This is getting annoying, really annoying.

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I think it was a joke. With how so many of us get diagnosed with all these other things rather than AS. Maybe I'm wrong though.

Oh, hmm. Yeah, could be that, could also be lack of practice with socializing with people who process the world in similar ways to them, relative to non-autistic people. Who knows. But what you're saying here makes more sense at least. Maybe I was taking you too literally myself.

He's trolling. Ignore him; he is only doing that because she wouldn't give him her phone number and she blocked him right after he asked. Just trying to upset her but I've told her to ignore him.

I was so glad she decided not to leave this forum over him after she read my advice.

i agree with meowpurr... i am thankfully diagnosed woop woop!!

My word is maybe those of you who have a offical diagnoses couldn't really have it... There are so many similarties to other things.
Psychologists and therapists could be wrong.

Maybe if I had met some of those "NTs who work tirelessly to try and help us" I wouldn't have such a warped view of my AS.

Merle

anbuend wrote:

In the USA an immigration law passed in 1882 excluded convicts, lunatics and people who might become a public charge. In 1903 epileptics were added to the list of banned categories. An immigration law passed in 1907 banned the entry of any person with an impairment that might affect their ability to earn a living. It targeted people with mental, mobility and sensory impairments, those with physical deformities, as well as people who used assistive devices such as crutches and canes. By 1917 the long list of physical conditions that could be used to exclude a potential immigrant included arthritis, asthma, flat feet and varicose veins, also any sign of slow or poor development. Arrivals at Ellis Island had to submit to physical and mental tests to determine their suitability for entry. Hundreds of thousands of potential immigrants were identified as unfit by these tests and turned away. A history of how disabled people were barred from entering the United States is in this book: http://books.google.co.uk/books?isbn=0275982262 , see the chapter A Historical Introduction. Helen Keller would have been barred from entering the USA.

My question is Who is going out there and telling anyone they have Asperger's without proof? For one thing, it's hard enough to explain when you DO have the proof (people not 'in the know' automatically associate it with mental retardation), and this includes people that work in the social services and/or mental health business.

When I told my mother last year about the possiblity of my son having AS, she said, "Oh my God, are you going to have to have him institutionalized?" (Bear in mind, she has a PhD in medical anthropology and a Master's in sociology and yet knows next to nothing about autism). It took me over an hour to get her to understand what I was talking about - and she is an educated woman. I had not told her about my mental health history up until then because she likes to use stuff like that against me. This is why. The level of ignorance out in RL is staggering and I personally haven't met anyone online or offline who has gone out of their way to say "Hey, guess what? I have AS" to friends/family or strangers when they really don't have or otherwise can't prove it. What would be the point? Unles they have Munchausen's syndrome and just want sympathy, the idea of doing such a thing makes no sense at all. This is probably why I misunderstood the OP's first post. People may come here to the forum and claim to have AS just to 'fit in' (again, why? Munchausen's?) but before long they get bored and leave. But out in the world? No way. I don't even tell potential employers about it (when they could get a tax deduction for hiring me) because I simply don't want the burden of explaining it over and over again. It's just easier to let people think I'm weird.

Hmmm....it seems to me that self-identifying is pretty valid. Really, the only reason for a diagnosis is to secure services. Other than that, if you think you are, you probably at least have some components of ASD. Mind you, you might be high-functioning and whiz through life without a care -- which is far different than those who struggle every day.

But this isn't about being pregnant -- it's not binary -- it is VERY much a spectrum, and if you believe you have issues that correlate to the current (and, frankly quite incomplete and inaccurate) DSM IV criteria, then, you belong to this wonderful club!