Misconceptions re. re-classifying Asperger's in the DSMV

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I actually was diagnosed with Asperger's since 1999, because I was originally dx'ed with HFA because they did not have asperger's back in 1982 in the states. But because the person who dx'ed me as asperger's thought I would do better in a day program with mentally ret*d people, so the agency manipulated the state and changed it to autism to get me in. The state who provided the services was confused and when the agency finally admit what they did and realized that it was inappropriate and why I was miserable, I had to get a whole other evaluation. Now, i am going to college, and the teachers treat me with respect and for the smart person I am, not a disabled person who should be treated like an ingrate. I also am very independent and having people care for you and tell you what to do, especially at 31 years old, is very insulting, especially when I know how to do this stuff since I was 13. Now, i am leaving and going into my own apartment independently without the staff help. I hate the fact that I had to be treated like an idiot, especially in things that I am great at, like independence, and school.

WAIT A SECOND! PDD-NOS(Doesn't quite fit an autistic disorder) will be lumped into Autism? Are the idiots that are "rethinking" that REALLY that moronic?



FRANKLY, if they were more precise about AS, maybe they could KEEP it and MAYBE move some HFA AS people into AS. That would make more sense.



I HOPE it doesn't include those, because they aren't autism, or even really autistic.



Well, mild/moderate/severe don't mean ANYTHING without a context. Does it mean IQ? Ability? Degree of related behavior? Once you get rid of the Kanners/AS separation, such a distinction will be MORE important.



Frankly, I would like AS, as defined the way I always understood it. It would give people a clear picture of me, and explain a lot. Autism would give people the WRONG idea. If we redefine house as a place anyone lives, and you paid me $300K for a house, and ended up with a cardboard box on van nuys ave, wouldn't you be upset?



NOPE, but MAYBE your chance of initial acceptance!



A diagnosis is supposed to indicate a means of treatment and/or describe the problem.



Then maybe retts and CDD will be labeled autism even though they AREN'T, have known causes, different outlook, etc....



Well, you are RIGHT, to a DEGREE! Still, a lot of people lump whites together. Should we FORGET about ireland, newzealand, great britain, scotland, england, germany, the US, etc... because so many of them were white? PERSONALLY, I think the separation serves a valid purpose. MANY whites have been at war. Should we rewrite the war of independence of the US as whites fighting against whites? It is inaccurate, unclear, and just not right.

LIKEWISE, LFA autistics and HF aspergers can relate, interact, appreciate one anothers problems, and STILL be separate.

Oh, I get it. It is like when my college became a State University. All of a sudden I was a University graduate. But that was the only thing that changed.

Merle

i think it should be.....

AUTISM = umbrella

LFA/MFA/HFA - spectrum under umbrella

AS - spectrum under umbrella (LFAS/MFAS/HFAS)

it's so clear that AS has a spectrum all of it's own. that thing everyone here likes to say "you've met one aspie, you've met one aspie" says it all.

And what will be exactly the difference between "LFA/MFA/HFA spectrum" and the "AS spectrum"?

I think we should push to be included under the LGBT umbrella. They're more numerous, so the lobbying power is bigger. There's more money for our AS activism leaders there. We could always say that between gays and lesbians and Aspies it's a continuum. Ah no, wait. They're not in the DSM anymore. Bummer.

the criterias i guess.

Better yet: those who are 'passable' get their own label: "well-groomed-not-a-retard-syndrome."

Those who don't go in a category called "lost cause/ret*d." Make sure the 2 categories are separated at all costs. If some kid is getting electrocuted for stimming, hey that's a 'ret*d' problem that has nothing to do with me -- so I'm going to let some NT shrink continue theorizing about how stimming is really purposeless behavior, because after all, he would know. And forced eye contact -- it helps the kids learn better, just ask the autism 'experts,' lots of them say so. All that really matters is that no one ever confuses 'them' with me.

Here is someone (not me) describing their experience interning at a school for autistic kids:

http://adeepercountry.blogspot.com/2009 ... s-you.html

Does anyone know if NLVD will be inclueded in the DSM V and if it will be inclueded as an autism spectrum disorder?

Yes, NLVD will be in the new DSM. It will go under the diabetes umbrella, as an extremely mild expression of diabetes not requiring intervention.

(kidding)

I liked your article. It is very sad. Actually the place she was talking about is in the state next to mine. They are notorious for horrible treatments. My place is not like the electric treatment shocks, but acts the same way these people did to these kids because they are high functioning and smart. This is another problem with merging the dx'es together. i am in a place were they mix, and the other kids have mental retardation, but yet get empathy and sympathy for physically attacking staff, and yet all I did is rock or cry really loudly when upset and I got disciplined, yelled at, and threatened to be put into a hospital and/or restrained because "I knew better". I was the only one they did this too because I was the only Asperger in there. Now, I am glad I am leaving and now in school, where I get love support and understanding from my college professors. College professors, who know asperger's better than "the experts".

I'm glad you're leaving; it sounded like some pretty bad prejudice there. Most likely the people who had MR weren't getting the help THEY needed, either, because nobody ever thought to teach them how not to do whatever they were doing that hurt somebody else. It sounds really, really patronizing to me, as though they figured your MR classmates (classmates? or whatever you call it) were inherently incapable of controlling their behavior, and could never learn; whereas you were inherently capable and did not need to be taught. Add to that punishment for totally harmless behavior, and you have a pretty bad situation. Sounds like a lazy way of doing things, to me.

Back to NVLD, though; it seems to me like they will either remove the most strongly autism-like aspects and put it under Specific Learning Disability like dyslexia; or they will merge it with the Spectrum, probably in the mild category. If they had NVLD as, basically, "person with low Performance IQ, inability to visualize, problems with hypothetical situations, dyspraxia, problems with reading comprehension but not reading, problems with figurative language," I could see it as a run of the mill learning disability. But if they put any sort of emphasis on the social skills, communication skills, and restricted/repetitive behavior part of it, they would have to put it under Autism.

I was being a bit sarcastic (about not identifying the groups with each other), but it's of course still wrong that they held you to a totally different standard and used such unfair punishments and threats. It sounds like they had some seriously confused thinking; that you deserved not to be treated decently because you didn't "really" have any troubles compared to others, in their eyes. Everyone should get the help they need, not a contest to see who "deserves" to be treated and helped decently and appropriately over whom, I think.

Anyway, that's cool that college is so much better; that school sounds like a really good place to have gotten away from.

It is true, they constantly compared me to the other clients. They would say things like "you not,...." or anything that would make me feel less of a person, just because I was not lower functioning. At one point, I regressed so badly and became non-functional and had a nervous breakdown because of it. When I told the hospital what happened, the agency said it was because I was being "behavioral",even though it was their fault, not mine. Now that I am in college, now they are apologizing like mad.

I hate that we have to accomplish things for people to feel like our actions have meaning.