Do they really think that the people who wait years or pay large sums of money for an assessment for themselves or their children are playing the benefits system? Claiming to have a 'bad back' is much faster and even less prone to definitive clinical invalidation.
Before the mid-1990s anyone without intellectual disability was extremely unlikely to get an autism diagnosis, the increase in diagnosis since then is almost entirely due to the realisation by the clinical community that autism affects people without co-occurring intellectual disability.
Do they really think that the people who wait years or pay large sums of money for an assessment for themselves or their children are playing the benefits system? Claiming to have a 'bad back' is much faster and even less prone to definitive clinical invalidation.
Before the mid-1990s anyone without intellectual disability was extremely unlikely to get an autism diagnosis, the increase in diagnosis since then is almost entirely due to the realisation by the clinical community that autism affects people without co-occurring intellectual disability.
Yes, first of all- anyone with any sort of condition or illness can apply for benefits, it does not depend on diagnosis, but severity of symptoms. Someone with depression and anxiety may also apply. The difference here is that these conditions are curable, autism and adhd are permanent, but there are ways to treat at least some symptoms to improve the quality of life.
The higher diagnosis is not only due to higher awareness- yes this is the main reason. But the second reason is that suddenly people from various generations seek the assessments. Tgere are not only children aged 4-8 like previously. There are young adults, older adults, seniors, people from marginalised groups, plus women (previously autism was believed to affect only boys). So there are people from various groups, who missed diagnosis as children, and now all at once seek the assessment. That creates an impression of huge overdiagnosis. If they were diagnosed as children, as they should be- the numbers now would be same, the difference would be that it would be considered normal.
I myself know an example of someone (from my family) to play the system by pretending depression. It's tge easiest and fastest diagnosis to get and although it should be curable within 2 years, many people get involuntarily diagnosed and treated for decades, there are also some, who take advantage of this systemic negligence.
