Is Asperger's only an umbrella diagnosis?

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it's very probable that Asperger is just a fake disorder.

I still believe in what I wrote ages ago here:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt56043.html

...till a medical (not psychiatric!) research proves me wrong.

I've now made additions to my opening post.

Always good to see you, LPP! I'm going to read your thread, thanks for the link!

Do I have a theory of mind? I never understood the theory of mind.

Well, I recently gave you my own definition of what I understand ToM to be, but I guess everyone understands it differently, as it's not very precisely defined by the experts. Today I saw someone define it as a model that gets intuitively built inside you as a child of what people are like, and then you compare everyone to that model in order to predict their behaviors/feelings/thoughts. Like a standard of what people are like that lets you make somewhat educated guesses at another's likely reaction.

I'm so bad at ToM that I even never knew that people will react in likely ways always.

Alrighty then, as I'm sick of the hypocrisy, I'll just set ya to ignore.
To be clear: I'm rejecting you because you're aggressive, not because you're socially inept. I attempted to operate on the assumption that you didn't know that you were coming off as aggressive, since you act all mystified as to why people think you are. Apparently, though, that was wrong of me.
Byebye!

^^ meh, what do you expect less from a middle-eastern? Aggressiveness is almost the only way to survive there , they're barbarians and animals.

oops,I just insulted myself.

I know what you mean, Greentea. My best friend's ex-girlfriend has AS, and she wasn't socially inept or literal-minded. She had a lot of friends, and sometimes seemed to act like this made her better than us. She was constantly reading between the lines of what I said when there wasn't anything between the lines to read, which resulted in her accusing me of being manipulative, when a lot of the time she was being very manipulative herself. Then she used to "imply" things in a very vague way, and then get mad at me when I didn't get it. She said I was "playing the socially-retarded card" (I told my friend that she'd said this to me, it was likely one of the reasons they broke up in the end). Then after the break-up, I'd got in an argument with her about how she'd treated my friend, and I said she was being illogical, and she said, "Logic, logic, logic. That's all you two ever care about." My friend said to me that he was starting to doubt she even has AS, for a whole plethora of reasons. I hadn't wanted to be the first to say it, because it might have sounded like I was just being a b***h, but hey.

So much for my friend's theory of "I can only date aspies, NT girls are shallow b*****s". I TOLD him this was a stupid generalisation.

Sixth time: STOP THE HARASSMENT, BOTH BY PM AND ON THREADS, MAGGIEDOLL.

gina, I can't say who's an Aspie and who isn't, because as LPP says in his thread, the whole issue of Autism and AS is more of a question mark than of known factors. But one thing I know now is not to assume beforehand that anyone professionally diagnosed with AS or self-diagnosed with AS has my same areas of difficulty and at a similar level of intensity.

Believe I made a similar error in observation as you Greentea. However, I thought I was incorrectly dx with AS because most at WP did not think or behave as I would. My treating psychologist explained the differences. TOM is the culprit in my case, I find it extremely diificult to understand or imagine what someone else has experienced or felt. Unless I have experienced a similar event/occurence I am lost as to their experience or what they have felt. I spoke with a church Pastor the other day(I'm agnostic) about my life's difficulties and how people misunderstand my intentions/behaviour, my unusual obsessive interests. I still cannot comprehend the concept of the 'Devil', an entity of such hate towards all people and his goal to create chaos.

After visiting other AS forums and attending a couple of Aspergers groups I have met others with AS who are similar in personality and different behaviour. Just like the real world there are some bitter and dark personalities among us. Mostly due to their traumatic experiences during adolescence at school.

The comment you made in referrence that some people on the WP forum are against you etc is a common problem I perceive from people. Not sure whether it is a mild form of paranoia or we are overly self conscious. I tend to over-react and read to much into what people say, then over annalyse things to the max where non ASD people would let things go and move on.

The Spectrum
I think we're still early in our understanding of the various aspects of neurodiversity. It started with 'normal' and 'abnormal', and then divided up into specific pathologies based on impairment. Recently, it shifted to a one-dimensional spectrum, that might grade all the way into NT, and certainly grades into the 'no clinical impairment' region. As we learn more, the spectrum will expand to 2 and 3 dimensions, with certain concentrations of patterns, and a lot a variations. The 'co-morbidities' of OCD, ADHD, and Tourettes, for example, will be probability concentrations forming off-shoots from core neurological features.

Neurological Basis
Currently, the definitions are based on psychological testing to establish impairments. There is interesting work being done by the new phrenologists, measuring the size of different parts of the brain, and grey matter vs. white matter, and neurologists are making brain scans that show interesting patterns of hot spots. But the work is very primitive. The closest thing we have to understanding what's really going on are the brain wiring/computer/bandwidth models, and they are analogies.

Cognitive Adaptation
The brain is able to solve a given problem in a variety of ways. Some are more efficient, at least in some circumstances. The NT sensory & social processing is done by an efficient 'magic black box' that thrives on exercise. The aspie cognitive adaptations use rules and reasoning to determine appropriateness. NTs need to develop the cognitive skills also, or they get into trouble by being too reactive. With early intervention many aspie children can learn to socialize effectively with NTs. As aspie awareness increases, NTs are becoming more understanding of the differences, reducing the alienation of aspies.

Theory of Mind
I just discovered the Theory of Mind, and my first reaction was that it was crazy. But it seems to be how NTs think. As I understand it, NTs start with a preconceived model (of a person, say). Then they adjust that model based on information as it comes in, but they always have a sense of how that person is 'as a whole'. It doesn't matter how wrong they are, they feel that they understand the entire picture. Aspies, on the other hand, assume very little, and build the model 'from the ground up' as information comes in, being able to extrapolate or infer once there is sufficient information. With enough information, though, both models are functionally the same.

Duke, I find all that extremely fascinating. But there's one thing I don't understand:

"As I understand it, NTs start with a preconceived model (of a person, say). Then they adjust that model based on information as it comes in, but they always have a sense of how that person is 'as a whole'. It doesn't matter how wrong they are, they feel that they understand the entire picture."

Could you please explain it more in detail? I'm really curious. Do you think they apply something we don't have for this process?

Well IMO oppionion, the aspie way is far more logical (well i guess it would be..) I mean, why decidions about who a person is if you know nothing about them. Thats exactly where prejudices come from. Preconcieved notions of who someone is before they know who they are.

Meny diagnosis are are very broad. I dont like saying I am dyslexic as most people have a idea in their head about what that is and that idea is not usually anything like what I experience. My strengths and weaknesses were measure and a imparment was discoved. That imparement was "indecative" of dyslexia. I think its like that with most disorders and like someone said (cant remember who) its all about what imparements you have and to which catigory that belongs. So there is allways going to be a very big diversity amoungst those diagnosed.

One thing I have noticed about AS is that it is primarily focused on children or young adults in formative stages. It does not give any thought to age, or coping skill learned. I have noticed that the NT world is more than happy to forget you as soon as you have learned enough coping skills to reiterate a few pleasantries back. How's it going? Not bad. What's up? Not much.

I believe that the study of autism is still in formative stages, and quite frankly I am amazed that it is already broken down into five categories. However, the category of PDD-NOS is pretty broad in and of itself. As more research is done I believe we will find more ways to categorize the spectrum. I believe we need to have more focus on adults to truly understand the develpment of AS.

It is unfortunate that these boards do seem to provide a hostile environment from time to time. We seem so worried that one way is right or wrong, or someone may be here incorrectly, that we forget to look beyond this. If we can not question various aspects of AS, who can? We learn through asking questions. I personally envy those who are not living in a sensory hell, but I do not fault them because they are not.