Asperger's eliminated from the DSM V?

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It isn't a moral code. It's an attempt to categorize people based on problematic things they have in common with each other. Whether those things are inherently problematic or problematic because of the enviroment is a whole other debate. But it's really all just about categories and what the parameters of those categories should be. Yes, it causes divisions in the medical world. A lot of those divisions don't have anything to do with autism at all. ADHD and childhood bipolar disorder are causing huge divisions among doctors right now. But in any case I don't see how where they put their parameters will cause you suffering unless you are suddenly placed outside of them and can't get any accomodations (that's a worry that got brought up in previous threads).

If you are in a position to be able to just ignore the condition and get on with life then why be upset at the doctors? Their categories won't affect you.

Last edited by Janissy on 15 Dec 2010, 6:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'm fine with it. Tis a hard word to pronounce anyway.

If there can be different types of cancer, why not have different types of autism? They are both medical diagnoses.

I'm fine with it.

I'm really not too comfortable with it. I'm not a high-functioning autistic, I'm a low-functioning aspie. Maybe I.m biased because I grew up in the l960's and 70's when "autistic" was synonomous with "mental retardation." Of course, I know differently know but old ways of thinking die hard. Also, it's like "defining deviancy up." I know people who teach autistic children and there are some of them who really aren't just quirky, but have really severe learning disabilities. Just as I don't think it would be fair to put me in the same class as an Albert Einstein, for example -and people say he was an aspie -- its not fair to people with greater impairments to expect them to act like people with Aspergers --

To the average person, it still sort of is.
Ever paid attention to the contexts in which people bring up autism when they talk about it?
I'm not okay with being diagnosed with an "Autism spectrum disorder."
To me, that means other people think I'm ret*d based on the occasional "wacky" behavior that isn't quite bipolar, isn't quite Antisocial Personality Disorder, and isn't quite OCD.

It is a good thing in some ways because it means that schools will have to offer more supports which they didn't have to do before when someone was diagnosed as Asperger's Syndrome. There are positives and negatives to the change.

People still think mental retardation means hopeless and it does not.
It's your problem if people associate autism with ret*d.
People often stereotype a lot of disorders incorrectly.

Because different types of cancer can be told apart from each other pretty easily, depending on where they start, how they behave, and how they respond to various drugs. Autism--not so much. Asperger's and regular autism are practically indistinguishable. The group of classic autistic people you could never mistake for Asperger's is actually the minority. While doctors are quite consistent in telling apart autism from not-autism, they are little better than chance in telling apart Asperger's and classic autism in people who can speak and are not developmentally delayed... which says that there may not really be a distinction.

I am very, very Not Happy. I don't fit the new criteria. I will not be able to call myself autistic. I will not be able to call myself an Aspie. This is taking, among other things, my ability to say that I am a member of this group.

Anyone like me will not get a diagnosis. The new criteria suck. The old criteria also suck, but less.

I'm not sure it's a step in the wrong direction so much as it fails to do anything. Except I guess it is. It's a baby step in the wrong direction, when what's needed is for us to cover a million miles in the right one.

I suppose it doesn't matter. I'm a dandelion anyway, and whether they call me autistic, Asperger's, PDD-NOS or NT, that doesn't change.

If Einstein had a speech delay, that means he didn't have Asperger's. This is what annoys me about the spectrum-- regardless of whether or not you fit the criteria or how you think, people like to define AS as "really high-functioning and bluntly honest" and autism as "awful soulless shells" and then deny that someone who fits the diagnostic criteria is autistic (must be AS) because they're not a dead end or worthless.

Screw the criteria. I'm a dandelion, which I am now defining as a person who fits all or all but one of the following criteria:
1. At least half the time has one or two special interests, or historically has had them
2. Uses or interprets body language in one or more nonstandard ways
3. Has one or more of the following:
i. Unusual sensory perceptions (hypersensitive, hyposensitive, etc.)
ii. Difficulty recognizing faces (prosopagnosia)
iii. Perceives things as raw sensory data, rather than with meaning (e.g., "that is a rectangular patch of light comprised of many rectangular patches and some that look like rectangles with holes in them in which the other rectangles fit, as well as some blue and green marks toward the upper left, some gray marks toward the center but kind of toward the right, some light blue vertical bars..." as opposed to "oh, look, that's a computer screen on which someone's composing a message on WrongPlanet")
iv. Difficulty with or nonstandard use of language
4. One or more of the following:
i. Odd stuff like not letting the things on your plate touch, or always visiting a specific place at a specific time on a specific day of the week
ii. Sensitivity to fluorescent lights
iii. Lacks in-group/out-group dichotomy (favoritism)
iv. Less than normal need/desire for friends
v. IQ tests fail to predict performance in life, or fail to predict performance on other IQ tests
vi. NTs react as if this person has offended them, despite the dandelion being sure that the NT's offense is completely out of the blue, or believing it's deserved but not having any idea what they did to deserve it

In fact, I think I'll make a thread about this.

I am fine with the new label. As it is now I say, "I have Asperger's, a form of high functioning autism." After the new DSM-V comes out officially I'll say, "I have high functioning autism," or "I have high functioning autism of the type that used to be called Asperger's." It does not bother me to be moved into the broader label of autism spectrum---that is what I consider myself anyway.

I'll still call it AS. Other aspies will know what I mean, and the vast majority of ppl outside of the mental health field don't know what the hell the DSM-V is.

This is very unscientific of them.

Indeed. I was dx'd specifically was AS, and not HFA. I was evaluated for both and dx'd with one and not the other for a reason. I guess since I have AS, I want that clarity.

I don't mind AS remaining a subgroup of the spectrum. I just think it is a valid dx and I don't understand way they would do away with it.

I've already gone on and on about what I think about this in other threads, but basically I agree that AS should remain a sub-group under the heading "autism spectrum disorders" as should Rett’s Disorder. I think the similarities AND distinctions btwn the PDD's should be recognized by the diagnostic system(s). There is not enough consistent evidence to say that they are all one and the same and should be therefore be subsumed under one category. The reason the evidence is not consistent (as to whether AS and autism are qualitatively different) is bcs the research findings contradict one another. So… I am against the removing of AS from the DSM ! !

Well this was the first thread i saw about this so forgive me for posting in it.

I really don't know what to think about the news. Deep down i've always considered AS and autism to be fundamentally the same thing and therefore regard myself as the latter.

However this omission from DSM V could potentially undo all the good work that has been done to make AS cool and make the public aware. Also I worry that people (employers and the like) will overlook the whole mild-medium-hot tier system of autism and shun everyone on the spectrum.