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Why did the term 'Asperger' stop being used so much? What's wrong with it?
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To make autistics happy who are high-functioning in life but can be low-functioning during a meltdown, or something like that. So everyone on the spectrum has just got to be autistic now, and some don't even like the level system either. It's like we're all as autistic as each other or we're not autistic at all.
I wish they wouldn't keep chopping and changing the autism spectrum, and just leave it how it was 30 years ago. They should never have taken Asperger's syndrome out of the equation. In fact they should have had Asperger's as a separate but similar condition to autism, just like ADHD, depression and Fragile-X are.
Asperger's is more complex than those of classic/common autism.
Children with Asperger's have no delays in speech development, and often any symptoms they have just slip through the net. Asperger's people can have one or two symptoms only but that are quite life-impacting, or have several symptoms but are exhibited mildly. Most Asperger's people can learn social cues and all that before they're adults even if it's a bit later than their peers, and just appear as a quirky NT without even having to mask too much.
Often people with Asperger's are more likely to make friends (although that's not true for everyone, because it isn't true for me, but I'm still Asperger's because of how I'm mild in so many ways and don't really fit the autism mould).
All that seems to be the nature of Asperger's. Autism is more like a range of behaviours and social ineptness that are exhibited more obviously unless they are able to learn to mask, and masking can be more exhausting for them.
Many people describe Asperger's as "too autistic to be neurotypical, too neurotypical to be autistic". Or an "autistic neurotypical". Asperger's can look very similar to depression or ADHD, and the three can get confused. I think these conditions should have a spectrum of their own, as they can overlap and sort of blend into each other.
There's a huge difference between myself (the high-functioning end of the spectrum) and this guy I used to know (the low-functioning end of the spectrum). A few times I met up with him and his mentor, just to go to the movies or have a coffee.
He was diagnosed as severe autism when he was only 3 years old, because his development was noticeably behind his peers and he seemed too independent and distant for a baby, and never spoke. Even when I last knew him (he was 17 then) he still couldn't speak. He'd just make noises like "aaaaggghhh, eeeeeegggghhh" and that's it, and he had to constantly have NC headphones on everywhere he went because the world was too overbearing for him. He didn't understand the world at all, and would have a violent meltdown from severe anxiety if his headphones were removed. That is a classic example of severe autism.
Me, on the other hand, compared to him, was like an NT. I'd chat away to his mentor about normal stuff, and I didn't need to be guided or watched like he did (he had no sense of danger and would just wonder off if you weren't keeping an eye on him). One time he had a meltdown in public although we didn't know why. His noises he made got louder and more intense, like he was trying to tell us his feelings but just didn't know how. Since I was about 18 months I've been able to verbally communicate my feelings with no effort or conscious thought. It just...comes naturally.
He was diagnosed as severe autism when he was only 3 years old, because his development was noticeably behind his peers and he seemed too independent and distant for a baby, and never spoke. Even when I last knew him (he was 17 then) he still couldn't speak. He'd just make noises like "aaaaggghhh, eeeeeegggghhh" and that's it, and he had to constantly have NC headphones on everywhere he went because the world was too overbearing for him. He didn't understand the world at all, and would have a violent meltdown from severe anxiety if his headphones were removed. That is a classic example of severe autism.
Me, on the other hand, compared to him, was like an NT. I'd chat away to his mentor about normal stuff, and I didn't need to be guided or watched like he did (he had no sense of danger and would just wonder off if you weren't keeping an eye on him). One time he had a meltdown in public although we didn't know why. His noises he made got louder and more intense, like he was trying to tell us his feelings but just didn't know how. Since I was about 18 months I've been able to verbally communicate my feelings with no effort or conscious thought. It just...comes naturally.
I think Asperger's should be now called Social Communication Sensory Disorder.
Arsinoe
Member
I think 'experts' are constantly looking for ways to complicate things instead of simplifying them for the sake of autistic people and those caring for them. I see this pattern in fields like this all the time. Instead of figuring out ways to simplify everyone's lives (mostly those impacted DIRECTLY from autism), they find ways to only make things worse somehow. Even changing something so important alone is stressful enough for everyone involved. Everything is extremely 'hypersensitive' now. And I still can't see how this abrupt change is helping anyone with autism in any specific way?? Asperger is quite complicated on its own anyway. Because when you're highly functional and show intelligence in several things, people will naturally expect stuff from you and will have a hard time understanding your ''lack'' of skills in other things, which doesn't happen with lower functioning autistics. HF autism is far more difficult for those having it because they understand everything around them, are EXPECTED to perform well in everything exactly because of their intelligence and masking abilities and they end up developing all sorts of conditions related to performance and social anxiety because they will also end up expecting things from themselves too! It's a trap at its best. People know that they must help a low functioning autistic. But nobody sees any reason to help a HF one. Nobody notices the issues and the difficulties and how danting they can be for the person's life.
That is why autism is becoming overdiagnosed now.
Is your child shy or anxious? Must be autism. But they're only shy, that can't be autism? Yes but everyone with autism are different from one another and they could be internalising all their other autism symptoms for all we know, so yeah, give them an autism diagnosis.
That's the narrative now.
Arsinoe
Member
Yea there are many over-noted sides in these fields. On the other hand where I live these conditions are still under-diagnosed because there aren't enough autism experts who can actually recognise HF autism well or even in women. If the autism isn't very easy to detect it in a girl, none of these ''experts'' will identify it. So many kids go on undiagnosed in some countries or over-diagnosed in others.
In the UK it's more or less becoming a trend to diagnose your kids with HFA, or adults with depression getting diagnosed with HFA.
Arsinoe
Member
That';s interesting xD I think depression exists in pretty much all of the autism spectrum and the ADHD one. How can you not experience depression with all the stress induced by your environment and its expectations?
ra49
Well-Known Member
Definitely socially correct to disavow Dr Asperger once his actions were revealed.
Perhaps technically clinically correct to put us Asperger's folks in the spectrum.
But telling an NT person you are Asperger's frequently elicits acceptance without argument or question.
Telling an NT person that I am ASD-1 results in a long conversation, argument, challenge to my statement, and then being told that everyone is on the spectrum.
Shorthand was invented for a reason and in spite of #1 and #2 above, I still use the term Asperger's.
Dealing with NTs is difficult enough that I already avoid as much as possible.
Perhaps technically clinically correct to put us Asperger's folks in the spectrum.
But telling an NT person you are Asperger's frequently elicits acceptance without argument or question.
Telling an NT person that I am ASD-1 results in a long conversation, argument, challenge to my statement, and then being told that everyone is on the spectrum.
Shorthand was invented for a reason and in spite of #1 and #2 above, I still use the term Asperger's.
Dealing with NTs is difficult enough that I already avoid as much as possible.
There is some controversy regarding Dr. Asperger's actions during the Third Reich. There is no evidence that he was a party member. However, the hospital he worked for, nearly all of his colleagues were. Furthermore, he wasn't in a position to resist the orders from the Nazi party. One complied or died. That was the way. So, beating the guy up for being a "complicit participant" in the Nazi "cleansing" campaign is not taking into context the environment he was being subjected to, and is not an appropriate characterization. He was surviving as best he could under those conditions.
Some of the links don't seem to be accurate. My understanding from several books (including Tony Atwood's new intro to his book and NeutroTribes) is the inconsistency in the way Asperger's was diagnosed (there was a paper published on it while the DSM-5 was being discussed) plus the intent to support those with Asperger's in the US that prompted the DMS-5 change. At least in the US, there were established support systems for autism in schools but not for Asperger's. The DSM-5 indicated that anybody with a previous Asperger's diagnosis was considered to have autism even if the new diagnosis was more stringent.
Much of the Nazi controversy came later --- after the publication of Asperger's Children in 2018. By reading Asperger's original papers and his work describing his "little professors" positively (arguing they were extremely valuable members of society) I also have mixed feelings about canceling the person. (Kanner, who came up with the autism diagnosis, had negative views about his patients and their "refrigerator" mothers.) Who knows how many of us would have behaved under the circumstances. (Not excusing anything; I'm Jewish).
Autism is now so broad. Asperger's was a more narrow diagnosis that that fits some people in the spectrum.
Then again, it's just a word. Social Communication Sensory Disorder would do too.
Much of the Nazi controversy came later --- after the publication of Asperger's Children in 2018. By reading Asperger's original papers and his work describing his "little professors" positively (arguing they were extremely valuable members of society) I also have mixed feelings about canceling the person. (Kanner, who came up with the autism diagnosis, had negative views about his patients and their "refrigerator" mothers.) Who knows how many of us would have behaved under the circumstances. (Not excusing anything; I'm Jewish).
Autism is now so broad. Asperger's was a more narrow diagnosis that that fits some people in the spectrum.
Then again, it's just a word. Social Communication Sensory Disorder would do too.
AuroraBorealis
AuuuuuDHD
I understand your frustration. But you should keep in mind that those classifications aren't meant to make life easier for the people who suffer from the conditions. They are meant as a way to categorize disorders, conditions and illnesses for the sake of treatment and research. People with a rare form of leukemia probably won't benefit much in their daily life from the very complicated, detailed classification for hematological cancer forms, either. In the contrary, all those criteria would make it much harder to understand your own illness and explain it to others. But it makes it easier to study it, research it, conduct clinical trials and find medication.
I'm aware that mental health is a different thing where the medical community still has tons to learn. But each time they change the system/classification, it is intended to get a better picture of the condition, to make it easier to recognize, to learn more about it. Obviously it's not perfect. But everyone has a different opinion in these things, and the people who create these classifications do it with the professionals in mind who treat patients. And most of those professionals, especially doctors, are themselves wired in the way that they remember things way better with classifications and systems.
Technical and Social considerations aside...
I always found AS (Aspergers Syndrome) a bit clumsy to say. But better then BMS (Burgermeister Meisterburger Syndrome).
But I always liked the simpler form 'Aspie' and still use it. This forum was originally called 'Aspie Central'.
I didn't like 'Autist' at first but it has grown on me. It reminds me of a position in an orchestra. And it feels like it shifts the meaning in tone from a condition one suffers to an ability one has.. 'Our First Autist today is Ludmila Gorkichenkoskaya...'
I always found AS (Aspergers Syndrome) a bit clumsy to say. But better then BMS (Burgermeister Meisterburger Syndrome).
But I always liked the simpler form 'Aspie' and still use it. This forum was originally called 'Aspie Central'.
I didn't like 'Autist' at first but it has grown on me. It reminds me of a position in an orchestra. And it feels like it shifts the meaning in tone from a condition one suffers to an ability one has.. 'Our First Autist today is Ludmila Gorkichenkoskaya...'
I like using Aspie to refer to anyone on the spectrum, but a lot of people don't seem to like that word. But it's just quicker to say.
I hate "spectrumite" because I don't know why but it reminds me of "termite". I prefer "spectrumer".
I hate "spectrumite" because I don't know why but it reminds me of "termite". I prefer "spectrumer".
I've been repeatedly reassured that he wasn't a Nazi.
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