Autism or ignorance?

There seems to be more cases of autism than ever before, if I cast my mind back to when I was a kid I can’t recall anybody being autistic, is it coincidence that it is so prevalent in the days of computers & mobile phones? Kids come home from school & are straight away playing computer games & not meeting people, they walk around with their faces glued to their mobile phones,

derek kelly said:

There seems to be more cases of autism than ever before, if I cast my mind back to when I was a kid I can’t recall anybody being autistic, is it coincidence that it is so prevalent in the days of computers & mobile phones? Kids come home from school & are straight away playing computer games & not meeting people, they walk around with their faces glued to their mobile phones,

Click to expand...

Looking back I can remember two lads that I went to school with and one young lady that I worked with in the aseventies that were probably autistic. The difference then being that there was little if any general awareness of what it was and the impact it had.

Conversely I employed s lovely young lady in around 2013 who spoke openly about her autism and how it affected her. She went as far as making a generic presentation to her colleagues and went into the specifics of how she needed to work to be effective in her role. This gave her peers a great understanding and an easy acceptance that at times she might not be as fast as others. She never asked for special treatment, just empathy.

Oh, she was blooming good at her job by the way.

So maybe it is just there is a better level of understanding and awareness these days Derek?

It is like a lot of medical conditions, they are better diagnosed, having said that not all doctors are on the ball. I had to see 3 doctors before the third one listened to what i was saying, and did some blood tests and found I had an under active thyroid, the first two just gave me a phone number to ring to deal with my anxiety.

Having said all that, if youngsters are not learning to mix and communicate with other people, they will have problems later in life

Although I am sure there is far more awareness today, it seems the quacks are far too quick with their diagnoses...
Any child / young person displaying any tendency not to abide by the rules of conformity is diagnosed as having autism or a.d.d ( attention deficit disorder), and that in turn is used as an excuse for poor behaviour.
With an excuse in place the behaviour seems to rapidly deteriorate, and always excused with the same tired worn out reason piss poor parents are so quick to trot out
A neighbours boy was supposed to be ‘borderline’ autistic
To any layman it was obvious what the issue was.. He was an only child for about 7 years, then a sister came on the scene... He was playing up to get attention, nothing more

Fortunately his parents were well grounded folk, realised for them selves what the problem was and addressed it.
Now the lad is a perfectly normal 12 year old, but has a mental issue on his permanent medical record

Minkey said:

It is like a lot of medical conditions, they are better diagnosed, having said that not all doctors are on the ball. I had to see 3 doctors before the third one listened to what i was saying, and did some blood tests and found I had an under active thyroid, the first two just gave me a phone number to ring to deal with my anxiety.

Having said all that, if youngsters are not learning to mix and communicate with other people, they will have problems later in life

Click to expand...

Bev kept going to our GP who kept telling her she had s.a.d. She got a job at LGI working for a superb Doctor, Mr Belchetz, as soon as Bev spoke he knew she had hypothyroidism, turned out her immune system had destroyed her thyroid, he was amazed that Bev was still functioning.

derek kelly said:

Bev kept going to our GP who kept telling her she had s.a.d. She got a job at LGI working for a superb Doctor, Mr Belchetz, as soon as Bev spoke he knew she had hypothyroidism, turned out her immune system had destroyed her thyroid, he was amazed that Bev was still functioning.

Click to expand...

Married to you, Derek, we are amazed too.

Centaur said:

Married to you, Derek, we are amazed too.

Click to expand...

And me.

For sure there’s a greater awareness of autism these days but there are several different types of autism. I also think that there’s too many snowflakes looking for a ‘condition’ for them or their twatty, ill-behaving, badly-parented offspring.

There are so many problems in this world today that can be solved with a hearty kick in the plums or a punch in the face.

Pow-Lo said:

For sure there’s a greater awareness of autism these days but there are several different types of autism. I also think that there’s too many snowflakes looking for a ‘condition’ for them or their twatty, ill-behaving, badly-parented offspring.

Click to expand...

I'm sure Beaker's parents tried their best.

Pow-Lo said:

There are so many problems in this world today that can be solved with a hearty kick in the plums or a punch in the face.

Click to expand...

True.

I'm fairly certain Beaker would cry, though.

Mental health has become a very trendy subject lately. I'm waiting with bated breath for Harry to come out with some bullshit about his post Afghanistan PTSD next.

Everybody wants to be "special" and have some sort of label to brandish to explain their (or their kids) behaviour. Nobody, especially parents, seems to want to take responsibility... it's always someone else or something else that's to blame.

Sadly it'll take years of research before they will accumulate enough evidence to prove what we already know....

That kids are being turned into shallow, selfish, self obsessed, dysfunctional excuses for human beings due to a combination of bad or non existent parenting and a lack of basic social skills caused by a fixation with everything they see on a screen (TV, games console, smartphone, tablet).

The majority of the current generation of 18 to 30 somethings are bad enough, but it fills me with horror to imagine what the generation coming up behind them will be like as young "adults".

Funny this subject should come up, yesterday I was talking to an old friend who is a single parent, her lad can be a bit of a little sod at only 6 years old mainly because she lets him get away with it & panders to his tantrums the lad is actually extremely bright & well behaved with others but not with her (because she lets him get away with it)

As the conversation went on I find out she is trying to get him diagnosed with ADHD & labeling him for life when all that anyone else can see is that he needs good parenting, why is she doing this you may ask, to my mind for no other reason than a hand out, in the end I had to make an excuse & walk away before I let rip

A woman (ex con) who has four kids with different fathers is delighted that all her kids have been diagnosed with adhd as she gets extra benefits for each one.

I blame social media for a lot of today’s problems. I really do.