Asperger's change in the 5th Edition DSM?

[Neonatal RRT]

I know this thread goes back to 2010. Wow! Looking at some of the responses back in the day, it was even more controversial than it is today.

Personally, I was diagnosed with an ASD-1, but when I looked at the fine print, the ICD-10 code referred to Asperger's condition. Evidently, the DSM-5 and the ICD-10 coding system hadn't merged at the time of my diagnosis. Regardless, with respect to my personal situation, as I dug deeply into the literature, I found that there were quite a few things that I had, even with blood tests, behaviors, intellectually, etc. that were consistent with "autism classic", albeit without the severity of someone with profound intellectual disabilities. As such, much like the term "autism spectrum" implies, certain aspects, with varying intensity, but not all, cross over between Aspergers and classic autism. I often recognize autistic individuals in public. I may not behave exactly like they do, but I recognize the all-too-familiar symptoms in myself.

I am not one to get hung up on labels and terminology, and I am in the medical field, a world where everything has specific meanings. I know that many conditions will run a spectrum. It makes prognosis difficult. Not everyone with condition "X" will present the same way and have the same outcomes. So, the same holds true with this whole topic of the autism spectrum.

At this point, I use "autism", "autism spectrum", "Asperger's condition", and "ASD-1", interchangeably knowing that sometimes (1) it's not easy to tease out the finer details, (2) there can be a lot of similar symptoms. and (3) the underlying genetics/epigenetics, neuro-anatomy, and neuro-physiology are likely congruent with each other, but will vary in presentation. Frankly, it doesn't matter to me because the relevance of it in my life is non-existent. Within this community, I don't really care.

I am thinking that it's the non-autistics, the so-called neurotypicals, that can be ignorant, and this is more the issue. I think some of us get a bit apprehensive around certain labels because they are concerned about how ignorant people will interpret that label and subsequently treat us differently.

 

[Jonn]

I know this thread goes back to 2010. Wow! Looking at some of the responses back in the day, it was even more controversial than it is today.

I created a new thread, but it was added to this one.

 

[Misty Avich]

I am thinking that it's the non-autistics, the so-called neurotypicals, that can be ignorant, and this is more the issue. I think some of us get a bit apprehensive around certain labels because they are concerned about how ignorant people will interpret that label and subsequently treat us differently.

I'm more likely to be misled by just being labelled as autistic than Asperger's. Usually when there's only one name for a whole broad spectrum like autism, it can become a one size fits all thing. Like if my medical records hadn't said Asperger's, I probably would have been one of the first to get the covid vaccine, as autistic people were somehow in the high priority group like we're all physically frail or something.
I'm so glad I was treated like the rest of my same-age NT peers. I do hate being special when I'm not physically disabled or ill.

 

[Jonn]

I am not one to get hung up on labels and terminology,

Spoiler: joke

Right!
Your credibility has been demoted to:
Sub par.
You are now on probation.
Plz pick up your game, if you wish to be reinstated as a respected member of the autistic community.

and I am in the medical field, a world where everything has specific meanings. I know that many conditions will run a spectrum. It makes prognosis difficult. Not everyone with condition "X" will present the same way and have the same outcomes. So, the same holds true with this whole topic of the autism spectrum.

At this point, I use "autism", "autism spectrum", "Asperger's condition", and "ASD-1", interchangeably knowing that sometimes (1) it's not easy to tease out the finer details, (2) there can be a lot of similar symptoms. and (3) the underlying genetics/epigenetics, neuro-anatomy, and neuro-physiology are likely congruent with each other, but will vary in presentation. Frankly, it doesn't matter to me because the relevance of it in my life is non-existent. Within this community, I don't really care.

I need divisions of the autism concept, in part, so as to make it less burdensome when discussing observations I have made over half a lifetime.
It becomes tedious when I have to add qualifiers ALL THE TIME to avoid being accused of generalising.
(I am so tired of the "if you meet one autistic person" retort. <sigh>)
Tending this, tending that can become very monotonous, but if I don't, some ppl miss my point.

A lot of what I have observed regarding autism is relevant mainly to those who are high-functioning.
When I expressed these observations on another website, I was unfairly accused of being an ableist, and an elitist.
Clearly, they had a different mindset to my own.
While I was searching for the Truth, they were finding any opportunity to be offended.

I am thinking that it's the non-autistics, the so-called neurotypicals, that can be ignorant, and this is more the issue. I think some of us get a bit apprehensive around certain labels because they are concerned about how ignorant people will interpret that label and subsequently treat us differently.

At a funeral, I mentioned I was autistic.
The person thought I was making a personal putdown due to grief.
A sign of the ignorance out there.
I found that interesting.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I'm more likely to be misled by just being labelled as autistic than Asperger's. Usually when there's only one name for a whole broad spectrum like autism, it can become a one size fits all thing. Like if my medical records hadn't said Asperger's, I probably would have been one of the first to get the covid vaccine, as autistic people were somehow in the high priority group like we're all physically frail or something.
I'm so glad I was treated like the rest of my same-age NT peers. I do hate being special when I'm not physically disabled or ill.

I did my own research on covid Even started a thread on here. Then got vaccinated three times. Now know I'm very prone to getting it, also very resistant to it.

 

[Misty Avich]

I once said to my partner "what if I'm autistic?" in a half-jokey sort of way, and he laughed and said "course you're not!" in the same sort of tone you'd say if someone had said they're a sunflower or something. So being so I've been with my partner for 10 and a half years and been living with him for 7 years and we have an excellent strong bond and everything, he still couldn't figure out I have AS in a million years.
ADHD is different though lol. When I was first diagnosed with ADHD, I told him and he asked what it was.
This was the conversation:-

Me: I have ADHD
Him: What's that when it's home?
Me: Attention Deficit...
Him: Oh, yes, that's you
Me: ...Hyperactivity Disorder
Him: OH DEFINITELY you!! And you only just got diagnosed with that in your 30s???
Me: Yep, it also means I'm disorganised...
Him, (looks around the cluttered untidy apartment): Spot on!


He doesn't see me in a different light just because I have been diagnosed with ADHD, and I know it'd be the same if I outed about my diagnosis of Asperger's, but it's not always what other people are going to say, it's how I feel. A bit like when my mum was alive she hated her name, even though it wasn't an unusual name or anything, and she'd cringe whenever her name was called out in the doctor surgery (she used a nickname that everyone called her but they used her real name in places like doctor surgeries), and when I said that a lot of people waiting in the doctor surgery might like her name she said "that's not the point, it's how I feel." And I knew what she meant.
While we do want other people to see us in the way we prefer, it's still not necessarily about other people's reactions to a diagnosis or having the name you hate. It's how you feel about it inside and how it has impacted on your self-esteem based on your own unique experiences with it.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

A lot of what I have observed regarding autism is relevant mainly to those who are high functioning.
When I expressed these observations on another website, I was unfairly accused of being an ableist, and an elitist.
Clearly, they had a different mindset to my own.
While I was searching for the Truth, they were finding any opportunity to be offended.

Yeah, from time to time, you just accidently run into these people. Some people live in these social bubbles where, all I can imagine is that they sit around and talk about other people as if they somehow have the moral high ground, but what it comes off is simply being a total "butt-muncher". No grace is given to those who are not in their "little club". Use the "wrong words" and they come off angry, but deep down just get pure joy from running you down with words they learned on Reddit or their community college sociology class like "elitist", "ableist", and "pseudo-science". It's bullying 101 for overly sensitive little pricks. A type of sociopathy. They make the world a rotten place.

 

[Jonn]

Yeah, from time to time, you just accidently run into these people. Some people live in these social bubbles where, all I can imagine is that they sit around and talk about other people as if they somehow have the moral high ground, but what it comes off is simply being a total "butt-muncher".

The place was dominated by groupthinkers, since most others were hounded off the website.
Their aim was to create an echo-chamber, and they pretty much achieved their goal.

I was so naive about autism, 13 years ago.
I assumed that Truth-seeking was ubiquitous in the autistic community.
I am more enlightened, these days.

No grace is given to those who are not in their "little club". Use the "wrong words" and they come off angry, but deep down just get pure joy from running you down with words they learned on Reddit or their community college sociology class like "elitist", "ableist", and "pseudo-science". It's bullying 101 for overly sensitive little pricks. A type of sociopathy. They make the world a rotten place.

Agreed.
Virtue-signalling is endemic in society.
Having been a victim all my life of sanctimonious, self-righteous, philistines, I give ppl like that short shrift with a vengeance.