is it just me or is there alot of people from UK on here??

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Can i be british?

I doubt the amount of us on here is because of our countries having a larger than average amount of Autistics,
I think it might have something to do with the increasing amount of home internet connections,especially broadband as it's got cheaper.
And also,the better ASD knowledge and resources available today.

Have a dual nationality..but Britain as a label is a pile of overrated crap anyway,the individual country names [England,Ireland,Scotland,Wales] gives better identity and less association with royality.

I'm Lancastrian first!

Probably because the UK has had the people leading the way in getting aspergers recognised as a diagnosis.

We have Lorna Wing, Uta Frith, Professor Patricia Howlin, Luke Beardon, Professor Simon-Baron Cohen, Wendy Lawson and the Kitchen sink

Lorna Wing pretty much got the whole ball rolling by translating the work of Hans Asperger to English in the early 80's then towards the end of the Decade began to promote the concept of high functioning autism being Aspergers syndrome. I have an article in which she looks back over the last ten years since aspergers became an official diagnosis from my nursing journals called "re-examining opening pandora's box" if anyone wants me to copy n paste it (up to moderators to consider copyright issues)

Plus I would also say we have a differnt outlook in our health care provision towards people on the spectrum, for a start we seperate it from learning disability (or as you yanks stil like to call it, mental retardation) and this attitude and ideological differance is probably why there are more uk aspies.

Put it this way, I have yet to meet a person diagnosed outside the UK who was diagnosed around the time I was. Infact I would be quite confident to say I have been diagnosed aspergers longer then the majority of the this message boards entire membership.

Bit like saying your Americain really.

Funny though when people ask me if im british when abroad I always correct them and say no english

Further to that, we have the NHS which is free, so people can ask to be referred to specialists without having to worry about paying for it. I think.

Maybe, I was very lucky to get a diagnosis as the person who referred to me the person who eventually diagnosed me was a locum.

Commiserations on living in Bedfordshire BTW thats cousin f****n country that place

Is it? I rather like it here actually - we're surrounded by fields, and the motorway noise is rather comforting. I'd prefer to live here than in a town any day.

Blimey your better off in the countryside in Bedfordshire then the towns. Crickey Bedford, Luton, Dunstable, Biggleswade....well actually Biggleswade would be quite nice if it wasn't full of lazy layabouts plus thats where my dentist is based.

I come from Letchworth Garden City so I can hardly talk

Yes, I’m from the old country: One of the older parts of the old country, in fact. Namely the Duchy of Cornwall. And in that sentiment…

HURRAH! HURRAH FOR CORNISH INDEPENDENCE! (Wields a pasty in one hand and the flag of St Piran in the other) Fishermen, tin-miners and pirates unite! Hurrah for the (Max sees no Cornishmen are joining him)… Er, hurrah for... Um.

Oh.

Good pasties

Is that Cornish independence movement a big thing down there then? It strikes me as being ever so slightly bonkers - even more so than the Scottish and the Welsh wanting indepenence, I guess...

Devolution equals democracy. Devolving decision making to local communities, let alone countries is preferable for developing local economies and for tackling local issues with local knowledge and expertise. There's an argument that local interests should be outweighed by national interests but that's short-sighted and flawed because clinging to centralisation means the central, focal points of a country/union of countries get a surplus of benefits. When local interests are sidelined, regional neglect and the decline of democracy follow; centralisation gags the voice of the majority of people who aren't living in the central hot spots (e.g. London in England, and England in the UK). UK A.K.A the British Empire A.K.A Great Britain is the remains of a bitterly fermented and defiantly-wading-on-though-sinking-in-the-mire empire. Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have nothing to lose by separating from the union nor by being given complete power over regional affairs for that matter. If by separating from England, either of the other British countries caused the country to lose much of its economic super-power it wouldn't be to their loss - they gain little from England's success. Why not have Cornwall break from the UK too? They have more sense than Whitehall to make decisions. Common sense is an all-too-rare jewel amongst the treasure chest of the Houses of Parliament but is available in spades in the much-pilloried south-west of England. There should be a referendum. Their leadership might inspire the rest of us.

MurderMile impresses me with the weight of his intellect and the truth and detail of his answer. There is indeed a dangerous and undemocratic high political movement in the UK towards removing local power – even more! – and replacing it with regional power. Centralisation is one way to destroy democracy, and that is exactly what the stagnant, fetid government of this country wants, and works towards as we speak. And when I say stagnant, please understand that I’m not confining my views to Labour. There is not much beyond an inch of give or take between the two major political parties in this country – their differences are now confined to little more than whether the Whitehall corridors should be painted green or white.

This will be totally off topic, but oh well...
In the US, learning disability means to have something like dylexia. By defination, one can not be learning disabled and mentally ret*d. Mentally ret*d does not have the negative connentaion it seems to in the UK. It is simply a statement of IQ. The US seems to be moving towards "Specific Learning Disability" for things like dylexia and "Globe Learning Disability"
in place of mentally ret*d.

You sure? I remember my playground days of about fifteen years ago when ret*d was used as an insult: "You're ret*d!" Anyway, until I learned more about Asperger's syndrome, I basically knew it was considered to be a form of autism, and all I knew about autism then was that it was a subtype of the category retardation, along with Down's syndrome and rarer genetic diseases or chromosomal mutations. I really didn't want to know more and was not happy to be labeled ret*d, especially when the one thing I had always been known for was being smart.