I'm sort of freaked out about the brain scan, if it's something real that you can see then someone could just be proven to not have it. What if I get a brain scan someday and it's not there? What if I've been Faking My Whole Life? I Tricked Everyone.
Do you know what I mean?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
That's interesting. It sounds like though that while promising, it's not quite ready for 'primetime'. I wonder what else needs to be done before it can be reliably used for diagnosis.
ReplyDeleteI can understand your feelings, but there is another side to it. It can be really difficult for adults to get a diagnosis, especially since one usually depends on a detailed childhood history, preferably obtained from family members. This isn't always easy or even possible for people once they grow up, plus family members cannot necessarily be counted on to be supportive of someone trying to get a diagnosis. And that's not even getting into the financial challenges of it. So I could see this being a boon to adults looking for a diagnosis, if it was reliable and tested, not just on male brains, but female ones as well.
dude, I know, I'm just insecure
ReplyDeleteIt's a vague article, but I would welcome it if it is succesful. It would help in the recognition of Autism as something real for those who think it is make believe. For some people it's not real unless they can see it. I guess that's the catch 22 for invisible disabilities. Sometimes it's hard to ignore those people especially if they are your family.
ReplyDeleteI am absolutely totally with you on this one. When I got rediagnosed in 11th grade I was terrified the whole way through that I wouldn't qualify as disabled anymore and then I would have no reason for being the way I am.
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't mean I think the brain scan is a bad thing! If it turns out to be accurate. I don't think Amanda thinks it is a bad thing either, other commenters.
As they like to say on baseball Web sites when discussing statistics, this is SSS (small sample size). Forty people isn't nearly enough to test the accuracy of this. Try putting a few zeroes after that and then I'll take it seriously.
ReplyDeleteBesides, I'm kinda segfaulting over the idea that you can invalidate a condition that's diagnosable on the basis of behavior, based on a scan that says that behavior pattern doesn't exist in that person. So then what's the conclusion they draw -- "You're not really autistic, you just like all the attention"? Yeah, okay.
Andee (Meowser)
I probably would have obsessed over this five years ago but at this point I don't really suspect it's going to impact my (or any other autistic person's) life much either way, even if we end up getting "scanned". For one thing, autism (if "autism" means something about how someone perceives reality, processes information, etc.) could very well be due to a variety of different brain configurations. For another thing, what someone else said about small sample size certainly also applies, as well as the fact that they didn't test any females, or any left-handed people, etc.
ReplyDeletethe behavior thing is hard too though, as I know you know. It was really a revelation for me when I understood that even if I didn't do any of the things ASD people supposedly did, I still had ASD--that I didn't just lose it and become a normal person who sucked at everything but didn't talk about trains enough to be Really Disabled. I mean, I like to think it's an inherent thing in my mind. It's just such a comfort, to think about the inherent thing in my mind, that I get scared of losing it.
ReplyDeleteI'm a little fearful that this brain scan thing will just be one more thing people think you have to have in order to be Really Disabled, as you put it.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you're a faker, and I don't think you should let the results of any brain scan make you think you are.
I really like you, dude. You just pop up. Have you been here the whole time?
ReplyDeleteYeah, I just lurk a lot, and say something when I can think of something to say.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you said that; I was worried that I was coming across as creepy or something.
No it's nice. You're like a friendly ghost or something. But not like the Daniel Johnston song because that would be sad.
ReplyDelete(But I don't even know if you like Daniel Johnston because you never talk! I just know you don't like vowels or organized religion. And presumably have ASD.)
Honestly, I'm not sure if I have ASD or not (never been to a psychiatrist) but I think I might.
ReplyDeleteI'm not extremely familiar with Daniel Johnston, but I've heard a couple of his songs. He seems cool. And I have nothing in particular against vowels; it just struck me as a cool screen name at the time.
Now I feel like kind of an asshole for telling you not to doubt that you have ASD when I don't even know if I have ASD or not (and/or for acting as if I have something in common with you that I might not). Like I'm appropriating your disability or something.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, you probably do. People are usually right about themselves.
ReplyDeleteThere's a discussion here:
ReplyDeletehttp://neuroskeptic.blogspot.com/2010/08/is-your-brain-autistic.html
I know this is an old post, but I've been reading your blog - okay, perseverating on your blog maybe - and a lot of stuff like this that you write is like it's straight from my own head. When I heard about the brain scan, my first thought was that it was great because if it's a "brain thing" that can be shown in pictures then people will know it's a "real thing", but then I started to worry because I'm really insecure in my own diagnosis, and anything that could confirm my fears of just being lazy and messed up is a scary thing. I know it's nowhere near that point, and even if it was a lot further along it probably wouldn't be used to un-diagnose people or even in all cases of diagnosis, but the potential for unwanted fears being true is still there.
ReplyDelete