US Health Secretary Ends Decades of Research into Environmental Causes of Autism | Hacker News Reader

US Health Secretary Ends Decades of Research into Environmental Causes of Autism

propublica.org

18 pointsklipt8 comments

Is that the true headline? I visited the URL and found:

RFK Jr. Vowed to Find the Environmental Causes of Autism. Then He Shut Down Research Trying to Do Just That.

You're welcome to try posting with the full headline but when I tried that HN complained it was too long so I had to shorten it

Just a tip: When you run into that, post a comment explaining it otherwise people will complain about editorialized titles. I've found it's better to cut off that thread of discussion before it can even start.

I just want the correct person to get credit for this decision: Robert F Kennedy Jr is more specific than US Health Secretary.

I for one am very pleased that this search for a cause has ended.

There is no link, the environment does not cause modern day Autism.

The DSM4 has a lot to answer for the creep of autism overdiagnosis.

The reason why there are so many, far too many, people, diagnosed with autism, is because over the last 10-20 years, the spectrum has been expanded so much that an introvert could get a diagnosis of autism.

Look at me! The classic introvert, meets the requirements of autistic diagnosis.

My myers Briggs = INFJ. yes, that 1-2% of the population

well well. And I am a retired psychotherapist too.

How on earth did I manage 25 years practicing as a psychotherapist, when my life was overwhelemed by autistic traits. At the time, I thought I was just a simple introvert.

So I could in fact get a diagnosis tomorrow and claim I am autistic.

How wonderful is that?

I could become a member of the ever increasing population of autistic people.

I remember back in the 80-90's every autistic person I ever met, and there weren't that many, were non verbal.

Now we have likes of Lone skum masquerading as an autistic person who in my professional opinion is simple a narcissist.

Narcissism and autism on the same diagnoses, what ever next.

I count ADHD as part of this ever growing trend of overdiagnosis.

I don't understand this rant. You acknowledge the spectrum has been expanded but then contradict yourself or display a serious lack of understanding by saying that a diagnosis implies being "overwhelemed by autistic traits". A level 1 diagnosis is defined as not being overwhelmed the way a level 3 would be.

I'm diagnosed as level 1 and I assure you it's something different than introversion. Not that it's necessarily a stronger thing. I didn't even get diagnosed until recently because my life has always been so functional that there was no reason for me to think I needed to be tested. The way I hear serious introverts talk sometimes, I'm glad that I have my traits and not theirs.

I have never been able to understand what it is about autism as a topic that drives people mad.

I have a similar opinion to the person you're replying to, and here's why: The spectrum is not particularly useful to anyone outside of the medical community. If you say "I have autism", that tells the other person very little. That could mean a vast array of things, it is so poorly descriptive of what that actually means for you that it's hardly even useful at all. I think the spectrum in and of itself isn't a problem, the problem is that there aren't more names for it. Clump common clusters of symptoms together and make a name for that specific clump, for example, and call it Foo Disorder, and now people can actually understand what that means. By expanding the umbrella so wide, it has made the disease confusing. If there were more specific things you could point to, it would be much easier to grok.

Maybe return here when you have in fact been diagnosed as autistic, and you'll have proved your point? Right now it's just a lot of supposition?

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