Jaywalker
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
No.I disagree. If I were a psychologist and you came to me for help and I did believe you to have AS because of lack of eye contact, unable to recognize facial expressions, hard time making friends, etc., the thing would be that there is no pill I can use to help that except for maybe "talk". Now then I would see if you also have anxiety and/or depression and I can give anxiety meds and an antidepressant for that. There is not way for me to treat your lack of eye contact, being able to recognize facial expressions or help you make friends. Therefore as a diagnosis I would put you under Anxiety and/or Depression so that it's covered insurance wise. As I recall, there really isn't any good way to diagnose adults as having AS, is there? So if you are labeled under the anxiety or depression diagnosis that is what you will be counted as - not AS. That's why I believe a lot of adults are going misdiagnosed. I also believe that is why they have grouped everyone together under "Autism" which I also believe is going to make it harder to diagnose quite a few Aspies as Aspergers and will throw them over into another category like Anxiety or Depression so they can be covered with certain benefits. I see no other reason to have not left things the way they were other than to decrease costs and cut certain people out of benefits.
Another thing that troubles me is that having to tell an employer you have "Autism" rather than AS sounds even more disabling and I worry that Aspies won't be able to get decent jobs. Just like that paper I had to sign at work - Autism was one of the "disabilities" listed and they kept saying that they won't use this info against you if you disclose the information, but I don't believe that for two seconds. Employers are going to hire people with the least disabilities that they can.
Psychologists cannot prescribe drugs. If we continue to assume (probably incorrectly) that the psychologist is looking out for his/her own financial interests instead of the patient's, then an ASD diagnosis is much more likely, simply because the psychologist can more often participate in the treatment. Heck, it's also more likely even if the psychologist puts the patient's interests first, especially if AS is as prevalent as you hypothesize.
I agree that autism tends to sound worse than Asperger's, and posted as such. However, that is a consequence of an uneducated society. Perpetuating that ignorance by manufacturing an artificial difference is not helpful.