An old article on the BBC website relating to the story of Sean Honeysett, a man who was wrongly diagnosed as being mentally ill, highlights the importance of ongoing research and study into autism and mental illness. Sean suffers from Asperger’s syndrome (a form of autism), but he was wrongly diagnosed as being mentally ill when he was a teenager, and consequently didn’t receive the appropriate treatment or support for his condition. This lead to frequent spells in and out of psychiatric units, prison and also several suicide attempts. Sean’s story is a heartbreaking one, but it highlights the importance of accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment and care for sufferers of autism.
The article can be found here.
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