K.J. ElphinstoneIn the UK, 89-97% of autistic adults aged 40+ may be undiagnosed.
That's a whole generation of people who've been blamed for traits they naturally had that went unnamed. 😢
#LateDiagnosedAutistic #Autism #ActuallyAutistic #Neurodivergent
AutistiCritic@KatyElphinstone Took a long time to get a diagnosis but definitely worth the wait. Now learning to be kinder to myself (or trying to) and let go of forty years of extremely negative self esteem. Which will probably take another forty years but what else am I going to do? 🤷🏻♂️
Bob Jamieson
Firehorseart Lives!As a self-dx AuDHD, I'm learning all I can about autism and ADHD from the internet. It's been very helpful so far.
A formal diagnosis is currently irrelevant for me, as I don't see a benefit given the general government backpedaling on support for autism and ADHD.
Acid Plushy 
OmnivoreI was always saddened by the 'Big Bang Theory', where the people who knew Sheldon best still punished him for his autistic traits. The sad part is that this was being done because ostracism is apparently funny.
Yes! True... and sad.
Estarriol, Terrorist DragonI was like that, then they did Young Sheldon in which you came to realise in episode 2, it was deliberate by Sheldon for his own benefit and narcism, not actual social issues.
@Thebratdragon @KatyElphinstone
But, what about this quote from the BBT episode list in IMDB, "Sheldon explains that what he did with his spare time was none of their business, but was centered around giving his mind a break from his struggles with understanding social behavior and the mental bombardment caused by his work."
Sounds familiar to me.
Drew 🇵🇭@Ralph @Thebratdragon @KatyElphinstone
I for one am tired of trying to fit TBBT into the real world of #neurodivergence, and tired of people using it to make points about #autism. It's Hollywood. It's light entertainment. It was scripted to its own internal rules and has nothing to do with real life.
@drewph @Ralph @KatyElphinstone
Jim Parsons said he played him that way, as that was how the script made sense, but that it was an extreme take even so. But that it humanised the character enough to be relatable.
The nastiest person is actually Leonard (for various reasons).
It was the way he was portrayed as doing it, doing deliberate harm, rather than just saying no.
I like 'disliking' Sheldon in BBT because he means no harm it is just the way he is.
Especially as I hit halfway between Sheldon and Raj....
John - 🎞️ Film Nerd 🎞️@KatyElphinstone I'm self diagnosed autistic. All it took was having two autistic sons, living with them for about ten years or so and then my wife one day saying, "I think you're autistic as well!"
My life suddenly made so much sense. 😁
Kevin DavyThe fun thing is, that those of us from these generations probably started with the worst understanding of what autism is and the more certain belief that this is something that only doctors can diagnose. Which would make us more likely to want to go through that process, rather than rely on self-diagnosis and our own research to come to any realisation.
Of course, we've also often had the most experience of the fallibility of doctors and perhaps are less likely to trust them, after being falsely diagnosed with things before. Which might explain why the numbers seeking this path are so low compared with younger generations. Also, the gatekeeping of said doctors, who seeing our masks and age are perhaps more openly against recommending it.
And perhaps, at the end of the day, it is our age that is the biggest factor. The masks and success we might have achieved through life, holding us back. The realisation that an official diagnosis really doesn't do anything for us and the lives we have lived, always leaving enough room for caution, if not doubt about taking one.
Yes indeed, to everything you've said here. I think it's good that this conceptual and practical chasm between the medical (and traditionalist) paradigm is becoming more and more evident.
As the greater the clarity, the more sense we can make of what's happening - and what has happened.
I wonder if people here - us - are fully aware of how much our own words and actions (and by this I mean simply the fact of being a community and connecting with one another) are contributing to a) highlighting the illogics, and b) shifting the paradigm.
Towards something that gradually makes more sense.
AudhdDespiteNoisyAbleism 🇨🇦@KatyElphinstone @pathfinder I see the ripple effect of our online communities and stories for myself and for others reading me (I get testimonies). I can’t wait to see the effects in the society for the next generations…
@adelinej @KatyElphinstone
This is why I love this community so much. The sharing of support and information that makes such a huge difference for us. And hopefully many others down the line.
This is why I love this community so much. The sharing of support and information that makes such a huge difference for us. And hopefully many others down the line.
@pathfinder The English speaking community is amazing! ❤️
🌸 Vårgubben”A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”
— Margaret Mead
@KatyElphinstone What I mean to say by this is that the greatest single thing, the one game changer that made the autonomous #neurospicy movement come into being, is that there’s now a way for us to exchange our own experiences with each other without some debatably ”well meaning” establishment getting in the way.
Murdoc Addams 🧛🏻
🇨🇦@pathfinder @KatyElphinstone
I was stopped at the "worst understanding of what autism is" part, since even when it was suggested to me that I might be, I scoffed because I knew that I wasn't *that* nonfunctional. I had no idea how much our knowledge of the field has progressed because despite my interest in psychology, I never looked into those areas.
I was stopped at the "worst understanding of what autism is" part, since even when it was suggested to me that I might be, I scoffed because I knew that I wasn't *that* nonfunctional. I had no idea how much our knowledge of the field has progressed because despite my interest in psychology, I never looked into those areas.
@murdoc @KatyElphinstone
It took me some time to get my head around it all too. As much because of this, as because a more than sizeable chunk of internalised ableism.
It took me some time to get my head around it all too. As much because of this, as because a more than sizeable chunk of internalised ableism.
Bongmaster@KatyElphinstone I'm 48 and got diagnosed ADHD last year
Gaëtan Perrault@KatyElphinstone A couple of years back, The Economist magazine did a deep dive on ADHD. They dove into difficult questions around diagnosis and measurement and the responses were quite disappointing.
For example, different countries each had their own estimates for the percentage of the population that had ADHD. In part because each of them had different diagnostic criteria, so a UK human may qualify as ADHD in their country, but not in America. And part of that was political, the diagnosis wasn't just a statement of fact, it carried a measure of state support and needed to conform to state norms as well.
When pressed about getting a "true count" of ADHD people, a diagnosing physician just balked. If the true percentage of ADHD people was over 10%, they simply didn't have the diagnostic capacity to handle that.
ASD is in a similar spot. If "prevalence" is over 10%, we literally can't diagnose everybody.
Well, and also, diagnosed according to what criteria?
@KatyElphinstone yep, we don't even have consistent measurement devices. And the devices we do have are heavily dependent on culture.
The situation is incredibly messy.
It's very messy.
It's a mess just waiting to be untangled 😋
By people/communities like us, perhaps!