Asperger's is not real

Post Reply New Topic

I'm diagnosed with Asperger's after brain scans, neurologists, and tests (to my dismay) but still kinda laugh at people that see everything as "all or nothing" this sad black and white world where people are either "NT or autie" and I wanna take a stand on it. My mom's twin sister had autism and my dad didn't talk till he was 5. The autie traits going back to my grandparents kinda make it silly when I hear a doctor or psychiatrist say these things aren't really genetic when in my family these personality traits seem so completely genetic. But then again I remind myself than so many people feel the need to join some "mob mentality" clan where everybody joins together to justify their own strengths and weaknesses. I feel no more "autie" than I do "NT" and I think anybody that does is completely dilluding themselves and forgetting that personality traits are "continuous" from a mathematical standpoint, not categorical and that EVERYBODY is different. Until people begin to tolerate everybody else we're always going to have groups fighting over who is more right or justified than the others and there is nothing "special" about that! And I'm assuming most people that thrive on these categories (and yes I'm referring to most psychologists and flag-carrying aspies) are people that crave being special and I would have plenty to say about how that affects society but I'll just refrain and know that some people just don't have the intelligence to realize this world is much more "grey" than the worker bees of society will ever realize or ever comprehend I'm sure.

Thank you!! Great post, statschica.
I agree.

Why were you dismayed after you were diagnosed with Asperger's after brain scans, neurologists, and tests?

And you know from your own family experience that it indeed has genetic components, even if the Drs don't understand this yet. One can always gently tell the "specialists" the facts and one's direct experience and hope that info sinks in at some point.

i dont think you can see aspergers in brain scans

hint hint. maybe because it doesn't exist. Reality isn't as all-or-nothing as "believers" like to impose

The fact that you believe so many people are here because they are obsessed with being special could be more of a window into your own instinctual reaction to being diagnosed with AS. Maybe it seems like a stigma to you and it's easier to think of it as something that was made up. In any case, I find it bizarre that anyone could come to such a conclusion about AS, looking back on all the s**t I went through until I realized I had it, I can't see how anybody else who has it would "want" it as a label for anything other than to explain why life has been so bizarre.

I agree that there shouldnt have to be a mob mentality about it, i feel if you go about always thinking about AS this way(aspie vs nt) it becomes more a self fulfilling prophecy, concerning difficulties socializing. I feel i have AS or also known as High Functioning Autism, but this doesnt stop me from having many friends, a very social dependant job(waiter), or living a somewhat 'normal' life. However, it does help explain the anxieties and difficulties in situations that i often feel, or more so why they happen(currently reading a tony attwood book). This website lets me relate with others about the difficulties of AS, along with adding my experience to the mix. I feel a little sad for the people with this mob mentality but who am i to try to justify their experiences, who am i to try to judge just how well they deal with their HFA, or where they lay on the spectrum.

1. Nice job being a flamer/troll

2. Aspergers is a label like "Black" or "genius". It's very useful if you remember it's only a marker - when you make generalizations like "all aspies are introverts" and such it quickly degenerates into Hitlerian Fascism. IT'S A MARKER FOR FRACKS SAKE!

3. Autism and Savantism do indeed exist. Ask Kim Peek and Daniel Tanament.

first of all i do not see the world in black and white.
when i look at someone without a form of autism i don't immediately think that "Oh, my goshiness an NT- how awful." anyway i barely ever use the word NT.
i know that i have asperger's syndrome because i see it throughout my day. i take things too literally, have major problems with having simple conversations with people, i don't understand rules of society, i have nothing really in common with people my age (16) ect. ect.
it takes me a while to understand when someone is my friend. i mean you have to talk to me constantly for me to get the idea.
i like having great and intriguing conversations, just not boring ones...zzz...

each day i try to keep my head up and try as hard as possible. somedays i couldn't care less but i get through the whole day, however annoying or thrilling that day is.

http://www.arachnoid.com/psychology/aspergers.php

This should make you happy

I'm not trying to be a troll I just see everybody as different and don't really see why people feel the need to be lumped with others so much. I'm sure Kim Peek might think he has more in common with someone else without an Asperger's dx more than he might think he has in common with Daniel Tammet. I'm not sure but I don't see why that couldn't be. And I have anxiety as well and for awhile the Asperger's thing explained things about myself (I have trouble relating to most people more than my own dog), but then I realized that it was just limiting me as well since I don't really agree with that categorization anymore than the names they would give to the same people 100 years ago. And quite frankly there's a lot of people diagnosed with the same thing as me that I don't relate to either, especially people that don't question anything. I just don't get it that's all. I doubt anybody will sufficiently explain it to me like everything else a lot of people do. And I've tried very hard to accept that category and carry the flag about it and all that but I just don't see the point really. But I'm not watching this forum anymore because I know it will just rile up a bunch of believers and I can't deal with that right now........

If your life is working for you, then more power to you! But must you make your own life the template for others? If something isn't true for you, then it's not true for anybody?

Here's my life, so far - completely isolated, not a friend in the world (although I had a friend in high school, and then in my 20's, just one). Family disapproval and labels (quitter, anti-social). Since people don't like me (believe it), they avoid me and I avoid them, so I never married, and my family thinks I'm gay. For 30 years, the stress of being "normal" made me sweat like a pig all the time - my dress was sopping wet within 15 minutes of putting it on - not a situation to endear me to others. Doctors of all kinds diagnosed everything from hysteria (1970) to general depression (1997), but couldn't help me.

And then, last year at the age of 55, I found WP. It didn't take long for me to recognize myself. That accomplished two things. (1) I can relax and be myself here. (2) I can see a way out - WP has shown me that AS isn't a death sentence. Much has been discovered by way of creating a good life for a person with AS. I intend to take advantage of all of it.

If you are graced with good fortune, why does that mean to you that I'm up to something nefarious?

i agree that people should be more tolerant and stop all this "autism must be cured" and "mtv is the plague" bs

Okay I'm starting to sort of realize that some people are helped by the label and I guess that's good for them. But I wasn't helped at all by the label. Basically, I quit leaving my house and was content with my own passions until family members said I needed to go to a doctor. I went to the doctor and they diagnosed me after some brain scans and tests and me (thinking this was some sort of true science because I take things literally to begin with) kinda lost all my passions trying to deal with this label that I'm some kinda weirdo of society. I never really noticed everybody saw me like that. I always just thought I was a somewhat intelligent, artsy-type of person who gets really passionate about things while irritating a lot of people in the process sometimes not realizing it until they blow up on me but that's another story. But after the diagnosis I felt like my personality traits were some sort of "illness" to people and it just sort of seems ridiculous especially since I worked with psychologists that start seeing you for your diagnosis and not for you as a person and a lot of other annoying things. Anyway, if it helps you then fine but I just don't see how it could the way society is right now. And I think a lot of obsessive people could take these things too far instead of just realizing we are all different, it's just an arbitrary category, and start focusing on your own strengths (b/c everybody has them if they can find them) and passions and quit worrying about what everybody else says.

That's the annoying part. People begin to see you as "weak" and "stupid" no matter what you do.