Autism Diaognosed too often?

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As an Aspie, I know all too well that Autism is real, but I have been thinking; is Autism diagnosed too often? You hear all about how Autism rates are rising, no doubt in part to better awareness, but could it be that with all the attention that people, in wanting answers, are more likely to rush to conclusions and diagnose Autism? Is it the new "fad diagnosis?" I would like to hear what everyone else has to think?

Definitely not.

Yes, I firmly believe so.

There are a lot of people who have nothing more than social anxiety that are being diagnosed with asperger's syndrome. Instead of looking for people who fit a majority of the very very wide range of symptoms, people who share two or three at best are having this diagnosis thrown at them.

I think there are a lot more Autism Spectrum people out there than is often realised, but I don't think the current diagnostic criteria is perhaps adequate. Asperger's and HFA alone can cover such a wide range of symptoms in varying severity that two people with the same condition can be very different. I think perhaps we need a new way of describing those on the spectrum, or go the other way completely and get rid of specific diagnoses.
I don't think ASDs are being overdiagnosed, but I do wonder if in some cases, they're being overtreated or thought of as more severe than they are. In some cases, group therapy, seminars etc. on dealing with social, sensory problems etc. might be more appropriate than one-on-one therapy, for instance. I also think there is perhaps a little resentment from those who are more seriously affected on the spectrum, who see those of us who are "higher functioning," and feel like we shouldn't be diagnosed. I don't think that's helpful - we're all affected in different ways, and we should accept the wide range of people on the spectrum and, where possible, try to pull together rather than drawing distinctions between each other.

I believe it's under diagnosed.

In my opinion it's very under diagnosed. It's assumed by many psychiatrists that only 50% of all aspies gets diagnosed.

I say just sometimes maybe like ADHD. When I was dianagnosed it was a rare condition ten times rarer than Downs Syndrome. Then it was way way too underdiagnosed.

under. I've had to deal with wonderful misdiagnosis in the past. This was before aspergers was common knowledge.

I was diagnosed with social anxiety disorder and depression for some years when my clinical diagnosis of autism was hidden from me.
I have read recently that it is now been overtaken by fetal alcohol spectrum disorder because that also fits a spectrum when the less severe cases have none of the facial features and can be far more subtle these days to get a diagnosis of it. You would have to be right in the severe end of the spectrum to diagnosed with FASD in the past. Fortuneately my mom was a tea totaller when she was pregnant with me.

None among older people, a lot of self discovery at 30 around here, missed as a child.

AS, no treatment for most of the time it has been around, so it got called something that created billable hours.

The current numbers among small children are low, mainly I think because it leads to special accomadation in school, which costs. Parents say they have to really push to get their kids help.

Figuring it to be consistant over the population, lots in some areas, where it is recognised, Silicone Valley, Readmond, Round Rock, and none in Mississippi, Alabama.

I keep hearing 1 in 150, but they never say where. 1 in 50 would not surprise me.

Out west on the ranch, in farm country, no one would notice. Cowboys might be AS, he don't talk much, but he is real good with stock. Herders in general, taking the sheep or goats up the mountain, staying till winter, not seeing anyone.

The very nature is to fade into the background, find night shifts, lonely jobs, trucker, fire watch, so they are not seen.

My boyfriend thinks it's under diagnosed because Laine Holliday Willey didn't get diagnosed when her daughter was diagnosed but that was because Asperger's is fairly new and before it was in the DSM book, lot of people weren't diagnosed with it. It wasn't even known in North America till 1991. I think more people know about now than they did ten years ago. It was still new when I was diagnosed with it. Before, it was autism in my early years and then the label disappeared when I was about six because it wasn't mentioned anymore in my IEP. Autism wasn't brought up again till I was in sixth grade and it's in my medical records, not IEP.
Now some peoples' diagnoses is being changed from autism to AS because it wasn't know at the time of their diagnoses.

I think that it is under diagnosed in some populations. It could be over diagnosed in others. There are probably people who have been misdiagnosed with it, while there are certainly many who have never been diagnosed and do not even suspect themselves to be on the spectrum.

It's only going to be picked up when it affects a persons' life nowadays; I'm sure there's many people out there without a diagnosis of Asperger's who have said disorder, only "mildly". It's known that family members of those who have autistic disorder/classic autism experience symptoms, just not in the frequency and severity that affects their functioning.

I'm sure there's members of this very forum who have Asperger's, who score high on the AQ test, but no psychologist/psychiatrist will diagnose them with the condition when they see so many people with it to a far greater severity; the majority display this greater severity.

Autistic disorder and atypical autism seems to be picked up accurately and early, with a few people here and there slipping by unnoticed.

You may be right:




The original link is broken and this quote was accessed through a google cache. The orignal link is below for those who want to try to salavage it through archive.org or some other site:

http://www.springerlink.com/(1fzglf450qhsyybalak5zpe3)/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,2,14;journal,36,170;linkingpublicationresults,1:104757,1




If you score 32 or higher, there's a 63.64% chance that you're AS/HFA, assuming the information is correct.

I put maybe, but probably not.
I think the increase in cases is due to knowing more about it and recognizing it for what it is.

Has anyone seen a statistic as to what % of the population is on the autism spectrum?