Changing the definition of asperger's syndrome

[Dragon's Tooth]

Asperger's removed from leading health manual

Anyone else a bit upset that its changing. I don't want to walk around saying "I am on the autism spectrum". At least asperger's syndrome meant that people didn't associate you with the extreme negative end straight away and judge you by that. Its going to look super awesome when I go for a job and have to tell them I'm on the spectrum.

I love doctors, they really don't think about anything but themselves.

 

[Pella]

Asperger's removed from leading health manual

Anyone else a bit upset that its changing. I don't want to walk around saying "I am on the autism spectrum". At least asperger's syndrome meant that people didn't associate you with the extreme negative end straight away and judge you by that. Its going to look super awesome when I go for a job and have to tell them I'm on the spectrum.

I love doctors, they really don't think about anything but themselves.

Its about perception. Its gonna be interesting, the negative stereotypes for asperger's syndrome seem to be a bit different from the stereotypes of autism. I haven't heard anyone say autistic people are rude, but I have heard that about asperger's. So its sort of gonna just be a different stigma. And we sort of have to learn about general autism i guess, and how we fit into it, and how we differ from it, and then educate those who need to know. I have a few concerns about it, but it seems sort of complicated.

 

[Arashi222]

Its really about perception. I am a clinical social worker. I have Asperger's. I don't think that this change is going to be a bad thing. I think that we just have to get used to it. We are already considered to be on the Autism Spectrum just on the high end of functioning. I think that the real issue for people with AS is that we felt special and individualized from Autism even though we all know that it is part of the autism spectrum disorders. This does not change who we are as people this does not change what you have to disclose to your workplace or not. It is just a differing way of putting things that belong together together and making it easier for those of us in the field to diagnosis.

 

[Dragon's Tooth]

I think using asperger's syndrome separates us from the extreme end. It is also not as common so people have to stop and ask you about it if you tell them or at the very least think about it differently. Autism just puts on thing in their mind. Don't get me wrong, I think severe autism is the only extreme condition in a child I could actually deal with. It took me a long time to get used to the idea of asperger's syndrome because I was afraid of the stigma of the word autism. So this is going to create a whole new issue for me to deal with just as I was adjusting to finally having being diagnosed with asperger's.

 

[total-recoil]

I think using asperger's syndrome separates us from the extreme end. It is also not as common so people have to stop and ask you about it if you tell them or at the very least think about it differently. Autism just puts on thing in their mind. Don't get me wrong, I think severe autism is the only extreme condition in a child I could actually deal with. It took me a long time to get used to the idea of asperger's syndrome because I was afraid of the stigma of the word autism. So this is going to create a whole new issue for me to deal with just as I was adjusting to finally having being diagnosed with asperger's.

My position is to ignore the new convention even if that may sound a bit arrogant but, then again, I see no logical reason at all to ignore the work of Hans Asperger. Sure, I accept at this stage I do have a kind of autism and have no issue referring to myself as on the autistic spectrum but the particular autism is complex and certainly not quite the same as conventional autism. Aspergers needs special assistance and coping therapy that can really only be offered via trained aspergers consultants and organisations and, besides that, I don't think aspergers will ever go away as a diagnosis.

 

[Bay]

I don't really have a problem with it. I have always felt a little autistic. I don't tell too many people about it anyway. I think it is obvious that I am not profoundly disabled.

 

[smith2267]

It does not bother me. It explains all my little idiosyncracies, like staring at fire and water...now if anyone asks me what I am doing, I can give them a brief answer and get back to it

 

[WildCat]

Only the term is being removed from the DSM - some people forget that even long after that happens that "Asperger's" will still be lingering around, the only catch being you can no longer resort to the DSM-V to explain your condition fully as it's been effectively X'ed out. FWIW (and I'm not throwing a jab at anyone in particular here) there are people out there already diagnosed as Asperger's who proudly refer to themselves as autistic, and vice versa to avoid the common stigma associated with "autism". I don't get it at all really, but whatever.

Matter of fact, even the DSM doesn't get it right sometimes - "autistic" is too complex and broad to be summed up in a handful of criteria, and the DSM-V reflects just that: rather than try to differentiate between half a dozen accepted terms for your disorder depending on your developmental history, they've decided to take a common set of traits and mash them all together into one category of its own: autism spectrum disorder. That's how I refer to myself when speaking of autism...on the autism spectrum. Even though I can legally resort to three different names for my dysfunction, this actually gives it away without revealing too much or raising any assumptions about what I might be as compared to who I really am. Calling it a spectrum should cue people in as to what exactly it is you're talking about: a wide array of behaviors on a scale of severity, and for those who don't pick up on that immediately you shouldn't have to be picking up their slack by explaining all the details.