Do you think it matters what label someone has

Post Reply New Topic

Do you think it matters if someone is diagnosed with AS or PDD-NOS or autism even if it doesn't seem like they have it like I am sure some of you on here don't think I have AS because I'm sure I have sounded worse than that so perhaps I'm higher on the spectrum. I don't think it really matters what people are labeled with because it's all on the spectrum. I don't care if someone is diagnosed with AS even though they seem higher on the spectrum than AS because of all their problems they have like cognitive problems or they were slow in development when they were little, etc. because it's an autism spectrum so I don't think it matters what label you have because it's all on the spectrum.
I don't care if people think I don't have AS just as long as they don't think I don't have ASD. I got so sick and tired of seeing people saying in the AS/autism community "You don't have aspergers," "he doesn't have AS" "she doesn't have AS" "lot of people on here don't have it" etc so I finally made that signature I have right now.

PDD-NOS, Aspergers, autistic, who cares what label someone has, it's a frickin spectrum. I wouldn't like to be criticized for what diagnoses I have because does it really matter what label I have? I am on the spectrum so does it matter what I'm diagnosed with? I might not be truly AS because I seemed slower than other aspies in my childhood before I reached my preteens and I don't think I was a little professor because I was slow but one day I started asking myself does it matter what diagnoses I have, I'm on the spectrum, my shrink even told me that, and she happens to be a autism specialist too. I did the autism tests up on the hill when I was 12 (wish I could remember) and I must have scored positive on it and it wasn't a false positive or I wouldn't have been diagnosed. My psychiatrist also wrote I am between autism and Aspergers but he had to put me somewhere on the spectrum. Either autistic or Aspergers and PDD-NOS isn't a real diagnoses and with that, I don't think it would have helped me in school because PDD-NOS isn't a real diagnoses. If he had labeled me autistic, it probably would have given my school the power to put me in a class with kids with behavior problems so with the AS diagnoses, it would have stopped the school from putting me in a class with violent kids.

Reason why I brought this up because my ex criticized me by saying I am not AS because I don't have this I don't have that but I was the one who kept saying "I don't have AS," "I think I was misdiagnosed" "This is why I feel I don't have it" just because I can't hear fluorescent lights and he can and I can't hear sounds he can hear, and he was more observant than me, the mess in his apartment didn't bother me but it bothered him, etc so him saying I don't have AS was maybe my fault because I was the one who kept saying I don't have it, I'm misdiagnosed etc and then one day, he finally agreed. Then he started saying things like "I don't see how you can have it and not be able to (insert aspie thing here), "see you aren't AS" etc. I wished I said to him back in February when we were together "Does it matter what I'm diagnosed with? We both know I'm on the spectrum so does it really matter what I have?" but sadly I didn't think of it till fall. That's the main reason why I created the sig, that was the first reason why.

You can't hear flourescent lights? My god girl, what's wrong with you.

Joke.

Not everyone has the exact same things and often people not on the spectrum will claim some stereotypical reason why you don't have it.

One person who hates different people once spewed out a stereotype that all autistics are horrible because they piss their pants and scream and throw fits at touching food. That person was way off. Not all do that.

Someone else once told me, that I didn't have AS because I didn't notice a sound that I was supposed to have noticed. He also said this while loud music was blaring and I'm generally very distracted in such situations and there was chattering.

People that do that try to make you seem like you are just making stuff up because Oprah said on her show that autism is this and on another show, this other person said it was that.

I really had a hard time following your text.

It only matters if you think it does.

Professionals don't make it any easier for us, the so called "experts" say I'm AS, yet I can barely function in the social, vocational and academic triad; saying I'm AS is kind of...weird as I clearly meet the criteria for classic autism, and if I'm AS, many people with AS must be similar to me. I don't see the latter as fact.

If you have difficulty in supporting yourself, it's probably easier to receive government aid with an official diagnosis of autism compared to Asperger's, the "mild" form of autism.

I care for accuracy more than anything, there's no point in being misdiagnosed and possibly hurting yourself as you try to attempt things that you "should" be able to do at your supposed functioning level.

This is a good site that explains the differences between the varying disorders: ASD

I am new, and going after a diagnosis--finally--at (almost) the age of 40. I have thought about this long and hard, and I don't think it matters at all. It IS just a label. If I have AS, if not, if some other ASD, it doesn't change who I am in the least. If I stop right now, cancel my appt., and go on my way, that doesn't change it, either.
And I can hear flourescent lights, but messes don't bother me much, either. I play musical instruments with no training but shun math, which many on this site seem to be very good at. Some people are fairly social, while I am fairly withdrawn. We all have our different things.

I like your sig.

I feel that under the "right circumstances" I can exhibit the behaviour of an "L.F.A. person" , and at the "right circumstances" I can make the "NT's" seem aspie.

Spokane_Girl,

You seemed to earlier hate the idea of being diagnosed AS because you didn't fit your impression of it, and now seem to almost embrace it.

As for the terms? With the subjectivity, ambiguity of, and seeming disdain for, the DSM, the labels are evolving to be rather meaningless. HFA is supposed to be a less affected and more capable/intelligent kanners(classic). AS is supposed to be like HFA with early language development, and clinically significant problems only with social. PDD-NOS is supposed to be what it says. On the spectrum.

The way things are going, you don't even know if there is a difference between HFA and LFA!

BTW Florescent lights used to bother me MUCH more than they do. NOW, the light, fashion of failure, etc... STILL bother me.

BTW I don't know HOW you guys feel about me. HECK, I don't even know what to think of myself have the time.

Last week I almost had to struggle to read devanagari. I have worked more with HINDI vocabulary, and tried to almost let the reading sink in. Yesterday, I surprised myself. I tried to read it, and it might as well have been latin script!

Yesterday, someone called and was SHOCKED to hear that I only saw first contact like maybe 15 times. Now that I think of it, it probably didn't watch it that many times. After I told her about The Elasian tears(Because of her talking about his penchant for green women), I got 1/2 way through the plot before she said basically "OK, I GIVE UP! YOU ARE A TREKKIE!" It is amazing how sometimes a single thought creates a flood of information.

I think there is too much labeling going on. A wide range of functioning exists among people on the spectrum, even among people with the same diagnosis. I don't think people should be identified by their labels, but helped to achieve their maximum potential and functioning in the world.

How about hearing the second hand tic on a watch, or hearing a slight "buzz" coming from the electrical wiring of a house when you're in certain locations? Or hearing a buzzling noise when you plug in an electronic appliance that has a battery and begins charging? Or hear a buzzing noise from a TV that changes whenever the colors on the screen change significantly(eg. the screen moves from relatively dark to very bright)?

I hear all of these things fairly commonly(more than once a week), and I always considered that normal. If it's not, then that's interesting.

I can hear clocks ticking, (I thought normal hearing can) I can hear the TVs pitch sound (they'reat the edge of the normal hearing range), I don't think I can hear the wiring in the walls. I can't hear that low since our electrical is 60 hz. Fluorescent lights normally run about 50-60HZ I read on wiki. I seem to hear steam kettles go off before anyone else because they don't take notice so I always have to shout at them to get it and they are clueless what I am talking about and then they notice it when the sound gets louder.


But all the sounds you have described I can't hear.

Considering that labels are stuck on people so that it's easier to process them in the system, and have no bearing whatsoever on their true nature, their beingness, their soul, their essence, conjured up by so-called *scientists* to diagnose, classify and stigmatize in order to control minds via pharmaceutical dependence and ultimately alter and destroy DNA so that their agendas may be furthered (i.e. eradication of the socially, mentally, physically, emotionally weak sectors), I think playing into this charade is a moral crime and discredits not only the labeled but he or she that buys into this lie and lets it influence their decisions in any way, shape or form. The labeling system is just another symptom of the illusions manufactured by evil doers to keep hearts apart and separate from one another.