Don't like Asperger's classed same as low functioning autism.

[Kupu2]

Very true. With the DSM-5 in place in the US, doctors seem reluctant to make a diagnosis. However, if you tell them that you want help and not a diagnosis, the help is forthcoming.

I must be missing something, so sorry for my ignorant questions.

Aren't we being told there is an ASD "epidemic"? Why the hesitancy of US drs to diagnose? Oh, hang on...the drs are acting in self interest by not diagnosing? This politico-economic dilemma?

In The Land Down Under, mate, children under 7 get a package for help. Under 13, there is a limited amount of assistance. After that, we're on our own. It is a Catch 22, as my eldest is discovering. He is not wanting assessment because of the stigma and the lack of freedom to be himself, yet he knows a diagnosis will help others get who he is more readily than him trying to justify himself.

 

[Nitro]

I must be missing something, so sorry for my ignorant questions.

Aren't we being told there is an ASD "epidemic"? Why the hesitancy of US drs to diagnose? Oh, hang on...the drs are acting in self interest by not diagnosing? This politico-economic dilemma?

In The Land Down Under, mate, children under 7 get a package for help. Under 13, there is a limited amount of assistance. After that, we're on our own. It is a Catch 22, as my eldest is discovering. He is not wanting assessment because of the stigma and the lack of freedom to be himself, yet he knows a diagnosis will help others get who he is more readily than him trying to justify himself.

I don't actually think there is an epidemic. I feel that possibly more are being recognized. There is a whole spectrum of issues to be addressed and it is my belief that the insurance companies and the government here don't want to spend their money. You could buy any panel you wanted to have them find what you want to see with the right amount of cash. From what I understand about them,the DSMs in the USA are primarily financial in nature.

How can anyone claim an epidemic of anything when there isn't tangible evidence to begin with.
It's not like you can hand out flashcards with spot the autie on them.
Exactly how many more are out there that didn't get the diagnosis or for that matter didn't require support to begin with,so the point becomes moot.

 

[Warmheart]

We've been here all along. Significant numbers of autistic adults are where we've always been, especially in the one place nobody seems to be looking-- the homeless population.
1.) We once crowded psych hospitals which have almost all now closed.
2.) We often must trust and rely on relatives to live with when we've experienced yet another job loss. Not all relatives are stable. <<---THIS. Add our tendency in both social cluelessness and blunt honesty, abrupt homelessness happens. Homelessness happens far more often to us than is considered.

No epidemic. People are just being diagnosed now. It's on every school's radar, and nobody is paying much attention to the droves of autistic adults as street people, or those crowding the wards of any remaining psych hospitals.

Many who grew up institutionalized are still there, without autistic diagnoses nor supports.

Autistic kids just don't fall through the cracks as we've always done before. Autism is recognized nowadays.

 

[Kupu2]

Thanks, Nitro and Warmheart . My thoughts as well, hence the use of quote marks.

I suppose the difference between the US system of health care and that found in Oz is where my confusion lies in regard to the DSM being politicised. We generally have to source our own private health insurance. But we do have an excellent tax payer funded public health system.

The other thing I've noticed is parental response to the diagnosis of ASD for their child. It differs culturally too. The DSM obviously has no cross cultural undersrandings to help flesh it out, yet it is held as THE go-to by mental health professionals everywhere. Again, there lies another PhD topic...

 

[J Jones]

That's what I find ridiculous, as they say it's the same condition although has many different symptoms. That's like saying any virus which causes a running nose is the same virus.
It's only the USA which doesn't use the official world health organisation version.
Asperger's has different symptoms as there's no speech delay with Asperger's and there's motor clumsiness.
Being given information on low functioning autism which isn't anything like me just makes it all more depressing, as it's difficult to find anything I can relate to.

 

[J Jones]

W00t! Head-banging, speech-device-using, meltdown-prone autistic here. And yes, you most certainly ARE like us: Like pizza? Hate the flu? Guess we aren't so different after all, are we?

Don't tell me what I am just because you wish that was true.

 

[J Jones]

The irony is that we can argue such points among ourselves until hell freezes over.

But step out into the real world and run into the first person you find who is likely to be Neurotypical and not have a clue as to the difference between Neurotypical and Neurodiverse, let alone distinctions made by the DSM-IV and DSM-V.

With so much societal stigmatization about neurology and mental health in general, whatever you choose to label your neurological profile isn't likely to be looked upon fairly by much of anyone.

Thus a "need-to-know" basis for telling much of anyone remains in play for most of us.

I have been to autism social groups where I feel out of place and have more in common with what they call NTs, as some of the low functioning people seem to have completely different symptoms. Some of them just seem to have brain damage, as one said she was starved of oxygen as a baby, yet it's all grouped as autism for some reason. I met a couple of people who would only be classed as Asperger's as they're literal, formal and clumsy, like the original Asperger's description of little professors, and I only feel a connection to them. I feel a connection to the Hans Asperger description.

 

[the_tortoise]

That's what I find ridiculous, as they say it's the same condition although has many different symptoms. That's like saying any virus which causes a running nose is the same virus.

I think it's more like how when you have a runny nose caused by a virus, you are usually said to have a "cold" or "cold virus". Nobody claims that "cold" or "cold virus" always means a single specific virus or even that all colds have the exact same collection of symptoms and severity of symptoms.

All colds must have at least some of a certain set of specific symptoms and meet certain criteria (e.g. be caused by a virus) to be considered colds, just like with autism. Some colds are severe, some are not. Some colds have all possible symptoms, some have only one or two. All are considered "colds".

Being given information on low functioning autism which isn't anything like me just makes it all more depressing, as it's difficult to find anything I can relate to.

Are you looking for information on the internet or in library catalogues? If so, you could try using only boolean searches -- search for only specific phrases like "Asperger's" and exclude phrases like "low functioning autism" or "severe autism".

If you do that, you might find less information about autistic people and autistic symptoms you can't relate to; However, you would likely also miss out on a lot of good information that you could relate to. (Not only because, as others have pointed out, people can be both "high functioning" and "low functioning" at the same time in different areas; But also because books, articles and blogs about prototypical/stereotypical Asperger's often talk about, or at least mention, all different kinds of autism.)

Personally, I wonder if the level of similarity you are seeking might be slightly unrealistic. If you are hoping for similarities in a sort of "total package" (like all your difficulties and abilities and quirks and whatever else have to match up, absolutely no exceptions for anything you would consider a "low functioning" behavior or difficulty, whether past or present) you're going to be disappointed a lot even when it comes to meeting other people who share the specific diagnosis of Asperger's.

 

[Mr Allen]

We Americans are shallow compared to many other peoples. Here, it's all about what you can see.

You Americans voted for Donald Trump last week! Go figure!

 

[Judge]

You Americans voted for Donald Trump last week! Go figure!

You'd be surprised how many people are comparing our election to your Brexit.

Go figure.

Two nations that wanted change. Be careful what you wish for.

 

[toothless]

i am LFA with mild intellectual disability and can still relate to HFAs in different ways plus have had a mate who is severe HFA-she was a support worker of mine and we were similar in lots of ways,its your issue if you find us to awfully behaviored to relate to and i only hope you gain some experience with us to see we are just the same as you but on different levels,i celebrate my autism like any HFA why should i see my life as a misery and HFA as something to be adored?

having intellectual disability doesnt mean we lack same opinions or interests,i might have less complex thinking and get overloaded by information easily but i like to tinker with computers and ive also started making videos of myself to help people understand so called lower functioning autism now i finally have workable speech.
perhaps ill make a video for AC when i clear the crap off my phone,so aspies can see what the other side is like.
autism is like linux,youve got the same kernel that powers it and so many different flavours.

 

[artfull dodger]

I fit Dr Asperger's defination to the letter on most days, then I have an "off" day where I am much lower functioning and can barely make it thru the work day. But I think everybody has those, even NT's. I scorred very high on the IQ tests as a child(long before AS was a dx in the USA) but yet did poorly with math. But when it comes to trains, the Titanic or old lawn mowers I am that little professor. When I took my morse code test in my early teens to get my Amateur Radio license, I used Titanic's initial distress call as my message I sent to the testing proctor. Took him a min to figure out what I sent him, I just said "Titanic", and he smilled. Who else would do that except an Aspie? I moved on from that obsession to others. We all fit under that big umbrella of ASD, with a touch of this and a bit of that. I compare that umbrella to a food buffet, not everybody fills thier plate the same way.

 

[Southern Discomfort]

As far as I'm concerned I see people with the diagnosis with Asperger's syndrome as the community within the autism spectrum who have been cherry picked and put into their own category. We deal with most of the same problems as the rest only just not as affected as others.

In my mind this works as a two way street, if you are diagnosed with Asperger's and you don't like being put into the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Condition then you can't call you're autistic either.

You have levels which still separate you from those with more complex needs, that's pretty good. Besides, Asperger's syndrome isn't going to go away in the community any time soon just because the diagnostic books are changing the words they use to define it, people know the term now, it's out there, that's not going away over night.

 

[Mr Allen]

You'd be surprised how many people are comparing our election to your Brexit.

Go figure.

Two nations that wanted change. Be careful what you wish for.

Yeah there are similarities, you elected a racist, and IMO the whole Brexit vote was about racists moaning about immigrants.

 

[Judge]

Yeah there are similarities, you elected a racist, and IMO the whole Brexit vote was about racists moaning about immigrants.

Actually there seems to be xenophobic anti-immigrant sentiments popping up all over Europe, apart from Britain or the US. Even Germany's Angela Merkel appears to be losing control over this issue.

http://www.spiegel.de/international...ng-of-refugee-crisis-by-merkel-a-1056315.html

 

[AGXStarseed]

Yeah there are similarities, you elected a racist, and IMO the whole Brexit vote was about racists moaning about immigrants.

I wouldn't stereotype all Brexiteers as racist. For starters, I voted for Brexit and my brother-in-law (who is a great guy and whom I have a good friendship with) is a Muslim.

 

[Nitro]

Yeah there are similarities, you elected a racist, and IMO the whole Brexit vote was about racists moaning about immigrants.

Yeah,you are probably right,it had nothing to do with wanting political change on either side of the pond...
So all in all,low functioning autistics and Asperger's getting classified the same was a product of racially driven political changes...Am I understanding this properly?

 

[clg114]

Yeah,you are probably right,it had nothing to do with wanting political change on either side of the pond...
So all in all,low functioning autistics and Asperger's getting classified the same was a product of racially driven political changes...Am I understanding this properly?

I think it is a product of financially driven political change.

 

[Mary Anne]

I don't like how the USA are trying to get everybody to think that low functioning autism and Asperger's syndrome are all the same thing.
I know they say it's a spectrum, but that's like saying headache is a spectrum. Headache from an accident, brain tumour, stroke or tension are a spectrum, but they aren't the same thing. A cold and flu have similar symptoms but they aren't the same thing.
I'm nothing like those people who can't speak, have a low mental ability and go into rages banging their head and everything.
How can the people who need to wear a helmet from self harm be the same as others they say have Asperger's like Einstein or Bill Gates? It isn't the same thing and there are more differences than similarities.

Headaches DO come in a spectrum - slight, mild, bad, and migraine. Even migraines have varieties.

As for the big desicion to put the two together, there was a highly educated DSM 5 board that decided that. It’s still being debated. There is, a lot of online info about this decision.

“When Asperger’s and autism were considered separate disorders under the DSM-IV, the symptoms for Asperger’s Disorder were the same as those listed for autism; however, children with Asperger’s do not have delays in the area of communication and language. In fact, to be diagnosed with Asperger’s, a child must have normal language development as well as normal intelligence. The DSM-IV criteria for Asperger’s specified that the individual must have “severe and sustained impairment in social interaction, and the development of restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests and activities that must cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning.“

 

[Mary Anne]

I think it is a product of financially driven political change.

How so? I am curious why you think this.