Overdiagnosis of Asperger's/Autism? Your Thoughts

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So most people who indicate they have AS are doing so because they think it's cool, when by societies standards having autism or AS is anything but 'cool' by their standards? Might want to check your source on that one since you are claiming 'most' people do this. Other then that those are all possibilities I think the thinking it's cool one is probably less common than you think.

I have the feeling it may have been a troll post.

No, you don't have to have speech delay or regression for HFA.

HFA is the higher functioning end of autistic disorder:

(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

Note that you can meet these criteria without speech delay. This is basically why DSM-IV Asperger Syndrome doesn't actually exist.

And you can judge severity accurately over the Internet, can you?

...and 'mildly' is subjective as well. Before I was diagnosed, I was self-diagnosed, as is the case with quite a lot of Aspies no doubt. The process has to start somewhere.

Dude, I am talking about my experience. I don't know what your experience is.
I see, like 30 times in a day, people around me IRL, or people on the web (not talking about WP) saying "AS is so cool", or "I'm cool because I have AS", or "I wanna have AS because people with it are cooler". Sorry, I can't trust those people. I do not think they have AS.
And, when they come close to me after knowing I have AS, and they say they are "disappointed" by my behaviour, and that I can't have AS because I'm not intelligent enough to have it, or because I don't fit the stereotype, or because of any other reason, I just can't trust them, sorry. I think that people with actual Asperger's should know that everyone with AS is different, at least I do, and other people with actual Asperger's I met IRL did. Who are they to decide wheter my diagnosis is correct or not?
And, I observe people before judging them and, though I can't judge those I meet on the web, I think I can judge those I meet IRL.


No, it wasn't.

It is highly unlikely they will make any revisions to ICD 10 as thee next version of ICD will be released in 2015. Early proposals for ICD 11 still include aspergers.

Autism is a mess because it's a spectrum and the new revision is an attempt to clean up that mess and get rid of the ambiguity that is Asperger's and related labels. Placing everything under an umbrella term with levels of functioning is solid logic compared to how it is now.

It is biased to say yes...but there is some truth in everything and Asperger's superiority is generally to blame for this common perception. That's why people should avoid developing the superiority complex...and put Asperger's firmly in it's place as a developmental disorder.

In my opinion, I can see Autism spectrum disorders being overdiagnosed, simply because the criteria is difficult to assess in some cases. Also because we have had a huge increase in its awareness in a short period of time, while there's still so much that's unknown about it, including distinguishing it from social disabilities.

As for self-diagnosis... I'm not sure if people do that just to be cool. It seems like an excuse to be an a-hole, like when Moby said that he may have it, then admitted that he does not.

I totally deleted that post because the comment had already been answered. I assume that chlov is not lying, but I still have yet to encounter the "AS is cool" attitude. Most often, it's quite the opposite.

The Asperger's Syndrome superiority complex (henceforth the ASS complex) needs to go away, especially when it's used to put down other autistic people as if which diagnosis one receives measures one's merit as a human being.

Because it explains their difficulties and why they were different and couldn't be normal? Because it explains their problems they have and now they know what it is and they are not stupid or lazy?

I know what the ICD is. I was operating under the assumption that the DSM and ICD will continue the trend started with the DSM-IV and ICD-10 of mirroring their classification systems. I understand that there are certain international treaties which stipulate some sort of cooperation between the two, but I'm not sure about the specifics of such treaties or if they are still in effect. Regardless, perhaps it was a mistake for me to make so many codependent assumptions.

In any case, the point remains for those residing in the USA, so it wasn't totally irrelevant to bring up the DSM V changes.

Where do you live? Where I am no one really knows what it is. Strangely, people point out the traits in me when they get to know me - a girl I knew used to mention my lack of expression, and said my voice never revealed my emotional state.

Mostly I see more negativity about it than anything positive, online. I can't imagine anyone bragging about it being cool.

I was never interested in my diagnosis until now - I got it in early adolescence. It's only a few weeks ago that I read Hans Asperger's paper, and you realize that the media has taken a few soundbites and completely misrepresented what it is. Hans never said that people with Autism were academically inclined, which is simply what some people think. This is where the whole "nerd" stereotype comes from, and this is why I think it can be wrongly diagnosed.

The kids Hans described actually performed poorly in education and didn't adjust at all, which was my experience also. However, he mentioned they did excel in some things, and had good rote memory. I think it's the kids who aren't adjusting and making friends that need to be looked for, not the academically-inclined, high-achiever who is a bit on the introverted side. Most of the "geeky" kids I remember at school had fairly good social integration.

I understand that this representation is meant to be positive, but it does no service for those who struggle and ultimately get ignored.


I had language delay, and had speech therapy for quite a while. I still put Asperger's on health and safety forms/applications.

I think a big problem is people self diagnosing themselves which adds to this.

I'm the OP, and I like the different responses.

One thing I wanted to address is some back and forth about Asperger's and HFA:

I would say, yes, Asperger's is by definition a form of high-functioning autism. However -- I'm no expert and this is just my understanding from other forums -- those with the label HFA had a noticeable speech/language delay in early childhood, whereas those with Asperger's did not.

If a child with speech delay wasn't diagnosed with anything as a child, as an adult he may be diagnosed with Asperger's, because by adulthood the speech delay is (usually) no longer a factor. Technically, however, he would be HFA as it indicates a noticeable delay in language skills in early childhood.

But what I see in a lot of places are adult diagnoses where people say, "I always knew I was different than others, but I had no noticeable academic problems" or, "I didn't fail any of the litmus tests that adults used to measure childhood development, so they just assumed I was normal."

I guess what the author of the article is arguing is that if there isn't something blatantly obvious (like a language delay in childhood) that can be compared to "normal" children, the person cannot be autistic. He's equating Asperger's with the more correct HFA label.

In thinking about this, it would be the opposite. He doesn't exactly understand what Aspeger's is and that a person can be just as autistic as an HFA but still pass those language test standards. So what he calls Asperger's is more correctly HFA (the noticeable impairment) and what he calls social awkwardness would in fact be Asperger's.

This may seem like splitting hairs and a bunch of semantics, but it's actually pertinent to seeing his misunderstanding of the topic.