Why do people have mild in quotes?

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Every time people say mild Asperger's, they always have the word mild in quotes or both words in quotes but when they say severe Asperger's or moderate Asperger's, they don't have it in quotes so why mild?

This has always confused me. And I have also noticed when people say mild autism, they sometimes have mild in quotes. Why?

It might be that they do not agree with their doctor's dx? If the dr. said they are 'mild' but they feel they may be more severly affected, the quotes might just be a way of quoting the actual words while they disagree with it personally. If they own the label, whatever it is, usually it is left out of quotes. That's my theory.

I really don't know, it's as if they think saying mild is in some way untrue. Which I think is strange, I thought we wanted a more diverse diagnosis than general Aspergers. Given that it's been about around 60 years now, and is still just.. Aspergers. With a mild and a moderate casually thrown about here and there.

Draelynn's right in my case for sure. I was diagnosed with "borderline" Asperger's. If it's so borderline why can't I function.

Ah that makes sense. I once reading my learning disabilities were "severe." And one time on here someone made a poll asking how severe your AS is and I didn't read the OP so I voted mild but when I read the post I realized I should have voted "moderate" because of how the OP had the severity of AS rated even though I didn't agree with it.

The severity is pretty subjective on several levels.

There is a trend to measure severity or mildness of AS and generally ASD on the capacity on the AS to integrate in a "useful" role in this society. I hope that the use of quotation marks here is some kind of answer.

Agree with above, the doc never gave me a specific severity label, only that my anxiety was severe.

the DMS V measures severity like this:

Severity Level for ASD

Level 3
‘Requiring very substantial support’
Severe deficits in verbal and nonverbal social communication skills cause severe impairments in functioning; very limited initiation of social interactions and minimal response to social overtures from others.
Preoccupations, fixated rituals and/or repetitive behaviors markedly interfere with functioning in all spheres. Marked distress when rituals or routines are interrupted; very difficult to redirect from fixated interest or returns to it quickly.

Level 2
‘Requiring substantial support’
Marked deficits in verbal and nonverbal social communication skills; social impairments apparent even with supports in place; limited initiation of social interactions and reduced or abnormal response to social overtures from others.
RRBs and/or preoccupations or fixated interests appear frequently enough to be obvious to the casual observer and interfere with functioning in a variety of contexts. Distress or frustration is apparent when RRB’s are interrupted; difficult to redirect from fixated interest.

Level 1
‘Requiring support’
Without supports in place, deficits in social communication cause noticeable impairments. Has difficulty initiating social interactions and demonstrates clear examples of atypical or unsuccessful responses to social overtures of others. May appear to have decreased interest in social interactions.
Rituals and repetitive behaviors (RRB’s) cause significant interference with functioning in one or more contexts. Resists attempts by others to interrupt RRB’s or to be redirected from fixated interest.

Or maybe it is because there is no diagnosis called mild Aspergers. Mild is just an adjective people/family/doctors use to speak of how severely the symptoms have manifested themselves, but there is no real diagnosis called Mild Aspergers.

I have "mild" NT, but I rarely use the mild part!

Quotation marks indicate that you're quoting something someone else said.

Often people use quotation marks to specifically indicate that something was said by someone else because the person quoting doesn't agree with what they're putting in the quotation marks.

I don't understand it, either.

I agree with this assessment. My diagnosis just says "Asperger's Disorder." Degree of severity is not mentioned anywhere. The evaluating psychologist, however, said that I have a mild case and was borderline, likely due to my being able to adapt over time. She said if I had been assessed when I was younger it might have presented more severely.

I don't put "mild" in quotes, so I dunno

What do you mean by mild NT? Do you have lot of aspie traits or quirks you don't quite fit in with NTs?