BBC In Depth: the ongoing battle to define autism

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdew81wd2y8o

Warning: unsettling especially for those late diagnosed.

Parents
  • A couple of takeaways for me.

    We aren't diagnosed unless the symptoms are disabling, so we are disabled whatever label is chosen.

    Also, we are united by all being under the umbrella of autism but if that were taken away (which I don't think would be the case for those of us already diagnosed) there wouldn't be a place, such as here, to meet, which would be rather tragic and very isolating.

    Also, they speak about a different genetic profile for autism - I wonder how much research there is going on into that but also, could that really be a defining characteristic or simply one genetic profile leading to one diagnosis of one type of autism eg. with learning disabilities.

Reply
  • A couple of takeaways for me.

    We aren't diagnosed unless the symptoms are disabling, so we are disabled whatever label is chosen.

    Also, we are united by all being under the umbrella of autism but if that were taken away (which I don't think would be the case for those of us already diagnosed) there wouldn't be a place, such as here, to meet, which would be rather tragic and very isolating.

    Also, they speak about a different genetic profile for autism - I wonder how much research there is going on into that but also, could that really be a defining characteristic or simply one genetic profile leading to one diagnosis of one type of autism eg. with learning disabilities.

Children
  • they speak about a different genetic profile for autism - I wonder how much research there is going on into that but also, could that really be a defining characteristic or simply one genetic profile leading to one diagnosis of one type of autism eg. with learning disabilities

    The last thing I read was that there are potentially at least five types of autism, based on genetic differences. According to New Scientist and the original research paper, it wasn’t conclusive.