New York Magazine article on over diagnosis from 2014

Post Reply New Topic

As I have mentioned many times and even today on another thread I think the DSM IV was mistaken in making Aspergers a separate diagnosis. There are different and severity of pain but it is still medically labeled as pain with a sub category of arm pain, heart pain, severe pain etc. Aspergers should have been a sub-category of Autism. The DSM V compounded the mistake of the DSM IV by subsuming Aspergers into Autism Spectrum Disorders. Aspergers was correctly criticized for being too broad a category. Does not subsuming it into a broader category of Level 1 make the problem worse? The longer term goal should be to create more subcategories of Autism that are less subjective (Intense World Dominant Autism?, Executive-Functioning dominant Autism?) .

ASD level 1 is similar but not exactly the same as Aspergers was. I don't see the logical difference in changing the Aspergers criteria to what ASD Level 1 is and still calling it "Aspergers" or do what they did and change the name. The change hurt people who after decades of being unrecognized for whatever emotionally attached to the “Aspergers” diagnosis. If the medical code is about healing people the DSM 5 should not have hurt people because a label with a number describing the same thing is more convenient for insurance companies and the perceptions described in the article this thread is about.

I identify with being described as “Aspie”, “Autistic” or “Aspie-Autistic” which is probably the most accurate. Which word I will use is dependent on the WP thread or other circumstance. There many identities/self descriptions even medical ones that are not official diagnosis. In the autism world we have “severe” “mild”, High and low functioning , “Kanner’s Syndrome” all of whom have NEVER been official diagnosis. While some object to the merit of functioning labels only with Aspergers do you on a regular basis get group stigmatization and occasionally people reveling in the dropping of the name.

I'm glad I was diagnosed- even at age 35- but that revelation has largely been for my own SELF understanding. My co-workers, boss, most of my family, and almost all of my (few) friends do not know that the way I am has a name. I haven't even tried to explain to my husband what Asperger's / HFA /etc. means and that's why I am the way I am.

I don't want special treatment and I don't want pity. I want to be a better navigator in this world that isn't designed for me, and I want to be comfortable in my own skin. I've spent most of my life either overachieving to compensate, scared as hell and/or a combination of the two. If understanding that the way I'm wired has a name and a pattern, and that there are other people wired similarly to me helps me get around, then good for me.

It is true that adults on the spectrum in the US (especially those in the "high functioning" category) are largely unseen and unknown. There is little advantage to a diagnosis except in self understanding and (for me, because of co-morbidities such as PTSD, anxiety and depression) for getting medical treatment (if you can afford it, because I pay for everything on my own dime) for the stuff that can go along with autism. I have to see a medical Dr. in order to get the scripts I need to help manage my PTSD, anxiety and depression. Medical care in the US is not easily affordable or even easily accessible for working people, so there is an advantage if you choose to work the system- to go through the hoops to prove you are so disabled you "can't work," and you'll get care that working people can't get, for free. I see how people can and do abuse the system, but I can't bring myself to that level of dishonesty.

I've had to be my own advocate, and frankly I like it that way. My upbringing was harsh, but it did teach me how to be independent. I learned very early on how to be a critical thinker and how to get things done. I am afraid for kids on the spectrum today that they are being mollycoddled and not being challenged to develop their potential. That sort of "special treatment" is not help- it's enabling laziness and rewarding being unproductive. Help is showing people how to do the best they can with what they have.

For me an Asperger's / HFA diagnosis has only gained me more self understanding. I don't want other people to pay for my medical treatment or anything else. I don't want anything other to enjoy my life.

Good post, I relate to much of what you wrote, as another (much older) HFA with a challenging childhood and a taste for critical thinking.

Another issue I have with this article (though it's not likely to be the last): the author frequently switches between discussing the rise in formal diagnosis rates and casual overuse of the word "autistic" (such as when someone says "he's so autistic", and a put down). Then he uses his objections to the latter to argue against the former.

I can't be certain if this is intentional or if the author is just bad at making his argument. Either way, it's infuriating to see him do it over and over again.

The circular thinking fallacy used to back up prejudiced viewpoints is as old as it is tiresome and ignorant...

Lol. B.S. would undiagnose you in ten seconds. If you aren't regularly mistaken for ret*d you don't meet her standard. She has stated in the past that "Rainman" is a portrait of someone at the highest level of "high functioning."

Guys why the hate. I just mean good. Sorry if my views are meant to inspire That's just who I am. At the end of the day these comments meant to destroy my character just dissolve. I resolve my "crimes"

Last edited by SIDWULF on 02 Apr 2015, 4:58 am, edited 3 times in total.

I could say you all are just wasting your time debating this...but oh no everyone looses their s**t on me for having an opinion. It doesn't matter anywho just let it flow. Hate me <3 I will only love you right back.

Nobody hates you You just provoked a debate and debates aren´t waste as long as participants get some clarification from them or a chance to measure their views in the light of others - or perhaps just to have their say, which is ok too.

In October the U.S. will be switching to the icd-10 for all diagnostic codes. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/icd/icd10cm.htm which still has the separation of Aspergers from ASD. They have been planning this transition since July of last year October 1st is the "drop dead date". They are doing this so the same diagnosis in the US means the same thing in the UK and the same thing in Seychelles, etc.

Oh, geez. If this was the plan, why did they bother releasing a new DSM at all? Wait, I know the answer: poor planning. Thanks for crapping everything up yet again, US government.

Really, though, the DSM-V has been in planning and production since the release of the DSM-IV in... I wanna say 1994. I don't know, over ten years ago. It's probably a good thing for the US to switch to an international standard (as long as it isn't inferior). It just sucks that all the expense and effort that went into the DSM-V is wasted, not to mention all the adjustments that people affected by diagnostic changes had to make (which is everyone with Asperger's).
Now we just need to get the US of A to switch to the much-superior Metric system and my beloved America will be back on track at the forefront of the world where it should be.

Good luck on that one, it's much too smart to move to the metric system for this country. Plus business has stopped it before-- [sarcasm]since ya know doing something smart that saves money in the long run but hurts the current quarterly profit because of conversion costs will spook investors to pull their money out and go commie. [/sarcasm]

I like your sarcasm/end sarcasm brackets! Very nice (and helpful). Yeah, I know the metric system is a no-go for this country. Wishful thinking that logic and care for long-term health would win out.

Anyway, I've been looking over the ICD-10 criteria for autism and Asperger's. It looks like there is no diagnostic criteria for diagnosing autism in adults. There is only childhood criteria; I guess they feel that if you make it to adulthood undiagnosed, you can be an Aspies but not an Autie? I dunno.

I'd have to double check with my mother, but it sounds like I, as a child, would have met the criteria for standard autism according to the ICD-10; the only difference I can see between that and Asperger's is that in Asperger's there is normal vocal development by the age of 3. Not for me, there wasn't. I'm vocal now, but I wasn't then. My parents told me I babbled on in what they called 'James language,' sounds without meaning to anyone but me. I did that until I was around 4, I think. Then once I started talking, I didn't shut up. I was well into grade school before I learned that conversations are supposed to be where both people talk.
I can see how I fell through the cracks, diagnosis-wise; we were poor and didn't visit the doctor much, I went to a very tiny private school for all of my education. Had I gone to public school, someone may have noticed my oddities (and I would have had a MUCH more difficult time). As it was, I only ever saw my family and people from my church.
But none of that matters; it only matters how a person is NOW and how well they are currently able to function.
Which all goes to illustrate, in my opinion, how Asperger's and autism should be grouped together under ASD.
But also, the ICD-10 was adopted by the WHO in 1990; I think they're about due for another edition, and hopefully, they will take the DSM-V into consideration with this one.

ICD-10 childhood autism diagnostic critera
ICD-10 Asperger's diagnostic criteria

I know this isn't relevant, but I'm realizing how fantastic my tiny private school was for someone with ASD. I had only one teacher and one classroom; all school work was self-taught at the student's pace, and it was all written, not verbal (unless you needed the teacher's help); there were no reports or presentations that had to be given in front of the class; most of the day was spent working in silence, alone, in a little cubicle that cut off nearly all sensory input; there was a "six-inch rule" where touching was not allowed and everyone had to stay at least six inches away from each other (a rule I fastidiously enforced); there was a uniform that allowed me to wear the same thing every day (navy blue or black pants and white or light blue button-up shirt) but also allowed me to keep the collar open enough so it never touched my neck; noise was minimal; socialization was minimal, since there were so few students and there was never a situation where I was forced to interact with anyone; break times were ten minutes every hour, which was short enough that nothing had time to build up to the meltdown point; there was no gym class. I guess it was kinda awesome.

.

That would have been my dream school. Instead, I went to public schools with large classes, sadistic kids and unmotivated teachers. The two second-grade teachers in my elementary school almost got in a fist fight in the hall over who had to have me in her class. The other kids in school were no better. I got dumped head-first into trash cans and bushes, had my pants pulled down, was tripped up the stairs, had notes with obscenities stuck on my back, live stinging insects thrown in my hair, had part of my hair burned off with a lighter, etc. Every day seemed to bring a new form of humiliation. Needless to say I was highly unpopular, except as a target.

The only saving grace from the social hell of school was that a childhood bout of rheumatic fever and the accompanying heart valve damage got me out of gym class from 7th grade forward, so I was safe in home-ec with all the other geeks-n-freaks. Had I had to endure much more of gym class- especially the forced communal showering- I think I would have lost my mind.

I probably would have killed for a more independent, individualized educational experience as a child. You were very fortunate to have had that.

Made my head spin. Claiming you are autistic immediately makes you ostracized in many situations; how is that trendy? Don't people take on trends for the very opposite reason, which is to fit in?

It is comparable to going to the Middle-East, as a woman, and claiming you are a wh### just because Kim Kardashian is famous. Think it through.

That's terrible, I'm sorry you had to go through that. I just lucked into my school, really. I had my share of bullying, but most of it was outside school, since the small size made it very difficult to get away with anything.