Poll 9: Is autism a disease?

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Do you agree with news stories like this which say that autism is a disease?

http://www.newser.com/story/120490/sout ... orded.html

There are many more examples if you wish to search

Autism is not a disease. My 4 yo son taught it to me. It's a condition that can become a disability when it make autistic individual too different to function.
I think that AS is more common than previously thought because it can occur in a non disabling and less diagnosed form. We should rethink autism as a condition that can or cannot be a disability

The dictionary definition of the word disease is "a disordered or incorrectly functioning organ, part, structure, or system of the body resulting from the effect of genetic or developmental errors, infection, poisons, nutritional deficiency or imbalance, toxicity, or unfavorable environmental factors; illness; sickness; ailment." Autism does not fit this definition as it is not a "disordered or incorrectly functioning...system of the body..." it is a case of out minds not making the exact same connections that the Neurotypical brain does. We are not disordered in our thinking, but differently ordered; I doubt that you will find 2 people who think the exact same way in the entire world, so how different are we really?

First, I wish to say that, in answer to the poll question, I think 'disease' is the incorrect term. But I would call autism a disorder.

I would dispute that, musicislife, even though I am ill-equipped to back up any claim I make due to my poor understanding of brain science. If I take it back to my childhood, and look at my own behaviour, I would admit that in many aspects I was lacking in functioning. Primarily in my social behaviour.

If you are in a crowded room, and you are unable to drown out all the noise, or you're succumbing to the very presence of the people around you, and the signals they're emitting, while the average person has no problem with this... you may call it a disorder. You're failing where the average person isn't.

If you are busy drawing with your Transformers toys displayed in a row on the table, and your cousin comes in and accidentally knocks one toy over, then places it back on a location on the table that doesn't agree with how you had arranged them, and subsequently you throw a tantrum that involves throwing furniture around, and doesn't subside for an hour and a half, it;s save to say you've displayed irrational behaviour where the average person at worst would have screamed for a couple of minutes, then made peace with their cousin.

If you are busy drawing dinosaurs, and you start at 8 AM, and by 4 PM you've depleted half of the copying paper you're drawing on, you may call into question your ability to dose activities and plan your time schedule.

If you are about to call the number to the job ad you've read, and you need to perform a ritual before you're 'ready' to do it, then enter the number into your phone and erase it, and repeat this 3 times, while the average person would have called the numbers to 3 job ads in the same time, then your functioning is probably impaired.

If you give your friend the yellow and orange sweets because they're lemon and orange flavoured, and you don't like lemon and orange as much as the apple and strawberry sweets you just finished, and your friend asks you 'Are you giving me these because you don't like them?' and you respond 'Yes', then your social and tactical skills are doubly impaired.,

These are only a couple of examples, pulled from my own life, that I'd push forward as examples for why I consider my OWN autism to have been an impairment and a disorder, and not just a different wiring of the mind. Much of my personal growth -as the above behaviours have pretty much all disappeared- has been achieved through actively combatting those aspects of myself that I could identify as 'autistic behaviour'.

What remains, and what I do not wish to 'correct', is my preference to be alone when enjoying myself instead of socializing, my love for arranging and categorizing things, and my inclination toward the rational and logical. None of those autistic 'symptoms' are detrimental, and although I find they may be off-putting to some people, I will not change them for their sake.


EDIT:
To all this, I want to add that I was considered 'mildly autistic' from the moment of my diagnosis. I think people with more 'severe' forms of autism would not benefit if we stopped calling autism a disorder altogether.

Last edited by CyclopsSummers on 16 Dec 2011, 10:59 am, edited 8 times in total.

Well technically it would fit the definition of disease, however I think it makes more sense to call it a condition or disorder as that is a little more specific as most people associate disease with illness and I don't feel autism is an illness.

Asperger isn't a disease, it just means the brain is wired differently, not better or worse just... differently

For the fiftieth gazillionth time. no, autism is not a disease. And you're free to post polls such as this one; this is the internet, after all. If some people insist on labeling autism in a negative light, I'd rather they call it a disorder than a disease. Ideally, if I had my way, people would just be calling it "The Autism Spectrum". Sounds pretty neutral to me.

Additional: I read the article more closely, and only now saw the mention of the 'jolt' among the parents, and the 'guilt, pain, and hopelessness' of the one mother who was quoted.

My comment on this is that these reactions must be born from ignorance. Note how at first mainly severe cases of autism were 'recognized' in Ilsan. It's like back when the diagnosis for autism was expanded to involve more and 'milder' symptoms. Suddenly more children were diagnosed with a form of autism. More adults were diagnosed with a form of autism, at an older age. This is where many older posters here on WP come from. Suddenly, news in America and Europe were also speaking about 'an autism epidemic'. People are afraid of what they don't know. Apparently, Ilsan is yet quite unfamiliar with autism and Asperger's syndrome. I don't know what kind of suburb Ilsan is, what it's population/society is like. Seoul in general has struck me as a fairly progressive city.

Last edited by CyclopsSummers on 16 Dec 2011, 11:16 am, edited 1 time in total.

I am autistic and I think that articles such as this are incorrect and that it is shocking and damaging that they are allowed to be displayed to the public.

Autism is not a disease that needs to be cured. I am not diseased and I've never thought of myself as being diseased. I'm also a little insulted by that question. I'm not diseased and I don't need a cure and nor do I wish for there to be a cure. What are you getting at?

I've also didn't read the article because if you've seen one, you've seen them all.

On the bright side, the top comment on this article is actually quite intelligent.

Yeah, I'm wondering what all these polls are for. Or did I miss something important?

I don't see how anyone could consider Asperger's or Autism a disease. It is a difference, and depending on severity, it can be a disability or a gift. But the definition of "disease" is an acquired affliction, infection or long-term illness of one kind or another; affecting an organ or other part of an organism. If it must be classified, Autism would be a disorder not a disease.

Autism can just as easily be a gift, as it can be a disability. In my case, I find it to be a gift, and would not elect to change it in any way. I could not say that about any disease.

Charles

I think the article is a clear example of lazy journalism.
Do these people get paid by the quantity or the quality of their writings?
Maybe they get paid by the amount of mouseclick and in that case we're doing the writer a favour not deserved.

It is a disorder. It is not a disease.

Amen to that!

Redacted

Last edited by nat4200 on 19 Apr 2012, 5:27 am, edited 1 time in total.