kgaccount form YouTube says aspergers is not autism.

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She is basically one of those "My son is more disabled than you/yours." If you don't have it as bad, she thinks your problems aren't as important nor valid. These people annoy me because they act like theirs or their child's is more important and act like theirs is the worst and the rest have no right to struggle nor get help and have support.

I didn't watch this video, but I did watch a bunch of videos of all kinds of autistic children. There are so many horrific comments on these videos. People saying that autism can be cured by bullets in the brains of children - no brains, no autism. People arguing for the elimination of all "mentally deficient" children. People saying that children who look at the camera or smile or seem happy or talk or display intelligence in any way cannot possibly be autistic. The comments section of these videos is truly a cesspool.

Here's how I see it. This woman is taking care of an obviously needy child and appears to be a good parent. It's a struggle, you can't deny that, and people handle the stress in different ways. If saying 'my child is more disabled than your child' helps her cope good for her. I don't agree with her but what she says is really no skin off my ass.

PS. Thank god I'm a Raven now. I hate blue jays.

In a nutshell, yeah. That pretty much sums it up. Sad if you ask me. She just doesn't get it. She really believes, unfortunately, that most higher functioning Autistics are basically minimizing the seriousness of her son's disability by claiming to have similar disorders with the same name. She really doesn't get the idea of how wide the spectrum really is, or how truly debilitating even much higher functioning Autism than her son's, can actually be.

I'm sure life is tough for her, but that's just it. I think it's more about how hard her own life is. I'm sure my parents had nowhere near as tough a time with me as she does with her son, but sure as the sun comes up every day, she has no idea how hard it is to live with this.

The thing about this kind of thing that bothers me the most is that we ought to be on the same side, trying to understand each other. Classic Autism is not a nice thing, and for sure high functioning Autism isn't anywhere near as bad, but doing stuff like that, that divides the community as a whole is certainly not productive, and helps no one.

The DSM is changing. In 2013, Asperger's, PDD-NOS, and autism will all be merged into "Autism Spectrum Disorder." A single diagnosis.



This is a profoundly ignorant statement. People don't simply snap into existence when you notice them, and just because you see posts on a forum doesn't mean that's the only thing they do. I didn't just decide one day I can't get a job because I spend time on my computer. I spent two decades trying to find work and trying to keep jobs I did get (even though these jobs were stressful and depressing, and I ended up burning out or getting fired), and over that time I've managed to have 15-18 months of employment. In the third and final job I did have, I received the vague and unhelpful feedback that I was being "rude" to customers, but I didn't know any specifics, and thus didn't know what behavior was rude, especially as I was putting a lot of energy into being polite. Obviously, it wasn't enough, or there wouldn't be complaints.

I don't explain this to justify anything to you. I want to make a point that everyone on this forum has a personal history of which you are likely completely unaware. Solutions are not so simple as "get off the computer" for many.



Current research indicates that the rate of autism in the general population has likely been stable for decades, but that the diagnostic methods have improved over time, enabling more to receive the diagnosis they need to explain and perhaps adjust to their difficulties. Autism statistics are far from through the roof, as ~0.9% of the population is autistic. That's significantly less melodramatic than "through the roof."

As for meeting anyone's "match," I don't see the point of such competitive declarations. So far, you seem to be resorting to the usual overused, tired, cliches directed at disabled people in general for not functioning at 100% abled capacity. That's not a "match" of any sort, that's just the same taunting that many other people fall back on when they lack a valid argument.

As far as kgaccount goes, she has a lot of valid complaints, but people diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome as well as those diagnosed with autism and PDD-NOS who are less severe than her son are not responsible for her difficulties. She has no reason to misdirect her frustrations at "Aspies," and neither do you.

Last edited by Verdandi on 10 Feb 2012, 3:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

so I wonder what HER diagnosis would be.... borderline? Maybe she's aspie who only gets on the computer when she's having meltdown

In fact sometimes some of the challenges of a more severely disabled child are actually less. I'm thinking specifically of my LFA boy vs my friends son with Aspergers.

And look who felt like putting up BIG WORDS.

I have sympathy for her.

She has to give up her dream to take care of an autistic adult. I don't agree with her but can put myself in her shoes.
The parents of autistic people have it very hard and have the right to complain about it.

She seems depressed and discouraged and I don't blame her. Emotions can make you look ignorant but you can't control them.
Understand that she is upset before criticizing her.

If you know that aspergers is a form of autism then the opinions of an over-stressed mother shouldn't matter.
I agree with her that some people are misdiagnosed. I don't know anything about Jenny McCarthy but how could her aspie child be cured. Unless he never had it in the first place.

I have to agree with Kgaccount on this one. I noticed her videos while I was on Youtube and I think Kim has a point on how different Aspergers is from full blown autism. I know that the two have been mixed together in the DSM but the DSM as I understand it is just a diagnostic tool and not necessarily a clear cut way of defining who is what as far as their mental state is. It's possible that mixing all of these different terms under the same autism spectrum label maybe wasn't a good idea by the psychiatric community, I don't know. But I do know that Kim has had a very hard time taking care of James (and on a related note it shows how California has dropped the ball numerous times in its own bureaucracy and public health policies). Honestly, the behavior of a lot of people towards her (both from the Aspie community and others) has been disgraceful in my opinion and yes, Kim is right when she says that there are a lot of people who aren't even close to Aspergers or autism or anything resembling those two who claim to have Aspergers/autism. For people who KNOW that they don't have autism or Aspergers but PRETEND (and that is what you are doing, pretending, like a fake) to have either one of them, you make everyone else look like a fool or a fraud and personally I wish you'd go and check yourself into a mental ward because you have issues other than Aspergers or autism. Kim and people in her position don't need a bunch of online strangers harassing her as far as I'm concerned.