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by dogma1138 2583 days ago
>I agree that those with more debilitating forms might want treatment.

Those are the majority.

>So I'd consider myself one of these people.

I got myself positively diagnosed also, not autistic in any way, the behaviour therapists that can diagnose anyone in the UK should be thrown out, any diagnosis especially in adulthood that does not involve multiple doctors including neurologists and psychiatrists is not something I take too seriously.

>And I think it's really important that people like myself are grouped with those with more severe forms of autism.

Why? there is no clinical significance to this. I'm being honest here, from your perspective what is the clinical significance of your diagnosis in general not to mention of being grouped with people who will suffer from fecal leakage all their life?

If your diagnosis is not used to treat or manage your condition it is not clinically significant.

>Bascially because I'm pretty sure the root cause is the same, I react to all the same triggers as classically autistic people, I'm just better able to control my reaction.

Considering that you are highly unlikely to suffer from any of syndromes that are comorbid to low functioning autistic individuals I would strongly disagree, and I have a strong feeling that once we understand the genetics of this disease better especially in relation to FXS and mitochondrial syndromes I will be right.

>It's difderent to the ADHD "epidemic", because it generally doesn't involve medication.

The epidemic is about just how many diagnosis centers are popping up targeting adults as a business with little to no oversight. This is really terrifying that we've watered down the diagnosis of autism to a behaviour therapist who had a 6 week course that can diagnose you in a single session.

>Rather it enables an awareness of the sorts of things that one might find difficult, and aids them in avoiding, dealing with, and working around those things. I fail to see how this can bea bad thing.

No it doesn't in fact it detracts severely from those who actually need help the most, those without a six figure salary. Just look at where the funding and attention goes these days vs 10 or 20 years ago.

2 comments

> I got myself positively diagnosed also, not autistic in any way

I'm the opposite, I have never gotten myself diagnosed. As you say, there doesn't seem to be much point to this.

> Why? there is no clinical significance to this.

I'm not really looking at this from a clinical perspective, but from a research perspective. From the perspective of finding out more about why this condition exists and what causes it, I think it is pretty significant there are large number of people who seem to be affected in similar ways, but for whom the condition is not so problematic.

> Why? there is no clinical significance to this.

Some people just like systemizing for its own sake :)

Well depending under what they've been diagnosed, most likely PDD-NOS which the NOS stands for not otherwise specified which was a catch all branch of the ASD spectrum that has been removed from the DSM. It's still a condition under the ICD but the ICD being international tends to severely lag behind the DSM. So if they were diagnosed after 2013 they likely were diagnosed with F84.1 Atypical Autism.

Asperger's is still on the DSM but might also be moved to its own category since it's the only "distinct" classification in the ASD where there isn't clear ~4:1 ratio (or higher) of males to females. The extreme dimorphism of autism and it's comorbidity with other x chromosome related syndromes including FXS is quite distinctive and Asperger's does not usually exhibits this.