Most people on this forum don't have Asperger's Syndrome

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But what exactly do they mean by support? What about ASD people who live on their own and have no care givers because they can take care of themselves?

Do they mean support like strategies they use or having a school aide or having a partner that helps them so their life is easier, or having a caring sibling that helps them understand things or parents who help them understand things, or do they mean therapy or having a job through disability service or having work accommodations? Does being on SSDI count as receiving support?

I'm self-diagnosed with autism, never did get an official diagnosis but i definitely have autism. Rather moderate autism.

The effect of the elimination of Asperger's as a specific diagnosis from the DSM is that it eliminates understanding about who we are by just blending us in with a whole bunch that we are not.

-- Green
-- Blue,
-- infra-red,
-- ultra-violet,
-- radio waves,
-- microwaves:
These are all just different wave lengths on the electro magnetic spectrum. Blue is not green nor is it microwaves. They are very different, they are employed differently they are managed differently and by radically different equipment. While there is something to be gained by understanding them as all being electromagnetic wavelengths, there is no particular advantage to trying to understand microwaves by beaming them at a optical glass triangular prism.

Just as green occupies a particular position on the electromagnetic spectrum so does Asperger's occupy a particular place on the mental spectrum and blurring that distinction is not helpful to Aspies! It may be helpful to the professional "shrinks" But if I wanted a diagnosis or perhaps some training or insights on how to cope or deal with Asperger's, I would prefer a professional who specializes in it understands the distinction from the rest of the spectrum and not a someone who just lumps it all together.
If you wanted eye glasses you would go to an optician, not a microwave technologist!

It should be noted that in his novel, 1984 George Orwell in dealing with the concept of Big Brother's new language called "New Speak" noted that if you eliminate the word for something it becomes very hard to talk about it, (e.g. if people have no word for the concept of freedom they will not talk about it or feel the lack of it) In similar manner if we have no word for "Asperger's Syndrome", it becomes much harder to talk about the specific blend of characteristics, problems, or benefits that compose it or how to deal with it.

I regard reclassifying Asperger's syndrome as "just another part of the Autism spectrum" as inappropriate and counterproductive.

Tony Attwood has an interesting page on this:

http://www.tonyattwood.com.au/index.php ... ing-autism

Now that the "Neurotribes" book has revealed that Hans Aspergers work was even more important than thought and it was deliberately squelched by Leo Kanner whose contributions have been revealed in a much less positive light, it more then ever shows that officially re-recognizing him is the right thing to do.

The major problem today is the way the media through around terms about Autism or Asperger which have no absolute meaning. The science that is actually done around autism is the one thing at the heart of our society that gives us more information that we can find out more about ourselves.

Science in itself can not be held responsible for how the media spins the stories. Like for one instance when they start talking about that autism is a form sickness. or another thing when they start talking about how people can look to medial solutions to try and change autistic people. This drives a business model for private cooperation’s that people start to believe in.

If there rather was a company that did the middle filtering in how to best explain things to the media when it comes to scientific things then there would be a much better process. And not guessing or jumping pointless topics that has nothing to do with austism. They can make a 1000 different Oprah but until more media understanding change it will just continue being the same old game of trying and trying over again and hoping for a different outcome.