise he will always have to lay privately.

meanwhile he’s about to age out (17.5 yrs) and NHS Scotland don’t diagnose adults.

so he’s fucked and totally failed by the NHS

No I mean undiagnosed adhd can lead to ending up in prison . If kids had access to medication and treatment for adhd when they should thus unlocking education and reducing the need for self medication and other risky behaviours prison and other fallouts could be avoided .

ADHD should be diagnosed by a medical doctor (psychiatrist).

ASD needs a panel, including a clinical psychologist and a speech and language therapist to take the patient’s developmental history.

Unfortunately this theory just doesn’t work, smaller schools means less staff and therefore less support.
Having been a TA in a small infant school with a high level of challenging ND children, staff were stretched and on their knees at the expense of children’s education.
Luckily as the children moved up year groups most of the ND got a place in special and I believe are now thriving, however some of the other children are now struggling and having fallen so fair behind due to lack of support in the early years.
What once was a lovely very sought after infant school has now become the one to avoid and now known as the “special school” in town.
In the 10 years since my DC started school there has been a huge surge in ND children in mainstream schools, more so in the last few years. Something has shifted and changed for it to be so high and unmanageable.
The whole education system needs a complete overhaul so it can support all but unfortunately there is just no money and all staff are stretched.
However in saying that there does seem to be more children diagnosed with X, Y & Z and at the rate it’s going surely there will eventually be more ND people in the world than NT.
Then what, absolutely no adult can then function without tools and support?!

that’s true. And growing up in the care system after being neglected by parents who didn’t feed and clothe you, take you to school or show love, can also lead to a destructive life later. That’s not ADHD though. its important that clinicians take a thorough and detailed look at everything.

Professionals assessing for ASD or ADHD in a private ASD/ADHD clinic are ONLY assessing for that. They are not assessing for anything else and therefore are only able to confirm or refute a diagnosis of ASD or ADHD.

They are using the standardised accepted assessment tools FOR ASD & ADHD ONLY.

So if you meet the criteria then great - diagnosis given.

But if you don’t, or if it’s a complex presentation it gets much messier.

They cannot say ‘it’s not ASD but we think it might be this - because they haven’t assessed you for anything else. They can only say it’s not ASD.

It is not a holistic all encompassing open assessment process with everything on the table (as it were).

It’s ASD/ADHD or nothing.

And this is a risky approach to take when ASD and ADHD has massive overlaps with many other things already mentioned upthread.

My son had autism symptoms for years, school and doctors just brushed it off (junior school age). He finally got diagnosed aged 19, after struggling really badly with college and life in general. He's taking anti depressants to help with his anxiety and he's 💯 per cent better. Not so many episodes. It took a long time for him to get diagnosed as he was worried about the process. So yes I've been that anxious mum but I'm so glad he's better

This is an interesting read (recently published research paper):
‘Increasing self- and desired psychiatric diagnoses among emerging adults: Mixed-methods insights from clinical psychologists’
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12804154/

Psychologists who do a lot of diagnosing are not doctors so are clearly not trained in all areas - they are not trained in medical diagnoses for starters, because they are not doctors.

I don’t think that’s what Atwood has said. He has said he’s autistic.

This is a really often quoted stat! And it is true that a high proportion of young men in the prison system have dyslexia (very high) and ADHD. But they also have very complex backgrounds, tons of ACEs, high levels of poverty and often a family history of the criminal justice system. Having a diagnosis of ADHD is also no guarantee of support unless you have an adult who is fighting tooth and nail for it. Which you are unlikely to have given the above.

The two interact. But you don't get loads of middle class dyslexic kids in prison, even if their DX has gone unrecognised. Dyslexia and ADHD are not sufficient to land you in prison on their own. I don't think it's helpful to those young men to focus on that, whereas if we focused on poverty, we'd make loads more inroads into the number of young men in prison.

absolutely!

You clearly lack understanding. Most symptoms of autism can be similar to NT people but it’s when it is severe or debilitating.

But I realise it makes no odds as you will continue to judge who gets a diagnosis.

Ignorance and lack of understanding isn’t a good look!

Late diagnosed ADHD woman here. My diagnoses was a game changer - it explained why my school years were terrible and all the interventions I had (which were all misdiagnosed as anxiety, EDs, bad behaviour.) My relationship with my partner is better (he was the one who suggested I should be tested.) I now have a support group - which helped no end and my workplace has made some adjustments to my work patterns which has helped enormously.

For the first time in my life I actually understand myself and can actually relax more without giving myself a hard time.

But yes, the narratives around it are depressing. I suspect it’s a new culture war brewing 🙄

Apparently we are just weak and pathetic 🙄

I've read it multiple times on multiple threads by multiple posters in slightly different words all saying the same thing,

Honestly, I’ve been so happy for the past five years now I can relax into myself and stop beating myself up for things that were out of my control. I think it’s even helped my sporadic depression- bc now I understand why I burn out so badly and can help prevent it!

hopefully the mutual support and understanding can outweigh the misinformation…🤞

This does seem to be a UK centric problem tbh

To me, masking is what my child does in a noisy, sometimes chaotic, overwhelming school environment. When other kids won't follow the rules of a game properly. When the school playground at lunch is noisy and busy and fast and unstructured. When they have to sit properly at their table for who knows how long and not sit in a way which is comfortable for them.

Masking is surviving through all of these things, each of which is an assault on their nervous system, and keeping a smile on their face, being polite and doing their work all whilst suppressing a brewing meltdown. So many times my child has said that if they'd have felt like that at home, they would have had a meltdown and then taken themselves away to their room on their own for half an hour to calm down. But they can't do that in school so they desperately try to appear ok.

To me, this is masking, they are hiding the way that their autism manifests and it is exhausting and stressful. It is not the same as someone who is nervous at work events and so has to put on a breezy confident act to get through it.