AS/HFA Confusion

Post Reply New Topic

Zyborg would probably lobotomize somebody just because it seemed fun...

or because it would give him a feeling of power.

I've heard that lobotomies aren't all that bad if you're suffering from malignant and drug refractory anxiety/OCD. It doesn't make you a drooling zombie, it just removes a lot of the [unneeded] fear. Today, they have better surgery for such, but it operates on the same principle, i.e., to remove malignant anxiety.

Nowadays, they prescribe drugs for such as the first line of treatment [in addition to CBT]. None of which makes people into drooling zombies (unless you take too much for your body, but then, too much of anything is bad).

I can assure you...

I can assure you, if you don't put that ice pick away and stop this stupid nonsense, the medical board will give you such a pranging, you'll be lucky if you end up wearing the uniform of a bloody toilet attendant! -Modified Strangelove Quote

No lobotomies! Anything that reduces functioning in any way will only make things worse, if the problem is that there are areas in which functionality isn't high enough!

I'm gonna lobotomize Zyborg! *runs after him with icepick*

It's rare that I attack another ASer, but that post pissed me off.

Taking off half people's frontal lobes was always a stupid idea, and we don't do it anymore except when they've got a brain tumor there that can't be got rid of any other way.

Psychosurgery, though, still exists. It's a very rare occurrence that anybody gets psychosurgery, though, and almost never without consent from the actual patient. They tend to be extreme cases--cases for which everything else has been tried. And it doesn't have a huge success rate, either. It always causes some sort of brain damage... the question tends to be: Is the brain damage worse than the disorder; and worth the chance of having both the brain damage and the disorder afterward.

Heh. Yes. And once the HFA guy learns language, or if the Aspie guy is still clumsy with language, they can be pretty much identical.

Autism categories are annoying.

Taking the DSM literally word by word is about as helpful as taking the Bible literally word by word.

It just causes you to miss the point of whatever useful stuff might be lurking in there.

Personally I don't think they'll ever get the vocabulary right about autism until they start to refer to it as autistic spectrum ORDER instead. I'm not being cute, I'm very serious.

[The following is from Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM IV]

(I) A total of six (or more) items from (A), (B), and (C), with at least two from (A), and one each from (B) and (C)

(A) qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:
1. marked impairments in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body posture, and gestures to regulate social interaction
2. failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
3. a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people, (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest to other people)
4. lack of social or emotional reciprocity ( note: in the description, it gives the following as examples: not actively participating in simple social play or games, preferring solitary activities, or involving others in activities only as tools or "mechanical" aids )
(B) qualitative impairments in communication as manifested by at least one of the following:
1. delay in, or total lack of, the development of spoken language (not accompanied by an attempt to compensate through alternative modes of communication such as gesture or mime)
2. in individuals with adequate speech, marked impairment in the ability to initiate or sustain a conversation with others
3. stereotyped and repetitive use of language or idiosyncratic language
4. lack of varied, spontaneous make-believe play or social imitative play appropriate to developmental level
(C) restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests and activities, as manifested by at least two of the following:
1. encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus
2. apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals
3. stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements)
4. persistent preoccupation with parts of objects

(II) Delays or abnormal functioning in at least one of the following areas, with onset prior to age 3 years:

(A) social interaction
(B) language as used in social communication
(C) symbolic or imaginative play

(III) The disturbance is not better accounted for by Rett's Disorder or Childhood Disintegrative Disorder



I have (A) 1,2,3,and perhaps 4.
(B)2
(C)1,2
(ll)b

I know the last one from seeing that I would not look at my parents even when they called me unless me mother called my name over and over. And sometimes that wouldn't work.

I was told, speech and language are first two different things. Someone with language problems would be like someone who doesn't know the words yet (like someone who speaks a different language or a newborn baby perhaps). Someone with a speech problem knows the words but cannot make out the sounds. With that said...

Aspergers is one thing with it's own diagnostic criteria. PDD-NOS is a lump it all category for those that don't totally fit within the diagnostic criteria of something else in the autistic spectrum. For instance, a person who is totally Aspergers except that they are 2 and not talking right yet would be lumped in PDD NOS because of the speech delay; however, if they develop their speech in let's say one year, then their diagnosis would change to Aspergers because they don't have the speech problems. See, I got confused because I thought that the speech delay meant in history, not current, but it makes sense to me since many people with autism never fully develop their speech. But that's according to one psychologist, and I'm curious how accurate that really is. I still think, like i told her, that things like "lacks imagination" meant exactly that, and when shrinks started to notice that many people on the autistic spectrum do have a very active imagination, instead of admitting they were wrong, they decided to be like, "Well we meant social imagination." That's like your 15 year old saying, "I was at the library," and when you say, it closed three hours ago, then they say, "I meant the bookstore." I think a lot of that is going on in the autism diagnostic world.

I do think that AS was supposed to be an HFA. I read that the only reason why they separated it from autism was because many genetic scientists or whatever you call them believe that it might be a different gene that causes Aspergers as opposed to the one that causes Autism. So just in case, it would make it easier in the future if they were already separated. Kinda like how they had blank spots on the chemical element table.