The problem with calling AS autism.

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I despise the term Asperger's. Actually I despise any "syndrome" named after the discoverer. What a pointlessly thoughtless method to name something.

Autism, I believe, is highly innacurate to describe the condition. Derived from Latin for "morbid self absorption" or something along those lines.

Which is a bunch of crap. pardon my french.

I saw an autistic pre-teen girl here at the lodge a few weeks ago, who was walking along a fence. She touched the fenceposts as she walked along, and then stoped when she noticed a loose fencepost and jiggled it, seeing how it fit into the socket carved for it. Nobody had noticed that thing for months (except me, I had done the same many times)

That is not self-absorption. that is immersion in the environment: "ex-autic".

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Both autistic and asperger's are lousy terms. "Sensualist" would be most accurate. Thinking in senses. Direct sensory experience. Thoughts unfiltered through verbal language.

Perhaps if there were a less provacative word that meant the same? idk

I agree with the original poster. I also think that the term autism is not specific enough, and am worried that we might get less services if they are all grouped together. There might be a lot of attention paid to the "lower functioning" people, whereas the higher functioning ones aren't given a second thought. I guess we will have to see how this plays out, but it doesn't sound good to me.

My NT sister asked me about this a while ago, because of something she heard at work. A colleague at work was talking about aspergers. My sister says "my sister has aspergers". Colleague says "its not called that it is called high functioning autism"

I think that Aspergers and Autism should be regarded as two different conditions on the same spectrum.

What if someone says, "I have cancer"?

That is a label, but what does it tell you? They could have everything from the mildest skin cancer to terminal brain cancer. "Autism" is a generic label, just like "cancer". It delineates a certain set of signs/symptoms that are associated with the condition. For example, if someone says they are "autistic," you know that they experience the types of impairments described in the DSM criteria. If someone says they have "cancer," you know they have cells growing out of control and multiplying in their body. If you want to provide more than the basic information, you can. You can say, "I have high-functioning autism" or "I have breast cancer." Just because a label is not as specific as you would like, it does not mean that it is useless. A label is used to define a certain condition and separate it from other conditions. More specific information can be provided if further differentiation is necessary.

You may not realize it, but you could make the claim you did about many physical and psychological conditions. If someone tells me they have had a stroke, that tells me that they had an infarct in their brain. I don't know if they had a hemorrhagic stroke or an embolic stroke. I don't know what side of their brain it was on. I don't know if they are paralyzed on one side of their body, or are having problems with their vision, or have recovered entirely and have no further symptoms. I have met stroke victims who have no residual deficits, and I have met stroke victims who are so severely impaired that they have no voluntary movement. After a stroke, some people are unable to speak, and some are driven to chatter endlessly. Some are unable to initiate activity, and some are impulsive. Even if someone says, "I had a severe right hemisphere stroke," that only gives you the barest outline of the symptoms they might be experiencing. You could make the same comparison with tons of other conditions as well- traumatic brain injury, dementia, cerebral palsy, etc. Why should autism be different?

Well, there's a big difference between the labels "sick" and "autistic". There are many different types of unrelated sicknesses, just how there are many different types of mental illnesses. If you say that you have irritable bowel syndrome, you're not being very specific at all, but people get the idea that it means your stomach hurts frequently. Similarly, if you say you have an upper respiratory infection, that could mean, a cold, flu, sinus infection, pneumonia, etc., but in general it means that you're having some sort of problem breathing. Autism is similar in that respect. There are a variety of different types of autism, but it gets the general idea across that you have social difficulties without having to go into much detail about having to explain exactly what your specific disorder is. Schizophrenia is the same way. There are six or so different types of schizophrenia, but people rarely distinguish among them when discussing it.

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They're changing it because they want to control the amount of people diagnosed.

Read all of this article:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/autis ... .htmlstory

I agree with them that it's actually the term autism is more well now known instead of an epidemic spreading. I think parents who only know the basics of the disorder get in fear of their children having it, some of them even think they're so sure they take doctor's to court over it. It's not always autism. Jenny McCarthy's son had Laudner Kelfner syndrome and you saw the big fuss she made over her theory that he had autism.

I agree that too many people are being diagnosed, misdiagnosed and over diagnosed. It's not always autism and I have seen a lot of 'mild' types come in here and just nit pick at their 'symptoms'. Many years ago they wouldn't be recognised. It's a disorder, you need a level of impairment in your day to day life to be diagnosed. Many of you here do have that impairment but a lot don't as well. Just remember, it's a disorder not a label. Those people who think it's anything but shouldn't get diagnosed because they are the ones that have led doctor's to want to merge Asperger's with HFA.

Honestly, if I had Asperger's, mildy, I wouldn't even come here.

If people get diagnosed to just 'know' why they are so different without much impairment in their life then they shouldn't be shocked by this merge. Doctor's want to see autism returned to the serious disorder that it was and still is. That doesn't mean they will only focus on severe low functioning people. There are three types of autism under Autistic disorder.

And can we please end this gifted, next step in evolution shite? You only think that because you're in a community. Pre-diagnosis and pre-joining the community you wouldn't have thought that.

I don't particularly care anymore (I was big on labels and stuff).

There's a nonverbal teenager down the road. There's verbal me here. We both need a carer and lifelong support.

Whatever label that lets people know that we're disabled will do me.

Redacted

nat4200,

There are people who come here who claim to be Aspies, but claim they're not impaired, and are even willing to generalize and say that "Asperger's Syndrome is not a disability" because they don't perceive it as one.

It is pretty frustrating to read these statements when dealing with difficulties on a daily basis because this "not a disability" can actually be pretty impairing.

This is one of the many reasons I use autism and autistic instead of Aspie or AS or Asperger's Syndrome.