DSM

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People from an American society write a book called DSM and label people depending on their criteria. These people are sponsored by drug companies and many other manor of corperate business. These people could decide that not being able to spell correctly is a pathology and then suddenly there are even more personality defects.

American society can shove their DSM.

Wow, it sounds like you've got SOMETHING on your mind that you're not puttin' into this post...(just a guess, I have Aspergers & SOMETIMES mis-read people...)

Yes I do feel like there is alot of social manipulation going on. Just because some idiot in a white coat writes something then people just lay down and accept it. I would like to see people stand up for themselves more and stick their fingers up to these so called experts who write about things that they do not understand.

Uhm... actually the committee doing the DSM are well-respected researchers, lots of peer-reviewed papers published... they're not "some idiot in a white coat".

What do you have against them? Just because the classification of autism made in 1995 kind of sucked doesn't mean they didn't do their best on it--we didn't know that much about autism back then. Besides, the next edition promises to be a good bit better.

Well then, I guess Autism, Asperger's Syndrome, and every other ASD is just a figment of the imagination of "some guy in a white coat."

Then why are you here, and why do you claim you are "not sure if you have it?"

The conflict there is quite revealing. If you think it's bunch of bunk, then why does your profile say "Not sure if I have it?"

If you aren't sure you have it, then you cannot also be convinced it isn't real.

In view of other posts you've made here so far, it seems to me that you do take the disorder at least somewhat seriously, so this one in company with those seems way left field all of a sudden. What happened?

The problem is that we are pathologised. This means that we have a pesonality defect and it is a short ride to having rights taken away from you because you have a disorder (or just not the same order as that which is deemed acceptable). This is the thin end of the wedge and we really need to use our voice to get our difference respected and not just dismissed as a lower order.

What I think we need to fight for is to have disabled people in general recognized as equals. It doesn't make much sense to say "I don't have a disorder" when you struggle to learn social skills, are overwhelmed by the sensory overload of the world, and have a much harder time with things like executive functioning, connotative language, and transitions. Some of us here are so obviously disabled that strangers walking by in the street can detect it; others have told only their closest friends. But we all have some impairment--some things we just plain suck at learning or doing. Only those who are culturally and neurologically autistic (but not diagnosable) can say that autism does not cause some impairment for them--and even these people are socioculturally distanced from the NT majority, and often spent their childhoods with some diagnosable impairment.

We should not deny that we have those impairments. We should assert that having those impairments does not make us a "lower order", and that we have the same rights anyone else has. There are many people with many other disabilities working for just that. There are people who use wheelchairs insisting on getting bus systems accessible. There are Deaf people who are teaching the world their language and culture. There are dyslexics who are working to open the education system for kids who have a hard time reading. There are even color-blind people creating tools to detect whether Web pages are readable for people who can't tell red and green apart from gray.

I totally get that it sucks when the world says you're a second-class citizen. It does. But the solution isn't to deny that the diagnosis exists. The solution is to make it known that the diagnosis does not change a thing about your status or your rights.

No offense, but...

you aren't even sure you have an ASD yet. I suggest you become sure before you decide to jump on any bandwagons or start any kind of crusade.

Once you reach a decent understanding of the disorder, then maybe these are things you should contemplate. Honestly, I think at this early stage, not even being sure you have it suggests you don't really understand it fully, it's a tad bit early for making statements like this and expecting people to follow along.

Learn first. Teach later.

Sorry to sound dismissive, but it's how I feel.

Yes and I believe that NT's could be classed as deficient because they are everywhere. This world needs diversity and this is what we have. We just need to be able to apply our autistic traits within society and not to let NT's decide our fate.

Okay, there's not much logic in that statement. Being "everywhere" has nothing to do with deficiency. It just means that there are a lot of them.

It's not us-versus-them. Or, anyway, it shouldn't be. We're part of the human race, and so are they; we both have skills that the other group can make use of. Believe it or not, it's possible to work together without either group having to dominate the other.

I have worked with autism for over ten years as a support worker and I have learned to stand up for these people.

Yes well written. I totally agree.

Heh, well, it's not like I'd say no to a few good NT allies. After all, if I'm not gay and I can support gay rights, then why can't NTs support autism rights? Of course the movement itself is driven by autistics, but there's more than just autistics that wants to stop us getting pushed down for no good reason.