Different ideas about AS from the whole world!

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Hello everybody!
I can provide some information about Turkey and Uzmanlar. My name is Petek Ozgul and i am the founder of Uzmanlar in Turkey. We are just starting so there is very little i can tell you about Uzmanlar. Currently i am trying to raise funding through government (as a research and development project) and through European Union. Hopefully soon i will have more things to tell about Uzmanlar.

About Turkey in general, it is a democratic republic. We just had our elections. Most of the people living in Turkey are Muslims but the country is secular.

About Asperger, there are few organizations. One of them is ASPERDER, an association for Aspergers. (Please search for Asperger Sendromu ve Otizmle Hayat Dernegi in Google) They do not have the site in English yet, but you can use Google Translate and check out the projects they are working on.

Other than that there are may foundations and organizations about autism. They are mostly concentrated on the early, pre-school and shool education. Some are interested in employment but Uzmanlar would be something completely new to the autism community in Turkey. I have the links but i am not allowed to post them for the moment. So i am giving you the keywords.
Search for tohum otizm vakfi (also in English)
Search for todev (in Turkish, but there are nice videos for the public to know more about autism)
Search for otizm platformu (in Turkish)

Please do not hesitate to ask questions. I would be happy to answer. And i would like to thank Scott from Job Sink for being a friend and supporter of Uzmanlar.

In Italy, they know almost only LFA, therefore if you have AS you should not mention it or they will think you are ret*d - this as for the common perception is concerned.
It's also very common to find *professionals* who confuses AS with 1. sociopathy 2. psychosis 3. borderline personality disorder 4. any very random thing except autism.
When a book/movie with an Aspie character is translated from abroad, the comments have all words such as "to suffer", "illness" and such.
Also the threshold for a diagnosis is different in comparison to other nations; if you are a highly functioning adult you are most likely to be denied a diagnosis - I mean, I see many foreign Aspies that are diagnosed even though they have a job and/or a family - in Italy they tend not to diagnose you if you have developed, no matter how painfully, decent coping skills. On the other hand you find people who are diagnosed with "Asperger's Syndrome" and have mild mental retardation, speech delay, no self help skills at all - and other traits that theoretically would lead to a diagnosis of classic Autism rather than AS.

Where are you finding these papers? I can imagine China has an appalling record on disability.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO_vRNtgeIA&feature=related[/youtube]

Here in UK the difference between Austism and Asperger's is well-known. However, I don't think there's as many people who understand it thorougly. I guess that's the same with other countries though. People with disabilties seem to be treated quite well over here though, I've been a lot happier since my diagnosis.

hello,
I believe I have found that generation gaps may be making it harder for me to relate to some people. Or tell people about my autistic brain. I have noticed that my grandmother's, and parents' generations must have been taught that anything related to austism, and mental illness is a bad thing. Even though the family is littered with mental health issues. I see the labeling and stereotyping they have picked up, by me watching bits and pieces of the old 30's-50's movies they grew up with. I believe my grandparents learned about what they called "crazy" people through those movies and old propaganda. Then, after passing it to my parents' generation...it still lingers in their minds that AS(being unique) is a sign of weakness? Could this be one possibility?? I am 34 with a few month old diagnosis. I also don't know a lot about the books of the 1800's. But I do enjoy bible stories from time to time and they too are enough to confuse people's minds. But I am an article reader, and not a book reader. And won't take things too literally if/when I can help it. So, how can we all find ways to stop buying what people are always selling??? What a tangled web we weave...

I am from the U.S.A, btw...