I just read an article on the net that made me very enraged.

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To my knowledge, only one. What planet are you from, Prometheus??? (pun intended)

No. We need my idea enforced. Eat her heart and lungs! Eat them!

'Twould be really nice if we could see the article, but since it is not here, we'll have to make do with what we're told about it.

I believe that AS does exist (or else, why would I be here?), but it's not what people think it is. It is most certainly not the end of the world as it is known for NT people. It's just a different way of thinking.

No! I won't! You can't make me!! ! *runs away crying*

Yes I can! *Pulls out gun.* Now do it!

*sniff* *whimper*

Yeah.

I would also agree that the category, while useful, has arbitrary boundary lines. They could be larger, or smaller, or a different shape, and still describe something just as accurately, just in a different way.

...but even so, that doesn't mean that what the word refers to doesn't exist. And in this case I think the word refers to something that's more useful and accurate than it is non-useful and inaccurate. (There are other diagnoses that I think need to be completely overhauled, like schizophrenia which means several unrelated or only tangentially related things. Which in turn doesn't mean that I think hallucinations or catatonia don't exist, but that, say, a person who has a lot of hallucinations and can't form accurate conclusions about the world, and a person who has a movement disorder and has trouble with self-care skills, may not have remotely the same thing even if both were labeled schizophrenic. Whereas any two autistic people you'll see more traits in common than that.)

I don't draw a boundary line with AS, so I don't in a sense believe in AS. But I believe that what gets called AS can just as easily be called autism, so it's more a matter of how I'm drawing a boundary, not a matter of saying "This doesn't exist." Other people draw it differently, sometimes for reasons that make sense too.

anbuend, I have thought the same thing regarding schizophrenia and a spectrum of disorders which often seem barely related.

However, then I've considered having read about cases of patients (and also knowing a couple individuals, myself) whose symptomology changes and would perhaps be catergorized such as Paranoid Schizophrenic and then later on showing Catatonic Schizophrenia or just an increase in catatonic symptoms. Or those sz's who would be categorized as Disorganized or Undifferentiated (a catchall I know) and then at a later date show a clear picture of Paranoid Schizophrenia.

With this brought to mind and having considered how little these individual disorders within this broad amorphis spectrum seem to have in common, it makes me think that behind the behavioral symptoms there may be more in common than appears to meet the eye since one individual can show such a range and flit from one to the other over his or her lifespan.

I find it interesting to note that there have been some autistic individuals who have presented catatonic symptoms (see Attwood's book).

Yeah, I'm one of them.

And the diagnosis of catatonic schizophrenia has decreased over time. My guess is that the diagnosis of other things that meet the criteria has increased over time right along with it. Including autism.