Over diagosed

Post Reply New Topic

Would you say Aspergers is over diagnosed?

I'd say it is. It's slightly sad that people self-diagnose (not ALL self-diagnosed) themselves with AS, and act like complete dicks and just say they have AS and get away with it.

Especially a kid at my school.

I think in the past decade or so it has been over-diagnosed; same with any ASD.

In canada, it's over diagnosed, so they've made it quite restrictive to get a diagnosis. You have to see your regular doctor, get a recommendation to see a psychologist, then get a recommendation from them to get a psychological evaluation, which is then done by a team of people to ensure an accurate diagnosis. It's a huge reason why I want to get properly diagnosed before I will believe myself to have aspergers. And I definitely don't tell anyone other than family members that I might have it. Not to mention, even if I were fully diagnosed, I would never use it as an excuse to be a dick. I'd like to behave as normally as possible, even if I am weird. I don't want people looking at me pitifully, thinking I can't help but be a dick because of a mental disorder. That's terrible.

It kind of reminds me of a kid with lower functioning autism that would freak out at other students, even if they weren't doing anything, and the teachers would punish them anyway. It was really annoying. I blame the teachers, though. Just because the student is freaking out, doesn't mean people purposely aggravated him.

A kid I know who is a Japanophile, also low functiong freaked out because I thought Japan was a 3rd world nation a few summers ago... and I wasn't being mean, I sincerely though Japan was a poor country.

I think it's overdiagnosed in a different sense, too, to the expense of other ASDs. AS is more or less regarded as high functioning autism todays, so for practical reasons it's more frequently given than the vague and clumsy PDD-NOS.

However, I don't think there are so many such 'dicks' out there.

Edit: grammar...

Last edited by OJani on 30 Jan 2012, 3:13 am, edited 1 time in total.

You're talking about 2 different things.

Being self diagnosed is not being diagnosed. Unless you are licensed you cannot make a diagnosis. What you're really asking is 'Is AS being faked too much."

When did *that* happen?

Maybe I was accelerated through the process because I had to get a court ordered psychiatric assessment, but from the first time I saw a doctor to being diagnosed was only a week or two.

It's a combination of where I live, and the fact that if I don't go through this process, I have to pay thousands of dollars for a private psychological evaluation, including travel costs. It's covered by my health care if I go through this dumb way. I've been waiting months to see the next psychologist, and it's so frustrating. Regardless, a regular psychologist isn't allowed to diagnose aspergers, so at least you get a more accurate diagnosis.

Why would you get a court order for a psychiatric assessment?

I was illegally charged with 24 counts of death threats when I was 14, and the court ordered an assessment to see if I was a legitimate threat to myself and/or others.

Yes, I believe it's over-diagnosed in children, much as ADHD was in the 90's. That's not to say these mis-diagnosed children don't have difficulties, but a dis-services is done when an individual is mis-diagnosed, to the individual, to those who do have it, and to the scientific community.

To the individual: Their actual needs may not be addressed and they often grow to resent a label which doesn't reflect them.

To the person who actually has it: By introducing those with traits not representative of AS, a shift occurs in the minds of others as to what AS is, as serves to mischaracterize and marginalize those who actually have it. This can ultimately lead to lack of understanding of the individual with AS, and lack of services to address their needs.

To the scientific community: There are research studies that hint that AS has unique neurological features as compared to HFA and other neuropsychiatric phenomenas. However the introduction of those who have been misdiagnosed with AS into AS studies, skews data and may ultimately serve to mask a unique neurological phenomena.

I would really like to see a large scale brain imaging study that includes both individuals with AS and HFA, as well as PDDNOS, male and female, right handed, left handed, and ambidexterous, which utilizes technology to find patterns in the data and sort it accordingly.

That sounds interesting. Not to mention, that does seem reasonable enough to justify a very quick assessment.

It's only interesting when it isn't you reporting to the police station weekly, prohibited from leaving the house after dark, and being publicised as a potential school shooter. Among other things.

Worst ten months of my life.

At least now it's behind you.

Yes, I think it's a good reason why it's not so helpful to merge all ASDs into one ASD diagnosis without naming subtypes. But, without clear-cut guidelines provided for in the DSM / ICD and backed by such studies the diagnosing practice would remain just as confused as it is now.

Interesting because it piques my curiosity. I'm wondering what exactly happened. Did you actually threaten to kill people? And if so, I'd wonder if they were serious threats, or joke threats that other people overreacted about unnecessarily.

I wouldn't have considered it to be a very positive experience, at all.

Is there any indication that ADHD was actually overdiagnosed in the 90s? I found one research paper that indicated the possibility of systematic overdiagnosis, and one of the primary authors was discredited from the study due to how she worded the questions she asked parents, and then changed the wording of that same question in the paper itself.

I've never been able to confirm that ADHD is or has been widely overdiagnosed, although there is evidence that there are a few locales where it may be overdiagnosed.