Trying to understand here: Asperger's or HFA?

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Going by TPE2's chart, it seems I was underdiagnosed. I thought so. I always felt my social ineptness as too severe to qualify as typical Asperger's. Even if I were to offically get an HFA diagnosis, I doubt it's gonna change the way my family treats my issues anyhow.

The more I think about, the more I kind of like the melding of ASDs in dsm-v because I truly don't see a difference between high-functioning autism and aspergers. Yes I know the language thing, but the autism criteria includes a lack of communication in an area other than verbal communication as qualifying for the diagnosis. I am diagnosed with aspergers, but I also qualify for the autism diagnosis (I spoke after age 2 1/2, but still lacked some communication listed under the criteria). I have aspergers, and I refer to myself as autistic.

I see little difference between autism (forget the HF) and AS.

A person who is considered LFA may still have more in common with a person diagnosed with AS, than either of them may have with someone else within their own diagnoses. That's why I refuse to just say "HFA and AS are similar". Autistic people are similar, and different, both within and across the current categories, and that is why I don't like the LFA/HFA/AS/etc. divides. Not because there are no differences but because those words don't account for the differences at all (or highlight specific differences that may not be the most important ones).

I have the impression that, in practice, the order of the diagnosis is made in the opposite way - you only receive a diagnosis of autism if you not match the criteria for AS (instead of, like is defined in the DSM, you only being diagnosed with AS if you don't march the criteria for autism).

To complicate even more, in some countries (I think that is the case of mine) the diagnosis of AS is made using the Gillberg criteria or criteria derived from that. And, according to these criteria, a speech delay not only is allowed, but is one of the possible symptoms of AS (the main specialist of AS in my country published a book one or 2 years ago saying, between other things, that a speech delay is the most important symptom of AS).

Then , even people that in US will be considered HFA, in other countries can be considered AS.

No difference between HFA and Aspergers...its the same exact thing...Aspergers is just another name for high functioning autism, though Autism itself is a spectrum if you say Aspergers and Autism is the same thing than you are wrong...Aspergers/HFA is just a subgroup within the larger category of Autism.