Is asperger necessarily a disability?

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Hi!

I hope that qualifies as a reply.

And, yeah, I often feel left out. More and more, though, I am seeking to be left out. I try to arrange things so my bride does most of the dealing-with-people stuff.

I wonder why people pursue a dx if they truly believe it is not a disability. With diagnoses of Asperger's and schizophrenia/schizoaffective I most definitely see myself as disabled. How much of that disability is down to the Asperger's I wouldn't like to say.

What I do know is that without support I do a lot less well than with support. I've never worked. I have no F2F friends. I'm not homo superior/the next stage in human evolution as some like to claim about themselves.

Why do you assume everyone who knows they're autistic pursued a diagnosis?

I don't consider my mind to be disabled at least as far as autism is concerned.

My mother considered it enough of a hindrance to me within the social setting of a secondary school to pursue a diagnosis. Her. Not me. Only for secondary school too - they tried to get her to get me a diagnosis earlier on and she said 'no, that is my child, that is her personality not a disorder. Her disorder is dyspraxia'. Because being autistic provided little to no problems in primary school.

I have mixed opinions on the medical versus social models of disability. I do not believe that autism is necessarily a disability. However, in current society, it definitely disables you. There's a difference. Society can change and has changed. Something like being paralyzed will always be a disability in my opinion.

I think the hyper social, anti-intellectual, overly sensory saturated world we live in at present is bad for a lot of people. I think an ideal world for most would be a balance between that and the overly formal/stuffy world of the Victorians.

The highly logical thinking and original thinking has its benefits. I think it holds you back though. Interacting with people is massively important and the reason so many aspies are out of work is because interacting with people is important.

Yes it is a reply.

I use my Mum like that.

Even a celebrated savant can be curious about the source of their ability, and all aspies will have some otherwise mysterious gaps in their abilities.

Have noticed some of this in my own situations in life . Many times , whereas will just not bother most times to engage people , especially in person , cause of many of the above issues . After awhile , The point of trying to socialize is lost . And feel better to just leave or if , I think my leaving will be noticed . Will say good bye as I go.
Becomes stressful to wait to see if there is a point to involvement . But nevertheless , have found myself in such positions . Even amongst other Autists . After I go , I try not to focus on it . Cause it merely prolongs poor feelings.
For me . Which then can be additionally draining .

Its a spectrum so some are disabled some are not. Just because your doing fine doesnt mean others are too and vice versa

I prefer the old fashioned un PC word of handicap.

A handicap means a disadvantage in something, which is best used to describe someone on the milder end of aspergers who may have difficulty with something like socialising but be ok at most other things and be able to lead a normal life.

A disability is a severe handicap which sometimes aspergers and definitely autism can be in some individuals.

Those gaps are what makes it a disability, if they're recognizing they exist they're conceding the reality that it is a disability even if they won't consciously admit it.

Aspergers needs to be classified by society as a disability, for the obvious reasons that it puts the individual at disadvantages in society.

Just like blindness needs to be classified by society as a bisability.

That doesnt mean that are not individuals, like musical geniuses (Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder) dont luck out and become millionaires, despite (and also to some degree...because- because the added focus on the talent that results) being blind.Said individuals may not really be "disabled" in life overall. So they may not find it to be a disability. But blindness still needs to be classified as a "disability".

I pursued a diagnosis because I was very curious. Over the decades I increasingly felt I might really be different in some significant way--I would've described it as being sort of like living in the Twilight Zone but I now also like comparing it to living on the Wrong Planet.

It was sheer luck that, at age 64, I received some tidbits of information that vaguely suggested to me that I should look into autism. The more I learned the more I thought it sounded like me. I really did buy champagne on the way home from getting the diagnosis--it explained so much.

Did I have a mild disability while I was younger? I don't know--I was on the inside looking out, I did not know what other people saw when they looked at me.  I  did not think there was anything wrong with me, I thought a lot of other people were the flawed ones. But clearly I was different. Where I am now reflects that I've done OK in life, I look good on paper and my second retirement was at age 56. All things considered, I could not keep a straight face now while trying to convince someone that I was disabled.

I think any "disablility" I have would be strictly a matter of definition. I am different from typical people in ways consistent with Autism Spectrum Disorder-Level 1. Therefore I must be "disabled". Available information indicates that before 2013 I would've been diagnosed as having Asperger's Syndrome. Prior to acquiring a label in 2019, though, I was not disabled, I was just "different" (which would have been the only available diagnosis for me from 1954 until 1994).

Clearly many people are disabled by Autism. I just don't think I am one.

You're assuming that, not me.

Call it what you want. I call it a disability, but it's difficult to use that word in other threads because I get people being pedantic and obliging me to call it a difference instead. Some have even doubled that it's even a disorder, even though ASD stands for autism spectrum disorders.

That is why some Aspies were happy when Aspergers was eliminated from the DSM(Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)

By circumstances, it mattered not whether or not I'm disabled of any severity.


Elsewhere? Maybe. More likely mattered and relevant in some way.
But not here where I came from; it's both a relief for an entirely selfish reason and a frustration for a less selfish reason.

I didnt seek a diagnosis, at least , not this diagnosis. I had depression , and I think my depression had nothing to do with asperger. At least,there was not a clear link. I was in the medicine university , and was studing too much, but my grades werent that great, so I was afraid I wouldnt be able to finish it. So I went to a new psychiatrist. I was taking an antidepressant alread, the old psychiatrist prescribed it to me. But the new psychiatrist diagnosed me with asperger, and changed the antidepressant for a antipsychotic. It was terrible for me. I felt pain all over my body, I threw up all the time, I had diarrhea. .. my father discovered that the medicine was not a antidepressant , and questioned the psychiatrist why she took out an antidepressant and replaced it with a non antidepressant if I was depressed. She said that it was because I was Asperger and had restricted interests. So, my father said she was an idiot and told me to stop using the medicine she prescribed and return to the old antidepressant.

I dont know why she thought my restricted interests were a problem. Maybe she thought my grades werent so great because I was playing pokemon? But I only played pokemon betwen 30 min to 1 hour a day! Its my restricted interest, but Im fully able to control it, its not an obcession! Its just how I spend most of my free time. Many medicine studants have mind health issues because they can only study diseases for a very long time and have no time to do the things they like! While I was in the university, two medicine studants killed themselves.

With the medicine she prescribed, I wasnt able to play pokemon. I also wasnt able to study. I felt terrible, even after 1 week . My father didnt bother telling me that the psychiatrist thought I was an asperger because he thought she was an idiot.

Some years later, I had psychiatry classes on the university. I told my psychiatry professor about that psychiatrist , and how I was depressed , and she replaced an antidepressant for that medicine. My psychiatry professor said it made no sense at all. I talked to my father about her again, and he said she had diagnosed me with asperger. Then, I asked my psychiatry professor if she thought I was asperger, and she said I was not asperger, because I was able to comunicate too well, and if I was asperger, I wouldnt be there in the medicine university talking to her. She also said that it was wrong to prescribe that medicine to an asperger just because of asperger.

I researched about asperger on my own, and read that aspergers could go to university. So, my professor was wrong when she said that I wouldnt be at the university talking to her if I was asperger. I also discovered that I had many asperger traits . So , maybe the psychiatrist wasnt wrong about my asperger diagnosis. She thought she had to stop my restricted interests, she prescribed a medicine that was terrible to me, but this dont make the diagnostic wrong. So, I have been reading articles , wondering if im really asperger/autistic .