Reading about the overdiagnosis of autism

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. 

Parents
  • 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 than 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.

Reply
  • 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 than 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.

Children
  • 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)