Would you lose your dx under DSM V?

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Just wondering if you feel you would be diagnosed with ASD using the criteria from the current proposal?
I'm not sure I would, mainly because of the requirement of meeting all three criteria in section A.
I'm attending an information session at Minds and Hearts (Tony Attwood) tomorrow night so I'll ask the question there.

 
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Must meet criteria A, B, C, and D:
 
A.    Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across contexts, not accounted for by general developmental delays, and manifest by all 3 of the following:
1.     Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity; ranging from abnormal social approach and failure of normal back and forth conversation through reduced sharing of interests, emotions, and affect and response to total lack of initiation of social interaction,
2.     Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction; ranging from poorly integrated- verbal and nonverbal communication, through abnormalities in eye contact and body-language, or deficits in understanding and use of nonverbal communication, to total lack of facial expression or gestures.
3.     Deficits in developing and maintaining relationships, appropriate to developmental level (beyond those with caregivers); ranging from difficulties adjusting behavior to suit different social contexts through difficulties in sharing imaginative play and  in making friends  to an apparent absence of interest in people
B.    Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities as manifested by at least two of  the following:
1.     Stereotyped or repetitive speech, motor movements, or use of objects; (such as simple motor stereotypies, echolalia, repetitive use of objects, or idiosyncratic phrases). 
2.     Excessive adherence to routines, ritualized patterns of verbal or nonverbal behavior, or excessive resistance to change; (such as motoric rituals, insistence on same route or food, repetitive questioning or extreme distress at small changes).
3.     Highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus; (such as strong attachment to or preoccupation with unusual objects, excessively circumscribed or perseverative interests).
4.     Hyper-or hypo-reactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects of environment; (such as apparent indifference to pain/heat/cold, adverse response to specific sounds or textures, excessive smelling or touching of objects, fascination with lights or spinning objects).
C.    Symptoms must be present in early childhood (but may not become fully manifest until social demands exceed limited capacities)
D.         Symptoms together limit and impair everyday functioning.

Best, Zel.

Yes, I meet enough criteria.
 


1. From my diagnosis: I didn't show emotion and I didn't react to jokes. When I first saw my niece's baby a couple of weeks ago, I didn't show any emotion at all, and people thought I didn't care (although I do).

2. I rarely make eye contact (better with family members). Based on tests I've taken of various sorts (actual tests, rather than simply internet quizzes) I don't seem to understand a lot of nonverbal communication, and I often take verbal communication literally and miss intended meanings. I do not have a total lack of facial expression and I do use gestures. However, I don't do much with either.

3. I probably spend upwards of 23.5 hours a day alone. On a really busy day I might be around people for as much as 2-3 hours. If my nephew is here, I'll spend more time with him because we share some interests and he's up for talking about them a lot. So maybe four hours with him, but even that can be exhausting. I also have basically no real world friends right now - my social interaction is almost entirely online. I find it very difficult to maintain friendships, and I don't really "miss" people when I haven't talked to them for awhile. It's not that I don't like their company, it's just that I don't feel a need to socialize.



1. I constantly stim. Constantly.

2. I have this, although I tend not to go into detail of my more extreme reactions. I find change and disruption in my routines fairly difficult, although not necessarily to the point of meltdown. I did come close to or experience actual meltdowns last year in response to last-minute cancellations on my therapist's part (or due to other problems, such as my ride not showing up). Last minute changes cause a lot of stress, too.

3. I think this was worse for me as a child, but it's still an issue now. I guess the biggest change is I can talk about things outside my interests, but I don't really enjoy it. Everything I do these days is related to either my interest in particular video games, my interest in autism, or my interest in disability and disability activism.

4. I have a lot of sensory issues - hypersensitivity to sound, light, particular smells, touch. I have issues with proprioception and don't really know where I am in space or especially relative to other people. I also have other sensory issues involving processing and interpretation which get worse with overload. Often, overloads lead to shutdowns.



Yes to both of these. My mother first noticed my sensory defensiveness before I was a full year old. I had issues throughout my childhood and teenage years.

No.
Yes.

I meet the criteria for ASD under DSM-V. I would be diagnosed with ASD under DSM-V.

Yes, I would be diagnosed.

Although, my social issues are not so much with me reciprocating as with me understanding and implementing information from body language and speech.
Acting lessons kind of helped me to at least play my way through a social situation...but I have no idea what is really going on. I hang back and watch, but really, that is not my preference.

I won't play my way through when they do the testing - the filters are off - I want the tester to see me without a mask.

I meet everything (even all of the sub-categories in B) except A:2 (nonverbal communication). At least I don't think I do... I feel like I've managed to learn how to do read these nonverbal signals ok and doesn't cause me any outright issues.

So I guess I would lose my diagnosis then.

I'm really not sure. The Asperger label did not exist when I was a kid.

I do lack interest in people, I still have sensory issues, I am still bad with eye contact, I still have repetitive behaviors....

The thing is, I am now 27 years old and know what is unusual and and I know how to act to fit in if I choose to. When I was a kid, I was the
in-your-face wanted to socialize type who was bullied yet oblivious to it. Nowadays, to most people, my lack of eye contact and unusual behavior means I am a shy dork.

I think so. It's irrelevant, I've seen probably about a hundred psychs/social workers/etc in my lifetime, and they all have different conclusions about me. It all comes down to not what actually is, but only what the judge the psychologist thinks. I've had psychs go "Yeah, you definitely got Aspergers." and then others go "You don't have Aspergers, you're just so smart!" Ask 10 psychs you'll get 10 different answers. So the reality of the DSM is irrelevant, it's only what the psych thinks. If the psych thinks strongly enough you "got" something, they'll ignore the DSM and just diagnose you however they feel like. I was wrongly diagnosed schizoid/schizoaffective and the people they referred me to said "yeah, we can't accept him because you can't diagnose someone with that at 17."

As far as if I think I'd be eligible under DSM-V, I'm hoping I can get rid of the "D" criteria soon.

But really, psychiatry is a joke.

I think I fit the criteria pretty well. I'm not worried about losing my diagnosis.

I make the whole list of the criteria so my staus isnt going to change heh.

I don't think I fit the new criteria, on two counts:

A: Part 1 especially seems doubtful. It took me until my early 20s to start initiating social interactions, and to carry out "normal" back-and-forth conversation, but I have learned to do so well enough at this point. Part 2, I'm not sure. I've always used gestures, and I tend to be overly expressive, though I still have difficulty with subtleties in nonverbal communication. Part 3 definitely still applies, but without part 1 that doesn't matter.

B: I've never fit 1 or 2. In fact, 2 is very much the opposite of me. (I have a lot of trouble adhering to routines.) As a child I would have fit both 3 and 4, (which would be enough for this part,) but 4 is now questionable. I am very sensitive to certain textures and smells, and I still find them unnerving, but I no longer react to them in a way that you can see it bothers me. It's more internalized.

Now, I will add that I am not too worried about this. I don't need or want any special accommodations, and AS will always be part of my identity regardless of what the DSM says. My main concern here is that more children may go undiagnosed and not have access to needed services. However, I personally would still have been diagnosed as a child. I've simply learned my around many of these deficits as an adult.

I am not affected by this change as I do not live in the States, but I did ask my psychologist and she told me I meet the criteria of the DSM-V. I got diagnosed both by the DSM-IV and the ICD-10.

Does everyone in the States being diagnosed with Aspergers now has to be re-assessed, for example people who receive SSDI at the moment or any other accommodations?
And what about people diagnosed with classical autism, do they also have to get re-assessed?

I will continue to meet the criteria for an autism diagnosis under the DSM V

You know, I'm not too sure if I even fit the current criteria anymore, I've changed quite a bit since diagnosis 4 years ago
I'm not too bothered either way though, I'm just me.

i fit this criteria better than the current asperger's criteria

I'm sure I would, because even though I used to display almost all of those, I've learned not to and to deal with them.

I don't see why it would matter if you lose your dx, unless you need it to get some sort of benefit or support. If I were to lose mine, it wouldn't matter to me because I still would know whats wrong with me and how to handle it.