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Reading about the overdiagnosis of autism

martinez

One thing thats truck me is the USA seems to emphasise about the sensitivty to light/sounds etc 

The UK from what I read seems to devalue this. Also out of interest both seemed to devalue links to other conditions such as anxiety based conditions such as CFS/SAD etc....

One of the very first things I've noticed over the past couple of years & one of the reasons why I'm dicussing autism & the "borderline scope" of the conditions is I have grown a sensitivty to rooms full of machinery. 

I'm not sure if anybody used to watch paranormal shows - remember ghost hunters from the USA, it was one of the better ones that sued science to mostly debunk claims but I remember the EMF factors & I also remember seeing about links back then when I was a youngster & a teen. 

any thoughts

interested to see any views - my personal views is the distancing from sensory based illnesses from the medical industry. 

  • in reply to Marcd94

    I think this is what the cynical are trying to say, that many are being incorrectly diagnosed. Which is extremely unhelpful and undermines everyone

  • I don’t know how it can be overdiagnosed if it’s correctly diagnosed?

  • I wish difficulties with light and sound were taken more seriously as I have both and have yet to find any help for either. I've tried earbuds and htey didn't fit, I have sensory issues with over ear headphones, I dont' want any other noises in my head instead. I've yet to find any sun glasses dark enough or those wrap around for wheich my eyelashes are too long for.

  • in reply to Alexa

    That makes sense, the Social stuff is Categories A1, A2, A3 and all need to be present. 

    The sensory stuff comes under B4, with only 2 out of the 4 B categories needed. (other being B1 repetitive movements, B2 routines and B3 interests). 

    Then the C,D,E ones being about how long, how much, nothing else instead.

    So in that respect, it is a lot smaller part, and you don't need to have sensory stuff for diagnosis as not every autistic person has them. (This is from DSM5)

  • martinez said:
    The UK from what I read seems to devalue this.

    I only have my own assessment to draw information from. I was surprised - given the reading I'd done about autism - when my assessor told me that social interaction was far more important for a diagnosis than the sensory stuff. I have an 80/20 figure in my head but I don't know whether that came from the assessor or I concluded it from the time devoted to the separate issues during the assessment. Thinking about it, I can't recall any of the stuff I read (as opposed to the various autism tests) ascribing the weight given to the various component parts of an assessment.

  • martinez said:

    One thing thats truck me is the USA seems to emphasise about the sensitivty to light/sounds etc 

    The UK from what I read seems to devalue this

    I wouldn't say that's accurate.

    Sensory sensitivities (which can include greater or lesser sensitivity) don't actually need to be present for an autism diagnosis to be made under either diagnostic manual. So it follows that not all autistic people necessarily have them.

    The US uses the DSM, whilst many other countries use the ICD. Both are used in the UK, and both treat sensory sensitivities the same way.

    They're just one of several things that fall under the category of behaviour, interests or activities. And only some of those need to exist for any given person to meet that part of the criteria.