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The interwebs. No, seriously. I dealt with poorly thought out diagnoses before the advent of the net, but it seems to have made it easier for the misinformation to spread.
While there are legitimate medical sites (WebMD, etc which do state the site is only to be used for basic reference), you get people twisting/misreading the information, mixing it with wildly incorrect anecdotal 'evidence', and there you have it.
A lot of sites for poorly-understood disorders that can't be pigeonholed get the signs wrong because they're trying to find an easy category to put it in. One of the primary 'official' websites for Aspergers lists all the criteria for low-functioning autism. The organization Autism Speaks takes a telethon approach and doesn't believe than autistic individuals can lead a productive life.
While there are legitimate medical sites (WebMD, etc which do state the site is only to be used for basic reference), you get people twisting/misreading the information, mixing it with wildly incorrect anecdotal 'evidence', and there you have it.
A lot of sites for poorly-understood disorders that can't be pigeonholed get the signs wrong because they're trying to find an easy category to put it in. One of the primary 'official' websites for Aspergers lists all the criteria for low-functioning autism. The organization Autism Speaks takes a telethon approach and doesn't believe than autistic individuals can lead a productive life.
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