Undiagnosing Grandin (essay)

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This is a site with a lot of users if it is Autism related the topic probably it has been discussed and debated over and over again here. We have users who are quite knowlegable about autism and have the advantage of decades of experience of bieng autistic. Pretty much everyone is aware misdiagnosis occurs too often in autism and elsewhere. Whether it is resulting in over or underdiagnosing is a matter of debate.

I am a person who is skeptical of the diagnosing of celebrities and historical figures. Unlike most others that I have read who are skeptical of diagnosing celebritities I am skeptical of undiagnosing people. I have no evidence to doubt the proffessional who diagnosed Temple Grandin. As a very wealthy person and a very bright person I assume she was diagnosed by a competent clinicion.

On this site we have a lot of older people who suspect or have been diagnosed in middle age. They were not diagnosed because when they grew up knowledge was limited and the criteria only allowed for what we call today describe most severe or low functioning Autism to be diagnosed. Because of this many of these users have been misdiagnosed many times with varied wrong diagnoses. So trying to "inform" these people about misdiagnosis is going to viewed as condescending. Back then it was assumed by everybody including themselves that thier problems were a result of charactor flaws. Meltdowns were viewed as attention seeking, complaints were viewed as what we call today special snowflakes. In middle age they find out they are autistic which provides the explination that they are not a bad person. When they share this news instead of support from friends and relatives thay get skeptism about thier "fad" diagnosis. They do not look autistic, you can talk therefore you are not autistic. They are told they trying to get benifits they do not deserve, they are attention seeking special snowfllakes. They come to Wrong Planet supposidly a support site and are told yet again over and over again Autism is a trendy diagnosis a lot of people claiming to be autistic are attention seeking special snowflakes trying to be trendy and cool like the TV charactor Sheldon Cooper. I have been told a number of times there are a bunch of of attention seeking wannabee Autistics on social media. Such a thing if true did not make you cool when we grew up. Autistics traits got you excluded and beat up and according to many reports it still does.

Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 11 Aug 2016, 1:56 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Ms. Grandin was diagnosed with Asperger's before the DSM-V became official, maybe about 2011 or 2012.

I'm very aware of the difference between the various DSM's.

You got anything to back that up?

I read, somewhere, that she was diagnosed around that time. I remember this vividly. I'm not 100% sure of the year. I don't have time to look for the source right now. I'm at work.

If she was diagnosed in Europe under the ICD-10, she could still be diagnosed with Asperger's.

Why do you think she would play such an elaborate joke on us? What's in it for her?

You obviously didn't read the last paragraph of the essay.

I'm sure Grandin was diagnosed with autism prior to 1991, because I first heard about her in a neurobiology class around then. She may later have been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, and then that diagnosis rather than being distinct is now once again subsumed into Autism Spectrum Disorder, in the US anyway.

But these are not important points to me. Let's stop feeding this troll, shall we? He wants his records to have Aspergers syndrome expunged and Einstein syndrome written in. He seems a bit grandiose. He wants to distance himself from the rest of us, and simultaneously "educate" us (cough!). I predict in 10 or 12 years time when he finds adult life much harder than he now imagines it to be, he will return, hat in hand, looking for sympathy.

It's important to realize the OP is just a kid who hasn't even started college yet. Also, I have a feeling that those who are suspicious of others diagnosis are hoping everyone is misdiagnosed, so therefore maybe they were as well and don't truly have to have it themselves.

Ms. Grandin was diagnosed with "brain damage" when she was about three years old, which would be 1950-1951 It was a 'catch-all" diagnosis for many people who would now be HFA or Aspergian. Autism was known--but the circulation of this knowledge was limited.

I was also diagnosed with "brain damage," in addition to autism. By 1964, autism had trickled quite a bit into the mainstream. People who would now be HFA or Aspergian were still being diagnosed with "brain damage," though. A couple of years later, this turned into "Minimal Brain Dysfunction."

Last edited by kraftiekortie on 11 Aug 2016, 2:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Ms. Grandin, to me, shows some mannerisms which indicate that she is autistic. I've known classically autistic people.

I don't happen to exhibit these mannerisms.

T. Grandin also had a bounty of help from the earliest age, despite that being an era when her issues were not yet understood. Her family was wealthy and her mother was an educated and determined person, who hired speech therapists, nannies who engaged Temple in therapeutic play, specialists to try and figure out how to optimize her functioning and her mind -- this was a child who was surrounded by people determined to optimize her abilities, starting from the very moment it became discernable that she had dis-abilities.

I would say that it's probably due to the intense, lifelong application of the enormous amount of help she received from an educated, informed and wealthy family with the money to spend, that Grandin is so capable herself as an adult, achieved an education herself and is a specialist in her field. It can't be ignored all the enormous help she received from a young age. With that amount of help, it's hardly surprising she went from non-verbal child to someone who can deliver a pre-scripted lecture on a subject she was educated on.

I'm also wondering if this thread was posted in response to the 'Toni Braxton's son' situation, too.

Her website confirms the 1950 diagnosis of Brain Damage as a form of autism. Her book "The Autistic Brain" says brain damage was confirmed at the University of Utah in 2010. Since it was a catch all diagnosis this is a more legitimate reason to question her diagnosis then Einstein Syndrome a "condition" used to argue that the diagnostic criteria has become too broad because people think bieng autistic is trendy because people thinking Autistm is genius like Einstein makes it cool.

Have you met her? She's clearly on the spectrum. It's obvious.

Oh dear God, this original poster's supposition is moronic. You can't undiagnose or diagnose anyone. You're not a clinician and I'm not even sure how well read you are on the subject. Either that or I'm going out on a limb and I'm going to remotely diagnose you with narcissistic disorder. And hypertension. And athlete's foot.

C'mon. It's utterly nonsensical. Go posit something else, and do it elsewhere. Go write Jenny McCarthy or something. Sorry, but this is just plain silly.

Flame off.

Let's be honest, unless you are blind you can absolutely tell some people have HFA.

Thanks to other posters who notice that the OP is YOUNG. He's not a moron or blind. He's 19. Everyone thinks they know everything when they are 19.

yeah, but not everyone is as rough around the edges in the way they alienate their audience.... this, from the cat that thinks he has not had any social deficits since childhood.