Remember last Thanksgiving dinner, your whole family sitting around the dinner table chowing down on turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy. The women, or men clean up at the end of the dinner, you eat pumpkin pie for dessert and the men watch football. Thats how my family works at least. Next remember that afternoon or evening when the girls sit around looking at black friday ads; this is not our family. Now close your eyes and picture those ads; an amazing price, beautiful picture and something you just got to have. Wait there is fine print though. Of course there is fine print. Those little details that count that the stores don't want to tell you about; the batteries are not included. Now picture that ad being to buy autism. Well, I want to say now that autism has turned into a black friday ad and I am not happy about it.
When you look at a black friday ad, you see the picture and title of the item as well as the price, details and the fine print, maybe. When you read articles about autism you see the diagnosis' which I see as the item, who is involved in treating and diagnosing it, the price and the requirements for a diagnosis, the description of the item. THERE IS NO FINE PRINT!!!! Thats a problem. There is nothing about personality, intelligence or speech. There is nothing about what causes it, but inside the doctors are hiding facts that may cause many of us to be uspet, such as me.
It will be three years in May since I have been diagnosed with autism!!! Yes, I said autism because I have aspergers, a mild for of AUTISM. Around this time or maybe shortly after, the news started talking about the possible change that will eliminate all diagnosis' from the diagnostic and statistical manual for mental disorders: DSM for short. When this came out and when I was diagnosed, I just knew that I would eventually have autism, not aspergers and that there would be more understanding and the same treatments. Today that is not the case. Its like the political campaign. The individuals running for office share with you true facts and their beliefs, but they don't give you the details until they have been voted into office by you!!!
This past semester I took a public speaking class. We were to come up with three speeches all about the same thing. There was a problem speech, a policy speech and a motivational speech. I did mine on the change in the autism diagnosis. I was against the change a little bit until I did a little research. I then took the facts and was for the change. Now I regret everything I preached about last semester during my class. Before, this year, 2012, I was kind of in a mix. This year, the APA finally came out with their real news that could change the lives of many.
If you have not been in the special needs community, you may not know much about the rise in autism diagnosis', but its a problem and doctors aren't sure what to make of it. No matter what they can't seem to figure out why its rising. Well, about a month ago, I read an article about people finding those missing individuals with autism who are actually unaccounted for. People always ask where all the adults with autism are; they are all in mental institutions with a schizophrenic diagnosis. One case was reported to have been diagnosed by Leo Kanner, the founder of autism and then dismissed to the institution where all disabled individuals were told to go. He was then labeled with schizophrenia even though he had autism.
Even though autism is on the rise, so are other diagnosis' such as ADHD, but we focus more on autism. If you have ever heard the phrase, "keep talking, I am diagnosing you" that is what some doctors are doing, but once we get help we don't want to let go of it. If I lose my autism diagnosis, chances are I will be diagnosed with my pre-existing anxiety disorder, ocd, and adhd. I have obsessive compulsive issues that have been claimed as part of my autism. I have been told by one doctor that it looked like I had adhd, but he felt insecure treating me for it. What will I do with out this diagnosis???
I am going to be going off to college soon. They are just developing programs for individuals with autism. They are developing programs to help with studying and living independently. Therapist know how to treat people diagnosed with aspergers because treatment is similar to that of autism and it works. 1 in 3 individuals with aspergers or autism are able to go to college. If we just wait 10 years, even more will be going to college and living fulfilling lives. If we change the diagnostic criteria, it will add another negative side to autism which already has too many negative sides. Things were just starting to change for individuals with autism. Now they are spiraling downward.
I am sorry for the rant, but I feel for this case!!! Changing the name of something is okay, but changing the criteria after so many have been diagnosed is not. I AM AUTISTIC AND PROUD OF IT!!! PLEASE HELP THIS CHANGE!!!! :(
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