Is AS being overdiagnosed?

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I'm not a clinician, so I can't say for sure, but I've met several younger people who don't appear to be on the spectrum in any way shape or form, yet they got a Dx. In one case, I talked with one of their parents, and confided I strongly believe I have it. They laughingly joked about how little _______ does nothing but play Sonic. Truth be told, little _______ has an otherwise normal demeanor, and very typical teenage life. I admit, I don't know her like her family, but I've been in situations with these teens for a year and a half, and I just don't see it at all, other than the stereotypical gamer behavior. I suspect AS is the go-to diagnosis these days for kids who are a little too into media. I sometimes wonder if some specialists get their own mental picture of what AS is, and just hand out diagnoses like grape sodas.

That's not true. Only a very small minority of the people who go to see a specialist actually get a diagnosis. Plus, many autistic people get misdiagnosed numerous times before they find out they're autistic.

As for the boy you're describing in your post: There are high-functioning and low-functioning aspies... Some of them seem normal.

Even if Asperger's were overdiagnosed: If people are getting the treatment that they need, who cares?

Last edited by Zexion on 16 Oct 2011, 8:05 am, edited 2 times in total.

It's a pritty well known among psychologists that AS was very under-diagnosed earlier, and that lately it have been getting more attention. There will always be a balance here: Like in statistics we can talk about type 1 and type 2 errors. Type 1 being to accept a hypothesis thats actually incorrect, and type 2 to throw a way a hypothesis thats in fact correct.

Now, we of course want as little type 1 errors as possible. But the issue is that lowering the chance for an type 1 error increases the chance we commit a type 2 error.

I don't know if I'm getting the message across? - The point is that there will always be some miss-diagnosis, but it's better that a few to many get help than a few to few (language - that did not seem right?).

I think we should trust trained diagnosticians and not start to question people with an official diagnosis (they themselves can question it if they want of course). Remember that they, even though they sometimes make mistakes, got years and years of training.

they could have got a good education and figured out how to cover it up.

I think if anything the opposite is true. In most countries, getting a diagnosis of AS is nigh on impossible. Despite the fact I am on the mid-low functioning end of the AS spectrum, my symptoms were written off as 'shy', 'over-emotional' and my Mum was told that I would grow out of it on many occasions. I didn't. We had to fight for over 8 years to get any kind of real diagnosis.

That's kinda where I'm at right now. Can't get a dx.

I strongly feel that overdiagnosis of some sort of ASD or ADHD was common during my time in high school, though I think it was for kids who acted out in general in ways the adults just generally didn't or couldn't control. It's one of the things making me actually reluctant to get a diagnosis today.

I don't know if it's over-diagnosed by psychologists, but it's certainly over-self-diagnosed. Every nerd in the world with minor social awkwardness thinks he has AS.

The first time I went to get a diagnosed they denied me saying that I didn't stim enough (note I do stim, but to them aspies must handflap 24/7!). They did give me a diagnoses for NVLD, but every last difference between the two I have found I fell on the aspie side of things. I went in again 6 years later because I needed my school services (mainly just using a laptop) updated, the new psychologist pretty much agreed the last one was dumb and gave it too me lol.

Do you know how long ago was the person diagnosed? Maybe the person was diagnosed long ago and was on therapy/meds and that helped.

My daughter was diagnosed three years ago and has been in therapy since then. Last month we took her to "Leaders of the future" for evaluation, and the psychologist was doubting her diagnosis was correct. She even asked us "why we thought" our kid had AS and "who" diagnosed her. When we gave her the name of the neurologist she said "Oh, well, if she diagnosed her she cannot be wrong. She is one of the bests". The thing is my daughter looks and behaves pretty "normal" after 3 years of work, but she was not like that when she was just disgnosed. Her diagnosis and therapy helped her overcome a lot of difficulties she had. Even her teachers at school think she does not have anything (that we are overreacting). I wonder if they would think the same if they had met her 5 years ago, when I got notes from her teachers almost every day.

I think it gets diagnosed a lot where I live.
I have a couple of friends who I don't think have been correctly diagnosed. I was diagnosed very quickly as a child but I had some pretty bad behaviour issues so maybe that sped it up somehow.

Am I right she's female? This can be under-diagnosed as women tend to try and blend in and disguise differences and may not show some of the behaviours such as special interests that males have, or just present differently. Also aspies can all be very different and there is no 1 typical collection of traits-some can contradict e.g. over or under sensitive. I was not diagnosed until 30 and no-one would really know unless I told them. They would say I was shy or under confident as I tend to hide in the background and avoid drawing attention to myself.

Females cover it up pretty easily. They mimic other peoples behaviour, either fictional TV characters or real-life girls they know. They also mimic other girls' speech. For example, if someone says something funny, and everyone laughs, I immediately, involuntarily repeat it. I also talk to myself, scripting conversations I'd like to have in the future, so I know what I need to say.

lol. Yep.

I think there's a large number of misdiagnoses, but there are certainly a large number of undiagnosed individuals. Getting a diagnosis is often outside the financial resources of most young adults and you're only getting a diagnosis as an adolescent or younger if your parents show sufficient concern or you're showing enough "trouble" at school. No one takes the clue that the fact you can't seem to relate with anyone (Even people online) or hold a conversation to be a sign of AS or something else. In America, it usually either means you're a creep or a weirdo, nothing else.

I think there is definitely a therapeutic and learning advantage to those who are diagnosed younger over those who had to battle it out alone for decades, without even any knowledge as to what was causing their problems.

I am probably externally the least AS appearing person I know of. Even psychiatrists I have seen this year (for other issues) say they would never think I was AS. The truth of it is I have had two decades of intensive social training - firstly from my parents, and secondly self-directed.

My parents knew there was something different about me since I was 4 years old, also partly because of the extreme motor and coordination problems (they actually took me to see the top specialists at the children's hospital, who diagnosed me with a number of muscle and coordination deficits eg. "weak muscle tone all over the body" but said I would probably grow out of a lot of it eventually). Since then, it was immediately apparent that socially things weren't right. I was bullied from the word go - starting at kindergarten, and continuing on (plus worsening) through primary school. I read obsessively. I didn't use eye contact, I was literal, I didn't understand the concept of lying. When and where I was growing up, Aspergers was almost unheard of. My parents took me to see numerous specialists for years, all the while undertaking to train me themselves (teaching eye contact, correct social manners, etc). They were strict, and I didn't get away with using AS mannerisms. None of the specialists could pinpoint the source of my problems, nearly all of them attempted to teach me techniques to stop the bullying, with zero success (and in some cases the bullying actually increased).

It wasn't until I was 12 years old that a teacher's aid (I think it was) recognized some of my symptoms and lent my parents a book on Asperger's she had read. We instantly knew, after reading it, that this was what I had. None of us had any doubts. I actually "self diagnosed" after reading the entire thing in 3 hours and doing the comprehensive questionnaires myself. My parents took me to see a psychiatrist, who diagnosed me himself, although said I was "mild" (by this stage already many of the years of intensive social training and drilling had started taking effect, my presentation at 12 was very different to my presentation at 6). This was in 2000. After this my social training continued, and became more effective as my parents and myself were able to pinpoint the source of my problems.

The point I'm trying to make here is that today no professional would ever diagnose me with AS (without lots of background info). No person, upon meeting me or being a casual acquaintance (although one such person, who didn't know I was AS, jokingly said to me "you're acting very autistic" - which I found absolutely hilarious, and when I told him I actually WAS "autistic" he was completely distraught and couldn't stop apologizing for a month) would ever pick up that there was anything different about me. In fact, I am often actually very successful socially, and many people would consider me to be oppositional to AS.

None of this erases my past, or means I don't have Asperger's. Kids diagnosed at a young age are sometimes a completely new kettle of fish, plus the amount of intensive and strict social training one receives makes a HUGE difference - look at Temple Grandin.