Dr. Suzanne O'Sullivan
speaker
271 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Mar 2025
last heard Apr 2025
Dr. Suzanne O'Sullivan’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsNo recordings in the last 12 months.Older appearances are listed below; set an alert to hear about the next one.
Appearances
If they didn't help the children in the family to overcome their difficult behaviors, they would be institutionalized.
be safe in the world and they find it really quite disparaging to have people going be your more authentic autistic self because really what their children need is a lot of support and to learn to control the sort of outbursts that they can sometimes have
I don't want to say to people, well, I don't truly believe that in the very, very mild category, everyone diagnosed with autism really is autistic. I'm not absolutely convinced. However, I don't think that's the most important question that I need to answer. I think the question that needs to be answered is, is it benefiting them to be labelled? Because no one can say where the line between
Being autistic and not autistic is, there is no such line. So it will always be difficult. I want to ask people who support the more inclusive diagnosis, how is it helping people? Because as far as I can see, it's not helping people at all. If it was helping people, we've been expanding the concept of autism since the 1990s. So we're now like a good 30 years into this.
And the story I'm being sold is that, you know, if we can recognize children and give them these diagnosis and give them support, then we'll be creating happier, better adjusted adults. Are we? As far as I know, mental health problems are rising significantly. And there is no evidence at all that giving people with a very borderline diagnosis a medical label is actually helping anybody.
I think it's a little bit more that everyone's desperate for their children to do as well as possible. And they're desperate to do the best for their children. And this at the moment is perceived as a way of doing everything you can for your child because they'll get the maximum amount of help and support possible. First of all, our society is too perfectionist.
You know, this kind of concept that we'll all succeed. Well, we can't all succeed. It's simply not realistic. And the idea that if you try really hard, you will ultimately get the thing you want. Well, it doesn't actually work that way.
Yeah, you need to try really hard. But I was shy. I worked to overcome it. But maybe I might not have managed that at some point. And that's the point you need to recognize. The things you can overcome and the things you can't overcome.
And I think we still have this expectation of our children are struggling in school, that if we get them the maximum amount of help and if we push them hard enough, that they will become the person we believe they can be. And maybe we'd be kinder to our children if we accepted that sometimes... Children are mediocre at certain things. And instead of concentrating on that thing.
I think that's the message that needs to get across to parents is irrespective of what their motivation may be. I think that people perceive diagnosis differently. as at the least something that will help their child. What people are not understanding is that diagnosis is not inert. You don't just diagnose someone and then it's all rainbows and sunshine from then on in.
There'll just be help and nothing bad comes with it. There are substantial harms with giving people a medical label. Other people expect less of them, as you've said. So underestimate them. They underestimate themselves. They become more aware of the symptoms. Like no one ever said to me, You're very shy. I was just aware of it.
But perhaps if you have these things pointed out to you and pathologized, you become more aware of it and kind of dig into it. So I think a parent may be well-meaning. We as a society must find a way of supporting children without labels. And parents who seek out labels for their children must understand what a dangerous thing that is to do, to label your child at such a young age.
I just think this is a really powerful story to teach us about how your experience of your body is altered about beliefs about your health. So Huntington's disease is a degenerative condition. It's very, very unpleasant. It usually begins in someone's 30s or 40s with psychiatric symptoms and behavioral changes. It's a neurodegenerative condition. So you get frontal lobe symptoms like
Impulse control. And then you start getting involuntary movements. They're called choreoform movements, like funny writhing movements. And then ultimately you lose control of your speech and of your swallow. So you have both a psychiatric decline and you have a physical decline. It's an inherited condition. And they discovered the gene for Huntington's in 1994, I think it was.
If your parent has a Huntington's disease gene, then you have a 50-50 chance of getting it. I think this is a fascinating concept because there are people walking around knowing that they have a 50-50 chance of getting this disease and knowing that there is a test that they can get that will tell them whether they have it or they don't have it.
And of all those people who could have that test, only about 10 or 20 percent of people actually have the test.
They have this opportunity to know this enormous part of their health future and they don't take it up. I spoke to a lady called Valentina. Her mother was adopted, so didn't know this was in the family. Valentina was 28 and pregnant when she discovered her mom had Huntington's disease. So the minute she discovered that, she knew she had a 50-50 chance of getting it.
And she knew that her unborn child had a 25% chance of getting it. Obviously, it was devastating. She had siblings who had children. The family were very anxious and their first impulse was to think they would be tested. They met genetic counselors and then it was pointed out to them that the minute you test, your whole life changes if it's positive and it's a devastating diagnosis.
So they put it off. Now, what happened to Valentin in the following years is although she hadn't tested, she became absolutely convinced she had Huntington's disease. She could just tell she had it. Organization problems and anxiety and anger outbursts are common at the beginning of Huntington's disease.
She began having arguments with her husband or if she went to the airport, she couldn't organize her documents. If she was walking, she'd walk into walls. So she was aware that her symptoms were accruing. But she was frightened to have the test, to have it confirmed. Because the minute it was confirmed for her, her children were at a much higher risk.
Showing 201–220 of 271 · page 11 of 14
← Previous
Next →