If you were asked is ASD a mental disorder what would you say?
By Skyeblue25
@Skyeblue25 (545)
November 21, 2009 2:46pm CST
This is one of the many questions I was asked at the awareness course event I attended yesterday. I will be honest even though I have a son who is autistic, I would have answered yes before this course.
But its not. It is a developmental disorder caused by biological/physiological or organic/biochemical defects or deficits in the functioning of the brain.
But saying this a huge majority or people who suffer autism will suffer depression, which is a mental illness. This is because of the difficulties they have in the world.
Have you learnt anything new about autism by attending course, training or support groups? If so what?
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2 responses
@Foxxee (3651)
• United States
5 Dec 09
If someone asked me that, I would tell them ASD is not a Mental Disorder & then I would go on to explain the true facts about ASD.
ASD has a range of complex neurodevelopment disorders, characterized by social impairments, communication difficulties, and restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior.
But in some cases, a child with ASD does have a mental disorder, but not all.
Every case is different...
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@Skyeblue25 (545)
•
6 Dec 09
Thats exactly how they explained it in the course I did, though people with ASD are more prone to mental disorders such as depression, because of the difficulties they face, especially in the teenage years. It was quite interesting, but also a fact that the majority of people see ASD as a mental disorder due to the fact it involves the brain. Thanks for the reply
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@dawnald (85146)
• Shingle Springs, California
22 Nov 09
It's probably splitting hairs really. Mental means "of the mind" and most of the issues with autism come from somewhere in the mind (or the brain anyway), I would think. I wonder if the term developmental disorder wasn't developed to keep people from treating people with autism as somehow deficient.
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@Skyeblue25 (545)
•
22 Nov 09
I know and I think it is quite a debate really. Because the definition of a mental disorder is an impairment of the mind, which ASD is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/mental_disorder
But at this event I went to they were certain it is not classed as a mental disorder, but it is closely linked.
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