All aspies are misfits. not all misfits are aspies.

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I wonder how many social malcontents are misdiagnosed with AS or some other Spectrum Disorder?
I wonder how many social malcontents are "misconvinced", without diagnosis, that they have AS or some other disorder?

Just like a lot of people will think they are chronically mecury poisoned when they are not, or some folks think they have chronic lyme when they dont, I wonder if there are people desperate for acceptance for being what they are that will align themselves with ASD.

I also wonder how this might negatively impact the struggle to have ASD accepted by society as a whole. Just as chronic mercury poisoning or chronic lyme is adamantly refuted despite the scientific evidence that shows otherwise, mostly because it is not a profitable condition and acknowledgement would enable litigation detrimental to many companies and goverment organizations, but still, it bears consideration.

Have there been any studies done on this?

It is partly for this same reason that the term 'Asperger's' is gonna disappear next year: too confusing and with a high error of misdiagnosis, especially when self-diagnosed. Like I had said before, some who would fall under the umbrella of autism will leave WP because a lot of people equate autism with retardation and Asperger's with intellect & shyness.

I like autism spectrum more. If I have to tell someone I'm autism spectrum or have autism spectrum disorder they are less likely to roll on the floor laughing at me than if I say I have aspergers. Granted I don't go telling people I have aspergers but its become something of a joke now and I never liked the name for obvious reasons (ASS BURGERS LOL).

Technically I don't have aspergers, my doctor who diagnosed me said that I fell under ASD, that he was absolutely certain of, but lacked a few specific characteristics of aspergers. I imagine he prefers the idea of someone being on the autism spectrum than diagnosing aspergers.

I am an Aspie who happens to be a Misfit, no wait, I mean I am a Misfit who happens to be an Aspie.

Who cares?? I am a man who happens be blue-eyed, or I have blue eyes and happen to be a man.

The whole aspergers vs austism spectrum is really just a redefining of the same stuff for the DSM. Asperegers wasn't even in the DSM before 1994 but I can assure you that I have had Aspergers since way before 1994.

Personally, I like Autism Spectrum. It reminds us that we are different shade of the same animal.

Aspergers has a LESS negative societal stereotype than autism.

Whether you call it "Aspergers," "Assmunchers," or "Beaveregers," the societal acceptance relates to the symptoms being "not normal," not the name of the condition.

If you rename "diabetes" as "born-with-condition-but-not-fat syndrome," you're not going to change the stereotype either.

My thoughts were more along the line of "rebels" versus "AS". I know several ppl who are undoubtedly Neurotypical as they are called here, yet they don't like to be touched, they don't like crowds, they don't like authority, etc. They are social misfits but don't fit the spectrum at all. They know how to be polite and they know when to speak and when to listen and are perfectly capable of socially acceptable interaction without it physically tiring them down, etc. They like going to parties, etc. but they are social misfits generally speaking. they don't line up to the "norms" of society, sometimes by choice, sometimes by habit because of how they were raised, etc.

How many of these NT ppl who are essentially rebels or trained up differently than what society expects are mislabeled or misconvinced, etc.

Aspergers versus Autism spectrum is like saying clementines versus mandarins. Clementines are a specialized type of mandarin orange but still a mandarin orange.

I wonder how many NT people are misdiagnosed or misconvinced into believing they have AS when they don't. Or forwhatever reason like the label and assume it. Some people look for an excuse to be different. Some people are decieved into taking a label simply because they are not from the same social "cookie cutter" as the rest.

That's what I am questioning/wondering about.

I will agree with the original premise of this thread. I myself am not really sure if I have AS or not as all I have are self assessments that sometimes show me to be AS and sometimes don't. For all I know, I could be psychosomatically blowing my answers out of proportion because I think it has to fit my situation when it actually doesn't. To really know for certain, I would want to be professionally assessed, but I don't see enough benefit in doing so considering that a proper diagnosis costs more than I spent on my car. Changing the name of the disorder will not cause me to stop posting here, but I can see that it may stop others who are just starting a time of self-discovery from seeking further knowledge.

(I retook the AQ test last night and scored a 31, just below the threshold. However, I was answering it from how I am today while I think the times I tried it in the past were from the perspective of where I was in the past. I also did another test (RAADS R?) that showed me clearly on the spectrum right before it (I scored a 135 with a 65 ASD threshold.) This is the reason I am now confused. It doesn't help that I am obsessing over it for the last month either!)

I wouldn't mind lending my diagnosis to a few miscellaneous misfits who needed it, just so long as they returned it clean and in good condition.

It's the eccentrics and nerds I tend to communicate most easily with, anyway--people who are born into a culture they don't quite fit into, for any of a million possible reasons. Maybe they're unusually smart, or they have an unusual way of thinking--like they're artistic or musical. Maybe they have a cognitive difference, like a learning disability. Maybe they're disabled; maybe they're biracial or a military kid or some other factor that forces them in between different groups of people all the time. I guess I'd call about 10% of the world "eccentric" in this way, possibly more than that depending, because even the normal-range people have their little weirdnesses.

Most of those folks don't need a diagnosis, or need a diagnosis that isn't autism. But there are lots of autistics scattered around the eccentrics of the world.

If doctors diagnose people with autism only when they actually have some kind of impairment and there isn't any diagnosis that describes it better, then I'm quite satisfied.