Do you ever call/consider yourself autistic? (AS Dx)

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I see no reason why one can't use both.

I was diagnosed last summer, I was told "no doubt" you have Aspergers. That ended 55 years of not knowing who I was or why I did things. Thus I named my account ASPartOfMe. No matter how much Aspergers is dismissed, or the word Aspie is associated with a plethora of negative connotations the words will always have a emotional connotation for me. Also the work of Dr. Asperger himself during the era of Nazi Eugenics makes the successful tarnishing of Aspergers even more painful. I always looked at Aspergers as a form/subset of autism.

My diagnostic report came back 3 months later with a diagnosis of moderately severe Aspergers under the DSM IV and Autism Spectrum Disorder under the DSM 5. This made me realize I probably have symptoms of both "classic" and "Aspie" styled Autism. While I think the whole Asperger overdiagnosis meme is overblown I concluded that there was a subset of Aspies that denied their Autism because they think they are above the "Severe" types. I have been identifying myself as Aspie-Autistic a lot. I also use Aspie or Autistic depending on the thread. I changed my youtube name from Aspie1957 to Aspie-Autistic1957. Unfortunately WP software requires you to create a whole new account. If I do change and somebody wanted to look a my past posts they would have a hard time

Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 27 Jun 2014, 9:46 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I just read, that Lorna Wing used the Asperger label for high functioning children without speech delay to make it easier for parents to accept the diagnose, because autism at that time was connected with very heavy handicaps, - so by her "book", Aspies were in fact autistic.
According to my psychologist, I have an ASD, but I cannot refer to myself as autistic (I sometimes do it in my dreams)
He wants me to identify as aspergian, which I am more inclined to, - but it still is autism.
I guess it is about Lorna Wings triad, which seems to be the key reference in this matter.

"Asperger syndrome: a clinical account" The late Lorna Wing 1981
http://www.mugsy.org/wing2.htm
"In the light of this finding, is there any justification for identifying Asperger syndrome as a separate entity? Until the aetiologies of such conditions are known, the term is helpful when explaining the problems of children and adults who have autistic features, but who talk grammatically and who are not socially aloof Such people are perplexing to parents, teachers and work supervisors, who often cannot believe in a diagnosis of autism, which they equate with muteness and total social withdrawal. The use of a diagnostic term and reference to Asperger's clinical descriptions help to convince the people concerned that there is a real problem involving subtle, but important, intellectual impairments, and needing careful management and education."

So...it is in a class of its own.

AS and PDD-NOS is basically political correctness for kids with milder autism because of the stigma on the word autistic. Parents don't want their kid to be autistic so hence these two other labels. My parents are convinced AS is not autistic, just a form of it,a spectrum. They also think PDD-NOS is not autistic and they are all different despite being on the spectrum. I was given that belief in my teens.

Now they have gotten rid of these PC labels.

I refer to myself as autistic.

If people ask me more I tell them I have a high functioning form of autism called Asperger's Syndrome.

Yes, that´s probably the way to go about it.
I tell, that I have aspergers, and if they ask, I´ll tell them, it´s a form of autism.

I don't go out of my way to tell every Tom Dick and Harry that I have Autism for the reason that while Autism is more common place today then it was when I was growing and I believe there's a form of "acceptance" there are still those whom are still narrow minded and equates ASD to being MR or go the other extreme and think of the Rain Man.

I think the only people whom knows I have ASD is family and one person whom I can trust.

Getting back to the question at hand yes I consider my self to be Autistic

Who is your psychologist to tell you what you can or can't call yourself, though??? Especially if he or she does not have an ASD.

What was previously diagnosed as AS is in broader category of autism and always has been.
High functioning autism means autism with IQ > 70, which includes people of borderline intelligence, normal intelligence, and gifted.
High functioning autism category includes what was previously diagnosed as AS.
People with AS are autistic.
In research, high functioning autism is considered the pure form of autism, because it is autism without the effects of intellectual disability.
Most research results apply only to people in the broad category of high functioning autism, including what were previously diagnosed as classic autism without intellectual disability, AS, and PDD-NOS without intellectual disability.

I call myself Aspie mainly because there's too many wrong conceptions about how an autistic person is like.
I only go deeper on the explanation if i'm talking with someone that i think that should know me better.

Depending on the research study or clinical diagnosis, IQ > 70 sometimes means full-scale IQ > 70, but sometimes means non-verbal IQ > 70, so high functioning autism with IQ > 70 can include people with significant language impairments.

Thank you.

I guess this could be a reason why the DSM V includes the new Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder as a separate disorder from Autism Spectrum Disorder.

I only tell people if it's truly relevant to my professional or academic performance. I try to avoid sharing my diagnosis, because just sharing it will influence what people think about me.

I don't refer to myself as anything, I am who I am.