Is there an Asperger's Epidemic?

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Let's just say that as a professional I have had occasion to evaluate people diagnosed with Aspergers and people who should be. I evaluated a child who would scream whenever her focal object was taken away. She'd been diagnosed with a sensory integration diisorder a few years earlier and received intensive therapy, but then never recieved another evaluation.
I also had occasiona to deal with a girl diagnosed with Asperger's whose people skills were amazing. She was able to convince people to allow her to do things and get other people to collude with her in breaking the rules of the place where she was.

I should have such people skills.

My health insurance says I don't have aspergers and want me to get another evaluation. Perhaps its because so many people are claiming to have this diagnosis.

What do you think? Is there an epidemic? Do you think aspergers is cool?
For me it is a disaster. There are definitely some good things about it but I don't get to enjoy them because I am so busy fighting for survival.

I think that there is just more awareness of everything in the world now. When society was made up of small villages, tribes, etc. social situations were usually limited to a group of people that all grew up together. I think most PDD's would have been easier to live with in hose days.

I have struggled with AS my whole life but finding out two years ago that I was not alone and that it was real and not "in my mind" made all the difference. There are many times I have to fight for survival but I would never want to change. I have also been blessed in having two really good friends that have helped carry me through for years.

I hope that things get easier for you.

The answer "There are more cases but due to misdiagnosis" doesn't make it clear whether you mean that non-Aspie people are getting an AS diagnosis or if you mean that Aspies who were previously misdiagnosed are finally correcting the situation.

In any case, I said "no". I think what we simply experiencing increased visibility.

I do not think there is an AS epidemic. That is because we are all different.

By misdiagnosis I meant people diagnosed with Aspergers who don't have it. I am seeing a lot of this and I'm not sure why.
Perhaps for the same reason there was an increase in the numbers of people diagnosed with ADHD or borderline personality disorders.
I think some is driven by drug companies. This was of benefit to me, but I have also seen a lot of kids who have bad reactions to stimulants, and then they are given something for that, and they have another bad reaction and are given something for that...etc.
I have seen kids on enough meds that would render me unable to function.

I think some is driven by a desire to treat undesirable behavior. For example, I would get a kid who was hyper in the extreme. A little investigating would turn up the fact that a lot of kids in that school were getting the diagnosis, and still more investigation would turn up the fact that the school no longer had a budget for it, so they cancelled gym.

I was not diagnosed ADHD until adulthood. My behavior was blamed on my brown skin and my just being bad. My mother made a joke about maybe they (my parents) thought they could beat the behavior out of me.
They don't know about the Aspergers. I am waiting to be sure I have not been misdiagnosed.

The attempt to treat undesired behavior is something I see alot of with dogs. I always say they are being normal for a dog it is the owners who have the problem because they want the dog to act out of caracter. It is the same people everyone is trying to make them all fit the same mold.

Did ADHD cause you to have "bad" behavior. I am curious because my husband is still considered bad by his family and he has ADD which I guess is what they start calling it when you become an adult. I really have to learn more about ADD so I can know what behavior of his is related to it.

Sorry for the side track just curious.

ADHD didn't cause me to have bad behavior.
It did cause me to daydream or zone out (or was that the aspergers?). This led to accusations of not paying attention, both in school and at home. Or accusations of ignoring my parents when they asked me to do something.
It did cause me to get distracted and do 40 things at once, and finish nothing. This led to many accusations of laziness.
It made it hard for me to concentrate, so that I often answered the wrong question in class.
It made me so impulsive I got in trouble for doing things like writing graffiti in the bathroom, spending all my allowance on something I didn't need and later didn't want. Or getting into an argument with my sisters and impulsively turning over their breakfast dishes because they didn't save me any syrup for my pancakes (it was my birthday!). Also for saying things impulsively.
Basically my behavior was interpreted as bad, because people thought I had control over it. The truth is that I didn't get control over it until I started taking medication.
I recommend you borrow the book Driven to Distraction. I bought it but not sure it was worth buying because essentially it is an advertisement for Ritalin wrapped around some great anecdotes about adults with ADHD. It might help in identifying some of the behavior of concern.
I don't think medication works for everyone.
I used caffeine for years and it worked fine. When I got more responsibilities I needed something that worked better, because I worried about taking so much caffeine (1200+ milligrams daily) and needing more.
I am getting in less trouble now - not late anymore, don't forget things, have a savings account and financial stability. Most people would say I just needed to exercise my willpower. It never worked. It wasn't willpower that was lacking. It was dopamine.

I tend to go on, and then go off on tangents. Hope some part was helpful.

And that's why autism/asperger's is so underdiagnosed amoung minorities and there's this misconception that whites are statistically more likely to have ASDs. Not because it occurs more in caucasians but because a black or Hispanic child's symtoms are couched as being "slow", having deliquent behavior or a product of their socio-economic environment.
(what would've happened to me if my mother didn't insist I wasn't mentally challenged.)
An unintended positive outcome of this disparity is that minority kids aren't as likely to have unnecessary medications forced on them to control their behavior.

Very helpful. It was very similar to my husband and helps me know what he can't control. We do live in that world of 40 things started and not finished (awful for be because I am bordering on obsessive compulsive and totally need an organized enviroment). It is so interesting that you mention caffeine because I see him going from one type of natrual remedy to another. He totally will not do medication because of his experiances as a child.

Once again thank you for taking the time to help me understand my husband.

The number of reported cases of Asperger's syndrome and other PDDs may be increasing, but this is good! I say the more aspies, the merrier!

I suspect a lot of it is due to better diagnosis. However, I also would believe there is a slight increase in occurance rates. I think more Aspies and Shadow Aspies are filtering through the population and creating new little Aspies and autties.

I also think there's a lot of undiagnosed parents out there with kids who have been diagnosed and so only the kids are part of the "official" percentages and it seems as though these autty kids have come from nowhere. Where in actuality, many of the parents present symptoms/traits themselves. They just don't happen to be part of the statistics.

I have two Aspie friends who are married (undiagnosed but Aspie as can be) and they have an autistic son. He's part of the statistics. They are not.

Without seeming to be rude, can I ask how you know that some people diagnosed with AS do not in fact have it? Are you making your comment on the basis of empirical evidence, or are you theorising that this must be so, because in all probability, not every single one can be correct?

I have a former acquaintance who categorically refuses to believe in the existence of AS whatsoever. He does 'believe in' the existence of Autism in its classic form, but he does not believe in AS.

I have heard other adults say that there is no such thing as AD(H)D, Dyslexia, Tourette's Syndrom, etc and that it is just 'bad character' in youths and young people or 'personality disorder' and various 'personal defects' in adults.

Although the acquaintance I mentioned above does not make such reactionary comments himself, he does nonetheless subscribe to the view that lots of what was once considered to be 'bad behaviour' is mis-diagnosed and given a 'label'.

He may be right or he may be wrong or there may be partial truth to what he says however I do think that there is a 'system of thought' that says things such as AS, Tourette's etc are not real and that it all comes down to dysfunctional childhood, neurosis and failure of 'attachment' those were the sorts of labels that were pinned on me. Where this type of thought seems to break down however is the fact that these categories are labels as well and that they do not really address the problem and also there is the fact that there is no reason why one individual should turn out so very differently to other members of the family.

I also meant to ask you (Neuroman) that on the basis of your own clinical observations, have you found any correlation between the characteristics defined in 'traditional' 'personality disorders' such as Paranoid, Schizotypal, Schizoid, Antisocial, Borderline, Histrionic, Narcissistic, Avoidant, Dependent, Obsessive-Compulsive and so forth?

From what little I know about the subject currently, there are claims of correlations between certain of those labels listed above and AS/ASD so therefore it is quite likely that there are some people with those labels who in fact have AS/ASD and also there are probably a few with AS/ASD dx who actually may have some of those labels as well as, or instead of, AS/ASD.

Only one in four AS folks are estimated to be detected. Logically, the occurance rate will skyrocket with better dx'es.

Why would you suspect the possibility of being misdiagnosed? Perhaps you can elaborate (in PM if you prefer). I know that when I was first DX'd with AS that EVERYONE in my family commented on how well that explains so many things. It was as if they always knew I was made from a different mold and then the DX revealed the actual mold to them. There was no doubt, or question about it. My second DX of AS was no surprise and was basically just a 2nd opinion, but I was looking for a new doctor at the time. Later, my mom spoke with the doctor I saw betwen ages 7 and 12 and he concured with the AS DX, telling her that the things he remembers about me at that age are "classic" AS charicteristics. It didnt take long for Social Security to concure with the AS DX either.

Are you seeing a lot of cases misdiagnosis in the clinic? My doctor sees a lot of Aspies that are still children. He has told me about some instances when he has been asked to evaluate a child and that he assessed something other than AS and the parents got furious and yelled at him, saying that their son does not have whatever he diagnosed, but has AS. Some of these kids were already DX'd by other doctors with the exact same thing he DX'd. He also told me about incidents that are exactly the opposite, where he would DX AS and the parent would get upset and say that he doesn't have AS, he is Bipolar, or other things. A case of the patients thinking they know more than the doctor? In my perspective, if people can be so convinced that they, or someone has AS that they disregard multiple DX's of something different and go from doctor to doctor seeking out the one that will simply (unethically) agree with them, then there are certain to be people with no DX that are convinced they have AS, although they may be wrong.

Both doctors I have seen for AS have observed many of these characteristics in me. One stated that I am the most obsessive compulsive person he ever encountered and the other one agreed. Both have said that these things, which are considerd separate conditions in non-auts, are "part of the autism." -Quoting BOTH doctors.