Should you tell a high functioning Autistic person that they are Autistic?

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PsYcHo
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Re: Should you tell a high functioning Autistic person that they are Autistic?

Post by PsYcHo »

Grant_Barnes wrote: Fri Dec 29, 2017 6:09 pm It's important to note that only doctors can diagnose; a person can't know whether they are autistic without seeing a doctor.
Hey, thanks for responding. :)

I appreciate your point, but why should a certified doctor be the only one capable of recognizing symptoms of a condition? Doctors are required to be certified in many, many subjects, but a person who studies(studied) a certain specific topic may well be more knowledgeable than a general practitioner. ;) If a layman observed a person for over a decade, and was more than casually familiar with different forms of autism, wouldn't it be reasonable to believe they could identify a certain common condition?
Alcohol may have been a factor.

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Cirion Spellbinder
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Re: Should you tell a high functioning Autistic person that they are Autistic?

Post by Cirion Spellbinder »

knot wrote: Mon Oct 23, 2017 7:00 pm Why wouldn't they know? ^^
I don’t really get it, but the standards for what constitutes autism changed from after doctors first suspected I could have autism. When I was originally checked as a kid, they said I wasn’t autistic, but recently my mom told me I am autistic because of this shift. That’s a potential reason and honestly is part of why I have such a hard time taking psychiatrists and psychological professionals seriously.
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PsYcHo
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Re: Should you tell a high functioning Autistic person that they are Autistic?

Post by PsYcHo »

Cirion Spellbinder wrote: Thu Apr 12, 2018 1:02 am When I was originally checked as a kid, they said I wasn’t autistic, but recently my mom told me I am autistic because of this shift. That’s a potential reason and honestly is part of why I have such a hard time taking psychiatrists and psychological professionals seriously.
I think there has been a major shift in identifying and defining autism. (I haven't studied psychology in...more years ago than you were born likely, but I keep up with some subjects a bit.)

When I was in college studying it, they were just starting to define autism as "just a different than the majority" behavior pattern. This being due to a better understanding and ability to "read" the brain of persons. In previous years, it was closely related to lower IQ and substandard functioning. Now it(autism) also encompasses social behavior that differs from the (for lack of a better word) "norm".

Here's an interesting article on how some people believe autism actually helped mankind evolve. (This one is a "stub", but it may give you a starting place to research it more.)http://www.newsweek.com/autism-role-human-evolution-science-research-benefit-575134
Alcohol may have been a factor.

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