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redrobin62
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28 Apr 2012, 3:57 pm

My oldest brother has a hard time believing that I could've been diagnosed with ASD. For instance he points out, in referencing to Asperger-Advice.com, that people with Asperger's may have large & clumsy gestures. In relation to speech, people with Asperger's may also have abnormalities of inflection & idiosyncratic use of words. In the National Institute of Neurological Disorders & Stroke, they also add that people with Asperger's may have clumsy & uncoordinated motor movements.

It's therefore interesting to note that, according to DSM IV in their Diagnostic Criteria for Asperger's (299.80), there's NO mention of clumsy gestures & uncoordinated movements and there is NO mention of abnormalities with speech. No wonder there are all these conflicting schools of thought regarding the subject - and probably the reason why DSM-V will be eliminating Asperger's altogether and just incorporating it into their general ASD.

DSM-V does make mention of speech abnormality in regards to the use of idiosyncratic phrases & poorly-integrated verbal communication but they omit anything having to do with clumsy & uncoordinated motor movements (unless this is what "stereotyped" motor movements mean).

In any case, with the new DSM-V criteria, I'd probably be "re-diagnosed" as being Level 1 in severity. I guess all of these issues are still hot button topics and will be till DSM-V comes out. I can't wait.



Asp-Z
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28 Apr 2012, 4:14 pm

Technically, those bad motor skills are dyspraxia. It's very commonly comorbid with AS but it is a separate condition.

TBH the ICD-10 is a better diagnostic manual anyway, it's the one the rest of the world uses. America just messes stuff up.



questor
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28 Apr 2012, 4:15 pm

It is not necessary to have every symptom of a disease or every trait of a disorder, in order to have that disease or disorder. It is only necessary to have a greater number of the symptoms or traits than would be expected to be found in a normal, healthy person.

I have Asperger's with Avoident Personality Disorder (AvPD) and Executive Function Disorder (EFD) as comorbids with it. Growing up with all of this naturally caused life long depression as another comorbid, but I am managing the depression better now that I live alone. Living with relatives was too stressful. I have a lot of the Asperger's traits, but not all of them. Now I need to work on my EFD.


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book_noodles
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28 Apr 2012, 5:46 pm

Well... that's not always true. As you pointed out, it's not a diagnostic criterion.
With that said, my fine motor skills have developed decently with age, while my gross motor skills are :? ..tragically subpar. I really think it depends on the person. :)
While t doesn't really seem like your brother has much license to question your diagnosis, it would be fair to take his opinion into account if you've spent your whole life with him (I'm just guessing here, I don't want to say anything definitive :) ) Unless you think he's way off :lol: Listening to his perspective doesn't mean you have to agree :roll: fortunately.


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