Can someone...

Post Reply New Topic

I have been concerned ever since I discovered that having a diagnosis of Autism will actually make one inelligable for many brands of health insurance (in the US)
...Reason enough for me to be wary of ever receiving an official diagnosis...Funny...with ADD i merely found that most doctors who accepted my insurance simply would not address it.

I was writing my reply to this thread in the morning but of a mysterious reason I couldn't send it and I lost it. So let's begin again.

It's impossible to expect from a specialist who doesn't have AS traits himself (what not necesserily mean being AS, of course) that he'll be able to understand a way of thinking of somebody like us. Even if he has a good will and wants to help a person that needs such help, there always will be an issue of supersticions and prejudices that were inculcated into him - I hope you get it; he has been growing up in the world where people surrounding him had their (even if not expressed clearly) ideas what autism is (this popular stereotype of a child with LFA) and what a normal human being should be like (without any autistic traits for sure). He was intercepting those beliefs for all his life (theory of memetics) and even now, being an educated person, subconsciously perceives someone with AS as someone who can't be equal to him. He won't be able to understand some things - I mean, his theoretical knowledge, logical understanding of this issue may be excellent but he won't be able to feel how it is.

That lack of understanding results in all those simplified descriptions of AS people I often find on forums for parents - they present their children almost as if they were mentally ret*d. There's a site made by a mother of son with Asperger's. Having entered this site you can read Marla DeBruin's poem "My child". Everything's ok but I had to look for this poem in its original version to check what one word was originally in that version. "My child, however, has an invisible disability". " My child's disability makes my child extremely naive..." Well, Polish counterpart of this word used on that site, if translated into English means not "disability" but literally "handicap". I find it very hard to guess how the others judge me, to compare myself to other people so I can't guess with ease what my mother (if she also had such site when I was a child) would write there. I'm wondering whether having read her words I'd find them exagerated. If I was presented this way that somebody reading it would start to think that poor woman was cursed by giving birth to mentally ret*d daughter. It's highly possible - after all normal people look at the world from diametrally different perspective and all those things that are so normal for me are something sinister for them and perceived a serious problem.


If you, the inhabitants of USA or other developed countries have problems with lack of knowledge about AS among doctors, you can imagine quite easy how a situation in Poland can look like. There is only one forum for people with AS and HFA (I have never took part in discussions there, I only read them) that has about 15 users who participate in them actively (I don't count those who wrote only several posts and stopped writing).

It's not your own, original idea. Do you know this ? Unfortunately some spread stereotypes make it difficult to say that someone is on autistic spectrum. For example each person who decided to explore the issue of autism finds those descriptions of children having their special interests and using vocabulary that could be taken straight out of a textbook as well while talking about them. But after all there are children that have more childish interests or don't have any well-defined ones at all. And what if a child doesn't have a habit of tiring people talking about his special interest and keeps it for himself - personally I prefered reading about Greek mythology to prattling about it to each met person.

Last edited by Irulan on 30 Jul 2007, 2:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Irulan,

Yeah, I don't just start talking about my interests. Someone has to mention it tangentially, or talk about something where it or an anecdote may apply. If that happens though, I could literally talk for HOURS, and be stereotypical aspie. My interests are very broad.

As for the video, I have been trying to get windows to repair my sound driver. I'll try to get it working tonight.

Totally agree with you,

I'm not saying that there shouldn't be a place for people posting about whether or not they have AS, I'm just saying that there seems to be enough of them to warrant making a seperate section for all of those posts.

And to the guy who says that doctors are just out to make money: shut up, seriously.

America is currently the only 1st world country without universal healthcare and hardly accounts for any significant chunk of the 1st world population. Since doctors are generally per capita, you can therefore logically assume that most 1st world doctors are 1) not American and 2) on government payroll. Take these two little tidbits of information and put them to good use -- it means that most 1st world doctors get paid the same no matter what and actually care about MORE than money.

Saying "doctors only care about money" is an insult to all the professional, prideful, and compassionate doctors out in the world (and yes, there is more to the world than America).

Doctors spend over 7 years partying at medical school.

The psychiatric rotation of most medical programs isn't very long - less than a year. Most MDs simply do not have a lot of training even in more well-known, more obvious things. A Psychologist, Neurologist, or Psychiatrist will have a better background, but again may not have a lot of knowledge about Aspergers or Autism.

There are warnings all over on Aspergers and Autism sites not to go to someone who doesn't have experience with this particular condition; based on these sites, one can only think that one is as likely to be laughed off or misdiagnosed as to have a good experience.

Not exactly an inducement to 'contact your doctor.'

Frankly, **I** would like to have an experience like labpet! To have a doctor show you a picture of your brain and say, HEY, the "lateral sulcus" is missing! WOW! Now THAT is proof of a difference.

The idea that someone can just ask a few questions, and say YOU HAVE IT.... Give me a break. Nobody could tell you 100% that way.

BTW Why do some insurance plans not cover autistics?

agreed. change it inplace of the womans forum, totally useless.

I've just recalled another clasification:

http://fun.familyeducation.com/asperger ... detoured=1
http://fun.familyeducation.com/asperger ... detoured=1
http://fun.familyeducation.com/asperger ... detoured=1

I'm sorry to have been one of those who do this horrible thing, but i have a good reason.

Ever since my daughter was dx, i have read more by people with Autism or Aspergers, than by professionals in psychology, autism, aspergers.

You guys are the best resource in the world!No doctor will ever be able to understand the things you can tell a parent or person who suspects they are on the spectrum. Be a little grateful for those who see you as super valuable to their own understanding, instead of just depending on the doctors who cannot understand.

When my daughter was dx, her first speech therapist had never met anyone with autism, and told me she was learning from me. I felt a real responsibility not to misrepresent in that case, so i had to know more about adults with autism. And overall, everyone has been helpful and revealing to me in all these years. You or someone like you are partially responsible for that bright light she shines, because i had enough information from real life experience.

People still dont understand, so obviously there is more work to be done by people who get it....and that is the people who live it. If someone suspects themselves of having one of these dx', this seems to be the place to find the answer to them, because it looks to an outsider that people with differences would automatically fit in. You really think all those people wanted to suspect they had Aspergers or Autism? I suspect they were more happy to think they fit in finally.

I appreciate those who are willing to share their experience with the world so much.

Thank you,
Tyger

Thanks for the links. I found them very useful in describing traits and tendencies combined with good examples.
I definitely am an Overcontrolled Rules Boy with a touch of Logic boy. I was always the nearly perfectly behaved boy in both school and at home. When I got in trouble it usually just took an explanation (that made sense) that what I did was wrong and that I was not to do it again. Even my imaginary play had rules that I followed to make it fair. I had developed a very rudimentary wargame with my plastic army men and would play with them according to the rules I had come up with.
Anyone know of any links to similar things as this Rules Boy subtype?

I'm the example of a "logic boy" - I like it when EVERYTHING has its reason and it's why I always quarreled with my mother - she never explained why she wanted me to do something, she only said that I had to do it, well, something she was even able to explain to me that I had to do a thing because "everybody did it".

Actually there are a few doctors who do learn something from med school, but they become cardiologists, gastro-enterologists,
or some other physical "-ologist". Unfortunately psychology and psychiatry don't get much good material to begin with.

I agree, I see a lot of myself in "Logic Boy" -- however, I happen to be female.
Hooray for blatant sexism in science!


ANYWAYS. I kinda get this feeling we're off-topic here.