Can you be Autistic and Bi-Polar at the same time?

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Keeping these discussions free of ideology may be the ideal way to go. HOWEVER, one must be always mindful of the hidden biases and agendas which are behind everything that happens in society. Many automatically assume that whatever the elite, liberal psychological types from the coasts believe is correct, and anyone who dares to question these beliefs is not worthy of legitimacy. I am very suspicious when elite academic and medical types come up with all those new diagnoses, just based on their view of the way the world should be, and then seek to impose it on the rest of us ,while, of course, seeking to gain power, influence, and money at the same time.

But specifically...
cavendish wrote:
They even wanted to branch out beyond the coastlines of America and expand their market to include the more rural and interior parts of America. So now some young kid, who may just be a little nerdy, geeky, or plain weird, will now be tagged with the autism label, and subjected to whatever "help" is deemed necessary by the elite coastal types. Do people here really believe that over 1% of children are truly autistic? Or is it just another power grab by the psychological profession?

The moment any diverts a topic towards political or ideological beliefs, they lose every bit of their legitimacy with me. I'm sure there are others here who would rather not delve into such beliefs as doing so is certainly bound not to just step on toes, but occasionally stomp on them. I do not believe that there is a place in this forum for such.
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VagabondAstronomer, OldDuckNash99, cavendish, I compliment you on viewing yourselves as peers of professionals (someone once said this is almost the purpose of higher education), and I encourage you to stay in there and keep asking questions. For example,

http://www.autreat.com/dsm4-autism.html <---this is DSM-4 for Autism Spectrum, and it hardly mentions sensory issues at all ! ! ! Although someone says some of the explanatory text does, but I have not yet seen this myself. And really, regardless of what the explanatory text does or does not say, this is a glaring ommission for the main text.

And he is someone's creative spoof definition of DSM-4. http://www.journeyswithautism.com/2009/ ... or-autism/ I think it's better than the original!

So, you have intense interests, and are socially awkward - big deal. Why is that a medical/psychological issue anyway? As for sensory issues, that may be a learning disability or a sensory integration problem. Why do you believe you should be included with the real serious problems, such as the 40% of the traditionally defined (at least when I was young) autistics who can't even speak?

I merely speak the truth , at least as I perceive it to be. How come that one in eight eight children are now supposed to have some type of autism? Do you really believe that? Can't you see that autism is rapidly becoming a growth industry, with big profits to be made by the pharmaceutical companies, and the medical and psychological professions? Do you really think they are going around diagnosing people just for altruistic reasons? People are beginning to wise up to the overdiagnosis of ADD and all those children being pumped up with Ritalin, and they soon will catch on to what's happening with autism.

I am sure if you asked, they would give you more diagnoses.

My experience with mental health "professionals" (cough, cough) is perhaps 1-5, depending on how I count it, starting with the clown I saw at age 17 who did not take my father's violence seriously.

In a sense a psychiatrist or psychologist is like a believer in Falun Gong. No, the Chinese government shouldn't prosecute them, it's kind of like a loosey-goosey New Agey thing which might actually have some truth to it. But I don't want someone who's going to view my entire life, my entire experience, and my entire issues through the lense of one theory. In psychiatry, it could be someone who believes in "transactional analysis." It might actually have some stuff to contribute, but it's not the end-all and be-all.

The upshot is that a mental health practitioner often becomes a pontificator from the sidelines, a prima donna, a "be righter," (doctor "being right" about the diagnosis is more important than the patient's life going well), a dogmatist, etc, etc. Imagine if you were living in Iceland for example, and your experience with dentists was 1-5. Wow, there's really something wrong with the profession in that part of the world.

Right here on Wrong Planet, we have had a "professional" tell a person, you can't have Asperger's if you've had even one friend. Wow.

And remember, the American Psychiatric Association listed being gay as a disorder until 1973! Well, you know . . . No, I really don't know. Please explain it to me.

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For depression, I really think a person is better off going to a regular doctor like an internist or family practitioner and requesting an antidepressant. But it's each individual's choice. And yes, I'll acknowledge that some psychologists and psychiatrists are good, but some are not.

That's why they call autism a spectrum, because the impairments in the four characteristics that Aardvark mentioned can vary in intensity, making a whole lot of different presentations of people with autism.

Reducing the spectrum to those who can't speak seems a very black and white approach. I don't feel that non-verbal autistics are really that different from me, in most ways. Do you believe those who are "truly" autistic should still be institutionalized?

"real serious" is subjective. I can see what you would consider "real serious", but other people might have different ideas for what constitutes seriousness.

As for "the pharmaceutical companies are in it for the profits", when I was diagnosed, my doctor said there were no medications that could treat autism. If the pharmaceutical companies wanted to get as many people on medication as they could, they would have picked a different "disease" *which I put in brackets because I don't believe autism should be called a disease* to inflate.

ADD being a tool of the pharmaceutical companies could be believable, because one of the first lines of treatment for ADD is medication. But what profits are the pharmaceutical companies getting from autistic kids? I thought first line treatment for autism was behavioural or occupational therapy.

My best guess: 30% of psychiatrists, psychologists, etc, are lousy, 45% are in the sloppy middle who are sometimes helpful and sometimes not, 25% are good who are usually helpful.

And I may not be a cardiologist, but I can ask good basic, to-the-point questions.

http://www.autreat.com/dsm4-autism.html And again, how does DSM-4 not talk about sensory issues ? ? (although the explanatory notes might)

It seems to be getting a bit snippy and heated in here and PMs have been sent as a result.
Please calm down guys and let's have some more calm and considered responses.

Thanks.

And like the Civil Rights movement for African-Americans,

Like the Gay Rights movement for all members of the LGBTQ community,

Like the United Farm Workers in the 1970s.

I really think the civil rights model will do the most to improve our lives and give us the biggest number of open fields with multiple possibilities of connections with others. Good-hearted professionals can help out, but they don't run the show. We run the show.

And yes, we can agree to disagree when needed and still treat each other politely.

When I was 6 they diagnosed me autistic (high functioning) and manic depression (now called bi-polar)

This may seem like a stretch, although it really isn't . Why don't they have blindness spectrum disorder, so people who need strong glasses are included? If one out of eighty eight children can have autism spectrum disorder, the why not blindness spectrum disorder? Doesn't it make sense? Blind people are given a lot of (understandable) sympathy, so why not take some of that sympathy and extend it to over 1% of the entire population? Everyone wants to be a victim nowadays, so why not?