Why do people think that ASD's are overdiagnosed?

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Interesting. Not surprising that the CoS would pull such a stunt. I have my issues with Psychiatry, but CoS is simply bats.

Interesting I didn't know pregnancy was at all associated with repetitive behaviours.

Yes, exactly that's the point and they will figure it out.
We don't know about many diagnoses not too much, also not about ADD, ADHD, borderline oder schizotypal PD for example.

I believe that autism is a way to behave in extreme situations.
The extreme situation is for most autistic people, that they have sensory issues and difficulties to understand social behaviour and both their entire life. Autistic people are kind of "alienated" and that since birth. Children who kept isolated or hospitaliced under extreme conditions will behave very very similar. They will rock back and forth, flap their hands, sit in the cornor, it can even lead to slight mental retardation, begin to hit themselfs and so on if they are kept like this to long.

You can even see this behaviour sometimes in animals kept for themselfs in a zoo, monkeys who begin to rock back and forth, hitting themselfs sometimes, start being agressive and so on, because they have been kept in isolation.

I believe we are "isolated" in this world and for us the world is somehow way to extreme, because of our sensory issues and so on, that we behave this way.

Here are children who show signs of hospitalism:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvdOe10vrs4[/youtube]

animals:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn2g2IPwHR0[/youtube]

That hospitalization video was sad. Using real children for a study to see how their development is effected without their mother there to love them and care for them and all the nurses just ignore them. That also causes RAD too.

Yes, indeed it is very sad.
You can also see this behaviour in rumanian orphans, they are kept there under extreme circumstances.
Michael Fitzgerald mentions this shortly in his book, that they behave nearly identical to autism, but that those cases are very rare and very extreme. Even good autism researcher will have trouble to distinguish between extreme hospitalism and ASD.

The problem with autism is, that in the beginning of the autism research there was this refrigerator mother theory and this theory was wrong, so no much further research was done to compare those groups. I believe that for us our sences, how we fiew the world because of our neurological differences is the root and our behaviour just how we deal with it.
A baby who can't even recognize faces or a simple smile and where the outside world is too loud and hurts the sences, will react with withdral and selfstimulated behaviour, like rocking, to calm down.
So the diagnostic criterias for autism is just a coping mechanism if you will.

edit:
so maybe there is an increase of autistic behaviour, because the world is more "extreme", louder and faster than it has every been.

What you are describing here is fascinating to me! Nearly two years ago my husband and I relocated to a new region and I became very, very isolated - more isolated than I have ever been in my life. My autism traits intensified greatly - so much that it caused me to finally figure out what is so "different" about me and seek a diagnosis (I'm almost finished being assessed by an AS specialist who agrees that I have it). However, during the more 'social' periods of my life, I've noticed that my traits more or less went into remission. They didn't disappear, but they were so much easier to manage and didn't bother me nearly as much. I was even proud to be different and suffered far less anxiety in public places. I really think that you're on to something here.

Only use 'em whenever necessary, and they are never my own.

I know EXACTLY what you mean.

Yes i agree.