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Difference between those diagnosed early to those diagnosed later

TheCatWoman

According to research theres different genes involved in those diagnosed as young children to those diagnosed later in life and certainly those of us who were diagnosed as adults. The research states that theres no one cause of autism and that multiple genes are involved.

There's an article on it in todays Guardian newspaper.

  • in reply to TheCatWoman

    Age and environment should not change your genes so in relation to this study it has no bearing.

    What does change with age is our willingness to tolerate other people and the stresses socialising has on us.

  • in reply to ArchaeC

    I don't either, but I posted about it because I thought it would be of interest.

    It has made me wonder if one can become more autistic with age? I'm sure I've become more autistic as I've got older, have more trouble socialising etc than I did when I was younger, maybe once I'm left school I just found people I was more comfortable with, people who were generally more accepting of difference and embraced it?

    I've also wondered for a long time how much environment plays a role, being brought up an only child, but another only child and only really playing with one other child before I went to school, I wonder if some of this is learnt? Do I have problems socialising because I wasn't exposed to it until I went to school? If some psychologists are right and we learn about 70% of our social behaviour by the age of 7, then I only had less than two years to learn stuff that I should of learnt at a much earlier age? 

  • I don’t have the knowledge to interpret how rigorous the methodology is. To me it seems like the database of those identified as autistic is limited and much is based on algorithms predicting approximations. That said, perhaps social factors have played more of a hand in these results.

    Usually the Guardian is fairly reliable and the scientific community hold ‘Nature’ in high regard, so I am open to the conclusion.

  • When I was a kid, I remember there were conversation between my mom and teachers and teachers between each other, they suspected that im autistic.  The reason why I was not assessed as a kid is simple- my mom has done everything in her power to keep me away from psychologist,  although I needed and some family members also suggested that. She never accepted the fact that I have problems and she also neglected me. I think, that I would be diagnosed earlier in life if I wasn't neglected. Another topic is that im probably lucky to not be diagnosed back then, because of tge level of understanding of autism. Even now im not diagnosed,  just suspected.  And I got the therapy because I set myself free from my mom's influence.  For her everything was and is fine with me and the most important thing is- what others would say, if they found out, that I go to a psychiatrist or other mental health specialist. So there are various factors, why someone gets late diagnosed. Not only genetic 

  • My opinion is that differences are more to do with how the world has changed over time. 

    When I was a child little was known by most people about autism, unless you came across for example a child who was diagnosed due to communication issues.

    I came from a family where you were expected to manage life and do things that were not in your comfort zone. I think much of this stemmed from parents who had grown up during the second world war. There was also a lot of negativity in society regarding mental health issues.

    It was only after both my parents had died, that I started realising that I might be autistic, having researched this in respect of my son and a lot more information was available via the internet. From my own point of view the difficulties which I now experience are linked to years of masking and life in the world as it now is. When I was younger, although I had difficulties that I now understand, a lot of life was at a slower pace and there was less expectation at school than there is today and I somehow managed better. 

  • I think there are differences based on how well you mask.

    The more outward expression there is the more likely it is to be picked up.

    The more internalised it is, together with strong observation, the better you hide. This makes it more like  psychological torture.

    Whether it is different genes, different gene expression, different home environment, I don't know.

  • I find the study to be problematic because it has no way of being able to perform the same genetic tests at the same childhood age of those who were late diagnosed, so it cannot make any baseline.

    There is also no confirmed genetic identification for autism so using genetic profiles to compare children and adults with the same condition using genetics seems flawed to me.

    There could be a number of scenarios where the genetics they are looking at are irrelevant to autsm so to reach their conclusion seems premature.

    An interesting study but based on flawed methodology in my opinion.