Is Aspergers a disorder or is it simply a difference

Post Reply New Topic

Is left-handedness a disorder or being gay? Those were thought to be disorders at one point in time.

it's a difference, because it doesnt inflict so much pain and suffering on the person who has it, like victims of mania depression or schizophrenia. i dont feel like a victim. yes, the syndrome caused me some problems, but not such horrible ones that makes my life a nightmare.
my ocd, though, that is caused by the syndrome, is a disorder, because it bothers me and interfers with my life.
the syndrome makes us more intelligent and when i was young, i enjoyed my hyperactivity and it helped with the fast food jobs i had. i was the best worker and actually enjoyed the work. and i interact with animals better than most people. it has it upsides and it downsides.
being gay can cause some suffering sometimes, if one has parents who wont accept him, or he wont accept himself. but it shouldnt be that painful for most people, so it's just a difference. gay people or left handed people can lead a happy and calm lives. so can aspies.
well, happy, at least. dont know about calm. i dont think we're calm people...

Aspergers isn't the same for everyone. Some can have quite serious issues as a result of it. Does this make it still a difference?

Same for me. It causes me a lot of issues in every-day life, though not as much troubles as schizofrenia or bipolarism can cause to a person. But if it's considered a mental disorder, this means it must have a negative impact on your life.

Both I would say. It's a disorder for those who are severely effected with it. With the milder cases it's more of a difference and they make it a disorder for them because of the way society is and what is required. Anything out of the norm is seen as an impairment and disorder. But I can say the same about lot of people too. Things they do that are annoying and I can't stand. My mom for example who has to read before going to sleep to relax her brain and wind it down. But yet stay at a hotel, the light bothers me because I like it off when I go to sleep and she is up reading. An impairment she has because she can't put the darn book down on that trip or go to the bathroom to read so I have to put blankets over my head to block out the light. But yet when I turn the TV on when everyone is still sleeping, oh no I am so selfish and everyone is trying to sleep and I am only thinking of myself. Same as mom having to come up twice to my bedroom and yell at me because I am still up with my son and she and dad are trying to sleep and they can hear us through the vent. I can just tell them to wear eat plugs just like I keep covers over my head when we stayed at hotels because she had to read.

When you have the autism label, you're always wrong and everything gets blamed on it.

It's a #$@%^ing disorder.

Totally different, those are all part of being range of normality. Those do not cause dysfunction like autism. Autism or Aspergers causes dysfunction. Is a disorder, one that is bad. I suspect aspergers stops people with it from seeing the truth about their dysfunction and aberrant behavior.

I suspect that Autism is a neural difference. I do think that a world of neurotypicals cause a person with Autism to be disabled.

People with Autism sometimes have special abilities. I think this is due to the fact that Autistic people do not filter out (supposed irrelevant information properly). I contend that all available information is relevant and is needed for activating the 90% of our brains that humans do not normally use. Based on my reading on the subject, Autistic people do not form concepts properly. Concepts are formed by excluding some pieces of information and retaining others. The retained information forms the concept. Some research shows that Savant Autistics acquire their talent by retaining all of the available information. For example, musical prodigies retain knowlege of tune and pitch that most people do not. This allows them to attain perfect pitch. Some scientists believe this information is in everyone's brain but usually unavailable to us. I saw a TV special on people with brain injuries who suddenly had gifts they did not previously have. One person had a perfect memory. Another could play complicated pieces of classical music by hearing it one time.

I have a theory that neurotypical thinking is the dysfunction as filtering out a lot of information in order to built concepts robbs the brain of much of its ability. Perhaps concept building explains why we only use 10% of our brains.

Also, I find I naturally connect ideas that most people do not connect. This allows me to see patterns in ideas that most people are unaware of. I also see much more than the average person. I think this is due to the fact that I struggle to filter information and therefore have access to more information but struggle to concentrate, process abstract ideas, organize, process information, and understand social codes, and form concept. Filtering information is the basis for all of these things. I also have a sensory Integration disorder. This is common among the Autistic community. SIDS is caused by a filtering problem. When information enters the nervous system, it does not organize because it is not filtered properly. This can be devasting causing social problems, fears, problems with noise levels, motor problems, the list goes on. Recently I saw an article with a picture of a brain scan of an Autistic person. Far more of the brain was activated than a neurotypical brain. My theory is that the other activated parts of the brain are using information normally filtered out by neurotypicals. In a world where absolutely everything is made by concepts, a person not forming concepts would be largely or completely non functional.

In world not formed by concepts that was formed by a different kind of thinking like using all the information out there, Autistics might navigate very well. Possible this world might be one where special abilities would be the norm.

Of course it is.

Interesting observation.

Being left handed, means the right side of your brain is more predominant in controlling handedness.

Being gay, well that's a difficult one. Some say it's a lifestyle choice, others say they were born like that. I saw a documentary that stated that the more male children a mother has there is a greater chance that the subsequent males will be gay. It had something to do with the mothers body fighting male offspring. I can see some evolutionary reasons for this, but these days such things mean as much as a hill of beans.

Aspergers syndrome can be equated to two identical computers running different operating systems. They both can perform similar functions, some functions work better than others. However when you try to get the computers to communicate there will be some problems with communication.

Asperger's "sufferers" would cease to be disabled as soon as society's expectations change.

Keep in mind, I'm only talking about the more high functioning ones, mind you. Those who have more than just the social difficulties will still have problems, and be termed "disabled."

I feel that our cultural and social expectations play a huge part in the negative stigmas attached to AS. What do you expect when you are in a culture that worships the loud, obnoxious extrovert, and even NT introverts are looked down upon and discriminated against? (I'm talking about the US, and possibly most other English speaking countries)

I spent four years in China and two in Japan, and I can tell you, my difficulties with the social aspects of AS seemed to vanish into thin air when I was there. I also suspect a lot more people in the Far East might have Asperger's or AS-like traits than is being reported. Perhaps people over there see the behaviors as being more "normal" so they don't stigmatize it as much as in the West.

Aspergers is not a "disorder that is bad" thats one of the most false and limiting beliefs its possible to adopt about the subject. The fact is the AS is related to having a "beautiful mind", one that is balanced and highly connected. This type of mind has been central to our advancement as a species and it continues to be so. The only challenges are emotional ones and most of them stem from the assumptions, jugdments are prejudices of emotionally related people.

In china AS = gifted
In the west AS = disabled (despite being highly able).

How can people decide for others whether their AS is disabling or not?

In my experience difference causes dissonance and dissonance causes negative emotion for NT people. This is sufficient justification for all manner of bullying, discrimination, exclusion etc and it that which is disabling. If the world was populated with Aspies, there would be no problem to function logically and analytically rather than oh so emotionally.

I'd say a bit of both, it is a difference and not all aspects of it are negative, but it does cause varying degree of difficulties so it is also a disorder.

So what is wrong with asking for complicated clarifications at work?