Oh, for fuck's sake.

[rivka]

Ninety-nine percent of the time, when I'm offensive, (a) I know that I'm being offensive, (b) I'm doing it on purpose, and (c) I'm willing to acknowledge it. This may not be much of a virtue, but sometimes it's all I've got.

In another journal to which I shall not link, a commenter presented the opinion that "autism and ADD are 'massively overdiagnosed.' " When I asked if she had any evidence for this claim, she posted a long set of justifications involving lazy teachers, parents with no discipline skills, venal psychologists, and suggestive idiots who see symptom lists on the internet and become convinced that their child is autistic. Here's the money quote:

what is often diagnosed as autism is more likely a lack of parenting skills combined with a therapist's interest in creating a lucrative "treatment" plan - one that involves "specialists" "drugs" and "group therapy" - all of which line someone's pockets.

My response, I acknowledge, was not at all kind or temperate. I regretted, afterwards, not making the same points in slightly more temperate language. But I am not amused, today, to discover that she made a long self-pitying post in her own journal about how victimized she was by my horrible attack. Because she is never one to make a point offensively, herself. She's very gentle.

If the bit I quoted above is not unbelievably offensive to parents of autistic children and to mental health treatment providers, then I need a new definition for the word. Yes, when I fired back, I was harsh. But I'll be damned if I'm going to accept a version of events in which I am supposed to have fired the first shot.

Comments

[saoba.livejournal.com]

Wow, I feel like such a dupe! For years I've held K's hand while she waited outside various offices and met with doctors and school admistrators trying to find something that would work for her son. I've listened to her cry about his inablity to resond appropriately to emotional interaction. I've actually admired the people who worked like dogs to get him into the programs that allowed him graduate high school and attend the local community college.

I mean, I even believed that there was something wrong with this kid that the adults around him were struggling to fix.

And it turns out it was all about money and bad parenting. Boy, am I gullible.

But shouldn't some of the blame be on the kid? I mean the shifty little devil was exhibiting symptoms at the tender age of two, just to lure me in to the over-diagnosing festival. He probably did it to get those cool drugs, right?

Bah. Offensive may indeed be the applicable description here, but I think it applies to her. And I'm willing to bet your response was more temperate than mine would have been.