So Im interested in what you guys have to say..

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Finishing my last year of psychology degree...Am part of APA and saw the changes done with the new DSM coming out. What do you guys think of Aspergers being group with every other ASD into one Autism category

Positive.

I don't care what label I'm given with an official diagnosis, I know myself and know how well I do or don't function, what my strengths/weaknesses and challenges are and so forth, so being lumped in with higher or lower functioning people isn't going to change my perception of my own capabilities one iota. We're all on the spectrum somewhere along the line, so what does it matter to acknowledge that with one catch-all acronym for a diagnosis? It doesn't harm anything so long as any treatments, counselling, therapy etc is tailored to an individuals needs vs. assumed to be universally applicable across the entire Autism Spectrum.

I think it's positive because it'll allow for more people in some jurisdictions to get access to care and health benefits, insurance, or financial support etc easier than before when such services may have only been available to those diagnosed with "Classic Autism."

The DSM might say one thing, but I will always consider myself to be an Aspie.

you guys make some excellent points..i just wonder if you would get passed off seeing its not aspergers anymore but in all actuality..low functioning autism..i personally dont agree with labeling it low verses high..but people experience might

I think it's pretty much irrelevant as individual psychologists will diagnose things how they see fit regardless of what the DSM says.

I'm still trying to figure out why autism in general is included in the DSM when that tome is generally a shill for Big PHARMA?

Don't care.

Not sure yet. I hope that it will enable some people who previously couldn't to get proper diagnoses and assistance. That remains to be seen.

I feel it's a little like trying to group the entire non-binary section of the gender spectrum into just one thing, i.e., I do not agree with it.

I say "autistic" anyway, since there's no formal adjectival form of "aspergers", which annoys me.

One autism category is fine by me. I'd like something like a 1 through 10 scale regarding a person's level of autism. That would be a lot easier to figure out than a bunch of scattered subsets glued together a hundred different ways.

When someone asks, "what's assburgers?" when you tell them you have Aspergers, isn't the inevitable short answer is going to be, "it's a form of autism"?

I don't even know if I'm AS or PDD-NOS or both these days. And who's going to know what the heck "pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified" means? I'd probably get accused of making that up

"I have autism". Works for me.

The autism spectrum is a bucket of symptoms. It is not linear in any way, just a bunch of possibilities. The range of functionality and kinds of functionality is huge. I'd like to see Asperger's continue as a diagnosis within autism.

I'm undecided. AS is a form of autism, so it makes sense. But autism has so much stigma. To the majority autism means hitting your head against the wall and not being able to talk. (That was all I thought it was until I was in my early 30's, and read up on it upon suspecting I was aspie.) It might make it harder for those who are HFA, AS and PDD-NOS to be recognised as anything but ret*ds.

You're not being very clear, but if you're saying that you think all forms of autism are exactly the same, then you're way off. There are light years between LFA and HFA, and there are even significant differences within either group. Comments like that reinforces my doubts.

I use both aspie and autistic about myself, but I'll never stop identifying as aspie.