Asperger's or HSP?

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It won't let me post the link but you can google "Differences Among Asperger's Syndrome" if you want to read it.

The danger of misdiagnosis. A lot of "professionals" tend to have a misguided and simplistic view of the differents mental "disability" (or differences). The misdiagnosis is among the reasons I dislike the nerd/geeky/smart stereotype of aspergers.

It's easy to claim that something is overdiagnosed if you don't have it or if you've been diagnosed with it. The people who write these articles haven't gone through their lives trying to figure out how to do the things everybody else seems to take for granted, desperately thinking that if only they try hard enough, try harder and harder and harder, maybe they won't fail at everything they try, wondering why they can't be normal, why they can't be good enough, and getting blamed for not being good enough.
It's a bit like being blamed for not being able to flap your arms and fly. It doesn't matter how hard you try, no matter how much you visualize yourself lifting off into the air, no matter how much you dream that you can do it, no matter how much you will yourself to sprout wings and fly, and no matter how much anybody yells at you and tells you that it's your fault that you're not soaring around like a bird, it's just to going to happen.
(I'm using a generic you there, not like you in particular...)

HSP should be another name for sensory integration disorder...

Anyway, everybody knows that you don't diagnose somebody if there's no significant impairment.

This all comes from the stereotype that a disability MUST be severe; that mild disabilities don't exist and that having a cognitive disability is rare and always obvious. This stereotype is false; there are far more people with mild, non-obvious disabilities than there are with severe, obvious ones.

What is "overdiagnosis"? Diagnosis of people who are not impaired? If so, why did they seek diagnosis? Or is it just diagnosis of people who aren't impaired enough to fit the prevailing stereotype of "cognitive disability"?

Actually posted about this on my blog a couple days ago--
The Normalization of Diagnosis

Make that 2 votes for maggiedoll's description. You should get a copyright before someone snags it.....

I'm kinda looking funny at this statement (ah, since when do people with HFA fall over when you talk to them? For the most part, they may ignore you more than someone with AS, but this is usually as a child):

Hmm, the author seems to go to put a lot of effort into differentiating AS from other labels such as giftedness and "High Sensitivity." I think there's some stigma avoidance at work motivating the thinking. And if it really is 1% of of kids, and IIRC in the UK the measured and found it's about 1% of adults, then there really are just a lot of people on the spectrum.

And she provides no evidence about the contention that AS is overdiagnosed -- only explains why it would be if that way if it was known to be true. Sort of like arguments about economics or politics -- if it sounds compelling enough sometimes people will forget that you haven't actually shown it to be the case; but rather have made it seem like it must be.

And does the ADA actually directly effect school funding levels? And the ADA is also responsible for drugging little girls? WTF? And the "brain damage" quote, and etc. This piece seems to have an ill-informed author on a number of points.

I believe one must look at how these symptoms present in childhood. Many adults have learned to adapt, both through therapy, and because of consequences. This does not mean that they're no longer autistic, just better at masking symptoms.

I do not disagree that we have trouble forming relationships. Quite honestly, I blamed failed friendships and interactions on others. I could not see, and usually still can't, what I did wrong. I managed to marry, but I have what my family calls an odd marriage. My husband and I do not sleep in the same room, and he doesn't like to hug, kiss, etc... He does not expect praise, or for me to notice emotional needs. He does not have AS; he's simply stoic.

It didn't even occur to me, until I was an adult, that people might have feelings different than my own.I still have a great deal of trouble coddling people.

I do believe Aspergers is diagnosed in some children who do not have it. I am only concerned about that because identifying the true issue is the first step in helping a child. I do think, though, that some appear to be on a crusade against most who are diagnosed with Aspergers. I cannot think of a logical motive for such a tirade, especially if it involves lies (which some unstable people do). Perhaps they were told they have Aspergers, and deny it (extensive lying would most likely mean they are not Autistic), or, they believe themselves to have it, and want to be special.

granted the things said in that article were common of almost every person...(boredome in school, figeting, awkwardness in high school, dislike of loud noise) If those were the only symptoms I had, I probably would never have gotten my diagnosis. The things they don't mention are the hand flapping, other repetitive movements and stims, self injury, living in my own world 90% of the time. Those things are the real red flags to me. Not the other stuff.