[Titan]

If you or anyone you know has been diagnosed with Apsergers or higher-functioning autism like me, I found this a great help.

Survival Guide for people living with Aspergers

I am really pissed that all the stuff I can find is for parents to deal with the fact that their child is autistic. Seriously? I makes me feel like a pet with no ability to think for itself.

[S-99]

And if all the parents get to read all that dealing with their kid having autism stuff, then they'll end up treating you like a pet with no ability to think for itself.

A lot of parents do this to their kids without knowing.

I'm dyslexic, my mother's convinced that not all of my neurons are firing and that i'm the biggest ****ing clueless bastard you ever seen. It's this and the fact that my older brother with ADD is so pussy whipped by my mom that i don't go back home because my mom fails to realize that me and my brother are two successful at life smart and rather very normal people.

I clicked your link. I have a friend that my other friends suspect has asperbergers. Learning info either way (it'd be nice to know who's wrong or right....or most likely to leave the issue alone).

[Enigmatic Entity]

That was a nice article. Sometimes it would be nice if I could make some good friend(s) with someone...

[Dilmah G]

Hm, I think a bloke at my school could be autistic...

[S-99]

I'm dyslexic, so I was making sure i wasn't mistaking asperger's for ass burgers.

[Titan]

I'm dyslexic, so I was making sure i wasn't mistaking asperger's for ass burgers.

That's how you pronounce it, too. Pain in the ass when I went to explain what AS was to my friends.

Also, if any of you read that and go, wtf, that doesn't make any sense, trust me. It makes sense to autistic people.

[iamzack]

Well, hey, at least Aspie's get to be sick pets. BPD guides are about recognizing, neutralizing, and getting away from people with BPD like they're rabid pumas.

[Aardwolf]

"ass burgers."  

Seriously though...

I'm of the opinion that Asperger's disorder is a diagnosis that shouldn't exist. That is, as far as I can tell (being a layperson who occasionally reads stuff on the Internet), there's no physiological/neural/"real" difference between someone with Asperger's and someone without it. Since it's a diagnosis, either you have it or you don't. Which is rubbish, because it's assigning a yes-or-no value to something that isn't a yes-or-no issue.

Analogous scenario: If someone gets a low score on an IQ test, they're stupid/retarded/whatever (colloquially). They might even be 'retarded'. But that's not an explanation, it's just a label you can slap on things.

And as far as I can tell (being a layperson who occasionally reads stuff on the Internet), it's the same way with Asperger's.

[General Battuta]

"ass burgers."  

Seriously though...

I'm of the opinion that Asperger's disorder is a diagnosis that shouldn't exist. That is, as far as I can tell (being a layperson who occasionally reads stuff on the Internet), there's no physiological/neural/"real" difference between someone with Asperger's and someone without it. Since it's a diagnosis, either you have it or you don't. Which is rubbish, because it's assigning a yes-or-no value to something that isn't a yes-or-no issue.

Analogous scenario: If someone gets a low score on an IQ test, they're stupid/retarded/whatever (colloquially). They might even be 'retarded'. But that's not an explanation, it's just a label you can slap on things.

And as far as I can tell (being a layperson who occasionally reads stuff on the Internet), it's the same way with Asperger's.

Asperger's is a position on a continuous scale called the autism spectrum. Your argument is rooted on the notion that it's a binary on/off diagnosis, but it's not. It's one section of the scale.

[Aardwolf]

Well then, ultimately it's just a quantification of something.

Spoiler:

Congratulations, the test results indicate that you're so socially inept that you can get insurance companies to pay for your needs!

Caution: the above spoiler contains intense cynicism, and should not be read by those who have chronic trouble with sarcasm/facetiousness.

I still don't see why it should have a name.

[General Battuta]

Well then, ultimately it's just a quantification of something.

I'm sorry, what is it that would be preferable to having a quantification of something? A hazy guess at something? A wild stab in the dark at something?

I still don't see why it should have a name.

You know, that's a great point!

Next time I see a patient with a CD4 count below 200, I think I'll take your advice and just treat it as not really distinct from a CD4 count above 200. It's just a quantification of something, after all. It doesn't need a name.

Let me go find my textbooks and diagnostic manuals and rip 'AIDS' out of all of them.

[headdie]

I'm of the opinion that Asperger's disorder is a diagnosis that shouldn't exist. That is, as far as I can tell (being a layperson who occasionally reads stuff on the Internet), there's no physiological/neural/"real" difference between someone with Asperger's and someone without it. Since it's a diagnosis, either you have it or you don't. Which is rubbish, because it's assigning a yes-or-no value to something that isn't a yes-or-no issue.

try telling that to my sister who is diagnosed Aspergers, has difficult comprehending emotion in others, who has difficulty with interacting with others because she dont comprehend things like tone of voice, facial expression and those are the more obvious effects

[Kosh]

I'm of the opinion that Asperger's disorder is a diagnosis that shouldn't exist. That is, as far as I can tell (being a layperson who occasionally reads stuff on the Internet), there's no physiological/neural/"real" difference between someone with Asperger's and someone without it. Since it's a diagnosis, either you have it or you don't. Which is rubbish, because it's assigning a yes-or-no value to something that isn't a yes-or-no issue.

Research adds to evidence that autism is a brain 'connectivity' disorder

Learn.

Analogous scenario: If someone gets a low score on an IQ test, they're stupid/retarded/whatever (colloquially). They might even be 'retarded'. But that's not an explanation, it's just a label you can slap on things.

And as far as I can tell (being a layperson who occasionally reads stuff on the Internet), it's the same way with Asperger's.

You're not one of us, you wouldn't understand.

[iamzack]

Everythin's overdiagnosed.

[Mars]

I've felt socially inept before, I think everyone has. I've had many of those "symptoms" at one time or another.

Then I got out of my ****ty living situation, changed the way I thought, and now I don't have any such social problem at all.

I'm not saying it doesn't exist necessarily, I'm saying that there's a good chance that a few of you who think you have it really just need to work on your living situation, self-esteem, or just make an attempt to be more social and learn from it.

[Scotty]

Whether that's true or not (personally, I think so), it doesn't change that Aperger's is most likely a legitimate diagnosis.

However, this phrase always keeps hanging me up when I read stuff on this:

try telling that to my sister who is diagnosed [with] Aspergers,

Why is that people are diagnosed with it, instead of just having it?  Will that change at some point, simply because it's just a diagnosis?

[Mars]

My sister has trouble relating to others too. It's part of her personality, she picks up real douchebags that way, but it's just part of her. There's no mental disorder, and no disease.

[General Battuta]

My sister has trouble relating to others too. It's part of her personality, she picks up real douchebags that way, but it's just part of her. There's no mental disorder, and no disease.

She's actually probably somewhere on the autism spectrum - just like everyone else. Just further towards the 'autistic' end.

[Solatar]

I have very little experience with Asberger's beyond what I've heard from others and a general dislike for psychological diagnosis - which isn't unfounded, honestly.  I think that the diagnosis is bullcrap, but honestly, I've never really met someone with the diagnosis (or if I have, they've managed it very well, something they haven't shared with me).

[Aardwolf]

I'm of the opinion that Asperger's disorder is a diagnosis that shouldn't exist. That is, as far as I can tell (being a layperson who occasionally reads stuff on the Internet), there's no physiological/neural/"real" difference between someone with Asperger's and someone without it. Since it's a diagnosis, either you have it or you don't. Which is rubbish, because it's assigning a yes-or-no value to something that isn't a yes-or-no issue.

Research adds to evidence that autism is a brain 'connectivity' disorder

Learn.

And if you're showing me that link and telling me to "learn", you obviously didn't get the point. I'm not saying there isn't something different about these people, I'm saying that diagnoses of "autism" and "autism-spectrum disorders" (including Asperger's syndrome) don't say anything about the cause. That survey you linked to suggests a slightly more specific explanation of at least one possible cause.... But "Asperger's syndrome" and "autism" are still just names for different ranges on a scale. They don't describe a single physiological/biological/neural phenomenon, they describe the many possible phenomena which can cause someone to fall within that range on the scale!

Analogous scenario: If someone gets a low score on an IQ test, they're stupid/retarded/whatever (colloquially). They might even be 'retarded'. But that's not an explanation, it's just a label you can slap on things.

And as far as I can tell (being a layperson who occasionally reads stuff on the Internet), it's the same way with Asperger's.

You're not one of us, you wouldn't understand.

I was wondering how long it would take for somebody to come along and interpret that as an attack on people who've been diagnosed with Asperger's. You obviously don't understand the concept of an analogy. And for all you know, I do have Asperger's syndrome. I don't even know if I have it or not. And frankly I don't care whether I have it, because it's just a classification of the severity of the symptoms, and that information is of no use to me.