HOW Does Asperger's Actually Explain Anything?

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Some people say that they are pursuing a diagnosis because they want an "explanation" for their traits or why they've felt different from other people. How does being diagnosed explain anything? Asperger's is a label to put on a person's traits, it doesn't explain why a person has those traits.

For example, when people ask me why I don't look at them while we talk, I say that I can concentrate better if I look away. That is an explanation because it informs people why I do that. If I just said, "I have Asperger's," that wouldn't explain anything. They would have a name for it, but they still wouldn't know why I was doing it.

Last edited by starkid on 29 Apr 2015, 11:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Those traits fully or partially explain why most things happened in the my life the way they did.

When I read that people are happy about their newly found explanation, I usually just presume that they feel happy that they feel they have a reason to have experienced their difficulties - pretty much whatever Tony said about no longer feeling like a half-baked NT but a successful Aspie. Can't exactly remember it.

I suppose it would be similar to a person that had ADHD but was yelled at for being lazy and obnoxious their whole life.

So are you saying that when they call their diagnosis an "explanation," they mean "excuse" or "justification"?

The word itself doesn't explain anything, but I and many others have written quite a lot about very basic differences in how the different brain types function, store/retrieve memory, and even differences in the ways that logical operations are executed.
Much of this is speculation of course, but all of it based on a great amount of practical observation, along with personal experiences and perceptions.

As a quick example there is the difference in neural connection forming and pruning that is supported by science.
NTs do a lot of pruning and are very quick to reform new connections, while ASD folks lag far behind in that area.
It offers a very reasonable explanation for why we like limited set routines and dislike change and/or uncertainty so much.

So you see, when you get into the actual details of how the mechanisms in the brain function differently to produce a different perception of reality, then you do actually get very reasonable explanations for individuals past experiences and perceptions.

You can call it an excuse if you want, but that does not make it invalid in any way.
When the brain works differently, you get different results from the norm. It's just a fact.

I think that people mean that difficulties caused by autistic traits eggsplains why they failed or didn't meet their or other's eggspectations in certain areas of life. I have read people say something like after they found out they were autistic, they knew that they weren't a bad person or (insert negative adjective here) person. I only agree partially with this assessment, as I don't think that autism can eggsplain it all, there are still elements of personal decision-making involved.

Sure, if one assumes that the person in question has the same neurological quirks as the research subjects on whom these brain function theories are based AND that the neurological quirks are directly connected to ASD. Otherwise, "I have autism/Asperger's" is still no explanation.



Oh just stop. So tired of the paranoid, presumptuous, ":cry: you're invalidating me" whining on WP. I didn't say that anything was an excuse.

Not really an excuse but a comfortable reason.

I think of it this way. I am the way I am because of my brain. I am gay because something in my brain makes me that way. The same can be applied to an autistic person but the AS strictly refers to the major demarcations that differentiate the pattern of thinking/acting enough to be a diagnosable condition - the differences that cause autistics great difficulty in this NT world. The label provides comfort as it serves as an attachment point for part the identity that would otherwise be 'an inferior NT' - obviously not literally, but thinking you're on par with everyone when you aren't and falling behind in life can only cause psychological trauma.

I'll explain my own reasons to want a diagnosis, and maybe that will explain a little about the mindset of others who want one. I read about Asperger's for about a year before I got an official diagnosis. Before then, even though I'd had trouble with things in my life, no one had suggested to me that I might actually have something wrong; so everything I did wrong or ruined or failed at was simply 'my fault.' I wasn't good enough or smart enough or whatever. In the year before my diagnosis, I did a lot of reading about Asperger's and autism and, yep, it seemed to really fit. I took all the online tests and, sure enough, I scored squarely in the 'very likely autistic/Asperger's' range on all of them. I was really sure I had Asperger's, but I still wanted a diagnosis for two main reasons:
1. I wanted some proof to show people who wouldn't believe me. I was sure (and I turned out to be right) that many people I told would feel that I was wrong, that I was normal, and that I couldn't be autistic because I could not have survived into adulthood without anyone knowing I was autistic (the signs were all there; apparently, everyone was paying very little attention to me).
2. There was a little part of my mind that was afraid that I was wrong. Maybe I don't have Asperger's and I'm just a big loser. Maybe all the stuff I did wrong in my life really was my fault. Maybe I'm trying to make myself seem autistic so I have an excuse when, really, I just need to do better. I was afraid that I wasn't seeing things correctly, that I was imagining my autism. But, if a professional agreed with me, then I could trust my opinion and really believe that I'm autistic.
After my diagnosis, one of the big things that I hadn't anticipated with an official diagnosis was the ability to stop blaming myself for some past mistakes. That thing I said that got someone mad at me or was unintentionally hurtful wasn't my fault. That time I had a very loud meltdown in public and embarrassed my whole family by wailing like a two year old when I was 8, that wasn't my fault. That thing that I was afraid of that I should have been too old to be afraid of, that wasn't my fault (it turns out it was a sensory issue). I didn't have to feel like a sociopath for not understanding other people's emotions. I didn't have to feel like a baby for being intimidated by social situations. I didn't have to feel like a ret*d for not being able to figure out a physical movement or something that required spatial reasoning. And mostly, I didn't have to figure out what that invisible thing was that seemed to separate me from the rest of the world, that made people not want to be my friend, and that made it harder for me to hear other people and for them to hear me. I knew it was there, but I didn't know what it was. It was ASD.
But my mind wouldn't allow me to stop blaming myself for these things unless I could be really sure that I was autistic, and I couldn't be really sure unless I had an official diagnosis. That's why I pursued one.

Sure, except that in your example, you know that you concentrate better when you're not looking at someone. That actually requires a lot of self-understanding, especially if called upon to answer that question at that point in time. If you understand what's going on, and you can describe to people what's going on, then you actually have a very clear understanding of yourself.

Like, to use the word 'concentration' you must understand what it means to other people and what it means to yourself. But it's just a word, it doesn't mean anything unless there's meaning behind it.

But for me, I cannot describe myself accurately in real-time, I do not even create the concepts for how my internal life works at any given point in time. For example, I use and on some very important level understand the word 'concentration', but to use that word to describe myself at the moment when I am not concentrating, requires knowing that I'm not concentrating. A better, less confusing example is if someone actually asks how I'm feeling, and i would -actually- answer then, truthfully and accurately, I might not be able to. When I interact with people, I do not tap into my own feelings at all. This is so severe that until very recently I did not even consider this as a thing. I live in a mask of epic proportions.

I was writing more but it's getting off-topic. In any case, I think that using the word autism to describe to other people how I am like, if it's accurately representing how I'm like, is WAY easier and less intrusive than staring blankly while I ponder how to answer a question about myself. But it's also actually going to be informative than not saying anything

AND this is furthermore only something I have very recently come to understand in the slightest, and I'm still exploring this idea and trying to understand it. So yes, if I have autism, I can then use a word to describe all this instead of sitting mutely or getting increasingly frustrated that someone is trying to tap into my personal life which I hardly have constructs for myself, or if I do, they are not the same as the constructs that I then put words onto.

The only reason this has become known to me as a thing is that I only recently in my life have ever bothered to try sharing my internal experiences with someone else. The experience of floundering around for self-descriptions, settling on a word, and then, because I am actually uttering the word in an external experience, I suddenly see how that the word I use in speech with people is not close to what the experience of that thing is at all. It's like there's 2 of me, one that is myself and the other that is the persona I have adopted that barely connects to me at all, to the point that concepts don't mesh.

Note that what I'm doing right now is not actually tapping into myself to explain this, for you might be thinking 'but she's talking right now and describing herself, what she's saying is obviously not true'. But this whole post is the result of me wondering about myself and having already put a great deal of time into putting the concepts and ideas into words. It is what I have decided to put outside.

tl;dr I don't know myself therefore I cannot accurately describe myself, so using a word, if it were to fit me, is actually more of an accurate description than nothing

The label was quite useful to my wife, so she could better understand me.

How about this analogy. You want to grow a flower garden and want help. A garden expert really needs to know what type of plant you are growing. You tell them you have a rose--now your typical master gardener can tell you what the plant generally needs to do well. But, most master gardeners don't know enough to tell you how different varieties of roses perform under different conditions. For that you need to go to an expert in roses.

The label Aspergers is like the label roses--useful enough for most people, but sometimes you need a real expert.

Putting another spin on BTFT's thoughts:

You want to grow a flower garden and you prepare the soil, sow the seeds or plant the plants, and take care of everything and think you're doing all the right things to get the same results as everyone usually does.

But everything keeps withering and dying, if the seeds come up at all. You keep trying, you even do some research to improve your knowledge. Everything either never grows or comes up and withers.

You wonder what's going on. Your next door neighbor has a great garden. Same soil, right? So why isn't your garden growing?

You call in an expert. He decided to take some soil samples and run some tests.

It turns out that the soil is different -- there's something in it that stops the nutrients all being what they ought to be. Maybe someone put salt there, maybe herbicide.

You never knew that before now.

You thought it was just good soil like the guy next door's and there was no reason not to expect amazing flowers just like he's got.

Now an expert in soil has told you there's stuff in your soil that is never going to yield the results the other guy gets.

You now have an explanation as to why nothing's thriving in your soil.

The diagnostics explain why what you've been doing has not and just never will make your garden the same as other people's.

You will now probably even say "Well that explains a lot!"

There may be things you can do to the soil to help it work better and maybe grow something or other, but it may always be a struggle to get that soil to be favorable conditions for growing in the same way as the soil the guy next door has.

I think there is some kind of semantic problem here. An explanation is not necessarily a precise description of a cause, but this seems to be the working definition of explanation in the OP.

The Merriam Webster definition of explanation is:
the act or process of making something clear or easy to understand : the act or process of telling, showing, or being the reason for or cause of something

something (such as a statement or fact) that explains something

An ASD diagnosis can help people to understand questions like (these were really my questions, but from what I have read they are not atypical):
Why am I different than most people?
Why isn't everyone just as interested in astronomy (or some other particular interest) as me?
Why do people often not understand my intentions and motivations?
Why don't I better understand what is going on in other people?
Why do people think the way I do things is weird?

The ASD diagnosis suggests that these things are all part of a pattern and the result of a neurological difference, not just a habit of mind or set of choices the individual has made.

The label doesn't give a causal explanation for the neurological difference, but it does provide a framework for understanding the difference and this meets a definition of explanation, although it doesn't provide a precise cause.

The actual question is: WHY does looking at people make it harder to concentrate? Why other people insist on looking at people faces even though it is so bothersome? Are they masochists? Or perhaps you are just a fail human because you cannot overcome your weakness like everyone around you do...

Asperger is the answer - your brain is wired differently and the wiring you have got a name: Asperger/ASD. It isn't your fault, you are not weak or lazy. Your brain makes it hard for you. Other people insist on looking at other people faces because it ISN'T HARD for them to concentrate as it is for you. They don't choose to ignore their discomfort. They don't feel the discomfort.

Diagnosis explains why we cannot do what other people are able to. It explains there is a real difference about how we feel compared to most of people. We are not stupid for not understanding stuffs others find easy and natural. It explains that others don't have to force themselves as we do when we try to do what they do. They don't try harder to get stuffs done - they just play the game called "Life" on easier mode while we are players running on "hard". Our problems are REAL. We do try HARD ENOUGH and not getting the "expected" results ISN'T our fault.

The biggest motivator towards my getting formally tested for ASD was problems in my job which were scaring the life out of me. My then wife had suggested I may have autism, I didn't believe it but I did the online tests and was surprised at the result - "very likely Aspie." I started studying the condition and realised that my work-related anxieties were down to job demands that nobody in their right mind could expect an Aspie to be able to do. Awareness of autism made it clear to me why they thought I was at fault. The obvious conclusion was that if I couldn't convince them I was autistic, they'd carry on increasing the pressure until I had to quit, and I couldn't afford to do that. So it could be called an excuse, but it was a valid excuse.

More specifically, I was being expected to carry out incomplete and unclear instructions and take responsibility for performing them properly, which from their perspective seemed appropriate for somebody of my intelligence. There was no reliable step-by-step protocol for me to adhere to. I tried to write my own, but it was a dynamically changing, complicated venture which couldn't be reduced to such a rigid format, but required thinking on the hoof in a crowded environment. Feedback on performance was insinuated and vague, never clear and specific. I'd get hung up on small details and never managed to cover anything like all the bases. The work was nothing like the job I'd originally been hired to do, which I was good at. Working hours were unpredictable and they wanted me to sacrifice breaks as and when necessary. Those breaks were the only way I had of decompressing. I was expected to deal with people I normally had nothing to do with. Anybody who understands autism will see at a glance that an Aspie would likely be out of their depth.

On revealing my diagnosis, they made adjustments. I was given clear, specific tasks, kept out of the crowds, they stopped trying to erode my breaks, and as the supervisor put it, "that explains everything!" The adjustments were crude and the work still scared me, because I knew I was lousy at self-advocating and they were lousy at keeping an eye on the situation, but it allowed me to at least limp along until I could afford to quit.

And that's how Asperger's explained something important about my work experiences. Socially, I've also improved as a result of knowing more about the problems that AS has given me, and am now in the most positive relationship I've ever known, after decades of conflict and failure. That's consistent with the received wisdom that diagnosed Aspies often become much more able to cope with relationships than Aspies who don't even know what they've got. I've noticed scores of past mistakes I've made that never made sense before.

Aspergers syndrome is a cluster of objectively-measurable traits. Once you realise you have a number of those traits in spades, you can then study the whole cluster and find out which ones apply to you the most. That's a goldmine of potential self-knowledge. This accelerates your grasp of your strengths and weaknesses. Past mysteries are solved. You realise that neither you nor all those people you had problems with are to blame. You find specific problems to work on, and being a learning animal, you solve some of them. You develop coping strategies. You don't waste your energy expecting too much of yourself. You tailor your life to mitigate the weaknesses you've discovered. In my case, I'd always sensed I was somehow different, and was intuitively trying to compensate, but with autism awareness I could at last put my finger on the nature of that difference.