Did you know?

Autism is frequently misunderstood by mental health professionals. This is partly because in psychiatry our current diagnoses are labels based on arbitrary lists of symptoms and observations rather than objective findings based in brain science. Modern neuroscience shows that a number of structural and functional brain differences are involved in autism. For example, it has been shown that symptoms can be caused by altered activity in a specific area (e.g., the cerebellum), or altered connection strengths between important brain networks such as the Salience Network, the Default Mode Network , and the Somatosensory Network. The variability in these causes can lead to a wide variation in symptoms.

So what does this mean?

Autistic individuals are frequently over or under diagnosed, or misunderstood, which can lead to significant frustration. Additionally, a better understanding of the cause helps us realize that treatments must be individualized rather than based on a single label.