Absolutely. Can’t believed that such an outdated and clinically disproven idea had reared its ugly head. Did he not read ANY research before he wrote that??

Niamh, he didn’t do any research not because he was lazy but because this was all an attention seeking stunt.

Hi Karl. We’re all attention seekers on here… Did you read the article by Tony Humphreys. What did he say that offends you?

Agree Niamh that the refrigerator mom idea has been around for decades and has been associated with a number of psychiatric “conditions” including schizophrenia, anorexia and autism. Is there anything in the article you can agree with?

the article in question is in here:

http://issuu.com/tcmeditorial/docs/feelgood03-02-2012/1

Michael ur only defending the man cos he has a beard ;)

On both sides of his face..

It was a disgrace what he said about autistic children and adults. I looked after autistic adults volunteerily, and found it really rewarding. Obviously he is not good with people, and he should apologise to to people of autistic children.

As a nother to a beautiful child with aspergers i am deeply offened by this mans opinion and thats all it is his stupid outdated opinion, he needs to do a lot more research and a lot more soul searching.IDIOT.

I don’t blame you being offended I know its not the parents fault as I said i’m autistic myself and I know for some it will be unhelpful and hurtful, I’m just saying it as it is as to why the idiot done this in the first place. We should really have a better regulator when it comes to this stuff otherwise we will only get more of his kind unfortunately.

“The new perspective we’re proposing is that the label of autism and the autistic spectrum disorder is not helpful and we should stop using it, and instead look behind and try and understand each person’s story and take an individual approach to constructing what might be a helpful intervention.” Dr Sammi Timimi.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/archives/2012/0209/ireland/parents-never-to-blame-for-autism-183181.html#ixzz1luJUZREG
Reply

I’ve never being treated badly by my parents not once they’ve always being brilliant for me and supported me all the way, i have autism i know how i think and professionals have told me why I think that way, you are neither an autistic nor a person who works in the field, you are clueless tbh. You tell me how can an outsider solve a problem that requires the thinking of an insider? they can’t.

Michael with regard to ‘ labeling’ there its the problem that once a child has been labeled with wotever the need is, this then fallows the child aol the way up through school and on. But bureaucracy loves a label, and thee problem is that if children are not ‘ labeled’ these children and families then get no help in the classroom or at home from relevant teams. I work in early diagnosis with children and as someone else said on this thread parents are some if the most dedicated parents I have met. They have the unenviable task of having to justify everything.so they can.access a service that can often take years. But without the label these children would not even get on the list. It is all well and good to say lets not label but I can’t see how its possible. Labelling is a double edged sword.

I know Niamh. I think, in a rather clumsy way, that’s what Tony Humphreys was saying. Interesting that when he wrote a similar article on ADHD it went un-noticed…

Well you have accepted a diagnosis from outsiders, Karl. The people I know with ASD receive, willingly or otherwise, the support and services of outsiders. What choice do they have? Tricky blighter this autism business…

Well, as an autonomous adult Karl seems to see reason to agree with those particular outsiders, and not with Tony Humphreys…my guess is that as he knows himself better than anyone else ever will he is probably right.

Indeed. No question. Goes for all us us. Is it ok for other autonomous adults to see some merit in some of what TH said?

As long as they do not strive to manipulate and invalidate what Karl Doyle said at the same time…and, of course, do not mind looking like fools to most of the people here. :o)

Nothing personal like…

Of cource not Michael, that was the objective version..

Dr Trimimi was on Joe Duffys show yesterday and rejected what “Dr” Humpreys said about his research.

http://www.tonyhumphreys.ie/index.html

where did he get his doctorate from and what is it in? Where has he worked and in what capacity ? When he calls himself a “consultant”, does he mean he is consulted by his customers or is he a proper medical consultant?

Gaye. What in particular offended you about about Tony Humphreys article? Will you copy & paste the offensive statements he make please. I’m at a bit of a loss about the reaction to this…

Ok Gaye. That’s speculation. Please quote some of the offending statements in Tony Humphreys article…

Every word of it, along with some other exceptionally silly assertions I found elsewhere, to the extent that I really want to know where he qualified…and I think other people should want to know too.

He just reinvents psychology to suit himself…

There Michael, I hope this satifies your curiosity, it is a copy and paste of my initial reaction to reading the whole article scanned and transcribed elsewhere…I most certainly have read it.
——————–
I do not post on, or in any way affiliate with IAA and never will, but this article demands comment that very few people can give conclusively, and I happen to be one of them.

My father was a mining engineer, my mother is emotionally absent. I am, fully diagnosed, autistic.

I experienced all the negative things Tony Humphreys talks about in abundance through my childhood, no question, had it all, and then some…especially in that mother used Doctors as weapons and punishments, and I got slung with psychiatric diagnoses I never had a single symptom of, just to conceal the outward manifestations of abuse (eg, me screaming loud enough for the neighbours to hear when my father beat the cr*p out of me).

I left home before I was 14, and since then, life brought me through an ongoing emotional vacuum to a succession of very dark places indeed, full of other people who had only ever known similar degrees of abuse.

I knew I was about as thoroughly emotionally damaged as a person could be.

I began to notice something. These other people, some even more abused than me, could recover, socially and emotionally, to a degree, and in ways, that I could not, even though I was more intelligent and more self aware than they were, and in many, many ways, far stronger, and even, in the worst of adversity, far more functional.

I had to face the fact that I had a additional problem and it was very, very serious. My intellect was intact, my judgement was unimpaired, I was morally fully functional (I *get* right and wrong, truth and lies, control and responsibility rather more, if anything, than most people and have an almost driven preference for the side of the angels).

It took 10 years or so to face and identify that “other problem”. I am autistic…and once faced and identified it suddenly became ridiculously obvious. All the emotional, and other abuse probably had the effect of making me appear far higher functioning than I am.

There is a lot of toxic politics around autism…every autism org I am aware of would do well to note that being treated as outlined in the article by organisations who claim to support and represent us does us a lot of harm and really does not pass unremarked or go over our heads. We know, we just haven’t got a clue how to make them stop…so we mostly keep our heads down and avoid them. But there is just as much, equally toxic politics around a slightly newer concept, rapidly gaining ground, called “reactive attachment disorder” (this is what Tony Humphries is talking about).

No question, there *ARE* reactive attachment disorders, they do happen, I have seen them with my own eyes, but they are *NOT* autism, and though they may appear similar outwardly, probably (as far as I can tell) feel very differently inside.

To try and give you an example, therapy for emotional damage focusses on getting you in touch with your social and emotional intuition, which, effectively, does not exist in an autistic. There is no option on any “lightbulb moment” of insight, just a steady descent into meltdown…until you stop therapy (I learned that the hard way too).

Autism is worth a lot of money and kudos, but it is oversubscribed, hence the new “reactive detachment lobby”. There is even an area of crossover where people make money and notice out of claiming that being involved with, or related to, an autistic causes a reactive attachment disorder called (singularly inappropriately) the Cassandra Syndrome (or similar, it keeps changing).

None of this stuff is about real caring, if it was, people involved would be behaving themselves. If you are the parent of an autistic and you were offended reading that article then you have some idea how it feels to be autistic and read the kind of agenda-driven cr*p regularly published on the subject.

The truth is, of course that autism exists, reactive attachment disorders exist, people can have both, or neither.

Even refrigerator mothers exist, I know, I have one (well actually, more of a “deep freezer mother”) but she did not make me (or my youngest brother) autistic…she just made sure I was well fecked up emotionally besides.

Here endeth the lesson.

Where there is a question there is usually some kind of answer that pops up. It would appear that Tony Humphreys has a Batchelor and Masters decgree in applied (not clinical) psychology from UCC and a PHD in hyponosis from Birmingham University in 1983.

Rather focus on the issues than try to discredit the messenger…

Until somebody dies and makes you the boss of me, frankly, I don’t think so…

Incidentally, Humphreys also distinguished himself as an expert witness for Darina Allen’s husband, on the grounds, I believe, that we all make mistakes.

they are calling it “freedom of speech” as if that justifes everything. I believe the moon is made of cheese, i have no scientific evidence to prove my theory. Can i get an article in the Examiner please!

Free speech great, slander not so good, big difference!!! Well done PSI for calling for a RETRACTION from the Examiner, anything less is an insult, in fact if they have any decency they will make a significant donation to an autism charity after all the publicity they have genrerated for themselves from the hurt they have caused.

I knew someone would tot out the auld ” freedom of speech” chestnut sooner or later.
When it comes to medical and scientific matters, you are required to back up your comments with peer reviewed articles in established medical journals.

MC are you TH in a big hat??

Ok. Thanks for the confirmation of what I just said. I haven’t actually said anything in Tony Humphreys defence. Hard enough to find a reliable copy of the article. Examiner didn’t put it in on-line edition. Have ye read it? What’s it say that offends you? Anything in it you might agree with?

Ken. Don’t think the peer review requirement applies to daily papers. Doctors, scientists and other professionals comment in the media all the time. A few names immediately come to mind. Maureen Gaffney, Tony Bates, David Drumm, Simon Baron-Cohen, Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins, Dr James O’Reilly…

A headache could be a symptom of anything from dehydration, through diabetes to meningitis. You wouldn’t say to someone with meningitis, “sure, it’s just a headache”. Feeling depressed can result from bereavement, personal circumstances, post traumatic stress, bio-chemical imbalance etc. “Sure, you’re just feeling a down today”. An inability to show empathy features in the diagnosis of psychopathy and autism, among others. “So you can’t see this from my point of view. Sure it’s just a touch of autism”?

There are many behaviours and experiences associated with autism. That’s one of the difficulties with making a diagnosis. The article doesn’t take issue with Leo Kanner’s description of autism. Presumably Tony Humphreys also accepts Lorna Wing’s Triad of Impairments, long used as a diagnostic tool. The upset seems to come from the assertion that those diagnosed in the current epidemic doesn’t fit Kanner’s and Wing’s descriptions. And that this has more to do with parenting than genetics or whatever. Shame he said that because maybe there’s some merit in much else in the article.

Also worth reading his piece on ADHD. Seems the article from last week is a bit of a re-hash of that one: http://www.tonyhumphreys.ie/news/previous/080ADHA.html

Would you read the article Killy…

Yes he does, he said last night at his meeting, I don’t believe in autism, seriously!!!

“A clear distinction needs to be made between the autism described by psychiatrist Leo Kanner in 1943 and the much more recently described ASD (autistic spectrum disorder, often referred to as Asperger’s syndrome). The former ‘condition’ was an attempt to understand severely emotionally withdrawn children, the latter concept, which is being used in an alarmingly and rapidly increasing way, is an attempt to explain children’s more moderate emotional and social difficulties.”

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2012/02/08/that-tony-humphreys-autism-article-in-full/#comment-121631

Though that is an exceptionally offensive, and groundless, statement in it’s own right (engineers and mathmeticians are as likely to have a full on emotional life as anyone else, and there is no reason to suppose otherwise) let’s get a little deeper into the rubbish shall we?

***
A clear distinction needs to be made between the autism described by psychiatrist Leo Kanner in 1943 and the much more recently described ASD (autistic spectrum disorder, often referred to as Asperger’s syndrome). The former ‘condition’ was an attempt to understand severely emotionally withdrawn children, the latter concept, which is being used in an alarmingly and rapidly increasing way, is an attempt to explain children’s more moderate emotional and social difficulties.
***

Asperger syndrome (or Asperger Disorder per DSM IV) is not, and never has been, an alternate term for Autistic Spectrum Disorder, which is, in fact, the new proposed blanket term for all forms of autism in DSM 5 (I would have thought the dogs in the street knew that at this stage, but, apparently I was wrong). It is also not about about emotional withdrawal, which is quite a seperate issue, that may, or may not happen as a coping skill and an indirect result of Asperger Syndrome.

Asperger Sydrome is primarily a communicative and interactive deficit. A great analogy, in social terms, would be trying to fly a helicopter through fog, without the use of instruments, while wearing boxing gloves.

We are literally blind to the various non-verbal clues that you take in quite unconsciously and automatically – in a simple transaction like buying a paper, this doesn’t have to matter, but the more complex the transaction becomes the greater the deficit, because interaction is a transaction – action and reaction, turn and turn about. When I cannot read your action properly, my reaction becomes skewed, EVE in the unlikely event I can *write* the non-verbal language I am unable to read effectively and that doesn’t seem a very realistic proposition does it?

You

take my, already skewed, reaction, misinterpret my nintent, and react in turn, partly in a non-verbal language I still cannot read and so it goes on, until we would probably both be better off sitting in different counties and guessing than interacting.

This, in itself is quite enough to lead to social withdrawal, I would have thought? It makes healthy relationships virtually impossible to develop and social problems almost impossible to resolve. All you can realistically do is either take people literally and decide whether to comply or defy, or try and memorise and analyse every interaction and do your best to “catch up” in between interactions (highly stressful and not very successful).

The greater the emotional connection or investment, the harder still this becomes…particularly as our minds work a little differently. It is far harder for us to attach, or detach, from any concept, whether intellectual or emotional. Change, of any kind, in any form, is absolutely overwhelming, concentration, emotion, connection and interest all either become involuntarily obsessive…or they don’t happen at all…

“Pray for me mother that I never fall in love”…because if I do, the most likely end result is a barring order, whether I will or no…

People cannot connect with us in turn…we lack the normal capacity to induce empathy, or sympathy in others…we just don’t have the “cute cuddley” factor that makes people feel instinctively bad if the hurt you…instead we feel alien, often interpreted as threatening, and, like anything else perceived to be alien and “outside the tribe” are usually treated with near psychopathic disregard as an automatic and unconscious default. Never quite perceived as human, even, and sometimes ESPECIALLY by those who lay claim to expertise.

Because of our Asperger Syndrome, and all it entails, we grow up, even in the most healthy, loving and connected of families, as a seething mass of of frustratations, resentment, unfulfilled dreams, stifled emotions, and anger…and, as yet, nobody has a real clue how to understand us, let alone how to help us…just a lot of lucrative, half baked ideas that often make life even worse for us while they make somebody else very rich.

Putting an Aspie “in touch with his emotions” in a world that does not even see us as fully human, where there is no help, and no hope, and no sign of any in the forseeable future is one of the most dangerous, irresponsible things anyone can do…

Because if you do that, most of us would kill someone, if it was only ourselves.

Not sure this kind of public forum is the place for such as this Gaye. Sorry for your troubles…

Then why raise the question Michael?? Because once a question like this is raised the only appropriate answer is the truthful one.

Does it have to be quite so personal. Tends to make reasoned responses very difficult…

Michael…I gave you a clearly objective, if informal, description of asperger syndrome to counter one of the core the misrepresentations in the article, which you attempted to treat, and undermine as a personal statement instead.

I believe that is a little game ye normal lot sometimes play, when your ethics are out to lunch, called “gaslighting” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting …especially when you follow it up by taking a brief, abstract, never mind objective, answer and accuse the respondant (rather preposterously) of “personalising” the issue?

Not at all, excellently put.

That thought crossed my mind too Gavin…

Dr Sammi Timimi, on whose research Dr Humphreys based his article, said:
“The new perspective we’re proposing is that the label of autism and the autistic spectrum disorder is not helpful and we should stop using it, and instead look behind and try and understand each person’s story and take an individual approach to constructing what might be a helpful intervention.”
Read more:
http://www.irishexaminer.com/archives/2012/0209/ireland/parents-never-to-blame-for-autism-183181.html#ixzz1luJUZREG

Gavin. Did you read Elaine Caul above:

“Nowadays, there is more media coverage of Autism and Asperger Syndrome than EVERY other disability combined. With the 5th Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (www.dsm5.org) due to be published in 2013 – Asperger Syndrome and PDDNOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder not Otherwise Specified) are expected to become obsolete, which means that many children and adults might no longer “fit under” the newly redefined criteria: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/health/research/new-autism-definition-would-exclude-many-study-suggests.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=autism&st=cse”

However. It would seem the problem here is parents’ fear of losing services if the individual loses the diagnosis. That’s the fear in the US where the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) is put together. So, rather than shooting the messenger, how about addressing the issue. If someone has some kind of persistent difficulty getting through the day, could we have an approach where the specific difficulties are addressed, rather than remaining dependent upon medical diagnosis for what is essentially a social developmental problem?

Its great in theory michael but you know as well as I do that the system likes pigeon holes and you don’t want to mess with the matrix. I agree in some respect but I cannot see how if we removed all labels the services would be accessed. It would prove extremely expensive and time consuming to assess. As it stands there are certain characteristics that children within the defined spectrum have in common. Why should we ignore this rather than embrace it? Every child is of course an individual but it can sometimes reassure children to know that they are part of a group who they can identify with. This can also be very reassuring for parents, who thought they were the only ones to suddenly find that there are others in the same situation and can then share information and support. Rather than eliminating labels (which will never happen) there should be more general acceptance and education about the positives of asd. As well as more support and help for families.

Great to have a reasoned discussion with you Niamh. Agreed that the current set-up would be very hard to dismantle. Particularly as it involves medicine and the massive health and social services edifices. So many vested interests. One promising development, already working elsewhere, will be ‘money follows the service user’ model. This could open the way to individualised care packages. Working in service land, one sees that, however hard the organisation and the carers try, so much is done to meet the needs of the service and the budget (much of from the State). While PIPs exist, there’still a lot of lip-service paid to them. Even if it will take along time for change to take place, it will come quicker if we argue for it, rather than saying it can’t be done.

Your point about collective action requiring a label is a good one. Marx comes to mind (Karl, not Groucho). Something about the ‘withering away of the State’. How’s about the withering away of the label. Evolutionary change…

The Autism Industry, with all it’s wealth and politics, has no real help to offer and, ultimately, only exploits autistics and their parents (who often wind up onboard and clinging to it simply because they have no idea what else to do).

In the current political and economic climate, the “main chance” for anyone who chooses to make their fortune in autism is in finding ways to subjugate, jettison and/or demonise the verbal autistics who are rising in droves to challenge the questionable credibility of that multimillion dollar, multinational industry.

That is attracting a lot of “new theories”…howevber, in my experience, sincere people really do tend to check their basic facts and sources and get them straight first. Tony Humphreys did not.

Gaye I agree, there is a specific branch of teaching verbal communication that is so heavily completed that you would be afraid if you sneezed you would be in breach, the materials are very expensive to but and their seminars are very expensive to attend. If they were truly motivated by the success of the treatment they would make it more feely available. Its frustrating to see that the real motivation is to make money from people who are vulnerable because they are looking for an affective treatment ands so are willing to spend the money.

I totally agree Naive…far too many of the therapies around focus on training autistics to be hypervigilant about superficial social skills (not much more than appearances) – and do not seem to acknowledge there is a person inside, who’s interactions go two ways, and who is not only presenting an appearance to his environment but also reacting internally to it…and not always positively..

…and, of course, autism acts on things like hypervigilance much like a turbo charger…the sheer stress of such “training” can be phenomenal.

Absolutely. We haven’t figured it out yet.
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DU_GXVzZ0Unk%26feature%3Dyoutu.be&feature=youtu.be&v=U_GXVzZ0Unk&gl=IE

Do you know, I think what would help most would be if people admitted that?

There are two ways to approach a problem:

* You can strive to find out what the problem is, and how to control it.
* You can take a quick look at the problem, pull out a generic olution you made earlier and start trying to force the problem to fit it

There has been WAY too much of the latter around autism…

Try aspirin…

It’s true Gavin…a diagnosis is just a piece of shorthand that means you don’t have to sit and explain what is going on, in detail, every time.

I am an autistic, I am also a Grandmother, a liberal, a atheist, a gardener they are just components of me…and OF COURSE every one has a stereotype or two attached…and autism more than most, some of which are wied to the moon…but the pure truth is that without that label, and the acknowledgement that goes with them (even when it is totally misguided) that child will spend his schooldays going through hell and picking up a new second label – PTSD.

That will work :(

Fair enough Gavin. But what are you going to do when ASD is removed from the DSM-5 next year? Sorry if you find my position in any way offensive. I don’t agree with everything Tony Humphreys said in his article and have made that clear above. People with ASD and their families/supporters are rightly afraid of the changes coming down the line. But why shoot the messenger? I offer a solution from my perspective. TH has his views, which I think should be considered as part of the debate. We can free ourselves from labels and challenge the services to support the difficulties people have, rather than relying on medical diagnoses (labels) to define the “treatment”. Dream a little…

“It was DSM-4, the current, gargantuan edition that added Asperger syndrome as an autism-spectrum disorder in 1994.

Since then, the number of reported cases has exploded and the man who headed the task force that created DSM-4, Dr. Allen Frances, currently professor emeritus at Duke University, has been highly critical of his own work.

He told Ronson that the inclusion of Asperger was a mistake and he has also had some sharp advice recently “for the task force working on DSM-5.

“Anticipate the worst. If something can be misused, it will be misused,” Frances told National Public Radio in the U.S. “If diagnosis can lead to over-diagnosis and over-treatment, that will happen. So you need to be very, very cautious in making changes that may open the door for a flood of fad diagnoses.”
False epidemics

Dr. Frances told Ronson that he and his associates had created three false “epidemics” — childhood bi-polar disorder, autism and ADHD.” http://societyforhumanisticpsychology.blogspot.com/2012/01/are-we-over-diagnosing-autism.html

Michael

Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) will be appearing *IN* the DSM 5 for the first time as an umbrella term, not being taken *out*, and beyond that, ICD 10 (more commonly used in Europe, the DSM is really USA specific) will be retaining the terms “Autism” and “Asperger Syndrome” in their present form for the forseeable future.

None of which was remotely related to the thrust of Tony Humphreys article.

Your attempts to stir up panic have no basis in reality at all.

Another baseless accusation Gaye.

Anyway. I can assure you the DSM is used in Ireland and is highly influential beyond the shores of the USA. If you stood back from this and started to actually read what I’ve been saying, you might take a more considered view of my position. The sad thing about this whole discussion is the way so many people are so quick to attack the person rather than address the issues. You are clearly very capable of doing the latter…

Would you like to address what Allen Frances said?

Michael, will you please stop mischief making?

I was diagnosed according to DSM 4 and my college disability officer told me that the disability service does not provide assistance for students unless they are diagnosed with Autism/Asperger’s according to the conditions in DSM 4. Personally, I found my assessment rather humiliating and degrading, which makes me rather reluctant to seek help from any autism-specific services again.

The assessment was entirely verbal, which of course does not suit the needs of autistics with little or no speech – who are often written off as “intellectually disabled”. Verbal IQ tests pose a challenge for most autistic people, even if they are fully verbal, because they rely too heavy on social and cultural knowledge. If you are a non-native English speaker living in Ireland and seeking a diagnosis, you are probably not going to know what proverbs like “one swallow does not make a summer” means, for example. The Raven’s Progressive matrices, which is an entirely pictorial IQ test could provide a solution, but it is very rarely used.

Rose Eveleth, who has 2 younger brothers on the spectrum, wrote an article about one brother’s assessment. The psychologist asked him: “You find out someone is getting married. What is an appropriate question to ask them?” To which he answered “What kind of cake are you having?” http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-hidden-potential-of-autistic-kids

The reason why I wrote in my other comment that “there is more media coverage of Autism and Asperger Syndrome than EVERY other disability combined”, is because of the so-called autism “epidemic” and the increasing numbers of children receiving the diagnosis. Another reason there is more coverage is because autism is not like other disabilities like Down Syndrome or Spina Bifida, which we can actually SEE, we know what CAUSES them and in many cases, we know how to PREVENT children with these conditions from ever being born. Autism, is also perceived as inherently “tragic” and “devastating” – how many times do we see the words “trapped inside his/her own world” etc

The current mission of the majority of autism research, to develop a prenatal test which will detect autism in the womb. In the USA, out of a total of $314 million dedicated for autism projects in 2010, between both public and private bodies, only 3% was spent on providing therapies, services and supports for children and 1% was provided for adult services. The remaining 96% was spent on researching the causes, cures and prevention. This does nothing to help autistic people right now.

The trouble with the DSM 4 and the soon to be published DSM 5 is that psychiatrists and psychologists seem to be making up the rules as they go along. Even grief and bereavement, which EVERYONE experiences several times in their lives, may be listed as a psychiatric disorder. Allen Frances is also worried that “the revisions will medicalize normality and that millions of people will get psychiatric labels unnecessarily,” http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/health/depressions-criteria-may-be-changed-to-include-grieving.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=grief&st=cse

I do not believe that autism is a medical or psychiatric disorder, and so should not be listed under the DSM at all. In spite of all the changes, I do not believe that parents of any children who have previously been diagnosed with autism in Ireland have any reason to worry that their child will “lose” the diagnosis. It certainly seems to be more of an American thing, where people must purchase private health insurance even to cover the most basic of services. Labelling seems to be a double-edged sword – autism and Asperger Syndrome are still widely misunderstood and heavily stigmatised in spite of all the “awareness”. But without that label, a child or adult will not receive adequate support and assistance. There certainly needs to be a fully informed debate on all the changes to the DSM and not just in relation to autism. Scaremongering gets us nowhere.

Another thoughtful contribution Elaine.

As you say: “I do not believe that autism is a medical or psychiatric disorder, and so should not be listed under the DSM at all.”

Agree wholeheartedly. It is also important to recognise that those already diagnosed using DSM-4 will not lose that. My point was that DSM-5 will change the approach in the future. It is for policy makers, service providers and families and individuals with ASD to ensure the supports are there and tailored for each individual. The move from institutional care to congregational care settings has been welcome. We’re in the next phase which involves person centred planning. With ‘money follows the service user’ and individual support packages things can only get better. No scaremongering. No finger-pointing. The future is bright. Dream a little…