is Aspegers a disease? Your opinion.

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What is the difference between a disorder and a disease?

My first stab at the question is that a disorder (particularly one which is defined in terms of behavior) is a social construct. A disease is a frank biological dysfunction or deficiency, like being anemic or being color blind.

ruveyn

the jury in my brain is still out on this one.

last i heard, half were ill with some unknown disease and the other half were in a a state of such disorder nothing could be agreed upon.

not in my mind, dear camilla (woof! girl),
and never was, really

i FULLY understand and appreciate how the political target has to be
that autism is not a disease

but how many of us can cope decently on truly independent level,
and more especially so if they ...DAiiiN ...NEVER knew

and
even if Tony Attwood states that Asperger's [HFA] is only a disease
because society is not equipped to deal with us properly,
even then
it behoves us to be the best dang auti-realists we can be and acknowledge

[even on the basis of mere power of numbers] YES: autism IS a disease


&itsureashellainteasey&neitherissuicide/toxically@Robert'0.iii


ps: [voice noahveil23:] YES, I have autism AND YES i have issues

Last edited by oblio on 12 Mar 2009, 10:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

Disease indicates a condition created by a pathology that is infectious.

AS is a disorder. If it has a pathological cause, it has not been identified. Likewise, a disease should have the hope of a cure being possible. A disorder can be treated but never cured.

If a poll were taken in a TB sanitarium and the question was: Is TB a disease, what do you suppose the percentages might be?

ruveyn

My view on this is the same as many of you on the WrongPlanet. Asperger's Syndrome/autism is not a disease. It is not a mental disorder. It is a neurological difference.

Well, that's my opinion on it.

I regard Asperger's as a form of autism. And I have Asperger's Syndrome---and I enjoy having it.

oblio - you are back!

it's not really a disease or disorder for me.
it is in fact a difference.

I would call it a disorder and a disability. It doe affect and make me less able to do things like most people can. There may be upsides to it, but it is an abnormality and thus a disorder/disablity.

well... a bit yes & no, but your posting was more of an occasion
to reply than the subject, jus to let you know i am around to stay

if you will, dearest mills

OF COURSE i full/phool-heartedly AGREE with you

but i feel it is so important for us aspic auties at WP (and allwhere else)
to get off our pride-horses and acknowledge a bit of basic fact of living
- that i am phully prepared for public relations' to prostitute me myself
- & i ... well, you been there girl & maybe time now to do some regivin'

togooutonalimb&iknowyourespectmeforthat/toxically@Robert'0.iii

The problem is that nobody has come up with an inarguable definition of 'normal mental functions' yet. As no 2 people are totally physically and mentally identical at most there can only be one normal person on earth. And that 1 normal person is me, the rest of you are just ....odd.

One would say that whatever represents 51% of the population is "normal."

Whatever AS is, it's called the same as classical autism. Since classical autism isn't a disease, neither is AS. Disorder - yes. Disorder is an impaired function. Impairment - always. Handicap or disability - usually. But disease - no. Disease is like sickness which is unlike like autism or Down's or MR or whatever.

anatomicly speaking, yeah. ~.~ (was referring to the post before the above)

No, normal is defined as being one Standard Deviation from the mean. I cannot really explain the standard deviation, but it is like the average difference from the average, being within one standard deviation on either side of the average is considered normal in statistics. Once you get further away from the average than 1 standard deviation, it becomes less and less normal. Most data in a set will fall within 1 standard deviation from the mean, the exact number is 68.2%. Within 2 SDs from the mean will hold 95.4% of the data, within 3 SDs will be 99.6%, and within 4 SDs will be 99.8% of the data. Within 1 SD is regarded as normal, thus 68.2% of people are normal.

Asperger's is not a disease - it isn't contagious from one person to another.

Asperger's is not a "disorder" - it is just a different order.

Everyone's personality is organized in certain ways. We have a loose classification of personality types with certain shared attributes which we have labeled as Asperger's Syndrome. We have a much larger classification of personality types that we have claimed are Neuro-typical. But, being in the majority doesn't necessarily make them "normal" - even though they are the "norm".

Our personality type gives us a different order in our lives, a different way of prioritizing certain features. This isn't a "bad" thing, unless we allow ourselves to think of it as being "bad", or unless we act in a way that is "bad". (Causing unprovoked harm to others for example.)

Its not a disease, its not a disorder, its not a "dis" anything.

I'm special and unique, I do things differently, I don't follow everyone else, I have my strengths and weaknesses like everyone else but, overall, I would hate to be anything other than me.