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Autism rates soaring around the world

Messages
646
Nice try but totally wrong. It is wishful thinking and part of autism mythology .... for one these are the kids that are UNABLE to follow curriculum without special support, ie would have fallen out of the educational system in those massive numbers in the past as simply unable to sit in the class etc etc etc, so no they were not 'invisible' in the past but simply not there. Or else we would have known about 1 in 50 children being kicked out of primary schools.
My comments where based entirely on the limitations evident in both the studies from which the articles you quote were 'extrapolated'. Perhaps you would demonstrate how my comments are wrong in those terms. Your notion of chidren 'falling out of school' seems misguided given the failings of the US primary education system, see: http://www.nrrf.org/essay_Illiteracy.html#thegrimstatistics and http://www.statisticbrain.com/number-of-american-adults-who-cant-read/
Secondly the massive increase noted by NJ study mostly includes moderate to severe autism types, again this is the type of autism that is very dysfunctional and that you would never ever miss, not in a million years. If these kids were just 'misdiagnosed' in the past then prevalence of those misdiagnosed disorders would be falling in last few decades. But they remain static.
The study makes no disctinction on the basis of moderate or severe so I assume you are making a distinction between AD and AS-NOS classifications - these do not make distinctions based on severity. Your logic re: the relative rates is opaque to say the least.
Thirdly the diagnosis itself does not give one access to special services or educational support, actually the diagnosis itself is practically worthless in many areas of real life. Education support is given according to need and is not linked to diagnosis etc. In the UK for example the diagnosis does not give one automatic access to any services or benefits whatsoever.
The pecularities of the UK 'statementing' process is hardly relevant to articles based on studies in the US and Israel. In the US education support is is directly linked to diagnosis, see: http://www.autismnj.org/resources/school_aged and http://www.apa.org/monitor/dec04/autism.aspx
As for the BPS model of autism - it is totally wrong again because autism is just a surface manifestation of abnormal medical/ pathological processes - take away those abnormalities and you take away autism ...Keeping autism in DSM a means of reinforcing the myth and keeping autism in the realms of psychology. Totally wrong and totally tragic.
I didn't say it was 'right', but that AD and ASD are constructs of the BPS model - take the BPS away and you don't have a condition on which to base a head count or claim the numbers are increasing. I'm not defending the BPS construct - but if you don't like the BPS model then you have nothing on which to base your support for claimed increase beause all the statistics are about the BPS model. I'm just asking that we have some logic in to what was is being argued for.
 

natasa778

Senior Member
Messages
1,774
I didn't say it was 'right', but that AD and ASD are constructs of the BPS model - take the BPS away and you don't have a condition on which to base a head count or claim the numbers are increasing. I'm not defending the BPS construct - but if you don't like the BPS model then you have nothing on which to base your support for claimed increase beause all the statistics are about the BPS model. I'm just asking that we have some logic in to what was is being argued for.

No logic in that statement either, as there would be no numbers if there was no physical pathology ...
 
Messages
646
No logic in that statement either, as there would be no numbers if there was no physical pathology ...
So your argument is that the BPS model of AD/ASD precisely identifies cases of AD/ASD but that the BPS model is still wrong ? I'm afraid it is not credible to argue that the BPS numbers are right when they serve your position, but to then argue that the BPS model is wrong. If you are going to argue that there is an increase in AD/ASD prevalence, where AD/ASD is defined on physical pathology alone, then you need to have data that uses a solely physical pathology base as its case definition. I doubt such data exists, but it's what your argument needs to be credible.

IVI
 

natasa778

Senior Member
Messages
1,774
Splitting hairs now over a moot issue, hey :whistle: Yes, there is teeny weeny chance that increase in autism prevalence is not real, but only a result of better awareness blah blah blah. In the same way that there is a small chance that our Universe is not real, but only a fragment of someone's imagination.

There are hundreds of things I could send to show that symptoms of autism (and hence autism itself, defined and diagnosed solely on the basis of symptoms) do NOT happen without physical/biological pathology, but alas, such an endeavour would amount to little more than waste of my time and energy, for such is the power of your desire to cling on. So I bid you adieu.