Autism and Asperger's are invisible Illnesses? (Um, no!)

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They're not illnesses. They're pervasive developmental disorders.

One more post to clarify my thinking (from the person who started the thread).

See, I don't take the terms "invisible" and "illness" as being black and white as far as how well they fit autism and asperger's.

Illness is never the right word, true, but, how far off it is varies. It's never the right word, but it's more off base for some than for others.

And, it's never completely invisible (after all, the diagnosis is based on social interactions), but sometimes it's close enough that using the term is understandable. But for others with autism, invisible just doesn't come any where close to working.

Autism is a spectrum.

And where "invisible" is closest to being true is the same part of the spectrum where "illness" is most ridiculous.

And where "illness" is merely not the best word rather than ridiculous, there, "invisible" is just not true of autism for those people.

Like I said, to get my thinking, you have to be able to understand each of these terms as fitting some people on the spectrum better than others. If you can't do that, you won't understand why I find "invisible illness" and even wronger than just plain "illness", which is already incorrect.