On occasion I am approached by a curious observer on a school campus or at the local park, and with that curiosity being centered around Daniel the conversation normally turns to autism. Sometimes the discussion ends with a declaration of "I think my child might be on the spectrum" or "I'm pretty sure my husband is autistic" I then find myself asking, what are the symptoms, and what I usually hear is a description of an extremely high functioning and capable individual with mild behavioral issues. "He doesn't sleep through the night", "he doesn't listen", " he hits his sister", "he can't sit still". Well, they used to call that the terrible twos which sometimes unfortunately spills over into the threes. In the case of your husband, it may just be he isn't the guy you thought he was. Seriously though, should we be calling it autism? Really?
I don't get it. We clearly knew before Danny's diagnosis that he was in fact autistic. No speech, no interaction (adult or peer), no appropriate play skills, preoccupation with parts of objects, hand flapping, toe walking, head banging, sound sensitivity, food sensitivity, need I go on. It took less than 5 minutes before the diagnosis came down from the clinician in charge at our local regional center. There was no ambivalence, no searching for answers, it was clear and unfortunately it was fact. If Daniel had ha d speech skills, had parallel or interactive play skills and/or ate more than one food without throwing up I wouldn't have even considered that there was anything wrong.
So what causes a parent or anyone for that matter to suspect autism outside of the obvious issues clearly defined in the
DSM1V? Is it a relative that knows someone who knows another someone with an autistic child or is it the online quiz that concluded, "Your child does
seem to have
some of the signs and symptoms that should prompt an evaluation for autism or other communication disorder."
Aside from the increase in autism over the last 10 years there seems to be an increase in the seeking out of a diagnosis of some kind for everyone with anything that may appear out of the "normal" range of behavior within a peer group. This stuff even had me briefly entertaining the idea that my 54 year old brother was autistic because he walked with an unusual gate and maybe I'm autistic because I don't really want to hang out at Starbucks with a bunch of other stay at home moms. But I don't think so and I don't see the need to go down that path unless you have a genuine concern that something serious is going on that will ultimately impact the quality of life for a loved one. Otherwise why go there, or in other words, If it ain't broke, don't diagnose it.
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Comments (12)
I think it's ridiculously over-diagnosed. Seriously. They're diagnosing non-autistics as autistic every goddamned day.
Good post.
I agree that now that autism is the diagnosis dejour it seems to be overly used. I had friends call me quite a few times to ask what I thought of so-and-so and would *I* consider them autistic. Being autistic myself and my two sons having it, makes me qualified in their eyes. I usually say "Ask the doctor." but these thoughts are really what I want to say "If it ain't broke, don't diagnose it." Only one kid that was brought to my attention actually seem to behave in a "not normal" kind of way, but even then, I'm not sure it was autism! That's why they need to ask qualified people!
For some reason people like to diagnose all sorts of weird things about themselves that often aren't true at all, I think it makes them feel special. Funny thing is because I live on a small island in the Caribbean I can see that each diagnosis is particular to each group. The Americans who send their kids to the American school have so many kids who are on Ritalin or are on the autistic spectrum. The English have aspirin allergies and 'have to be careful' with various foods. The locals, the West Indians, have kids on soy milk. The symptoms and diagnoses of one group rarely overlap with another. There are children with all these problems, but they are few and far between, most are just quite normal and mix at public parties like Halloween and eat everything, play with everyone. Perhaps the parents just don't feel special enough having kids who are normal. Perhaps they confuse 'normal' with 'ordinary' and need to have something to make themselves or their kids stand out and be special.
@SavonDuJour@xanga - That is an interesting take on this subject. I do know someone who appears to relish in the sympathy she receives when lamenting over her 1 son's diagnosis of PDD-NOS and the other son still pending (although she calls them both autistic) It is a sort of self-medicating she engages in using sympathy as her drug of choice. Unfortunately her children are on heavy doses of chemical compounds which the side affects of are not so pleasing and will not be easy to live with in the future.
@heatherbabes - It reminds me of a time where doctors used to prescribe antibiotics to children because the mom would not let it go and demanded she leave the office with a slip of paper in her hand ready to take to the nearest pharmacy. Soon antibiotics started loosing their effectiveness. Now the diagnosis of autism has lost it's meaning to a degree because people see a normal child with a label that holds no distinction other than he or she deserves special accommodations.
j@mathematicalbagpiper@xanga - If you look at the symptoms carefully it's not as vague or mysterious as some people would have you believe. There is a diagnostic criteria or rather there used to be one. Now it is becoming a catch all diagnosis with a "spectrum" widened beyond reasonable limits.
@P1AutismMom - Oh yes, I remember those days well as I was working in Doctor's offices then as a clerical medical assistant. I worked for one doctor who once refused to give a mom antibiotics (her son had a viral infection, aka a flu) and she stormed out of there promising to sue. She went on to get antibiotics for her son at another doctor's office. She also reported the first doctor to the medical board. The judge dismissed the case and the medical board found the claim unsubstantiated. She said proof that the first doc made a mistake was that the second doc wrote her a script. The second doc testified that he only did so because she was so insistent and claimed she would sue him if he didn't and he didn't want his malpractice insurance rates to increase!
We can cut these high-priced health costs to a large degree if doctor's stop practicing defensive medicine :) That's one issue. The other issue is the doctors who don't listen to a parent when he or she says something is wrong with his or her child or the doctor doesn't look deep enough... so, really it is hard to say one thing or the other but I think the answer is in the balance.
@heatherbabes - WOW!, that is extreme but it does not surprise me. I am always happy when I hear it is viral and we won't need to go to a pharmacy. Just happened a couple weeks ago. Not a problem and we are all better now. :)
I look forward to a balanced approach regarding the issues surrounding autism. Let's hope we get some clarity soon, I don't do well with gray area and it's harder to acquire a solution when the condition itself is so muddled.
@P1AutismMom - Well, as you said, the diagnosis of autism itself isn't muddled but rather I think the doctors and parents are somewhat lazy. They want a quick answer. My oldest has Asperger's, I have Asperger's (I was daignosed years ago) and my youngest has PDD-NOS. The doctor at the time told me PDDNOS was NOT autism. But rather because he has autistic characteristics he doesn't have enough of any one kind to classify him so they use PDDNOS. Now though, I see that PDDNOS is considered a form of autism. Confusion in that regard I don't like!
We all just had the flu (and it was H1N1!) but we didn't even take the tamaflu. There was no evidence that it helped anyone who took it to decrease the time they spent sick or the intensity of the sickness. Almost two weeks later, we're all okay. I took every piece of clothing and bedding to a laundrymat and washed it. ( I do, thankfully, have a nice washer and dryer set myself, but a laundrymat you can wash more at once). I then sprayed lysol everywhere, everyone used face masks in the common areas of the house... we put kisses on hold... and used Germ-X for three days and it was all gone. I wish I had done that sooner, but honestly I was too sick! I had someone help me with this who wasn't sick... and it went away. There's no reason to medicate something that is viral, including the H1N1.
I'm not an anti-medication freak by any means, but I don't see the need in taking something that isn't going to help anything and might cause some harm in the long term. We're all made up of chemicals anyway, every living thing is, so that's not it. BUt why mix man-made chemicals with nature's chemicals if you don't have to? Right? Right. LOL.
Off topic for a moment-- How can I tell who wrote the post? I dont see a name or username anywhere on it...
There is an about the author on the right side. My name is Nancy, hi. :) http://p1autismmom.autisable.com/ or www.autismmom.net if you want to see more about us.
I'm glad you are all better!!! We wondered if we had H1N1 and the doc said it really didn't matter because Tamaflu would not be recommended for someone as young as my son because of adverse side affects. We both had fever for about 2 days and a lot of coughing and lethargy with a mild sore throat but it wasn't the end of the world. I've never received a flu vaccine nor have my kids. My husband got it one time and said he got sick anyway so he never did it again.. I seem to remember a time when the flu vaccines were only reccommended for immune compromised and the elderly. This years' hype is out of control!
I think society's too eager to label even the slightest hint of "deviation." So imperfections turn into ADD and in this case, autism. I remember one time when I made a visit to my doctor, he insisted that I was fine even though I felt minor aches around my neck. He suggested that I was probably suffering from stress, but I refused to leave before he gave me a proper name for the "illness." He asked me if I'd rather be told that I have a major disorder. I got his point. I blame it on my obsession with early detection & prevention that I've had ingrained in my mind since childhood.
I think some parents (not all of them who do this, just some) are just looking for something to blame when their child acts differently than those around them. They're trying to find something they can use as an excuse to other parents who might look down on them for their parenting skills or look down on their child for being 'different'. When I went for my first prenatal visit and the nurse found out my husband was diagnosed on the spectrum (Asperger's), she even said some forms of autism are becoming over-diagnosed these days.
I self-diagnose myself with ADHD solely based on my ease of getting distracted when I'm trying to study or get something done...lol.
@a_drunken_cellist@xanga - How did you manage to focus long enough to come to this conclusion? LOL
@babykittytara@xanga - Nice to hear that some professionals are starting to recognize this phenomenon
@heaventtonight@xanga - My dad owned a huge medical journal and he would bug my mom all the time about symptoms that he had. She was a nurse and it drove her nuts but it was funny for us kids to watch. Poor Mom :)