Is Aspergers overdiagnosed?

Post Reply New Topic

If ASDs are overdiagnosed, I would have been diagnosed YEARS ago! I am CLEARLY autistic, was nonverbal until after age 3 (had speech after 2 1/2 for a few months then regressed to nonverbal again). I am 100% autistic, yet I slipped through the cracks until age 26. If it was being diagnosed left and right, even diagnosing a bunch of people who don't have it, then they would have caught me!

Tony Atwood mentioned in the Complete Guide to AS that a whole generation of people with AS will be seeking a diagnosis soon (wrote this in 2000) because a whole generation grew up when AS and PDD-NOS were not official diagnoses and Autism was thought to always involve a speech delay or abnormalities. So this could easily be at least part of the reason for the rising incidence rates of AS.

When I was 4 years old my mom asked a neurologist "is my child autistic". At that time I was lining up old medicine bottles, spinning in circles, repeating lines from books excessively, twirling a string in front of my face, and was described by teachers as "in her own little world" "only now starting to become aware of her peers and environment" and My mom was told "no...she speaks...she speaks well.....an autistic child is one in a corner banging his head on the floor and rocking back and forth)" A neurologist said this to my mom....in 1990!! I wasn't diagnosed until I was 13 despite the fact that my symptoms were quite pronounced at a young age. I continued to be described in report cards as "in her own little world" "allows herself to be teased" "constantly ripping paper and twirling it" and "gets very upset when routines are changed....when a new one is added or one is taken away" for many many years.

Well, it MAY be overdiagnosed in CHILDREN and BOYS, but not in ADULTS born before 1985, and certianly not in females. I was told recently that there are therapists that do even want to TOUCH Autism or Asperger Syndrome with a 10 foot pole . .as if these poeple don't "Like" to diagnose "adults" with Autism! Don't "like" to diagnose? Then why are these people in the business? Why?

Are they scared of adults with an ASD or something? Do these "therapists" think we bite or something? What's the freaking deal? I sure do hope when I find a job and have enough money to pay a specialist, he or she doesn't say "Oh no, I work with CHILDREN that have Autism, I can diagnose CHILDREN but not adults".

My question is this: What will happen when the DSM-V comes out in 2013? Asperger Syndrome will be "gone" and it is be shoved under Autism. So, okay - that's good since many people think that Asperger Syndrome is NOT High Functioning Autism and some even think AS is NOT on the Autism Spectrum! But AS and HFA is really one in the same! There needs to be some type of nuerological handbook that therapists use . . .I'm not even sure why Autism is IN the DSM-IV. It's not a MENTAL illness, it's a neurological brain difference. I guess I just think there should be a seperate book for things like this. . .you don't find high blood pressure in the DSM-IV . . .why should ANY neurological "disorder" in it in? Because Autism can "look like" OCD?

I'm worried that it's over-diagnosed because of the possibility that I might be part of the excess diagnoses, and so the explanation I have for many of my problems would be wrong.

I was diagnosed before I knew what it was; I remember my mother taking me to see shrinks when I was in elementary school, and they gave me tests, spoke to me, and whatnot. Then they said I had Asperger's, and that was it. We then read a bunch of books about it, spoke to teachers (I was in a special ed. school for awhile for poor behavior), and so on. The school tried to help me achieve my goal of returning to my local public school district--I never felt like I belonged in a special ed. school, and I was yearning for normality. Learning about AS was an eye-opening experience.

But I'm now skeptical of whether or not I really have it. I don't take things literally like people with AS are supposed to; I don't think I ever had trouble understanding idioms and such, although, for a long time, I didn't really like them. If I still have a special interest, I haven't been able to identify what it is for years, and I don't consider video games to be a special interest, although I spend a lot of time on them (particularly WoW). There isn't really any obsession for me to focus on; I don't get happy much anymore.

I understand that not all people with AS are the same, but I always wonder if the doctors got it wrong? Maybe I have some other mental condition, or maybe I just don't have an excuse for being an unsociable geek who can't relate to other people and who feels like he doesn't belong.

I think more and more children are now being diagnosed because everyone is so aware of it. In the old days, families had children with odd behaviors, but they didn't have the internet to look it up. Also, most kids weren't placed in preschool by the time they were 2 yrs old so that their behaviors could be so closely analyzed. Now, it is like everyone is on the lookout for it. That is why so many adults now fell through the cracks. If you talk to older people now about children and the odd behaviors, they will all share stories of children they knew in the past that had autistic behaviors that were never diagnosed. People are just more connected now and can talk about these things more than they ever could.

I also think that it is possible that the genes that are linked to autism mutate over time, so that maybe it is becoming more predominant now.