Stop The Misdiagnosing Of Neurodivergents
ast...@yahoo.com
Stop The Misdiagnosing of Neurodivergents
I feel that psychiatrists and other mental health professionals need
to consider learning disabilities when patients have mental health
problems. I have a long history of anxiety and depression,and not one
single mental health professional even considered that I had learning
disabilities. I believe that there should be screening for learning
disabilities in people with mental health problems...especially if
they have a history of low self esteem, insecurity,hypersensitivity to
criticism that includes feelings of intellectual inadequacy.
Psychiatrists really need to have their patients tested
psychologically and neurologically in order to differentiate learning
disabilities from psychiatric disorders.
Poor coordination,left/right confusion,memory
issues,disorganization,and speech irregularities are not just symptoms
of psychotic disorders but they are also symptoms of learning
disabilities. It was these issues that got me misdiagnosed as a
schizoaffective bipolar in 1999 by psychiatrists after my visiting
you. They never did any psychological testing nor neurological
testing.
Aspergers is listed as one of the conditions misdiagnosed Bipolar in
the book,THE BIPOLAR CHILD by The Definitive and Reassuring Guide to
Childhood's Most Misunderstood Disorder by Demitri Papolos M.D.,
Janice Papolos, Janice Papolos,Janice Papolos. I actually copied the
characteristics of Bipolar children and gave alternative explanations
that could be linked to neurodivergent conditions. One of the common
characteristics of bipolar children listed in the book was learning
disabilities which pretty much supports my belief that a lot of
learning disabled are getting diagnosed as having bipolar. One of the
very common characteristics of bipolar are oversensitivity to
environmental influences,and learning disabled people are highly
sensitive. How many learning disabled children act out,
misbehave,throw temper tantrums,lash out,pout,and/or cry because they
are frustrated,stressed,angry,irritable,and overwhelmed from problems
with processing information that leads to being
misunderstood,teased,ridiculed,and criticized. A whole lot. I
definitely was no different. Where is the common sense in regards to
learning disabled children having secondary psychological symptoms? It
just seems like there is very little of it. Learning disabled children
grow up to be learning disabled adults,and many of them have secondary
psychological problems. I definitely was no different. There is
definitely a significant overlap between learning disabilities and
mental health problems.
Children with learning disabilities are prone to chronic depression.
Older adolescents and adults tend to become withdrawn. They may be
quiet or become agitated, irritable, and angry; they may also look sad
and talk about their sadness. Young children, on the other hand, tend
to exhibit non-verbal clues and express their emotional struggles more
by their behavior than by talking. A major depression typically lasts
several weeks and may be intense. Mild chronic depression (dysthymia)
may last for an extended period of time and frequently appears to be
an aspect of a child's usual moods and personality.
http://www.ldanatl.org/aboutld/parents/mental_health/depression.asp
Learning Disabilities Association of America
There's all sorts of research in the field to suggest and support the
concomitance of learning disabilities and mental health problems.
Several recent studies show that 50% of individuals diagnosed with
learning disabilities have scores above the clinical range on a well
known depression scale. One thing we know is that attentional problems
are a common feature of both. Another study summary says, Teachers
have long known and reported that students with learning disabilities
at lower educational levels have similar but more, and more severe,
depression, than their peers without learning disabilities. There's no
reason to think this link disappears with age. In fact, it becomes
more urgent. And the stakes are higher. Failure to remediate at this
adult stage has more serious consequences.
http://dyslexia.mtsu.edu/modules/articles/displayarticle.jsp?id=17
About 75 percent of dropouts have trouble reading, according to
research conducted by Reid Lyon of the National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development. About half of adolescents with criminal
records and substance abuse histories have reading problems, according
to a study published by the National Institutes of Health in 2001.
http://www.hopelit.com/Star-telegram.htm
Social Skills Deficits in Learning Disabilities:The Psychiatric
Comorbidity Hypothesis
http://suicideandmentalhealthassociationinternational.org/mentpsych.html
For some the humiliation becomes too much. In one study, Peck found
that over 50 percent of all suicides under age fifteen in Los Angeles
County had been previously diagnosed as having learning disabilities.
The actual percentage of youngsters labeled "learning disabled" in
most school districts in the United States is below 5 percent;
therefore, it seems clear that youngsters with learning disabilities
constitute a disproportionately large percentage of adolescent
suicides compared with the general adolescent population.
Results from a study in the U.S.A. by the National Center for State
Courts demonstrated that youths with LD were 200 percent more likely
to be arrested than nondisabled peers for comparable offences.
According to the U.S. Department of Education 60 percent of America's
prison inmates are illiterate and 85 percent of all juvenile offenders
have reading problems.
http://www.audiblox.com/learning_disabilities.htm
Social and Emotional Problems Related to Dyslexia
Depression is also a frequent complication in dyslexia. Although most
dyslexics are not depressed, children with this kind of learning
disability are at higher risk for intense feelings of sorrow and pain.
Perhaps because of their low self-esteem, dyslexics are afraid to turn
their anger toward their environment and instead turn it toward
themselves.
However, depressed children and adolescents often have different
symptoms than do depressed
adults. The depressed child is unlikely to be lethargic or to talk
about feeling sad. Instead he or she may become more active or
misbehave to cover up the painful feelings. In the case of masked
depression, the child may not seem
obviously unhappy. However, both children and adults who are depressed
tend to have three similar characteristics:
▪ First, they tend to have negative thoughts about themselves, i.e. a
negative self-image.
▪ Second, they tend to view the world negatively. They are less likely
to enjoy the positive experiences in life. This makes it difficult for
them to have fun.
▪ Finally, most depressed youngsters have great trouble imagining
anything positive about the future. The depressed dyslexic not only
experiences great pain in his present experiences, but also foresees a
life of continuing failure.
http://www.interdys.org/FactSheets.htm
Children with both dyslexia and ADD are at dramatically increased risk
for substance abuse and felony convictions if they do not receive
appropriate interventions.
http://www.dys-add.com/nowknow.html
ADHD and Antipsychotic Drugs
Studies conducted at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn.,
suggest that the drugs are routinely prescribed for attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=61845
More research needed
There has been little carefully controlled, long-term research on
children taking most psychiatric drugs, including the atypical
antipsychotics. The FDA is trying to get more pediatric research on
the atypicals, says Thomas Laughren, the agency's director of the
psychiatry products division.
The FDA has asked five pharmaceutical companies that make the drugs to
test them in children with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, the
uses they're approved for in adults. Under law, they can get a six-
month extension on their patents for doing these studies.
Also, the drug companies are doing their own pediatric studies on
children with disorders as diverse as ADHD, autism, conduct disorder
and Tourette's syndrome.
Janssen LP has applied to the FDA for approval to use its atypical
antipsychotic, Risperdal, in the treatment of symptoms of autism, says
Ramy Mahmoud, vice president of medical affairs for Janssen.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-05-01-adult-antipsychotics-kids_x.htm
July 1, 2005 -- The antipsychotic drug Risperdal may cut aggressive
behavior in children with autism.
That effect was reported in The American Journal of Psychiatry.
Researchers including James McCracken, MD, of the University of
California at Los Angeles (UCLA), studied Risperdal and autism.
http://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/news/20050701/antipsychotic-drug-may-help-kids-with-autism
Could a lot of Schizophrenics be actually misdiagnosed
Dylsexics,Dyspraxics,ADHDers,Aspergers? I believe so!
Patients with schizophrenia are likely to have problems reading,
reveals a study that shows some may even have impairments similar to
those seen in patients with dyslexia.
http://www.patienthealthinternational.com/ncm.aspx?type=news¶m=14509
The ability to recognize objects is a fundamental cognitive task in
every sensory modality, e.g., for friend/foe discrimination, social
communication, reading, or hearing, and its loss or impairment is
associated with a number of neural disorders (e.g., in autism,
dyslexia, or schizophrenia).
http://neuro.georgetown.edu/faculty/riesenhuber.htm
History: Most children who develop schizophrenia have disturbances of
behavior and cognition prior to the onset of characteristic symptoms
of psychosis. Delays in speech and language and delays in acquisition
of motor milestones are noted in approximately one half of these
children. Children who develop schizophrenia have higher rates of
impaired social skills and school achievement prior to presenting
signs of schizophrenia
http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic2057.htm
(Delays in Speech and language are signs of Dyslexia,Dyspraxia,and
Autism. Delays in acquisition of motor milestones are signs of
Dyspraxia. Impaired social skills are signs of Aspergers,Autistics.
Impaired school achievement is common in
Dyslexics,Dyspraxics,ADHDers.)
Language Disorder In Schizophrenia As A Developmental Disorder by Ruth
Condray
Language disorder is increasingly understood to be an important
characteristic of schizophrenia. The
hypothesis advanced here is that receptive language disorder in
schizophrenia represents a learning
disorder that involves a neurodevelopmental etiology. It is argued
that receptive language disorder may
involve a preexisting developmental reading disorder for a subgroup of
schizophrenia patients. Whether the
language disorder of schizophrenia is equivalent,phenotypically and
etiologically, to the language
disorder of dyslexia is an open question. Although schizophrenia and
dyslexia are separate clinical
disorders, independent lines of evidence are suggestive of parallels
between their hallmark features,
cognitive dysfunction, and potential pathophysiology.
http://66.218.69.11/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=language+disorder+in+schizophrenia+as+developmental+learning+disorder+ruth+condray&y=Search&fr=yfp-t-501&u=www.wpic.pitt.edu/research/biometrics/Publications/Biometrics%2520Archives%2520PDF/890-2005%2520Condary%2520Sz%2520Res%2520Lang%2520Disord.pdf&w=language+disorder+disorders+schizophrenia+developmental+learning+disorder+ruth+condray&d=C42Ma_L9PnCY&icp=1&.intl=us
I created a petition to stop the misdiagnosing of neurodivergents and
prevent the unnecessary medicating which can cause serious damage on
an emotional and physical level. This would involving having
psychiatrists to have their patients undergo psychological and
neurological testing and not just go by observations. You can't judge
a book by its cover.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stop-the-misdiagnosing-of-neurodivergents
Raymond Andrews
member of International Dyslexia Association,Learning Disability
Association,The Dyslexia Foundation, National Association for the
Education of African American Children with Learning Disabilities and
donate to National Center of Learning Disabilities,Hello Friend/Ennis
Cosby Foundation and The National Center for Learning Disabilities