Will high functioning Autistics even be recognized afterMay

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Sorry for the sloppy title but I ran out of spaces.

I was shown the three catagories there'll be after the new "rules" go into effect.

Seems there's no recognition of people like Alex, Temple Grandin, John Robison, because it seems to be autistic you'll have to "need support" and even then still not function well where human interaction is concerned.

I even heard of someone saying "Aspergers people never were autistic anyway."

Where is this going to leave a lot of people? What term can be used to describe their obvious autistic traits if they can't be called autistic any more?

With the new criteria as a child temple would have been diagnosed and as she progressed she would be moved up in levels.

That said some of the mildest forms will be recognized as social communication disorder so they will be recognized as something.

Need of support is kinda subjective if you ask me I wish they provided specific examples but in short yes I do believe so

Not sure the spectrum definition is really catching on. Aspergers Syndrome is antiquated and certainly never rolled off the tongue anyway. Furthermore, plenty of high functioning people need support, and often their aversion to finding any is the BEST indicator. Autism Spectrum needs to be looked at in terms of what it has resulted in.

I have a feeling that Asperger will be as a diagnosis back in DSM, but maybe they will start using a different label. A new label will however cause confusion and make a lot of administrative problems for people.

The more people understand about us, the affected constituents, the less professional mental care will be necessary. As a high-functioning oddball, I've certainly never considered myself beyond needing support, yet I've felt aversion to support from someone "just doing their job". I for one would love to see some public consensus on teaching people how to spot AS behavior patterns and avoid exasperating them, as opposed to seeing the textbook definition (read: awkward), or reading into the deer-in-the-headlights demeanor of the autistics in their lives.

Sure

People who need the simplest of support will still qualify, people who simply lack friends will qualify. Needing support doesn't mean constant help.

Visiting a psychologist once a month is a type of support - I was doing that more or less for two years recently (all of 2011-12). And when I was in my twenties I needed support: according to my psychologist, I would still be struggling now in my fifties if I hadn't received help back then - even though nobody had heard of "Asperger's syndrome" in the 1970s. I lived in a structured rehabilitative environment for a number of years, with an emphasis on social and emotional skills and understanding. It made a real difference to my life.

Yet people describe me as "very high functioning". I don't think they realise that if it wasn't for past (and recent) support, I wouldn't be "very high functioning", I would be floundering.

Good, I'm glad it said something about ''people with Asperger's were never Autistic anyway''. I've always hated the feeling of being Autistic. Autism has always made me feel depressed, because it reminds me of a lonesome person that nobody understands, and I never wanted to be connected to that neurotype. I rather get rid of this awful label called ''Asperger's Syndrome'' too, and just be classed as somebody with Social Anxiety, General Anxiety Disorder, and ADD or something, all mixed together.

I grew up not knowing I have an ASD, so I missed some things others learn faster than me. I can talk well, my grades were good in school (until I needed more help and was denied). I am "high functioning" in certain areas. As an adult that has shown in ways such as writing, I explain myself better in writing than speech. I am beginning to get the services I need now as an adult (what is available) while I need them now. I don't mind being known as "autistic", if I am able to access what I need with the new autism spectrum diagnosis. How you think of some label defines your view of it. The word itself is neutral.

I don't understand the whole "Aspererg's people never were autistic" thing, tho'. From what I've seen, the symptoms are the same, with the exception that people with Asperger's don't have the language loss at any point, and tend to be high functioning.

How can it be said someone with the symptoms of autism isn't autistic?

''people with Asperger's were never Autistic anyway''

I see two things wrong with this:
1. it demeans the internal struggle of Aspergians
2. WE DON'T KNOW YET

Bolded reminds me of that old "6 feet Under" show on the cable when Dexter was describing Temple Grandin...

I don't know why you have a sad association for Autism..
No 2 Autistics are a like.

Don't be embarrassed to be on the spectrum, its ok

Funny how much intelligence can exist independent of any solid science supporting its' origins.

That's like saying 'I don't want to be considered black because I've never broken the law and I want to do well in school'.

Just because you don't like a stereotype of a group, doesn't mean you should deny that you're part of that group. Far better to challenge the stereotype instead.

If the American Psychiatric Association (APA) decide to reobtain the diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome in the DSM VI within the foreseeable future, they must deem it officially interchangeable with high-functioning autism (HFA). In my point of view, the psychological notions of a substantial hindrance in language acquisition, the absence of pedantic speech, and a discrepant profile of Verbal IQ < Performance IQ (good visual-spatial skills) isn't a non-requisite for a diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome, and personally I think that HFA and AS cannot be fundamentally distinct from each other as some people with AS do not correspond with meeting all of their developmental trajectories in time - I didn't, for example. Some childhood infants who conspicuously exhibited the traditional aspects of "classical autism," can attain remarkable cognitive, adaptive, and linguistic progress by moving up along the autistic spectrum continuum as the result of an early diagnosis, and intensive, early intervention programs like Applied Behavioral Analysis, and speech and language therapy. They may receive a diagnostic label of high-functioning autism or Asperger's syndrome later on in school life, and the linguistic, cognitive, and behavioral profiles of individuals with AS or HFA have been debated by psychologists as indiscernible by the period of adolescence. If the paediatrician Hans Asperger never discovered "Asperger's syndrome," the term would never have existed as diagnostic entity and the disputation over the resemblances and differences between AS and HFA would never have been formulated in the psychiatric field. The one condition itself would have simply been referred to as a high-functioning form of autism. Not all people with Asperger's syndrome exhibit the symptomatic co-existence of Nonverbal learning disorder (NLD), a cognitive discrepancy profile which is representative of a significant discrepancy between a higher verbal IQ, and a lower performance IQ with at least one standard deviation (SD) between the segregated scores. NLD is attributable to right cerebral hemispheric dysfunction, but it has been scientifically proven to be quite contingent for the profile of nonverbal learning disabilities to be of presence in some people labeled with "high-functioning autism."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2394183/

Source: Diane L. Williams, Gerald Goldstein, Nicole Kojkowski, and Nancy J. Minshewd. "Do individuals with high functioning autism have the IQ profile associated with nonverbal learning disability?"- Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders: 2008 June; 2(2): 353–361.

People who genuinely do have Asperger's syndrome should continue to meet the DSM 5 ASD criteria, although several patients previously labeled with PDD-NOS (clumsy, unconstructive label) who do not have highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus (such as excessively circumscribed or perseverative interests), and hyper-or hypo-reactivity to sensory input or unusual interests in the sensory aspects of one's environment are likely to labeled as having a social communication disorder instead. Furthermore, some people with AS have specific adaptive behavioral difficulties such as financial management, cooking, and even self-care. I think the DSM 5 label transition of AS to high-functioning ASD for now may grant them eligibility for a wider variety of individualized support services; however, Asperger's syndrome can still be diagnosed using the more reliable diagnostic criteria devised by Christopher Gillberg (1989, revised in 1991), and it's apparently been retained within the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as an ASD sub-category known as "Social Reciprocity Disorder," where the term "Asperger's syndrome" is quite clearly synonymous with in accordance with the proposed guidelines.

http://www.bbbautism.com/asp_gillberg.htm
http://apps.who.int/classifications/icd ... 2014349241
_________________
Diagnosed with "Classical" Asperger's syndrome in 1998 (Clinical psychologist).
Alexithymia Questionnaire Score: 158/185
Ritvo Autism Asperger Diagnostic Scale-Revised (RAADS-R): 231/240
Aspie score: 186 out of 200
Neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 12 out of 200
AQ: 48/50 EQ: 9/80

Last edited by TheRedPedant93 on 03 May 2013, 4:40 am, edited 2 times in total.