Failure to diagnose - ombudsman response

Tulip52 said:

I will now have to put this at the back of my mind for now. 

I hope reopening this discussion isn't too triggering for you. Feel free to ignore.

I happened upon this article today, which demonstrates just how widespread a problem this is.

https://thinkingautismguide.com/2022/10/adult-misdiagnosis-the-default-path-to-an-autistic-identity.html

On this forum alone barely a week goes by without some mention of a late autistic realisation and their previous misdiagnoses.

So much damage has collectively been done to so many people. People have been left traumatised by unsuitable and potentially harmful therapies. Many have been unnecessarily medicated and nobody can quantify what the long term effects of that might be.

The short answer is that nobody was looking for autism. They simply were not trained to have any awareness. It is still happening to some extent. I suspect many autistic people will remain undiagnosed their entire lives.

Tulip52 said:

theme of mixed depression/anxiety and atypical
personality traits

Who decides what is a typical personality trait and why is that wrong to differ. It is the whole neurodiversity movement in a nutshell. Thankfully society is becoming more accepting of difference, but it is too slow and too late to help many people.

Tulip52 said:

Can you imagine the flood gates opening if they concluded that this was poor clinical judgment and failure to diagnose.

Exactly  

The other problem is that when arriving at their conclusions the ombudsman will rely on the clinical expertise of mental health services, the service that has failed in the first place. They are seen as the 'experts' so their vague, non scientific diagnosis of 'atypical personality traits' is accepted as though it were fact.

I don't know what the answer is. I think there needs to be some sort of joint effort in challenging the system by the many thousands of people impacted. You were brave to take on the system as a lone voice and that is commendable.

Tulip52 said:

I will now have to put this at the back of my mind for now. 

I hope reopening this discussion isn't too triggering for you. Feel free to ignore.

I happened upon this article today, which demonstrates just how widespread a problem this is.

https://thinkingautismguide.com/2022/10/adult-misdiagnosis-the-default-path-to-an-autistic-identity.html

On this forum alone barely a week goes by without some mention of a late autistic realisation and their previous misdiagnoses.

So much damage has collectively been done to so many people. People have been left traumatised by unsuitable and potentially harmful therapies. Many have been unnecessarily medicated and nobody can quantify what the long term effects of that might be.

The short answer is that nobody was looking for autism. They simply were not trained to have any awareness. It is still happening to some extent. I suspect many autistic people will remain undiagnosed their entire lives.

Tulip52 said:

theme of mixed depression/anxiety and atypical
personality traits

Who decides what is a typical personality trait and why is that wrong to differ. It is the whole neurodiversity movement in a nutshell. Thankfully society is becoming more accepting of difference, but it is too slow and too late to help many people.

Tulip52 said:

Can you imagine the flood gates opening if they concluded that this was poor clinical judgment and failure to diagnose.

Exactly  

The other problem is that when arriving at their conclusions the ombudsman will rely on the clinical expertise of mental health services, the service that has failed in the first place. They are seen as the 'experts' so their vague, non scientific diagnosis of 'atypical personality traits' is accepted as though it were fact.

I don't know what the answer is. I think there needs to be some sort of joint effort in challenging the system by the many thousands of people impacted. You were brave to take on the system as a lone voice and that is commendable.

Great article i have shared with my brother thank you  

Thank you so much for valudating our experience. This is what i needed to hear. I start to think we expect too much, but deep down i know we dont x