Is autism the new ADHD?

I personally think it is. There is one time that my parents thought that that I had autism. I just think that I had some social issues and I needed to learn how to navigate through them and learn from them. Having social issues isn't a social disorder. What a social disorder is is something that people can't really get over no matter what they try to do. My levels of social issues weren't unsolvable. But, just having issues with interacting with people or having preoccupations in some areas of interest isn't a disorder. People are trying to categorize all behavior that isn't normal as a disorder. They're doing this with autism. They're doing this with asbergers. People are trying to relabel everyone who was labeled as ADHD as having asbergers disorder. I mean, look at the symptoms for autism, how can one think this is something as widespread as it is?

Social interactions and relationships. Symptoms may include:
Significant problems developing nonverbal communication skills, such as eye-to-eye gazing, facial expressions, and body posture.
Failure to establish friendships with children the same age.
Lack of interest in sharing enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people.
Lack of empathy. People with autism may have difficulty understanding another person's feelings, such as pain or sorrow.
Verbal and nonverbal communication. Symptoms may include:
Delay in, or lack of, learning to talk. As many as 40% of people with autism never speak.1
Problems taking steps to start a conversation. Also, people with autism have difficulties continuing a conversation after it has begun.
Stereotyped and repetitive use of language. People with autism often repeat over and over a phrase they have heard previously (echolalia).
Difficulty understanding their listener's perspective. For example, a person with autism may not understand that someone is using humor. They may interpret the communication word for word and fail to catch the implied meaning.
Limited interests in activities or play. Symptoms may include:
An unusual focus on pieces. Younger children with autism often focus on parts of toys, such as the wheels on a car, rather than playing with the entire toy.
Preoccupation with certain topics. For example, older children and adults may be fascinated by video games, trading cards, or license plates.
A need for sameness and routines. For example, a child with autism may always need to eat bread before salad and insist on driving the same route every day to school.
Stereotyped behaviors. These may include body rocking and hand flapping

www.nichd.nih.gov...

I work with a lot of families and kids.

Seems like in the past 3 or 4 years the new hot phrase if you want to be one of the "cool" parents is: "my child is on the spectrum."

The kids are perfectly fine. I've been around more than my share of developmentally skewed children and adults in my work and most of these "on the spectrum" kids are perfectly fine. If anything they just behave badly because mom is on Facebook 9 hours a day blogging about how special her "on the spectrum" child is.

It's like some kind of Münchausen syndrome these parents have. They want a sick kid so they can have all the drama and pity they could ever ask for.

Then why do their brain scans show abnormal behavior? Can you really just throw science, hard facts and data out the window?

reply to post by PeasantRebellion


What is "abnormal behavior"? Should anyone that has some sort of deviance from society's norms be considered to be mentally disordered? Where should we draw the line? What is the line between having abnormal behavior and having detrimental behavior?

Originally posted by Frankidealist35
reply to post by PeasantRebellion

 

What is "abnormal behavior"? Should anyone that has some sort of deviance from society's norms be considered to be mentally disordered? Where should we draw the line? What is the line between having abnormal behavior and having detrimental behavior?

If you don't know which abnormal brain scans I'm referring to then you have some catching up to do my friend.

reply to post by PeasantRebellion


Is a brain scan an absolute requirement for diagnosis for all of these kids?

When I was 11-16 I used to test doctors all the time. We had good insurance and I was paranoid. Not that I was sick but that those claiming to know everything were feeding me BS regardless of how critical that BS was or wasnt.

I've gotten diagnosed for everything from bipolar depression to muscular dystrophy complete with doctors ready to stuff pills down my throat and send me off to physical therapy.

None of those diagnosis were true. The only thing I suffer from is a learned distrust of just about everybody.

Doctors arent the end all be all. Even second and third opinions can be compounded bunk.

I'd be shocked and amazed if even 30% of these "on the spectrum" kids were really suffering from anything other than bad parenting and too much sugar.

I think probably about 20% of kids diagnosed with ADHD actually have a problem, probably environmentally-caused. The other 80% just need to get out and exercise instead of sitting all day in the classroom, in front of the game console and in front of the TV. Most of them would be cured with a bit of exercise, discipline and attention. (I sound like Cesar Milan for kids)

I think autism is a different thing. I believe it's real. It's a developmental brain disorder. I still think the vast majority of the cases are environmentally-caused, many by vaccinations. But there's a social element to this condition that doesn't come from boredom or lack of exercise.

I don't have or know any kids with either condition, but I have been somewhat interested in both. I think we're drugging the hell out of our kids and it's going to backfire like crazy!

But no, I do not think autism is the new ADHD.