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Asperger's has officially been dropped from the DSM. What now?

I too am confused and would like to know the reasoning behind it. Sounds like it may be more "political" than "science." I am wary of the DSM because of the way its collaborators keep changing definitions.

If you study the history of how mental/psychiatric conditions have been defined and redefined, a lot of times this has been done to suit one agenda or another. Let's face it, we don't do the same thing to other diseases. For example, chickenpox and measles are distinct diseases caused by distinct viruses. You will not see them lumped under a catch-all category of "pox". Even in medicine's dark ages, chickenpox, smallpox and cowpox were recognized as being quite different although related things.

It makes me wonder, why go through all the trouble to get a diagnosis if a few years down the road the name is going to be changed?
 
My theory would be that diagnosis and definitions of mental/ psychiatric conditions are ever changing due to the true fact that they are more easy to fake and therefore there are always going to be those people that want to jump on the bandwagon for whatever reason, whether it be to get monetary benefits, special treatment, undeserved recognition, medication or plain old attention.
I would suggest that governments want to do the right thing by people who are viewed as having mental/ psychiatric conditions but they have to be sure that help goes to them that need it/ deserve it.
 
Well, i guess this is why my therapist kept putting the subject off.
-sigh-

I still want a diagnosis of something. I KNOW that i'm different and identify as an aspie.
 
Well, DSM be damned: I am an Aspie. Give them a little time: there will be so much fallout from the sweeping unscientific changes in the DSM 5 that in no time they'll be running around with their hair on fire struggling to come up with a 'revised version'.
 
Actually, they have been discussing this for some time. Considering the parameters that distinguish Aspergers and HF Autism are really quite difficult to ascertain, it is simpler and more correct to put both under one umbrella rather than making arbitrary distinctions based on linguistic ability. I, for one, support the change. It doesn't change who I am, or anything else about me. It merely makes diagnosis and understanding easier for NT and for others with the disorder.
 
Pella said:
Is the official wording of it available online yet, I can't find it.
Click to expand...

I haven't seen anything either. I've only seen the articles.

They said that the change should make it easier for people who couldn't get disability assistance with Asperger's to get it under Autism.
 
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I don't think aspergers will disappear. How can it? We are aspies, and that's that. You can't change what is already in everyone's vocabulary. I will always identify myself as an aspie, and I don't care at all about the latest version of a book which will change again in a few years time. It is referring to Real people, and these people are ourselves. We even have our AC community. does it mean we need a new website address!?? I think not! Long live aspie central! :D
 
Tarragon said:
I don't think aspergers will disappear. How can it? We are aspies, and that's that. You can't change what is already in everyone's vocabulary. I will always identify myself as an aspie, and I don't care at all about the latest version of a book which will change again in a few years time. It is referring to Real people, and these people are ourselves. We even have our AC community. does it mean we need a new website address!?? I think not! Long live aspie central! :D
Click to expand...

I still want aspies that don't know they are aspies to be able to find us after the change. What if they are diagnosed as autistic and they don't know to come here. not saying we should change the name or anything, i just want to make sure they can find their way here.
 
The new wording, as it was proposed
DSM-V Revisions for Autism Spectrum Disorders & Asperger's Need to Remember that we are the 1 in 1 - Autism Empowerment
Catherine Lord, an autism expert at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York who was on the psychiatric group's autism task force, said anyone who met criteria for Asperger's in the old manual would be included in the new diagnosis.

Read more here: CHICAGO: Asperger's dropped from revised diagnosis manual | Health | Rock Hill Herald Online
this woman says no new diagnosis needed "
 
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I read lengthy articles in Yahoo and MSN online news. The changes to the DSM are being discussed now and released semi-officially, if I understood and remember what was said, but the official new manual will be released in 2013-- February or March? Maybe later in the Spring?
 
Yeah. I asked my psychologist and she said I would only have to have it formally changed in the future for medical billing purposes.
 
This is a touchy subject. We may now be technically a subset of a wider umbrella called 'Autism Spectrum Disorder', but from what I heard from some fellow Aspies, they resent such changes. Because most of us with Asperger's feel stigmatized with such labels.

This is less of a problem in Singapore, as the autism community is too divided to begin with, and the divide is not based on reactions to changes to DSM-5 in the first place (it's more based on socio-economic divides).
 
It doesn't affect me in the slightest, because due to a bit of hair-splitting, I don't have Asperger's; it looks like I do, but my not speaking for the entire year of 1973 rules it out.

That said, it seems like it will cause a lot of confusion. My autism is a lot different from the kid in my hometown who needs constant supervision, and that makes things weird.

Also, a good (and experienced) doctor would tell someone they're diagnosing (or their parent(s)) something like "well, we would have called this Asperger's a few months ago, but we can't do that any more, so it's a high-functioning version of Autism Spectrum Disorder; but, really, (s)he's Aspie." Well, doctors are effectively bureaucrats in Canada, anyway.
 
I feel like the DSM should have done a better job of explaining the changes not just for Autism but for everything they decided to change. A lot of people are just really, really confused. Not just the ones with an illness, but doctors too.
 
This looks like a terrible mistake. The Aspergers diagnosis which is already hard enough to come by is going to be merged with Autism Spectrum Disorder?
This in my opinion will result in less diagnosis' for mildly autistic individuals such as myself. The distinction between the two is important, to me at least, apparently they do not feel the same way.
 
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