Is aspergers a fad diagnosis?

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There's an ad in the local yellow pages under behavioral therapy and it has autism/Asperger's/PDD-NOS together all on one line seperated only by slashes.

JohnisBlind wrote:

A diagnosis of PDD-NOS has been around for some time. Its probably the most respected diagnosis. A diagnosis of PDD-NOS means you have features of autism but do not have enough features to qualify as officially having autism. However many of the milder cases of PDD-NOS are being called Aspergers IMO.

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Agree.

I'm a mere observer but I find it at least curious how people seem to be diagnosed all around me. And those I'm seeing are mostly adult diagnoses. I'm not really saying those people don't have a kind of autism, but what made them getting scrutinized is along history of mental issues. In my country there is MUCH better help for autism than mental illness, I don't know if that has anything to do with it or if it just happens anyway.

It's just a matter of where to draw the line, exactly how much problems does one need to have to get diagnosed? I see quite a few that actually have pretty good skills and still get diagnosed. They can have a mild kind of autism or very good coping skills, but anyway, they manage to have enough issues to get diagnosed. You don't need to even be a doctor to understand that "enough problems" can seem really relative.

I know a gut feeling doesn't count and I know the spectrum is big enough for all kinds of personalities to fit. Still my gut feeling has been spot on to "find" spectrum people in other situations. But yea I totally agree!! It's so not a diagnostic tool.

When I analyzed what I've seen and what I feel about it... what my real fear is by sort of letting in well functioning people into the DX, that people will start asking me and demanding of me, whatever THOSE people can do. They can hold down jobs, full time demanding jobs, they have families, children, they might have an inner feeling of social anxiety but coping well outwardly.... And I'm just so different from that.

Also I have a reason I ended up at WP, there is an Asperger community in my country which I joined and unjoined, because either people actually were quite normal with "normal" needs, or competing to prove they are very similar to NT or could easily pass as NT.

So what I said is quite emotional, yesh, a little freaked out feeling from what I observed. But also I only see as far as my own horizon.

I don't claim to be especially objective, maybe I should put that as my siggy!

Gosh, you are lucky, Frag, where I live, it's the exact opposite. It's just plain awful and so primitive. I call it the land civilization forgot.
In my state, insurance is not even required to cover autism. It's come up in the house more than once only to be voted down because families without autistic kids feel penalized for having to pay for families with.

Very huge difference indeed!

It stinks it doesn't cover you well.

When I was "just" a mental patient, I was treated harshly and mean. I had no rights. I had a semi large co pay to see health care workers. Then diagnosed AS, they all changed on me, turned nice, I also can see a counsellor without paying! And I have some other benefits. Also I get a free care worker once a week (sort of assistant), and I could also get another kind of care worker (for activation and social needs... I had for a little while but decided not for me). So after 10 years of intense struggle and basically no help.... I get this! I was uber shocked that society pays this because in mental health it was all about almost pushing away patients because they cost too much. Now I'm not saying it's all great, because some care workers are pretty stupid, but the general idea is good.

I so wish this would span over other countries and also I wish it would span over ADHD in my country, which it doesn't... And they would benefit from the same kind of help and the same teaching us aspies here can get... Life skills therapy or whatever to call it.

I think Aspergers is perceived to be a fad diagnosis just like autistic disorder. This is due no thanks to organizations like Autism Speaks. Although it is perceived as a fad diagnosis, I think it is actually under diagnosed. Any time there is a large amount of training devoted to a specific diagnosis, people hear about that diagnosis all of the time. Such was the case with A.D.D. and now, it is the same with autism. In addition, those who commit crimes as well as their lawyers will use whatever excuse they can to get a lessor punishment. When I was first diagnosed, I was taken to several universities and advance medical facilities before someone was able to correctly diagnose me. Autism was not widely known at that time. Now, just about every professional in my country who works with children has some idea of what to look for when it comes to autism. Unfortunately, they can spot autism, and can apply their training, but THEY DO NOT ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND US.

In addition to classic autism becoming more well known, the term is expanded to cover Aspergers. Aspergers seems relatively common compared to autistic "disorder" and is what accounts for most cases of autism diagnoses in my opinion. The problem that we have is the fact that it is much easier for members of society to spot autism in its various forms (and for us to remain invisible) and yet for these same members of society don't actually understand autistic people. Those of us who have the most severe forms of autism are for some reason deemed incapable of doing much anything as far as daily living is concerned. In fact, last week, a senior counselor for a local counseling agency told me she was was really impressed that I was able to handle the "big job" of driving a foster child to a visitation appointment. This is an example of a person who could spot me being autistic within a few seconds and yet has no idea how an autistic person functions or thinks.

In many ways, I think autistic people have it WORSE OFF then they did twenty years ago. This is due to celebrity status, gossip, and other things generally not taken seriously by autistic people becoming the object of worship among the NT population while things generally attributed to the strengths of autistic people (facts, science, logic, visual thi8nking, art, etc.) are not that much respected any more. It is also due to the fact that we are more easily detected as our traits have become more well known. Laws designed to "protect us" and provide insurance coverage for autism treatment means that insurance companies refuse to write policies for autistic people. I think things will only get better for us when people understand us for who we are rather than some textbook description about us.