Do you believe that Aspergers is a mild form of autism?

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Of course, the DSMV 5 got rid of that rediculous lable.

Most people who think they have ASD just have social anxiety. ASD is not just about social anxiety in fact it's usually the opposite. Autistic people are mostly confrontational.

Huh?

Yes, to both the "mild" and the "autism" bit. "Mild" just means "less severe" in this case, it doesn't mean it's no big deal.

I've not seen this happen with Aspergers but I've seen it happen a lot with depression. It's frowned upon to consider yourself mentally ill if you don't have a diagnosis, but why would you go to the doctor at all if you didn't think you were ill? It's a catch-22 and leaves people not seeking help for fear of finding out they're just a snowflake. There are people who pretend to have specific mental health problems but anyone doing that must be deeply unhappy anyway, surely? I'm actually terrified of finding out I don't have AS, because that would mean that I struggle with things because I'm weak and pathetic, and people didn't used to take to me because I am a bad person. I understand why people want to put a label on their suffering to take the blame off them.

Dancing Queen, you seem like a kind and sensitive person. Glad you are here getting answers.

I've never heard of anyone faking Aspergers.

I mean, someone might say they feel a little autistic sometimes, just like people sometimes claim to be OCD or ADHD, as a shorthand way of explaining a certain behaviour. I'm not condoning this, but I don't think it's ever intended to be taken literally, they only say it from ignorance of the real thing.

At a stretch, I suppose there might be people who would say it because it sounds like a cool condition to have. I doubt you'd find those people here on WP. Why would anyone hang out here if they were faking? Why fake in the first place?

It seems much more likely to me that we have exactly the same problems as everyone else at recognising autism in someone who's good at masking. We don't see in them the problems we have, so we disbelieve them. And yes, maybe some here have very mild problems compared to others, for instance a lack of comoorbidities, but that doesn't mean the underlying autistic traits are inconsequential.

I think that spreading the idea that there are lots of people out there faking Aspergers does more harm than good.

That's so sweet of you, thank you

People on here obviously have a need to be here or they would not have gone through the trouble. That doesn't mean there aren't those out there who do treat Asperger's like a trend and make believe they have it. I work in education. I've seen it quite a bit.