I was disappointed to see this article in Evangelical Times. The article was titled, ‘dubious diagnoses: disease creation’. It went on, in its opening paragraph, to talk about autism, which it refers to as a ‘real illness’ that has ‘become massively over-diagnosed’. There’s quite a bit to unpack right here.

First, autism is not a disease nor an illness. It is a lifelong neurological condition. That is to say, autism is part of who a person is. It is not a disease to be treated nor an illness to be eradicated. The NHS puts it this way:

Being autistic does not mean you have an illness or disease. It means your brain works in a different way from other people.

It’s something you’re born with. Signs of autism might be noticed when you’re very young, or not until you’re older.

If you’re autistic, you’re autistic your whole life.

Autism is not a medical condition with treatments or a “cure”. But some people need support to help them with certain things.

Couching autism under the heading of ‘disease creation’ is deeply unhelpful and not a little misleading.

Second, it is particularly disheartening to read the oft-trotted line that autism is being ‘over-diagnosed’. According to the British Medical Association, it is estimated that around 700,000 people in the UK have autism, including one in 100 children with a diagnosis of ASD. To put that into some kind of perspective, the British Heart Foundation insist over 7.6 million people in the UK live with heart and circulatory diseases. Nobody seems to argue that heart conditions are being over-diagnosed despite the fact that they vastly outstrip ASD diagnosis by over 10 times as much!

Third, it bears saying that anybody who has been through the process of receiving an ASD diagnosis knows these things are not handed out like sweets. My wife and I consider ourselves some of the lucky ones. Our son was diagnosed with ASD and the entire process took several years, with multiple visits to doctors, multiple assessment in school, specific diagnostic tests in hospital and diagnostic assessment from a multiplicity of doctors with different specialisms. It was not a matter of turning up to a child psychologist and being given a certificate on the day! As it happens, when we first raised the issue via school, our assumption was that our son may have dyspraxia and nothing more (as it happens, it turns out he has this too). It was the doctors who – having met my son several times – determined he should be put on the autism pathway for an ASD diagnosis. It was several years before that diagnosis was granted.

As I say, we consider ourselves among the lucky ones. We did not push for a diagnosis and our son was not causing us many problems, we were just aware of certain difficulties he was having. There are others for whom the autism displayed in their children is much more challenging and yet, story after story I hear, the fight to get a diagnosis is incredibly difficult. Within my own church, we have at least four autistic children, all different, all delightful in their own way. Some were non-verbal for a long time others were not, some face significant anxiety issues others less so, some have other neurological conditions such as ADHD and dyspraxia whilst others do not. The respective experiences of the parents in getting diagnoses for their children varied wildly. Whatever else this might tell us, it does not scream an overly willing attitude on the part of doctors to vastly and readily increase the number of diagnoses.

I have, for some time now, been an advocate for those with depressive illnesses. Having suffered from depression on and off for the best part of 20 years, and continuing to be medicated for it now, I am only too aware of how it feels when you have a serious issue that some refuse to believe is real just because nobody can see it. Now, as the parent of a child with a diagnosis of ASD, I am painfully aware of how he may be treated because he has a disorder that cannot be seen which nevertheless affects his ability to function like everyone else. I am grateful to belong to a church where such things have never been at issue, where there are others in the same boat and for the increase in understanding in schools such that – whilst for many these things are nowhere near what they ought to be – our experience is that matters are far better than anything that would have existed when I was at school!

That is what makes me so sad to read headlines like the one in Evangelical Times. It peddles myths and perpetuates the distrust that has dogged SEND (Special Education Needs & Disabilities) families and will impact on those with conditions like ASD. I think the article was deeply unhelpful, will not serve the church and will inevitably impact our ability to welcome and support families where neurological conditions are at play.