Growth of Autism Compared to ADHD

I was diagnosed in 1999 with ADHD. This was a fortuitous time as the condition enjoyed a lot of attention compared to other neurological conditions.

By way of example within 3 years in 2002 I attended a massive International ADHD conference with more than 400 medical professionals, hundreds of teachers and even more parents filling every conference venue in the hotel.

Other neurological conditions such as Autism and Aspergers and even Bi-polar faded into tiny fine print if they were on the same page.
For the last few years the same has happened with Autism, there is far more coverage, but probably not as much as ADHD in it´s heyday.

I hear you ask me, ‟is there a point to this comparison?”

Absolutely there is. More than one point in fact.

Firstly and most importantly, there is not nearly enough ‟follow-through.” Yes, a lot more people have some knowledge about the condition, but there are still GP´s who don´t pick it up. I can´t believe i just wrote that!

Secondly, teachers are not taught about ADHD at college. Teachers are second most important people on the planet after parents as they hold our future in their hands. There will be - on average - about 5 - 6 children in a class of 30 who have the condition.

Thirdly, with all these conditions too much focus is put on medication. There are 8 separate treatments - one of which is medication - in my Basic Treatment Wheel for ADHD, with Powerful Affirming Action at the core of each treatment.

Fourthly, the seven non-medication treatments need medication to make them really work and flourish, and if possible - it´s really hard to do - do all of them together.

Autism is different. The focus should be on ADHD and Autism and their co-occurring conditions in equal measure.

There are lots of contributing and causative factors around this state of affairs, and lots of actors and giant monolithic corporations who do not encourage soft therapies such as ADHD Coaching - unless the coach can write a prescription for their product.