Adult diagnosis of aspergers/autism

Are some countries better, do you think, Jane10?

Not quite the whole world!

Don't worry, the whole world seems to be woefully ill-informed, including doctors!

I understand that diagnosis has only been possible relatively recently and thinking back to my childhood (born 1953) I realise that those few children loosely labelled as 'naughty' or 'unteachable' in junior school are probably the undiagnosed people now in their early 60's.

I do have some misgivings however about the numbers of children being diagnosed nowadays; surely there must be a genetic element, it can't all be nurture or nature can it? I know the Rubella vaccine and Dr. Wakefield debacle further highlighted the problem of diagnosis.

I fully admit to being woefully ill-informed, so apologies if I'm being far too simplistic.

Precisely, there's no medication for ASD, so if you're wrongly diagnosed as having bi-polar disorder and are given heavy-duty medication for that, wrongly, it is a crying shame. Likewise if you were put on meds for dementia when you only had ASD - awful.

Well I thought so Jane but I wasn't going to contradict the professional. DS saw.
My DGSs' father has undiagnosed traits but he also has a chromosome disorder as do both boys. Specialists have said the boys are too young for them to determine which condition causes their current problems.

I think the reference to drugs was in connection to a comment about bi-polar disorder.

There is strong evidence that genetic inheritance is significant in ASD. There is no medication for it. Its not an illness.

ASD

Thanks for that nina

newist
The psychologist my son saw told us that it wasn't hereditary and having a family member with ASD makes you no more susceptible.
alchemillamolls
It's my understanding that there is no drug treatment for people with ADD

My DH has 7 siblings, 5 brothers and 2 sisters, only 1 sister can read and write without great difficulty. my DH didn't learn to read until he was 13.
I have known him for 20years, he is now 71. in my total ignorance of these subjects I initially thought 7 of them were dyslexic, but over time I think 7 of them also have Asperger's, to different degrees, is this possible?
Most of them when excited or stressed get higher pitched in voice and repeat things often, My DH who is a lovely man, seems to of developed a coping system without realising what he does. this is starting to concern me now in case at some point he could be misdiagnosed as having dementia, which he has no symptoms of. Am I imagining this?

Asperger Syndrome is massively under-diagnosed, especially in females, because of the very different presentation.

Tony Attwood says they are finding more and more co-morbid cases, where someone has both AS and bi-polar, for example. Having one does not rule out having the other - why would it?

It's important to get the diagnosis right, otherwise people can be vastly over-medicated, especially as they get older.

Jane10, I've PM'd you.

Not at all, Ninathenana, I'm only just understanding all this and probably have used terms in the wrong way so no need to apologise. And if we don't talk about these things there won't be any understanding.

I apologise for being pedantic about your post mollie I've been thinking about it and I was out of order.
I'm not denying females can have Aspergers but thought it wrong to say "female Asperger" rather than a female suffering from Aspergers and I didn't think being Autistic Spectrum made sense either. However I should have kept my opinions to myself.

AS - aspergers syndrome. And yes, females on the autistic spectrum often present differently which is why females are less likely to be diagnosed with aspergers than males. My information comes from Sarah Hendrickx and Cynthia Kim, both have aspergers who work and write in the field.

Sorry to be pedantic but it's wrong to say "being AS" and "female Aspies" they are deemed to be on the Autistic Spectrum, it doesn't make sense to say "being Autistic Spectrum" and what is a female Asperger? Aspergers is part of the spectrum not a noun.

That's a good question and I suppose there might be any number of answers. Some people do like to jump on bandwagons. I can think of two examples - and here I'm playing Devil's advocate only to answer the question, not because I think it's OK - I've read recently that many female Aspies suffer mood swings that could be (and the writer said it happened) mis-diagnosed as bi-polar. Perhaps (me being devil's advocate) someone would rather be thought of as an Aspie rather than bi-polar so would make that claim for themselves rather than exploring the bi-polar route.

Another example, is an older male relative who has always seemed very nice and easy going as far as I'm concerned (we only meet a couple of times a year) and yet his family are certain he has AS because he can be a bit difficult at times. I don't know if he is or isn't. Sadly, even if he is diagnosed as being AS the wider family will be unimpressed and simply expect him to 'pull himself together and behave' - no sympathy for him!

And please, this is just ideas not my firm and fixed viewpoint. I'm happy to be told why I'm wrong (as long as it's politely )

mollie. I'm wondering if many high functioning people are claiming to be AS as a shorthand explanation when there might be other answers
No criticism intended but I would like to know what you think those 'other answers' might be. Why would someone feel the need to claim to be on the spectrum if they didn't genuinely think they are or had indeed been professionally diagnosed. Without an official diagnosis there is no benefit that I can see to saying so.

Iam64 - you make a good point. For most of us AS and Austism was unheard of until fairly recently and now it seems - to me - that so many people (me included) can identify with some of the traits. In fear of sticking my head over the parapet and being shot down, I am wondering if many otherwise highly functioning people are claiming to be AS as a shorthand explanation when there might be other answers. And if it is only the tip of the iceberg why is that? Are we, perhaps, looking so closely at human behaviour and placing it all in various categories that we are now pointing to some traits and saying 'these are a problem' the way left handed people were once thought of as abnormal?

I hadn't realised that girls/women present with AS differently from men and often go undiagnosed as a consequence. That has been an eye-opener and ought to be more widely talked about. As an introvert in a world that loves extraverts I already struggle to feel OK about myself. In the eyes of many 'introverts' are just shy but that really isn't the case. It's more complicated than that. Now I realise some of my ways tick AS boxes and it's been comforting for me to realise there are other people who share my 'oddness'.

One of my grandsons was diagnosed as on the ASD when he was about 7. His dad told me that whilst he wasn't surprised by his son's diagnosis he was because the behaviours the psychiatrist set out as leading to the diagnosis made sil realise both he and his own father are undiagnosed but on the spectrum.
One of my friends who has taught for over 30 years believes we are now over diagnosing. I don't agree I suspect we're at the tip of the ice berg stage in relation to many similar conditions.

The Alzheimers Society web site is very informative it covers all types of dementia and has a brilliant forum called Talking Point for discussion and support.

I suppose you'll have checked out www.nas.org.uk ? They have a lot of info and also a book section. Most books are re children. Very frustrating. It has only recently occurred to people that all these children grow up and still have asd!
Can't comment re dementia.

Jane10 - are there any sources that you could recommend (books or websites perhaps) about AS and autism and perhaps dementia too?

Huge variation between people with AS. Their other genetic inheritance, life experience, cognitive ability etc all contribute to this difference.
I would be happy if I thought that differential diagnosis of AS vs dementia could be reliably done. There is pretty widespread ignorance among HCPs despite training being available. Its a worry.
Those of you worried about family members try to find out as much as poss about their earliest development ie have they always been like this of have they changed in any way.