Taboo thread #1: A possible theory about the nature of AS.

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my 10 year old daughter is LFA (with low mental age and learning disabilities) and she is great. I love her so much and could not imagine her any other way.

I think her sensory problems really upset her though and it would be nice if researchers looked more into cureing sensory problems rather than so much work on eye contact and stimming and special interests.

At the ABA talk I attended the expert said proudly how she cured children and after working with her none of the clients children did special interests any more! I was so cross.

I think things that effect the persons quality of life (such as sensory probs) are fine to be got rid of but stuff that just embarrasses the parents (such as stimming) but gives the person satisfaction should be left alone.

I have naughty , autie, daughties lol

Interestingly people take more a dislike to myself and my younger child who have aspergers so I think we must do something different that puts people off but I am unable to tell what.

Last edited by lotusblossom on 14 Oct 2008, 5:51 am, edited 1 time in total.

Kanner's, HFA, autism, Asperger's, PDD-NOS - I believe we ALL have the same model brain, only some of us have more pronounced sensory issues than others, and some of us are more engaged with the outer world than others, and some of us have additional 'conditions' or 'issues' to deal with, and some of us have experienced more acceptance and support than others, and some of us are less traumatized than others......

The only difference is speech delay, and also supossidly something about "lack of self-care skills", which no one ever explains properly; and which I also find doesn't make sense. Seen pleantly of aspies around with varying degrees of this "lack of self-care skills".

*Shrug* Maybe I am misdiagnosed. It is a possibility.

My serious opinion is that defective protein metabolism may cause many if not all of the symptoms of autism. I may be wrong.
Fact remains that a lot of autist kids get much better on a diet free from milk protein casein and wheat/rye/barley protein gluten!
Try it on yourselves, kids!
This may be my last posting for a while as I am going on holiday today, but I will be back.

The doctor told me that it was learning disability or low mental age that got you the low functioning autism diagnosis and speech delay for high.

I think its all a spectrum and I think other neurological problems like bipolar and schizophrenia are related as research shows a similar gene links them and also interestingly, GF/CF helps them too.


getting diagnosed as an adult is like being told that your hand has been missing since birth and that is why you have difficulty writing, you dont expect to find that something has always been missing and you didnt know.

I think in the past it would have been much easier as (especially in upper classes) it was seen as ok to anti social and eccentric just look at Haley (the comet guy) and spinoza.

BelindatheNobody,

I DID have a speech delay , I only said 1 to 2 words at age of 3 and half and talked my first sentence at age of 5 , my proncuation of words struggled till age of 10! That's why I was diagnosed as HFA ..but I noticed big differences between me and the other HFAs , the classic HFAs, for instance I do have narrow obssessions but never stared on something for hours , I do have stimming but never were as much as yours , I did have very poor eye contacts but I do make eye contacts especially with paretns ......so who's more autistic? you or me? Of course you! Damn, I am sure that I am very introvert but highly suspect that I am even on spectrum.

in fact the diagnosting criteria in Lebanon is different , they don't diagnose based on speech delay alone but more on the severity of symptoms (regarldess of speech delay) in such order :

LFA(very severe autistic symptoms) ----> MFA (severe autistic symptoms) ------> HFA (autistic symptoms).

That's autism here.

On some sites , they say that AS = very very HFA and others say that AS = HFA without speech delay, wtf? It's either this or that.


Funny, that when I consulted online a British psychiatric about my doubts , she told me the weirdest answer:

""


I think that the AS diagnosis is very misleading and subjective, it leads to misdiagnosis of both very introvert NTs and real Autistics.

I think you're using opinions of people online to base your view of what Asperger's is, and this is wrought with error as they're far too subjective. There's also varying opinions amongst professionals, but most are of a similar mindset.

It's best to go back and read Autistic Psychopathy from Hans himself; he doesn't paint a good picture, even if he was trying his best to point out some positives he saw [so that the Nazi Regime didn't gas the children with AS], most of it is negative and "severe".

The days of ASD approach.

Well, that's why it's called a spectrum, and I find the specific (<-- lol, specific is one of the words I struggle with. I can rarely get that one right. Closest I get is "pacific", like the ocean. ) labels (Low-functioning, moderate-functioning [I've never even seen anyone use that one anywhere off of these forums.], high-functioning, aspergers.) to be... well, on the stupid side. Functioning "level", in most, tends to change all over one's life, for one thing.

I, for one:
Between babyhood and my teen years:
A short period of time in my childhood where I was almost "normal". Almost.
Admitidly, it didn't last long though. XD And my clinical depression kicked in around the age of seven.

As for the whole "more autistic" thing: I don't think that can even be measured, really...

You know what this theory was lacking? An statement at the end saying:
"Cuz everyone knows vaccines and cow milk cause autism"

Not again this AD(H)D remark... That's why people who cannot manage to cook themselves a meal because they can't for their lives maintain the focus needed to do this are not ADHD.... but what? Just acting up? Doing it on purpose? Trying to be funny when running around in PJs all day - going to school, to work like that?

It's kinda impairing if you can't eat or can't dress because you can't manage to focus on it.



I'm not introverted even, I am, by both means extroverted - drawing energy from others and seeking ought people - and have AS. I know there's a turn towards trying to explain AS away as introverted personality - and I do get into discussions about that when I talk to some people with AS particularly in my country, sometimes turning into fights because somehow I'm taken as real bad for denying that AS = introverted personalities that are not impaired.

AS is not a personality type. Or else classical would be a personality type too to my mind.

A need for routines doesn't mean you enjoy, like or want the routines - or even do things that support these routines.

You can be AS/HFA/LFA/etc and seek out other people.

I'm not having speech issues, routines, reptetive actions, sensory issues because of my personality.

I can't even begin to understand how not liking my routines means I cannot be autistic in any way despite that have these routines and need them to function. I even at first thought I had none... because I was told, by some others with AS, that you like them... I didn't like them, so I was convinced I had none, sure. Until the ASD specialist asked me how I spent my days and all.

I side with professionals who say to interpret AS like some people do - as likings, ideals, wants - is totally incorrect and morbidly amusing.



How is it easy to spot autism in someone who looks like that to common standards? That's how 'normal' people look like.



I am diagnosed as having Asperger's, I have most of these symptoms and where I live, I am even described as utmost HF. Perceptions must differ enormously throughout the world then.

.

that's an interesting article:
http://www.linds.net/asperger.html

No, they mean the same thing. It's a synonym for "autistic disorder", but some people (usually either badly misinformed, or politically motivated) insist it means something a lot more specific. The same people often refer to it as "Kanner's autism", which they then proceed to define as something that almost none of Kanner's patients would have fit, because they have either not read Kanner's papers, or not read them closely enough to see how wrong they are.

I have a friend who whenever he hears "classical autistic," insists on referring to himself as a "Baroque autistic" (and knowing him, it fits ).

And you in your infinite wisdom are perfectly objective in your online diagnoses?

Have you read Asperger's original paper 'Die "Autistischen Psychopathen" im Kindesalter'?

I happen to know the author of that blog very well. He is a close friend, and one of the people I've spoken of where our comprehension of each other's body language was immediate and near-total upon meeting. We also work together in a number of areas online, and have co-written articles together (including one of the ones he mentions in the second post). He was speaking out against pointless and insulting nonsense like your posts to this thread, not in favor of it. He would never in a million years approve of your using his blog entries to support the sort of stuff you have written on this and other threads.

Of course you probably know this already, so I'm writing this mostly for the benefit of people who could be misled into believing that you're linking to something that supports your viewpoint.

A couple of very relevant quotes here:



The above quote is meant absolutely facetiously, as he explains here:



In the second post in that category, he writes:



So... yeah. Nothing in that, that even begins to support the OP's views. His whole point was to point out that the idea that there are hordes of non-autistic people claiming to be autistic, is totally and completely false, and that attempts to divide up the autistic community into "real" autistic people and "fake" autistic people, are politically motivated rather than factually motivated.