Down with labeling people!

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I label everything and everyone, given enough time I'll probably label each and every one of you aswell. It helps me make sense of the world.

Just because some people fail to grasp the purpose of labels or missuse them, doesn't mean we should dismiss them. You can blame the label(s) you were given, you can ignore them or you can accept them. In the end they will still be there. You're labeled the second someone lays eyes on you and nothing can change that.

If you wish to fight your label(s) be prepared for a long and fruitless struggle.

I dont like to label anybody, but to get a diagnosis lead to further help for me, lead to be able to fix my life alittle better, my old diagnosis's and labels just left me being seen as slow and mentally challenged basically seen a nothing to society, now i'm apart of something in world. I dont go around celebrating it, but I do go around bringing awareness and do go around trying to find ways to better my life thanks to the diagnosis. I do agree though some diagnosis's and labels can be dangerous and misleading to a person, especially when i was labelled mentally ret*d, didn't help me at all in this world, was jsut another slap on the face that i was slower then everybody else, i didnt need to hear that, didn't open any possibilities either, just was another label and therefore I was pitied from anybody who know that label of me. I dont need pity but do need the extra help I got with my autism diagnosis. Anyways just my 2 cents hehe.

Labeling someone a "type" like they do in Japan where everything and everyone is "chibi", "jani-jani" or whatever, based on appearence and/or personality is totally different from giving people clinical labels and having society refer to them according to a rule book.

I also label people intuitively, because of who they are, like "quirky, sexually weak academic" or "stupid, self-centered suburb Adonis" or "self destructive club whore" or "happy oblivious balance seeker" etc. These are just how I see their personality type. It's not a clinical diagnosis.

In the case of AS, not everyone with it have the same personalities but the diagnosis is used universally and most people start labeling those diagnosed because of that and not based on what their real personalities are like. In fact, the real personality is usually overlooked in favor of instruction books for clinical AS. This suffocates and reduces people to nothing, they aren't allowed to be seen for who they are. It's worse for children and underage people where adults can control their lives completely. These people are stripped of their identity and viewed as soulless vessels for AS, nothing more.

So, imo, there's a huge difference between an intelligent and observant person labeling someone as "introvert" and someone abusing the medical diagnosis AS as a universal label.

I have also been very successful at fighting my AS label in my outside life. No one I meet label me as AS unless they heard of the diagnosis. Quite a few people I grew up with have heard of it but even many of those just think of me as "special", based on personal experience of me, rather than "AS". They seem to ignore the AS stereotype which I'm happy for. So I'm not labeled as much as I'm traumatized by having been forcefully labeled and overlooked by adults as a child.

A doctor and school teachers labeled me AS, many normal people label me "drama queen", "wacko", "psychopath" etc. When a label comes from the heart I can accept it, not when it's a clinical categorization of me as a person.

I have to agree whole heartedly with this sentiment and this has certainly been my experience. I was one of those children.

It is kind of sick really.

I could genuinely understand if someone can be respected for who they are and receive help.

I have nothing against people receiving the help they need at all.

What I am against is others demonising labeled people (which isn't exactly that hard for them to do given that the implicit cultural meanings of many labels are negative) and seeing them for the negative traits they have. Ignoring the positive ones.

It's like someone has taken all the quirks of your personality and twisted them in such a way as to suggest that you are "defective" or "not up to standard".

It's dehumanising.

I think the folks who originally made up phrases such as "Attention Deficit Disorder" didn't mean for this to be a compliment. It was to label someone who was a "problem" for society.

Just look at the words "deficit" and "disorder".

I'm not denying that people don't have difficulties that need help with.
It's just the persistent focussing on the negative that I really don't understand.

One could label me as "short-sighted" and I don't have a problem with this fairly neutral, medical description.

It's far less stigmatising than saying that I have "Eye-Sight Deficit Disorder" or AS "Disorder".

Last edited by AmberEyes on 27 May 2009, 9:09 am, edited 2 times in total.

I was going to say exactly the same, it seems that AmberEyes is the ONLY user,other than me, in the whole WP that understands that there's a possibility (a huge possibility) that AS might be just a social ineptitude or mild personality disorder.Despite some evidences, there's no scientific proof for its existence (and the fMRI tests are not that reliable) and even if it exists still there's no scientific way to know whether this person has AS or just unusual personality.


Epilepsy is a purely physical condition and there's nothing cool to run around and scream "Hey.I am epileptic! Cool!"

That's why I would advise people not to disclose their AS diagnosis unless they are sure the stigma won't cause them any harm. It's especially true if you pass for NT. If you can pass for NT why would you want to be labeled as something other than NT? I think AS has a lot of negative stigmas attached that outweigh the good of talking openly about the diagnosis. For one thing, when people hear you have something that (supposedly) diminishes your capacity to feel empathy, they won't want to work with you. They won't want you to be hired and if the one doing the hiring knows about AS they will toss your application aside. If they don't know about AS and read about it later, their attitude toward you could change. They might want to get rid of you. They may become antagonistic.
I wouldn't advise putting it on a resume, either. That's only if you can pass for NT.

If you are too quirky or stubborn to be NT, I would only tell someone if I were absolutely sure something good would come out of it. Around here, I tell no one. I talk about it on WP because it's a place to talk about such matters, but I don't disclose anything that's really personal or can identify me exclusively. I have found, most times, RL isn't really the place.

Last edited by ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo on 27 May 2009, 9:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

Inconclusive tests; so inconclusive that it is quite acceptable to diagnose epilepsy when the results from the test do not indicate epilepsy.

I was handily given seizure medication as a child based on observable behaviour rather than an EEG.

Imaging studies can accurately diagnose AS and AD [with behavioural evidence included], it's just that there's no need to as the behaviour is easy enough to spot, and there's really nothing else like it.

"Autistic behaviour" only has a few types of differentials.

I agree that it is human nature to categorize. It helps us simplify our world so that we don't get overwhelmed trying to process anyone and everyone. On some level, we do this all of the time to preserve sanity.

For instance, if you want to label me as an arse, there really isn't a lot that I can do to change your mind. Then again, if labeling me an arse justifies my entire personality to you, chances are we will not ever be able to have an engaging conversation with each other. While that is a fact of life, it's still a missed opportunity to engage in open dialog.

EDIT: Additionally, if I accept my "arse" label from you and justify being an arse to you because of that label, that's even more dangerous.

That is especially true for "borderline" cases such as myself. At its core, AS is a collection of symptoms. You could argue that the cutoff line for AS is somewhat arbitrary, though the line was probably drawn where the symptom count and intensity constitute a disorder condition (rather than just an existence condition).

Since it is a syndrome, the causes of AS between individuals could be quite different. Treatment of AS involves coping with and mitigating the effects of the syndrome.

I have no idea what others read into the label but my aspie label was the most useful and helpful thing that ever happened to me and for that reason I was happy to receive it.

If others are going to use that label to understand my challenges, great, if they are going to use it against me, then its a disadvantage; not clear cut in reality though is it.

Can you go into a little more detail? I'm honestly quite curious about your situation.

I was diagnosed later in life although my autism was suspected and therefore people expected me to understand the same things they did and in the same way they did. I made lots of social mistakes and people often got very angry with me or just ignored me altogether.

Eventually someone told me they thought I had Asperger's Syndrome, I took it seriously because they also have it and the more I read about it, the more I understood my problems with others. My long standing friends accepted me as I was but at work I often got sacked because I couldn't do the social bit.

I saved up and got a diagnosis and it was the best and most loveliest label I have ever had held 'against' me; it gave me a starting point, a place to begin sorting out my challenges and appreciating my strengths. I have progressed significantly since getting my lovely label.

Labels are often very good points of beginning and change if you take hold of them and accept them; I try to forget the meanings that others put on them because people often misunderstand labels. I have used my label as a gift to understand myself and make changes where possible so that I can live a happier life.

If I hadn't got my label when I did and had that understanding, I think I would either be very mentally ill or very depressed by now because of all the bits of my life that kept failing.

From what you're saying, it sounds like the word 'label' to you is synonymous with 'diagnosis.' If that is the case, I am very glad that your diagnosis has helped you understand your life better. At the same time, I would say that is completely different than labeling yourself. The point is subtle, but it's profoundly different.

Yes I am saying that.

It is also true to say that many years ago I refused to be labelled by a psychologist because I saw a diagnostic label as something I would be labelled with, something that would be attached to me that would make me look bad and as if it would be something that would make me into the thing I would have been labelled with, so I refused to accept any kind of label from him. Now as an older person, I don't see it as something used against me, even if others see me in a bad light through their own ignorance.

"Symptoms" of my inherited personality and how others have treated me.




Not in my case.

Treatment of my supposed AS involved me mitigating the effects of my personality.

Some of my confidence, spontaneity and creativity may have been lost too. That's the gift of being oblivious. Now I'm afraid to say anything in case it offends anyone.

The people who treated me viewed AS as a negative thing that had to be eliminated from my system. I don't believe that they even considered the possibility that it was actually me being me. There wasn't some ordinary child trapped inside. When I said I was bored and fed up...I really was bored and fed up. They never even considered that the teaching methods or the crowded environment might have been at fault.

Honestly, if I were in charge, I'd get the name syndrome changed to variant. So the name would be "Aspergers Variant". I'd change a lot of things over to "Variant". It's a less stigmatising word and a bit more accurate (for milder cases anyway).

The word syndrome just wants to make me break down in tears because I remember how I was treated so negatively.

I'd accept the term "Aspergers Variant Individual"

I'd say: "I'm an Aspergers Variant Individual"

If it could be objectively and medically proved beyond all reasonable doubt and there was no danger of me being ostracised.

The words "have" and "with" are misleading.
It's not an add on. I am what I am. I think what I think and I perceive how I perceive.

Actually thinking about it...perhaps most of the time I'd like to be known by my actual name, not the "woman with".