Why do people act like Aspergers is a race?

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To the OP, were you diagnosed when you were young and in school, by any chance?

It's sad, because so many kids with mental conditions slip through the cracks in school. Though you can name a whole slew of conditions that are overlooked, this one in particular is AS.

It's nice to have an adult spot you out from a crowd and recognize something from a psychology textbook so you can go get tested. Testing tends to be free when done within the public school system.

This. Some of us have been trying to figure out what's up with ourselves for years upon years, and then find a theory that encompasses more laws of the known universe than any other theory that they have found. When you see that all the pieces fit, it's a pretty safe bet. That's all any therapist or mental health professional would do. Very few people are textbook cases of any condition. All they try to do is find a diagnosis that most accurately describes the behaviors and characteristics of their patient. Those of us who have spent years trying to untangle all the knots in our heads have only had one case to study. So, when a conclusion is reached in this manner, it is very likely going to be the right one.

Still, I understand what you are saying. I am reluctant to describe myself as self-diagnosed. I wouldn't tell anyone that I have AS. I would be willing to say that I have considered the possibility that I may have AS or be on the spectrum. I have already told my mother this, and sought the opinion of my ex on the subject. But even with an official diagnosis, I would say that it is the opinion of my psychologist/psychiatrist/social worker/whatever the case may be that I have a form of xyz. No matter what the diagnosis was. You can ask 100 different mental health professionals the same question and get dozens of different answers. There's no one right answer. You are who you are, and one descriptor will fit you more accurately than another from time to time. It doesn't mean you have something or you are anything, just because it's one person's or another's opinion. People too readily absorb labels as part of their identity.

Oh, there goes another tangent.



The more humble you can make yourself the more immune you will be to humiliation.

Last edited by njones0100 on 06 Jun 2012, 9:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

This site is the place I feel most comfortable and able to be myself. I've never been a part of a real world or online community where I felt I instantly fit. I still remember my first few posts being responded to positively as though people knew what I was talking about. It was very relieving.
As for being a race I think that's pretty dumb even if it is determined by several or even hundreds of autism gene alleles. Even the so called races like African, European and Asian don't hold up genetically if you look at the human genome.

On the contrary as an aspie I feel more like this [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OCwb4VsL2M[/youtube]

Yes, exactly. I wouldn't call it a race, but a culture. When a group of people are rejected by their dominant culture they often organize and form an alternative culture. It is very human. The only reason it is not more pronounced is that an ASD person often has social difficulties. A web search of "autistic culture" would explain some of this. It is very human to want to belong to a group and associate with others like themselves.

I will add to the above, in my case, I spent 12 years as a mental health counselor, including job coach for severely autistic, and I know my way around the block.

Potatoes are also very economical -- around here, a 10# bag of Idaho Russets is about $5. I splurge a bit and get some shredded cheddar (or other cheap cheese) to top them with. I still get the fake butter with the omega3's though -- gotta have priorities.

reasons why I am not planning to seek an official diagnosis:

* It's expensive
* It might cause future problems with medical insurance.
* Finding someone qualified, or even able, to diagnose a _52_year_old_ _woman_ who has been able to hold a job for up to 10 years straight will be a problem unto itself.
* Most "experts" require childhood history from the parents - to prove that the traits have been present since birth. While it does make sense since Autism is neurological, it does pose quite a problem for those who were not diagnosed while young. Both my folks are dead, and being the eldest, there is nobody left alive that remembers my childhood with any clarity. My only sibling is four and a half years younger -- even his earliest recollections will be too late.
* There are no programs for senior Aspies
* there is no prescription medication for Asperger's -- should I find need something for one of the symptoms, like depresion, insomnia or anxiety, or focusing on something outside my current special interests, I can get the prescription for that particular symptom far more easily.
* Given the state of "modern" medicine, and my basic opinion thereof, having an expert agree with me will not make me any more certain, nor will the expert disagreeing with me make me any less certain.

I also self-diagnosed hypo-thyroid, but needed prescription meds to manage, so got an official diagnosis -- That was back in 2004. The meds have made a world of difference.

Thanks for the comment. I have a very intense interest in human nutrition, so I know that my diet is in the gutter right now, and I know from personal observation and experience how sh***y I feel when my diet starts going downhill, even for a day. I had a supply of highly digestible vitamins which I turn to when I don't have good nutrients coming from my food, but my roommates seem to have enjoyed them before I could... (I actually did a post on that here).

I applied for food stamps, even though I hate asking for help. I hope that I'll get something from that. I am really bad about asking for help; I want to do everything myself.

I also have some cheese and crackers that I've been using for protein/carb/fat. Cooking is another special interest of mine, so I've been creative with the few cans of beans I have in the pantry. And I get paid today, so even though it's going to be less than a hundred dollars and I still have to pay a few bills it will be enough to go out and get a couple of groceries!

I don't WANT aspergers, but at the same time I am sorta glad that I'm different, even though it causes difficulties sometimes too...

As for the self diagnosis thing... I'm 26. I think I was like 8 before there even was an aspergers diagnosis. I never had the opportunity to go to a therapist/psychiatrist/whatever. And now that I'm over 21, I'm no longer on my parents' health insurance. And I sure as hell can't afford to go get a diagnosis now with what I make working at friggin' pizza hut. Despite all of this though, Aspergers makes a f**kton of sense for me. I've ALWAYS been and felt very very different. People always misinterpret what I'm saying. I'm terrible with any kind of non-verbal communication. I've always had sensory issues, specifically with sound and deciphering exactly what someone said. So many times in my life, someone will say something like "pass me the loaf of bread," and I'll hear something that makes absolutely no sense or that I know there's no way they would have actually said, like "Smack that oaf in the head." Like, what I hear will completely rhyme with what they actually said, but I know it's wrong. It's like I hear the vowels, and my brain just incorrectly fills in the consenants. There's a lot more to it than this, but basically I started talking to people with aspergers, and I started reading about their experiences and whatnot, and a great deal of it sounds like someone could be reading a page from my daily diary... except I never wrote one. I might not specifically have aspergers, but I know I'm somewhere on the spectrum. I don't need a doctor to tell me that there are differences between me and most people.

I'm self-diagnosed. Before knowing about Asperger I knew quite well how I think. The AS just gave it a name. It didn't tell me nothing I didn't know by then.

Why am I not interested in a official/medical diagnose?. Well, known the state of the art right now about Autism and AS, for any adult person the medical advice is just useless. There's no medication and nobody really knows how and why it happens. I found a theory, today, explaing the AS 'lack of empathy' as a real 'overcharge of feelings'. It's just a theory, right now. But it means that, for example, no professional is able to say if I'm supposed to feel more or less than 'normal' people... and this person is supposed to give me advice??? Damn, it's like somebody who doesn't know where he is, neither where it's the North neither the South telling you the route. Seriously?

Some more years of investigation are needed before they can really help people.

I have read a few books about AS last months. I found some of them very useful and inspiring. None of them was written by a NT psychologist neither a NT psychiatrist, but by people with AS. NT people (professional ones included) try to handle AS in terms of standard psychology, which is absolutelly wrong.

I'm sorry, but if I had a meeting with a psychologist, it should be me the one to be payed. Because I can understand the NT standard psychology much better than he can understand AS psychology. So it's very likely that I could advice him much better than he could advice me.

Pine needle tea
http://www.practicalprimitive.com/skill ... letea.html

A professional is someone people go to because their training and experience give weight to their claim that they are qualified. It is unfortunate that this is not always true. It is also untrue that not being a professional makes you unqualified.

A discussion forum is by definition a group/social thing so you are going to see social behaviour occur on it and the types of aspie/undiagnosed aspie that come onto it will be mainly people looking to communicate with others ie interact in a social manner. The moment you get social interaction, whoever is doing it, you will then start to get social hierarchies form, as people will tend to want to interact more with people they feel they have something in common with, hence the likelihood of cliques forming. This idea of people with Aspergers being above petty social hierarchical behaviour is unrealistic. There will always be a 'norm' of expected behaviour and you transverse it at your peril on ANY forum.

Then of course there's the wide variety of types of people on here - some are very sociable and very NT in their outlook and behaviour so of course they will be more likely to exhibit more typical social behaviour and judge others who exhibit less. There's even NTs on here but I think they tend to be a bit more inhibited and only generally come here for advice from what I've seen.

This will now be disputed by all the people who's clique I'm not in

After I read through a few books written by people who actually had autism/asperger's I was shocked. I had never felt so understood. I never realized that there were people out there that thought like I did. That grew up like I did, trying to make sense of everything and struggling with self-esteem because they couldn't "get it" like everyone else. I had never been able to describe myself so eloquently as when I described my thoughts and actions through the lens of asperger's/autism.

I don't want to have it. I just want something that explains who I am. I relate to the problems that people have on this forum, but I don't have AS or ASD as it is described in the DSV IV. My therapist says I have Social anxiety Disorder. My pill doctor says I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Double Depression. There is no "lens" through which I can look and see me making sense. If I do envy people with AS or ASD, it is because they are not a loose bundle of neurotic maladies without anything to explain them.

When I was a child, I was diagnosed with Dyslexia. My parents chose not to share that with me, as they thought I would use it as an excuse to fail. So for a long time I felt I was weird, stupid. When I was finally told, I started to make sense, I wasn't the only one and others had experienced the same thing. Now I am not even sure Dyslexia was the problem. I have no faith it the people who are supposed to know. I have seen over a dozen therapists in my life, and each one had a different idea of what was wrong with me.

Just maybe, there is nothing wrong with me.

I'm sure there is something wrong with you. Obviously what I mean is that if you think there is something wrong then I think you are right. You are the best placed person to know how you think and feel. Just because there isn't a name (or you don't know what the name is) doesn't mean it isn't real. I'm not surprised you have lost faith, I hope one day you find the answers you are looking for.