Are you AS or MILD AS?

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I have now notched up 50 posts in less than 3 days and have been promoted to Yellow Bellied Woodpecker.

How many postings before I show severe impairment and lose any credibility as a 'mild'

Once I know I can set my posting limit

Technically, I suppose I have mild AS, although I feel the term is inappropriate.

I have very mild AS, provided I win the lottery soon and my inability to function socially as expected at work stops being an issue for my survival.

My friend is mildly homosexual, because it affects him only in the area of sexual preference.

The DSM will (apparently) be ALOT more specific, and apparently it will not be as easy for any akward-loner-nerdy type to relate to the crietria. It is rumored that Asperger may not even be in it at all. Why? Well because of all the self-diagnosed people running around taking credibility away from the condition.

Almost every article I have read on autism notes that the condition is frequently accompanied by associated disorders such as OCD, ADD, anxiety, and sensory issues. Some experts consider these related conditions as part of autism, while others vehemently argue that they need to be considered separately. I have read that anxiety is particularly prevalent in Asperger's compared to classic autism (although some classic autists are socially avoidant). Some experts suggest that up to 75% of autists have ADD (I know the DSM disallows concurrent diagnosis). One psychiatrist suggested that most autists suffer some degree of OCD.

The above points to a difficulty in determining the severity of an individual's autism. A person mildly affected by autism but with extreme social anxiety, sensory issues, or OCD might have more difficulty functioning in society than a much more autistic person with fewer associated problems.

OCD behavior is a symptom of Autism/Aspergers. It is very different from the disorder known as OCD which involves ritualistic, life interrupting obsessions which the suffering individual does not enjoy but feels compelled to perform. ASD obsessions are usually a source of pleasure for the person.

So Asperger's might be expelled well..............

Who cares

That would fit just fine as we dont like crowds anyway

The only thing is................

It wont change my weird traits and it wont change yours either. We will still be weird with a spectrum of coping skills.

Perhaps it will result in extra grants and endowments for 'research' and perhaps in 50 years there will be a professional consensus by 40% of the 'profession' on what it is that we actually have and whether it is just 'normal' anyway.

In the meantime, I'll just carry on working on becoming a more complete human being............if that's ok with the 'professionals'

I care. It is a legitimate condition and parents should be able to seek assistance for their children so they can get support and treatment. Schools should be able to make adjustments to cater to these kids. This wont be possible if it is no longer recognized as a medical condition. It has nothing to do with how "Aspies" feel about it, I really couldn't give a toss. it is about what is best for future generations and making sure it is easier for them to exist with this condition than the generations before them.

Well, unless ALL of the quality books ever written about Aperger's are burned and ALL of the current real experts on Asperger's suddenly disappear in a DSM V rapture, the future generations (who are Aspies by the way) that you mention will have a better shot than many of us did as kids.

I am a little puzzled by your position that the 'profession' are going to remove AS from DSM because of (mostly internet) crackpots who get off by calling themselves AS.

If that is the case, perhaps we should view these professional diagnostics with even more scepticism.

Everyone and his sister now has ADD and it certainly has become quite hip to use the label to excuse unusual behaviour.

That doesnt diminish the condition/spectrum/syndrome (whatever the clinically correct term is).

It is because of the generalisation that leads to people SD'ing, it's just the amount of self-diagnosis going on (honestly it is monumental) that triggered the bells. What happened with ADD/ADHD is exactly what is/has happening with AS. It is a trendy excuse for unusual behavior, except it is not just professionals making this call, it is individual people. And no it does not diminish the severity importance of the condition, just how it is viewed and accepted by others. With AS, one thing that people are wanting is to 'fit in' and have friends and be able to be social, having a disorder with a stigma similar to that ADD/ADHD now has, is going to take that task from difficult to near impossible for AS sufferers. You are right to blame professionals, they did start all of this, AS was so exciting when it first came about. All the doctors wanted a patient with AS, so they gave it to themselves. I cringe to think of all the self-indulgent misdiagnosis that have been made. And this is what we are fighting against with our research.

The one thing that's worse than masses self-diagnosing wrongly with AS is masses diagnosing masses of others (without knowing them) as NOT being AS.

In plain English, who are you to say that many of the self-diagnosed are not AS.

Ignorance is not solved by more ignorance.

Wait a cotton picking minute here...
You mean that even though I have no language impairment, no problems taking care of myself, and don't require routine, because I have no marked social anxiety (because I am really, really socially clueless) I'm now considered by some to have classic autism?!

Now THAT makes no sense.

All wildgrape said was that someone with AS is more likely to have social anxiety. That does not mean that someone without social anxiety has classical autism. It's like saying that long hair is more common among women. That does not mean that someone is a man just because they have short hair. Just like a woman may or may not have long hair, someone with AS may or may not have social anxiety. They are just more *likely* to have that trait compared to the other group.

That is *not* why. If AS is removed as a diagnosis, it will be because there have been no diagnostically relevant differences found between older children and adults with AS versus HFA. Individuals diagnosed with HFA may show slightly more severe symptoms than those with AS, but that does not warrant a separate diagnosis. If someone has a mild case of chicken pox and someone else has a more severe case, do you come up with a different name for the milder case? If that's the case, then why not a different diagnosis for those who are low-functioning also? Some studies have found more "left-hemisphere" deficits in those with HFA and more "right-hemisphere" deficits in AS, but this result has not been consistent enough that it can be considered diagnostically relevant.

Last edited by LostInSpace on 11 Oct 2009, 10:47 am, edited 2 times in total.

You miss my points completely because you are trying to protect yourself. That is fine. I am not qualified to diagnose anyone and would never attempt it. Why can nobody else admit this about themselves I wonder? Stubborness is not solved by more stubbornness. You.....are stubborn, and even worse, unnecessarily defensive.

Exactly - and you're not qualified to say who ISN'T AS either. Unless you have evidence about each one of the self-diagnosed people you claim aren't AS and can provide it.