The end of Asperger's draws near

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Simple. The note on your record gets changed to say "Autism" instead of "Asperger's". It means no more than that.

You won't have to meet today's HFA criteria to be diagnosed with autism. If they change it, they'll change it to include even the minority of Asperger's cases that can't already be diagnosed HFA today--that is, speech delays will no longer be necessary for diagnosis.

Hmmm-what exactly is the difference between Asperger's and High Functioning Autism anyway?

I've always said I have High Functioning Autism, though my diagnosis was Asperger's... but I had the language delay big time. That is really the only difference I've found... well, maybe my IQ is lower than most here, but I'm not sure how language delay and IQ would really make that huge of a difference.

My point, I guess, is that I was still labelled as Asperger's, simply because it sounded better than plain old autism, I suppose. So if that option goes away, won't I just be autistic all the same?

Guess I've always been a little lost in this area to be honest, because I kept arguing it when I was given my diagnosis... "I had the language delay, though", and was given the diagnosis all the same either way. So it's been an ongoing confusing mess for me.

If all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares, do squares still exist?

Just a thought.

Science and research are meant to make things more specific, not more vague. I would be fine calling myself an HFA but I would like to see the template for the spectrum. How specific will they make it? Or are they just going to plop everyone under "Autistic" and that's it? That would be like putting all of the dissociative disorders under the one category, "dissociative disorder," instead of DID, Depersonalization Disorder, Dissociative amnesia and so forth. We know they're all dissociative disorders, but they have their own distinctions within it. I have Depersonalization Disorder but I don't have multiple personalities, therefore a blanket diagnosis of "dissociative disorder" would be inappropriate. Perhaps scientists should think of better ways to organize the sects of Autism instead of just throwing everyone into the closet and say, "well, not everything has a place to go so anything that doesn't have a specific place just gets thrown in here will-nilly." I do think that Asperger's IS on the autistic spectrum but that doesn't mean that we should all just get thrown into the closet and say the room is clean.

Of course they exist; but they can be handled with the exact same mathematics as rectangles.

If Asperger's is on the Autistic Spectrum, you have Autism, following your logic. They are going to make it more specific by including the desciptive words, "mild". "moderate" or "severe".
Is Autism really like Dissociative Disorders? Does someone start out with DID as a child only to grow into Depersonalization Disorder in adulthood? The main difference is people that are diagnosed with Autism can change and display a multitude of traits throughout their lifespan, even venturing onto appearing so much like an NT, you can't even detect the autism, therefore, they no longer consider themselves to be autistic. Do people with Dissociative Disorders do this?

Really? More that 50%?

What research source are you quoting?

Almost 100%.



Search for the article "Does DSM-IV Asperger's disorder exist?", published by the Journal of abnormal child psychology, at 01/07/2001.

I was hoping for a more descriptive definition. I've never met an HFA that I know of, and I only know one other person diagnosed with AS, my brother, so I'm not really sure if there is a distinction between HFA and AS besides the language delay. If there is absolutely no distinction between the two, I have no issues with calling myself HFA. If there is a distinction other than that, though, I think that "mild" should have at least two separate branches, thinking of the spectrum as a "Y," classic autism a the bottom, and let's say, HFA1 and HFA2 as the branches at the top, with moderate in the center. I've simply never had first hand experience at looking for the distinctions and if there are any besides obvious personality differences.



Kind of. I didn't really mean that autism was like dissociative disorders in the sense that they function the same, just in the way dissociative disorders are categorized, but dissociative disorders can move around, typically between the more severe, ones though, but on a rare occasion DP can turn into DID.

I'm a bit concerned. Not for myself; I'm well established, but for others like me.

Not only didn't I have a language delay, but I was far ahead of normal. It was once I started using my vocabulary to communicate that my Phd parents picked up on an abnormality in expression and interpretation. Forget social skills-despite hopeful assurance, those never came.

I worry somewhat, but also have faith that psychiatry will adapt to the greater set of autistic traits without the language delay.

When I refer about it I already say: "I'm a little autistic", "sometime I behave autistically", "My brain is wired in an autistic way" or things like that. If you say Asperger's people say "what?" and then think you are going to show up something strange.