Asperger's is a rare disorder...right?

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Wow, that's way too much.
Maybe 3%, but 30% is way too much.

LMAO I loved the chart. You might be on to something

I kind of understand that, but I still see it a bit critical.
Thinking it to the end, this would mean everyone is a bit borderline, a bit schizophrenic, a bit bipolar, a bit ADHD, a bit psychopath, a bit autistic and so on.



As a child I was a bit a vegatable, now I'm very often a dork, sometimes a geek and well nerd? maybe in certain areas and I understand nothing about engineering and I'm not even good in math.

The statistic actually is accurate, if you define being on the autism spectrum as either having an ASD or BAP.

Where does this statistic come from?
Is there a link to it?

Speaking as a layman, I agree with this assessment, considering that every disorder appears to incorporate an extreme manifestation of certain personality traits that are present in everyone. Surely it's only when the traits become a hindrance -to greater or lesser extent- that we can speak of a disorder.

It's definitely not rare here. I've met more kids with this diagnosis than any other condition and I'm not going around searching for them. In my daughter's class, there was another boy diagnosed, although he has gone to a special needs base and another is en route to an ASD diagnosis, maybe not AS, but very close to it. My daughter has been to a few after school classes and there has been a few kids with AS at those too. Some are easy to spot and, on chatting with the Mums, they quickly start to speak about it, especially if they realise your child is a bit different too. When I've spoken to her class tutors, to explain her quirks, etc, they've told me they've had experience of loads of AS kids. These kids do not appear to have been wrongly diagnosed and I don't think there's a problem with over diagnosis.

1 in 100 people are diagnosed with Aspergers here. Schools here are rubbish at spotting people with mild Aspergers (well, they're actually rubbish at referring you to an expert, they may actually know that you have a lot of symptoms, but because they might have to spend money on you if you're diagnosed, and it means more work, they don't want to refer you unless you're violent, or are making the school look bad), so I assume the numbers are higher.

Yes, I know what do you mean; when I was at elementary school in my class there were 2 dyslexic children too, and only one support teacher for us three. And she didn't help us very much.

I'm not trying to say only I/Aspies got bullied, but I can say NOBODY had to put up with a tenth of what I did in school. One kid was made fun of for being a nerd (he was a stereotypical nerd in every way but not an Aspie to my knowledge) but he was never assaulted, not allowed to sit on the bus, gang beaten, shoved down the stairs and being told daily what fellow students wanted to do to him if they could get away with it (hint: not even prisoners would do these things). What these NT kids called bullying was like what I experienced in grade 3 and 4. Mild name calling and mild teasing but no enough to worry about, not wonder if this day isn't your last day on earth because some unpopular kid decides to knife you in the heart to gain quick social status, It's not that they wanted to kill you: they weren't THAT cruel but they would literally do ANYTHING to be popular and didn't understand the true consequences.

As for the work thing, yes every Aspie I know has a good job and while I could make more money I count myself in that category. HOWEVER, all three of them were also unemployed/underemployed for years. One such man who was a genius in chemistry and when he got married and moved to Canada (worked as a Lab Tech in the USA), he was unemployed for over a year before landing a job: at Mcdonalds! This guy is a whiz and couldn't find work for the same reason I couldn't. He did get hired on at a good paying job but it took 5 years of living in extreme poverty in the worst neighborhood in the city.

That is really terrible! I've never heard such things about bullying, I know it's a severe problem, but I never heard about a bully that wants to stab someone in the heart; though I know some people committed suicide.
And yes, I know that often Aspies get the very worst of bullying.

About the work, I know that people with AS before finding a good work most of the times struggle.

i believe that asperger syndrome has taken on a generally accepted meaning that facilitates anyone who is socially awkward to be diagnosed with it.
i am very much "behind the times", so my idea of the situation is most probably outdated and incorrect (but i could not be bothered to investigate it to refresh my understanding with the modern componentry)

i was diagnosed as autistic when i was 3 years old due to my failure to socially connect with my family or anyone else.
when i was an older child (12), i was institutionalized due to my complete inability to integrate into the schooling system. i spent most of my school years in adolescent psychiatric institutions ("adolescent units") and i was very much studied by my psychiatrist and she told me many things about my condition that i remember.

at the time, i was diagnosed as "high functioning autistic" and she told me that that autism affects 1/166 of the population, and that the vast majority of autistic people have an IQ that is below 100. she was at the time studying " above average IQ in autistic people" which she said was rare. she claimed that about 1/10 autistics have an IQ of > 100, and therefore 1/1660 people had both autism and above average intelligence.

but now it seems that anyone with a social deficit is considered to be possibly AS (if they are not below average IQ), and so i guess that many people who are very dissimilar to me have the condition i have. it does alienate me somewhat to read what supposed AS people post on this forum as i have no common sentiments with them. wolf heart for example and his "how to get the ladies threads". everything he says is alien to my mind, and i do not identify (i hope i am not being rude and breaking rules at this moment), and if he has what i have, then i have something else which is as yet unidentified in addition to asperger syndrome.

my doctor told me that asperger syndrome (the name was known but the diagnosis was not available yet) was very difficult to distinguish from schizoid personality disorder.

i had no interest in what went through the minds of others, and i did not desire company in any way, but many people who are diagnosed with AS are very heartbroken due to their inability to adapt to others communicative styles, but i could not care because i am happy if i understand what i am thinking, and my understanding of what i think validates for me that my thoughts are valid with no external reinforcement.

autism to me means "self containedness" of thought with little to no influence by anyone else's experiences.

i do not know any more. i know that i was apparently a "text book" case of AS, but this site has few people who i see myself in (there are a few i very much identify with, but mainly i am isolated from most members styles of banter and social execution).

if 1 in 88 people have AS, then i am amazed i have never known anyone who is like me (although i never knew 88 people in my life so i may be yet to see someone who i think "YES YES YES!!" when i encounter them).

b9,

My high school had about 2,000 people in it, and not a single one was like me in any way regarding social behavior (which can be taken straight from Hans' or Kanner's paper). I observed all of the individuals at my school, and not one showed any of the manifestations of HFA/AS.

There were "geeks", "jocks", and all those other groups, but they were all socially able and "normal".

eMedicine puts the rate of AS at 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 200. Quite a large gap there. The difference being due to different diagnosis standards it says. That pretty much tells you everything there.

eMedicine puts Autistic Disorder (LFA/HFA) at 1 in 1,000 or so.

Give someone an autism label and bang, you get support and so does the school. It's like a gift card full of money. And it's sickening.

Yes, we had a few local kids commit suicide over the past few years. I was listening to a radio show about this subject and decided to call in despite my nervousness. I waited a half hour but told the audience that yes, bullying is very real and serious, yes, is it enough to cause someone to lose the will to live and yes, to the teens listening the pain is long lasting but it will get better. Some teens even called in (an adult oriented show) and publicly said they wanted to die and started crying on air I wished I could have reached through the phone to hug them and tell them unlike most people I truly understand and care. I'm even fighting back tears righting this because hearing these cries for help hits so close to home. Even the radio host was struggling to compose himself before begging any teens listening to call the Kid's Help Phone (a national call centre dedicated to helping children) if they feel hopeless or suicidal.

On a more positive note, a couple of 'tough' boys started wear pink anti-bullying shirts iin a High School not far from here a few years back because two of them had the guts to stand up for what's right and proceeded to buy pink shirts for everyone to wear. Bravo! If even one of you existed in my school none of this would ever have happened because once someone did stick up for me late in my last year from another class (against a surprise assault in the hallway by a mentally disturbed classmate, not bullying), the bullying stopped instantly.

While weapons were never used on me, I did have someone cut me pretty badly with a steel brush (one of those ones for cleaning metalworking equipment). It completely sliced my arm open and while the person realized they went too far, it wasn't until AFTER they did the deed. Oh, and no, they never got in trouble as the teacher was convinced it was accidental You can't take back a fatal stabbing so luckily it never came to that but it easily could have had I stayed in that school. This kid was DESPERATE to lose his 'nerd' label and get it with the crowd and slamming my head into a corner of a locker with a drop kick was the deed that did it. Yes, when you are told daily by 5 people (and 15+ applauded) that nobody likes you and wished you would end up dead, you start to believe they must be speaking the truth. Again, when I hear the naive advice given to these kids my blood begins to boil like it is right now.

What a %#%^ up world: if anyone I know committed an assault like that for any reason, I would see they got fired and arrested on the spot even my own mother. Being a complete coward is apparently what made you cool back in the mid 90's Thankfully I see plenty of High School and University kids in my daily life and most of them are MUCH more mature and opposed to bullying now. By no means are today's kids perfect, but I laugh when people say kids today are out of control!

Having said all that, I don't want to keep sounding like it was 100% bad. As an adult, people listen when I speak because I have credibility and many former classmates know what I've endured and silently respect me for standing my ground. I frequently have teenagers tell me their problems when I'm at the checkout lines so they obvious have a lot of trust and respect for me. I've also ran into a few former 'sheep' and to say they look awful would be an understatement. It was rough but ultimately I won out in the end. Now everyone knows they can't attack my integrity because I have been battled tested and refused to join the herd and I'm at the end where most people realize what a smart decision that was.

When I was in school starting in sixth grade they put me in special classes, then after that I was sent to other schools where I was in the same special class all day, then at 14 I did a 30 day evaluation in an adolescent unit and then had to go to their day treatment program for several months (which only ended because I skipped so much school that I had to go to family court and they wouldn't take me back), and then family court sent me to a couple of other places until I was finally old enough to quit school and end all that torment. As far as I know they never diagnosed me with anything. If they did no one told me or my mother and I wasn't medicated. Key phrases that really stuck out in reports about me that I remember were "flat affect" and "passive-aggressive".



That's what I think I have if i don't have aspergers.

apart from your propensity to hunt and kill for pleasure, i do identify with you more than many here.

all the labels that people wish to subscribe to are non entities in my mind. "geeks" were like shaggy haired dogs who licked people and waited to be petted, and nerds were anyone (normal or not) who had unpopular interests, and then there were other people who adopted eccentric attitudes simply to be "individual" while within the radar range of normal understanding (i saw them as fakes who purposefully bucked the norm so as to appear unique).

a 5000% variation is the death knell of the credibility of any finding in my mind. i do not take notice of e-anything.
yes it tells me that the diagnostic standards are not standard, but peculiar to the focus of whatever study is being conducted to validate someones (the instigator of the study) idea of what may be the case

eMedicine puts Autistic Disorder (LFA/HFA) at 1 in 1,000 or so.



whatever. everyone on this forum is more communicatively gifted than me, and they also possess ideals and desires that are foriegn to my understanding, but they are all AS apparently, and i will not question their diagnoses, because the world has moved on since i was diagnosed, and it may be the case i have a co morbid condition that is responsible for my self containedness that others here do not have.

the anime obsession is alien to me. i cannot immerse my mind in fiction let alone ridiculous fantasy and i can not understand how anyone could be interested in those doe eyed caricatures.

the people who console others with words like "i feel your pain" are completely foreign to my understanding.
the congratulatory nature of other people's posts in response to someones "good news" threads is also lost in the atmosphere before it gets into my head.

who knows. some people postulate that everyone has AS to a degree. i do not agree at all.
the thing i dislike the most is when people post their opinions with the preface of "we aspies are...etc" and i feel like saying "not we but you", and i can not imagine how anyone who has what i have could dare to talk on behalf of anyone else.

it seems like some sort of "club" that many people are trying to consolidate AS people into, but i never have, and never will belong to a "club".

AS has taken on a mystique that many lost (but not AS) people gravitate toward.

sorry i am tired and not very eloquent, but i think i have written legible words.
one day i will be laughed out of my place as an AS person by the immense crowd who all concietedly claim they are super geniuses, and i am not of their ilk.

i will then go elsewhere.