Now that Asperger's is out of the DSM...
I have been reading a lot about the debate on Asperger's in the new DSM-V. My opinion can be swayed on whether we should keep AS as a name. But my view on AS is this. AS is a form of HFA (again my opinion), and I am against calling AS as mild autism in the new DSM-V. AS is not necessarily mild. So...if the new DSM-V is to refer to us with AS as mild, then I believe we should continue to be considered as having AS.
Another thing, and I have said this somewhere before---even though the new DSM-V may eliminate the name Asperger's, who is to stop us from using Asperger's if we still want to use it? With all the books out there, how can the name Asperger's be erased? It can't.
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"My journey has just begun."
Callista wrote:
Makes sense to me. I was diagnosed at twenty, after a long history of being told to pull myself together, grow up, try harder, and stop being stupid. You don't just shake that off in two seconds once you learn that a.) this is a real disability, and b.) there are work-arounds that don't involve some sort of miraculous superhuman willpower. It's not like we wanted to believe that crap; but being around it for so long, it's almost impossible not to get infected by it. So naturally now I'm still subconsciously scared that somebody will say, "Oh, no, we were wrong; you're not actually autistic; you're not allowed to get help; you're not allowed to be yourself; you're not allowed to keep these accommodations that let you succeed."
The new DSM arrangement has nothing to do with that, though. I've had those same fears since not long after my diagnosis; and they don't listen to logic. No matter how much I tell myself that multiple professionals agree on my diagnosis, that I fit the definition so well that it's unquestionable, that the accommodations I get are really reasonable and that I'm doing the work myself... I still have this idea that somehow, I'm the problem, and that the real solution is for me just to get my act together and stop pretending I'm different. No matter how much I remind myself that trying to get my act together landed me in the mental ward pretty much unable to function, somehow I still have the idea that this is what I ought to be doing.
The new DSM arrangement has nothing to do with that, though. I've had those same fears since not long after my diagnosis; and they don't listen to logic. No matter how much I tell myself that multiple professionals agree on my diagnosis, that I fit the definition so well that it's unquestionable, that the accommodations I get are really reasonable and that I'm doing the work myself... I still have this idea that somehow, I'm the problem, and that the real solution is for me just to get my act together and stop pretending I'm different. No matter how much I remind myself that trying to get my act together landed me in the mental ward pretty much unable to function, somehow I still have the idea that this is what I ought to be doing.
Very eloquently put and nearly identical to my personal experiences.
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