Who thinks aspergers should be renamed?

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I understand Callista's point of view. It's essentially the same as the whole forums going around saying "why do NTs think appearances are so important?" or any other particular thing we like to harp on.

As far as the whole girlfriend thing goes, in my mind, it's about finding someone whom I can trust completely and who has my back. I am paranoid and afraid of change, so I quite like the idea of having a constant person in my life whom I can actually trust.

Also, the touchy stuff is just quite rewarding. It feels good.

Where did I mention "external things"?



... is just something that some guy made up, and I'm sure he's as fallible as you or I. Why quote him as gospel? Have you questioned his ideas; tested their rigor?



We're different; many of my ideas were realised by thinking and examining my own thoughts; it was only when I read further that I found out that others had thought along the same lines that I do.



Love as depicted on the television? Love as depicted in the media? You can keep it; and if you think that is the greatest thing in existence, I pity you. I suspect you don't, though, and that the love I think you're talking about would count as one of the greatest things: but why claim it as the greatest? It may be so for you, but why push your existential framework onto everyone else?



I am very curious about where I've ever said that I didn't.


More so, I test them to see how they measure up against reality. It takes a lot for other people to factor in. See: autism. The etymology of the word provides quite an apt descriptor of me.



I avoid "the man on the street", because I find him tedious and vacuous. The same with the mass media.
My friends are people who, even if not highly intelligent, think for themselves and question things. If they have self-esteem problems, it's usually because they're failing to achieve their own goals, not because of not meeting some outside standards.



It makes me understand in terms of a collective "you", but I don't see that it has to apply to me personally, nor do I see where love comes into it, unless every conversation is fuelled by love.



Who mentioned not thinking?

**** Oh God, I just read where you mentioned that "falling in love" is not hard...
It's one of the hardest things; one has to know so much about a person and have so much trust for them before that's even on this side of the horizon of possibility... unless your definition of "in love" is different from mine?

It doesn't.

Not at all...

I hate how people here are so quick to use AS as an excuse for everything wrong with their life.

i'm asexual and a volentary celibate, i do not suffer from it. i suffer from romantic garbage in my fantasy world. but i know some people need companionship and i see that as fine, but to me alot of people to seem to think that they have to have a companion like it is law or something. it should be something they truly want, not that they have to have.

not judging anyone that is just a global observation. if i am wrong i will stand corrected.

You're missing the point - the OP suggested renaming Asperger's after an inability to find a romantic/sexual partner. For a lot of us, this isn't a priority at all, nor is it the most challenging aspect of autism that many people deal with. Further, many autistic people do find romantic/sexual partners and have fulfilling relationships.

I interpreted Callista's response as rejecting that definition.

That said, I do wonder what it would be like if my most profound difficulty were involuntary celibacy. It's worlds away from what my life has been like.

Oh, and I am asexual as well. I won't say that I am not interested in a relationship, but I am not interested in a sexual relationship. I also do not value the idea of a relationship as highly as many others do because from past experience I find it difficult to adapt to another person's expectations, especially when they are unwilling to adapt to my needs.

Reach For The Top Of The Table Syndrome. My parents and teachers made me believe that I can't reach for the stars. It doesn't bother me now, though it bothered me when I was working in the factory.

@ Who am i,

I tried to explain how i see ''things that could be better then love'' and i will leave it at that.
I would rather do something else then start picking apart each others posts. English is not my native language and the words i use stand for idea's that are probably different then what it generally means.

I don't know if this is something more aspies have because i run into it in my native language too. Of course everyone interprets the meaning of words differently. But i think the meanings i can give to words are on another level of different to what is generally taken for granted to allow smooth conversation. Maybe my continuous use of the word ''you'' came across threatening, this is not my intention.

When i was writing that word stood for myself/someone else/all of society or a combination at different points in the text. I'm actually directing posts at myself most of the time. For example the line without thinking you are going nowhere my friend is also something that is partly directed at myself not specifically the user ''who am i''. I was actually not really responding to your post anymore i was having fun thinking and putting it into words.

When a conversation goes bad nobody ever asks me what do you think the word .... means. Everything we say is automatically connected to a certain judgment. Almost none ever stop to think it might be totally different for different people. For instance a conversation with the word weird in it, this is not a negative word for me but people get defensive around it because they see it as something bad.

Everything is thought up by some guy, Einstein was some guy. I did not mean to come across as if that wiki quote was the bible to me, it was merely to give a picture of things that could be harder and more fulfilling to attain then love. I just went with my own ideas, Since you have not explained the plenty things in life you said are better then love.

What do you think is better then love in life ?.

In my opinion falling in love is not that hard, i fell in love for the first time when i was 13. This lasted 2 years and i remember it as pretty intense (nobody can judge otherwise except me), but i failed to love the person. You can fall in love stay in love but at the same time be unable to love that person. Falling in love felt the same at age 20 which also lasted more then a year. Loving someone can be very hard but it is different to falling in love and being in love with someone.

Becoming a spiritual, conscious person who is aware of the way his thoughts/emotions work in relation to his surroundings is not easier then falling in love. When i was 13 i was in love and i was a blind/unaware kid at the same time and because of it i failed to give this person the love that i had for her. If you take it a step further everyone falls in love with their parents/family when they are just a small child without breaking a sweat. Loving your people in your mind is not hard, but making that step from loving in your mind towards showing that love in your every action is very hard indeed.

Many people are in love but still act immature and are not in control of their thoughts/emotions. Would you discard their love as not being true love ?. Or is it that love is easier to attain in a weak form but to maximize its potential you have to be aware of other things that do not come naturally in this society.

Hijacking this thread because who cares about renaming aspergers syndrome. Love > names

I think aspergers should be taken off the list of disorders. It's just one of the many varieties of being human. I refuse to see only the downside of aspergers, it has some advantages and upsides as well.

When I look at the messages on this forum for instance, I notice that there are many people here who have interesting and original ideas. I don't see myself as better than NT's, but we can be just as usefull to the world as anybody else.

I am pretty sure that my brain would not function as well without my aspergers and in a way I'm even grateful for that. I don't care anymore if other people think I'm weird or abnormal. That's their problem, not mine.

I'd rather label myself "mildly autistic" than "aspergers"
"aspergers" has too much baggage on my past
"aspergers" is too often a word made fun of, obviously
if i were to disclose my condition to someone close to me, and i mean close cause i dont like telling people im autistic, im already patronized, pitied and bullied as is, not to mention IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE (in high school i was COMPLETELY ignored) ... i knew this one chick in, community college, who told aquaintances that she has aspergers and imlike.... flippin why...??
anyways
got off track there
yeah, i do not like the word, it just sounds bad, I'd rather it be called something else, for the love of christ

Besides, Asperger alone didn't notice this syndrome, there was another guy..

I'm neutral on whether or not AS should be renamed to HFA, but I think there is a difference between current AS and HFA and that is the language delay.

I personally like the word "Asperger". I have grapheme>color synaesthesia, and to me:
A = red
S = green
P = blue
E = yellow
R = purple
G = orange

It's a very colorful word. :D
(That's also one of the reasons I chose "Scandium" out of 118 possible elements. (green, yellow, red, neutral, blue, white, dark blue, orange))

I agree. I think society is obsessed with "love". Movies like "Twilight" make teenage girls believe in "love at first sight". And when they don't get it, they go into depression. "Love" should be a drive to protect and take care of one's family, and not to find a GF/BF.

I agree that AS has it's good points, but if it's not considered a disorder, people who need accommodations for school/work/whatever can't receive them.

We should change the spelling to Arsperger's, because things always sound a little classier when said in the Queen's English.

Seeing it as a disorder does not mean ignoring its advantages and upsides, but it does mean acknowledging the difficulties people with AS experience. It's not an either/or false dichotomy. It can be both.

If it doesn't impair you, then you don't have it. You may have a brain that works similarly, but it's not the same as for someone who has a lot of difficulty with independent living, organization, focusing outside their interests, who does experience impairments. Those advantages aren't much consolation when you are chronically unemployed or constantly looking for work because you keep losing jobs.

If it impaired you at some point during your life that is enough, you do not have to be continually impaired to a significant degree to have it.

Last edited by TB on 09 Aug 2011, 3:14 am, edited 2 times in total.

In the DSM-IV criteria, it says:



If it doesn't impair you, you don't have it. That doesn't mean you don't have a brain that works more like autistic people's brains or that you can't identify with autistic people. It doesn't even mean you can't call yourself an Aspie.

Or I guess you could go to the ICD-10 criteria, which has no requirement for impairments, but I don't know how diagnosis based on the ICD-10 criteria is handled.

As far as it goes - and this isn't aimed at you - it strikes me as a bit dodgy for people to diagnose themselves with Asperger's Syndrome and then try to define it as "not impairing" or "not a disability." I suspect the majority of people diagnosed with it actually do experience some degree of disability and impairment due to AS.

I guess as long as people stick to speaking for themselves - as you did - it's probably not a thing. It's the sweeping statements that are problematic.