Hoping to get some opinions on my sister's odd ideas

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These things: "The reason she was in special education was because of her behavioral issues. A few months after we started going to school, she chased me and tackled me at recess, and I was screaming the whole time. I heard that her teacher actually quit after that year. She once was lying on the floor in the school hallway mumbling about Neopets. She was still biting people even after a year of going to school. One time she bit this boy at Kindercare when he didn't even do anything wrong."

As I said in my OP, she was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome when she was 12. There's a book called the DSM that's used to diagnose mental disorders. There have been five editions so far. The DSM-4 listed Asperger's syndrome as being a separate diagnosis from autism (but it was considered part of the autism spectrum). But in the DSM-5, which was published in 2013, it's all just autism spectrum. Professionals would say she has autism, and she says she has autism, and even our dad says she has autism (even though he was very unhappy at first about the changes in the DSM-5), so I say she has autism. As for the cause of the behaviors I described, they were probably at least partly caused by being physically abused. Being abused really hurts a kid. I've done my research, since my sister and I were physically abused my our mom for two or three years (it was a completely inappropriate punishment for us not doing our schoolwork). Then she was abused by the special education system, and I was emotionally abused by our dad from sixth grade until I came to live with my grandparents after ninth grade. Abuse can definitely affect a kid's behavior in that way, even if they don't have autism. I imagine it was probably a combination of the two factors.

Yeah, she's definitely well over that threshold. She thinks it has nothing to do with IQ. But she also thought that IQ was a measurement of how good you are at memorization and blindly doing whatever teachers tell you to do instead of thinking for yourself. As someone with a higher IQ than 99% of the population, I got very offended and explained what IQ actually is, but I'm not certain she believed me, and I'm afraid to ask because it could lead to an argument and I really don't want to have to deal with that because she can be really mean during an argument.

I like the statement about autism/Asperger's not having someone and the one about the future just beginning. I like to borrow a statement from Denis Istomin-"I'm here now." Those statements sound positive and hopeful for the future.

I agree. Yes, autism is a disability, but that doesn't mean that there isn't any hope.

That was actually kind of a response to some ads from 10 years ago. They were about autism, Asperger's, ADHD, depression, OCD, and bulimia. The ones about depression and bulimia were fine, but the others were very offensive. Here are links to the ones about autism and Asperger's:
http://photobucket.com/gallery/user/dkm ... OQ==/?ref=
http://photobucket.com/gallery/user/dkm ... Mw==/?ref=

Oh no, Asperger's/autism "has me." Somebody help .

Um, in case this wasn't clear, my sister thinks that autism is a variation in functioning, not a disability.

Autism is more than just a difference, it's a disability.

It depends on the person.

For some people with autism, it is a disability. For others, it's a "variation in functioning" only.

The functioning of people with autism varies WIDELY.

True, but if it's a clinical case, I would consider it a disability because it is classified as one. It does vary widely, though, and some are much more disabled than others. But it has to be clinically significant to be diagnosed, so to me that means that it is a disability that affects that person's quality of life. I could be comp!etelty wrong, though . I'm still learning.

You're right. In order to be diagnosed with autism, it has to affect you to a "disabling" extent. It doesn't have to be severe, though. One could still function fairly well and still be diagnosed with autism.

There is a provision, however, which states that if one was affected rather severely by autism when young, but is better-functioning now as an adult---that the person still could be diagnosed with autism, even if the person is not affected to a "disabling" extent.

Yeah, that's definitely what I think. It doesn't have to be severe, but it should be to a disabling/clinically significant extent. Of course kids who had more severe autism but function better as an adult can still be diagnosed!

This has been one of my pet peeves now, if anyone thinks autism isn't a disability I think of these two things; 1) they don't really have it because you have to be impaired to have it and no one wouldn't call it a disability if they were impaired and if it didn't impact their life 2) very strong denial there and would rather blame their problems on everyone and have it be everyone else's fault.

If autism was not a disability, then they wouldn't fall under ADA or for the IEP and even qualify for it and wouldn't need accomodations to get the education they need or to be able to function in life or even at work and they wouldn't even qualify for SSDI because after all autism is a difference right and just another way of thinking?


I would have to be delusional to think I don't have a disability because what the f**k am I doing on SSDI then and working for a company that employs people with disabilities? What kind of logic is that?

Its the anxiety which is the killer, the other stuff is just a pain and I learned to mask most of it (by keeping my big fat mouth shout and being over polite) I lost my last 3 jobs because of my autism (poor organisation and planning, being too honest and some poor personal interactions, you know the stuff, taking over people, interrupting, talking about what I want to talk about)

I am starting to contradict myself here so I will shut up, I just don't like though of being disabled, but when you start to write it down...

My life would fall apart without my wife. I have never paid a bill or sorted out any real life stuff, like taxing the car or paying rent in my life.

I think the one thing we are all agreed on is we need some slack cutting

Years ago, I would have said it did have me to some extent. I did fine academically, but I was socially isolated, didn't drive and suffered from anxiety. Today, things are much different. I am still different and still working to make up for lost time, but things seem to be looking up.