Paddy McGuiness and Autism Test

How very charitably of you! Autism isn't an acquired "syndrome", it is in broad terms the description used to describe a group of neurodevelopmental conditions. You can't catch it, you can't develop it, an MMR jab won"t give you it and it can't be cured - if you are autistic you are born that way, some learn to cope with it, others can't. It is very much a disability in the same way that for example that cerebral palsy is. You should also be aware that people with it are given some protection in law from bigotry and discrimination by the Autism Act in the same way that ethic minorities are protected by racial discrimination legislation.

It does though, tend to be over diagnosed and over used to excuse bad behaviour. No doubt at all there are some with serious problems.
 
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Just for you benefit, @transam , here are just a few people who have been diagnosed with Asperger's, a form of autism

Dan Aykroyd
Susan Boyle
Tim Burton
Steven Fry
Sir Anthony Hopkins
Barry Humphries
Chris Packham
Carl Sagan - Astronomer
Satoshi Tajiri – Creator of Nintendo’s Pokémon

I am sure they are all pains in the arse as well.

I have done some volunteer work with autistic adults, as well as occasionally being an advocate for them (hence my opinions on the DWP). Many are very withdrawn and uncommunicative, and quite a number of them have subject to verbal and physicsl abuse in their lives. It is not unknown for some individuals to use the excuse of "autism" as a means to justify poor behaviour when they themselves are actually neurotypical - many autistic adults tend to hide the fact that they are autistic as it is a sure fire way to lay themselves open to abuse. Didn't we have a member on here a year or two back who was openly autistic? What happened to him?
 
to understand autism you have to be a good listener very observant very creative very understanding and set ground rules in a firm but often funny way so they know where they stand with nothing to cause anxiety
with autism, what keeps them amused one day won't always work the next day
they tend to really really react well to a constant routine with well controlled surprises as some will get over hyper with toooo much stimulation, others may just freak out
so knowing what they can cope with help loads buuut having said that even this can change from day to day :D so you need to remember they are often more intelegent than we think we are and can play up:rolleyes:
there brains are often wired with such attention to detail that its on the genius level but so focussed that other skills can be lacking like compassion or other human interaction
 
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It does though, tend to be over diagnosed and over used to excuse bad behaviour. No doubt at all there are some with serious problems.
I blame the legal "profession" as much as anyone - the excuse that someone is autistic has been used time and again in recent years when it wasn't valid. After all you wouldn't be able to use the excuse of being a psychopath to excuse murder, would you? Same should apply to autism. In pointbof fact many autistic adults have a mental age sufficiently high that they well understand the difference between right and wrong - they aren't that stupid and it shouldn't be used as a defence for bad or even criminsl behaviour.
 
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When people "self-diagnose", it's often a lightbulb moment. Folk who have felt uncertain about their social interactions, communication and imagination suddenly find their proclivities fit a pattern, which of course comforts them. If you include Asperger's which is generally considered to be at the milder of end of the same spectrum, the estimated incidence is well over 1% ; if you include ADHD as some do, then it's up towards 5%. I don't know if there are figures for little ba$tards who need a hiding or bloody awful parents, or how those two groups correlate, but I suspect they blur the numbers.

Autism generally is far more prevalent in males. There's genetic work ongoing, and suggestions of therapy using stem cells. Milder cases go without a professional diagnosis of course which has a strong pro-male diagnosis bias, so the estimates on ratio of male to female incidence are dropping, from 5:1 to maybe 2.5:1 though the patterns of maladaptive behaviour between the sexes vary.
A psychologist told me that when explaining a lad's patterns of behaviour to anxious parents, the dad will often at some point say, "You're describing me" :). He also openly discussed his daughter, who was about 8, and in the room. The lass exuded intelligence, with a deep understanding of things well beyond her years. She said she knew she was different and was ok with it.
Dad was about to speak at a symposium about work he'd done on inheritance:
In his words, geeky parents produce geeky kids. He was a geek, and his geek wife worked in medical physics, on algorithms for imaging in MRI scanners. His theme was that a generation ago, a woman would have been unlikely to have ended up in a geek job like that, and he wouldn't have met her, in their medical geek circles. With more women in geek-appropriate jobs over time, we get more, more geeky offspring. Could be.
 
Just for you benefit, @transam , here are just a few people who have been diagnosed with Asperger's, a form of autism

Dan Aykroyd
Susan Boyle
Tim Burton
Steven Fry
Sir Anthony Hopkins
Barry Humphries
Chris Packham
Carl Sagan - Astronomer
Satoshi Tajiri – Creator of Nintendo’s Pokémon

I am sure they are all pains in the arse as well.

I have done some volunteer work with autistic adults, as well as occasionally being an advocate for them (hence my opinions on the DWP). Many are very withdrawn and uncommunicative, and quite a number of them have subject to verbal and physicsl abuse in their lives. It is not unknown for some individuals to use the excuse of "autism" as a means to justify poor behaviour when they themselves are actually neurotypical - many autistic adults tend to hide the fact that they are autistic as it is a sure fire way to lay themselves open to abuse. Didn't we have a member on here a year or two back who was openly autistic? What happened to him?

who said they were Pias

the fruit cake tenant with what ever syndrome he has

has accused the next door neighbour of try ing to gas him

another of killing his cat that he never ever had

has called plod and fire brigade out on numerous occasions

accusations of phone bugging

amongst numerous other incidents

Blokes a fruit cake
 
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So probably someone with psychiatric issues as opposed to being autistic, then.

Found the name I was looking for, the guy was called Doggit
 
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Autism is the latest "must have" condition for celebrities.
Used to be coming out as gay got them lots of attention but thats considered boring now, then telling the world about their depression helped with their media profile.
 
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