Asperger's is not real

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Yeah, I was going to say the same thing. The idea of the picture, certain body language, the apparant ease of the smiles, even the RELATIONSHIP says NT! At the very least, there was not even a reason for a diagnosis, much less the ability to judge anyone here based on statschica's "experience". The fact is that it appears that statschica has no ability to judge anyone here. HECK, I don't judge some people here that I might have outside of my understanding of Autism, ESPECIALLY if I didn't show some similar albeit far more subtle traits.

BTW I have NEVER had any picture like that, and over 80% of those were POSED for things like school. And HECK, THEY had trouble! Most of the rest were taken unexpectedly.

One more thing! Women do NOT see the social problems with the other sex that men do socially. I know YOU wouldn't. NT women play tricks, are subtle, etc... AS men may not catch this. NT men HAVE to be direct! AS men probably tend to be shy, but AS women probably wouldn't have trouble with that either. The fact is that in MOST cultures, the MAN generally makes the first move or must respond. In most others it is prearranged.

Steve

Last edited by SteveK on 17 Mar 2007, 10:45 am, edited 1 time in total.

Not true.

SVBI: SPECT image library

Statschica, it sounds like your psychologists are giving you a negative view of Asperger's, and if they don't think it's genetic, you might want to look for different doctors. Asperger's is not a sickness (though society and the psych/ med system will see it as such to maintain their profits for their "treatments"). It is a neurological variant.

As far as the "us VS them" mentality, I think this is something that will eventually calm down and be smoothed out over time. We just found each other, after all. The internet is how old, and wrongplanet is how old? And there will only be more such meeting places in the future. It's a great thing that we can join up like this to share ideas, especially since it seems to be ideas that we are best at.

If your doctors told you that autism/asperger's aren't genetic, then you were seeing a doctor who didn't know enough about autism to diagnose it. Every doctor with knowledge about autism knows it's genetic. Even the crazy people who think "vaccines cause it!" admit that there must be a genetic vulnerability that would cause someone to react to the vaccines that way.

I think the "vaccines CAUSE it" crowd is nowhere near the size of the "vaccines may TRIGGER existing genetic predispositions" crowd. Just a side note.

Last edited by tkmattson on 17 Mar 2007, 10:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

1) Nobody can tell if someone has AS from a photo.

2) It is important for people to know that what they have is a condition that they share with others.

3) The NT v AS thing is ridiculous as stated, there are too many grey areas, and the world needs more division like it needs to be struck by a comet.

There is a definate difference between how my brain functions and almost everyone Ive ever met, but this having a different operating system so to speak does not define me as good or bad.

My AS diagnosis gives me a better understanding that my brain does not function the same way that the average person's brain functions. I used to always be baffled as to why things that I could do so easily would be impossible for others to even begin to comprehend. I could not understand until now how most people naturally did things that I just could not do either. AS is not a disease or a problem to be fixed or cured like smallpox. It is a different way of thinking that the average person does not engage in.

Ummm...Aspergers is real. Saying that it isn't is kind of a slap in the face for the moms and dads who had to raze us kids with Autism. To just brush it off as non-existent is kinda like shoving it in the back corner and pretending it's not there.
To just say that it doesn't exist is also kinda cruel for the rest of us who have made those mistakes socially or who have had to go to classes to learn what is so obvious to the NT's. It's kinda like saying, 'no, you weren't an Aspy, just a weirdo after all'. So not only do I think that you are wrong, but I think that if you don't believe it exists as a diagnosis then you are fighting a loosing battle, seeing as there is a forum full of us and our families right in front of you.

Also, this site is not really meant for us to gang up on one another and draw lines in the sand between Aspy and NT. It's meant for us to reach out to one another and to remind us that we're not as alone as we think.
All these people have fought hard to over come fears, learn new things about others and themselves. Some have learned to reach out while others are have begun to make strategies for themselves -and, sir, that came about because of Aspergers Syndrome.

So whether it is an existent 'disability' or not doesn't really mater on the one hand. Without that label, I would never have met half of the people in my life. I wouldn't have made some of my friends or gotten to know some of the sides of the people I already knew.
Aspergers is real, at least to me it is.

You may wish to seek out another doctor/ psychiatrist, by the way. You may not have it, but it has probably (I'm willing to bet) changed your life, for what it's worth. So I suppose on one level it's real for you too.
Good luck.

Last edited by 1Oryx2 on 17 Mar 2007, 11:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

Yeah, what (s)he said. Again, don't like your diagnosis? Get a second opinion. Your conclusion is about the same as if a doctor told you that you have cancer, and your response was "I don't believe in cancer". Meanwhile, you have people who are genuinely coping with living their own lives or with a loved one in that situation. Exactly what purpose do you intend to serve by telling them "it's all imaginary", and exactly what qualification do you possess to make such claims about people you've NEVER SEEN, let alone met? The gall.

Okay, I will write out the findings of the spect scan and I can't find the mri so please give me your input but someone else's opinion would be accepted. Anyway, the first neurologists did these tests after talking with me and my family for two short days, his findings were really long but his conclusions were this word for word: I thought he was treating me okay with Risperdal (for hypersensitivity and stimming as a result he said), Concerta (hyper behavior), and Cymbalta (depression). Now I moved to a female doctor though that said everything he did was a pseudoscience and that Asperger's/Autism is not known to be genetic and that they can't even believe in brain scans or anything so I believed her because I think she probably wants the best for me. This was like 5 years ago after the diagnosis so if anybody knows about neurology give me insight. I liked it because it was objective until my new shrink said it was just pseudoscience so I didn't know....Anyway, here's the ending part of the scans:

A bunch of pictures from my brain and he wrote this about it at bottom:

Overall significant observations :
1. Overall surface normal except relative increase in R > L temporal Lobe and decrease in left inferior orbital cortex.
2. Increased activity in thalamus and extension to the right
3. Left caudate is a sign. Overactive and extends medially, laterally, and anteriorally.
4. Thalamus is increased centrally and extends to the right.

Clinical Significance
1. Patchy uptake with increased Thalamus and Basal Ganglia. Suggests emotional intensity and negativity.
2. Temporaly lobe overactivity on the right, suggests difficulty with pattern and rhythmic recognition; could extend to faces and threaten social adjustment and interaction.
3. Decrease in inferior orbital coretex bilaterally indicates ADD additionally.

By the way, throwing beer in the face of someone who has a different opinion is not a very rational way to behave. Secondly, "omitting" people from your life who don't follow your mob mentality about ANYTHING, even if they're speaking tongues and/or giving you wild opinions about things, is a very shallow and innoble thing to do. If you believed everything you think is some sort of true science of reality then you wouldn't be so threatened by other peoples' opinions to begin with.

Statschica, I used to think Asperger's was a fake disorder too. When someone first suggested to me that my son had it and I probably did too, I was incredibly offended and wanted to tell him where he could stick his pseudoscience.

Then (and it took years...) I began reading about Asperger's, HFA, and more importantly, listening (well, "listening," since I was reading) to other people who had been diagnosed or self-diagnosed... especially the women, and sometimes even the observations of parents who have asperger's kids. It really clicked for me when I was reading a post here about a mom with an AS daughter. It sounded like she was talking about me, as a kid. There were many other things, but eventually it all fell into place in my mind and I realized I'm not crazy... I'm just neurologically different, in a way that a whole subset of the population is. And that it is genetic (which explained for me many things about my parents and troubled family life growing up).

Personally: I do not trust psychologists or psychiatrists!! !! I think you should adopt this same skepticism as well. Why do you have to let a psychiatrist decide for you whether or not Asperger's is real?

The label does help me because it lets me know exactly what I'm up against. For instance, I'm never going to enjoy doing projects with a partner or a group. I will always have extreme difficulty doing this. It's not just that I'm in a bad mood (which I told myself for years and years) or tired, or whatever. I'm not going to "snap out of it." So now I hunker down, pick my battles, and force myself to do the group-activity type things that are really needed in my life. I don't push myself TOO hard (since I am learning and accepting my limits) but I am doing a lot more stuff with my kids than I used to. I used to avoid doing cooperative stuff with them (like cooking with them, science experiments, playing games) like the plague. Now I set an expectation for myself that is reasonable and fulfill it if I am humanly able to do so. This has really improved my life with my kids.

"True Science Of Reality"? I trust the DSM-IV, and doctors who actually use it, way more than you and your singular experience. Also, is it rational to expect any less by coming on a board dedicated to those whose lives have touched by autism & Asperger's, then announce there's "no such thing", and NOT expect beer in your face? You're lucky people haven't been MORE outraged at you, and from me, you'll get no such luxury.

Also - MOB MENTALITY? You are truly messed up if you would for second think I would CHOOSE making my daughter uninsurable (she's been rejected by five companies since the diagnosis) simply because someone said it would be cool. And - SHALLOW? It's extremely shallow of you to make assumptions about other people, and their own particular circumstances based PURELY on your own experiences, looking which is exactly what you are doing with such assinine satements as "Asperger's is not real".

Last edited by tkmattson on 17 Mar 2007, 12:59 pm, edited 3 times in total.

So what social problems have you ACTUALLY seen?

The female doctor is first and formost a DOCTOR. She has the same failings all the others do. Heck, the specialty doesn't even really mean anything.

Many doubt a genetic component to AS, but it IS associated with Autism as far as general distribution and some symptoms. HFA people have shown differences in brain structure. EINSTEIN did as well! ALSO, there appear to be tendencies in families. It is hard to say there isn't a genetic component.

BTW AS people are supposed to be BETTER at pattern recognition!

Steve

May I point out, not everyone is throwing beer in your face.

You're a kinder soul than myself at this moment. What I don't get is why is she here if this problem doesn't exist?

(a) To "correct" us, a la Tom Cruise, Matt Lauer, and a psychiatry diatribe induced by Scientology
(b) To help herself accept the diagnosis
(c) To simply agitate people

Again, you are a kind soul for believing it is (b), but with a pronouncement title like she used, her intentions appear more to be (a) & (c). She had to know the negative reaction she was going to elicit by using such a title, in this community.

I think there's a (d) ... She's in denial. I think this only because I was in the same spot for years. As I mentioned earlier, I was royally p-o'd when someone first suggested to me (years ago) that I might have Asperger's.

I have a friend, a teenage ex-BF, who, if he doesn't have Asperger's, nobody does. In fact when his ex-wife left him, the reason she gave himw as that he had AS (she diagnosed him lol). But he gets incredibly offended and annoyed over the idea, doesn't even really believe it's a real disorder/ variant. Some people are just like that. I woke up, he might not... and I don't know about statschica.