Do you think Asperger's Syndrome is over diagnosed?

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I can see it in the body language, and hand posture-- there's an awkwardness there that NTs usually don't have.

Of course that child I saw on TV was just that, a child, but if you had put him next to my son they would have looked like two creatures from different worlds!

Maybe some people with AS are naturally better at the NT-emulator mechanism than others. Maybe they're better able to copy mannerisms, voice modulation, and posture.

I haven't been able to obtain a formal diagnosis but I do have in writing from a renowned expert that mine is undoubtedly a case of Early Infantile Autism. He also used the term aspergers as well to describe me which I assumed was based on my higher I.Q. scores but it made no sense at all because from what I know, Asperger Syndrome involves a later onset than mine was.

I don't think a diagnosis always proves anything. Misdiagnoses occurs all the time so an actual diagnosis holds only so much credibility. Many people don't have access to the resources with which to get a diagnosis when they need one, so that isn't fair either.

I have limited abilities in making friends and that's probably the hardest part about being autistic. Sensory disintegration overwhelms me so much I tend to isolate. It's very lonely and likewise very painful and I do hate having the disorder, although it sounds like some folks don't see it as something they would like to change. It isn't something that 'can' be changed but if I could, I would change it. I wouldn't assume though that people who have AS are all good at making friends. I'm sure it's something that can be worked on and improved given the right environment and support of family and friends.

I was basically born dead at birth, my color was so dark blue and purple I looked black and had to be rescussitated. By the next day, my color was still ashen. There is little doubt that brain damage occurred here. I was profoundly autistic from the day I was born. It's hard however to imagine how this could also involve an increased I.Q. My artistic capabilities are so significant, it points to damage on the left side with right side compensation. I could hear a fairy tale only one time at school and go home and recite the entire story verbatum. I walked up on my tip-toes. I was like a little professor but I wasn't able to use this seeming intelligence in any practical sense. I was hyper-sensitive on a sensory level while I was also raised in a profoundly cruel and abusive environment. As a result, I was also deprived of my primary education. The disadvantages have been extensive, extreme and lifelong. I'm also female and am now 48 years old. My struggle to survive continues.

Let's not sit in judgement or make broad generalizations based on the limitations of our own experiences.

That's exactly what I was talking about. I can pick up on that instantly. I'm not sure why or how, but I just can. Maybe it's because I see more NTs than autistic people so when I see someone with AS, I can tell that their body language is different.

In the aspie group I used to attend in Ireland, there actually was a secret handshake of sorts. Or rather, it was a high-5. Both people start off doing a normal high 5 and then, on purpose, both peoples hands would awkwardly miss the mark. It was an invention of one of the guys. Often he would say "Aspie high 5!" and get people to do these high 5s with him.

You know how it feels to be you, you do not know how it feels to be every autistic person, but you are making proclamations as if you do know.



There is ample evidence against that idea.



This has not been proven to any satisfaction, and there is plenty of proof that whatever underlying differences exist in autism, are not specific to social situations. (Autistic perception is unusual in the exact same ways in both social and non-social situations, and that would not be true if autism were merely reduced to a "mirroring deficit".)



Some people can mirror back motions without feeling the other person's feelings.

And many autistic people describe being overwhelmed by their perception of other people's emotions, not oblivious to it. Your experience is, again, far from universal.



For one thing, many autistic people make friends with other autistic people, or assorted other eccentric people who don't expect them to be 'normal'.



Because not all autistic people have identical abilities or identical life circumstances.

Also, online communication is not the same as offline.



I've seen no evidence it is.

But frankly I'd rather see a few non-autistic people think they're autistic (which will always happen) than the autistic community become overrun with 'autism police' who like to sit around claiming that anyone who isn't just like them isn't autistic.





Doctors are biased. It's in fact been studied: psychiatric diagnoses in particular often takes place in the first few minutes of an appointment, and no amount of evidence can shake that diagnosis once it is made. How is that not biased?

Every person on the planet is biased, if you're looking for an unbiased person you're going to be looking forever.



That sets you up for an interesting paradox, given that Simon Baron-Cohen (a professional) has stated that his professional opinion is that most self-diagnosed autistic people are in fact autistic. How do you deal with that?

Also, how do you deal with the many professionally diagnosed autistic people who defy your above descriptions?

I also can not understand WANTING to have AS. When I was diagnosed it explained so many things however it was also like getting hit over the head with a hammer.

You DON'T wanna know how many NT's I've met who like to think they have Aspergers... or parents who claim their tantrum-throwing NT two year old is Autistic, just as an excuse...

My little brother, who knows well about Autism and is seventeen years old, was working in a grocery store when a bogan customer and her equally bogan children waddled obesely through the isle.
One little brat decided it would be fun to throw cans of soft drink from the shelf to the floor.
The mother of these barbaric little creatures, as anybody who's ever visited the more white-trash areas of suburbia will know they are, looked at my brother and said, 'Sorry - his Autism's getting worse', and waddled off.

Sorry, I'm a bit of a writer... poetic, no?

this poll's results prove your point:
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp1647092.html#1647092

when i said "how can some AS people (who i see as pretenders) have such a flourishing social life" i did not mean all people with AS. i just mean ones who i do not believe because of many things. not just their socoial ability.

i do not see you as a pretender.
i do not know anyone here yet.
if i thought anyone was a pretender i would not say anything anyway.

i only challenged some fellows on another AS forum because it was nice and quiet there, with other AS people i trusted and identified with, and then after it was advertised, there came in a lot of "charming" smooth guys saying they are AS, and then talking to only the girls and bragging about themselves, and also belittling anything the male AS people said.

and also, i believe it is nearly always males that pretend. i do not think i have noted any females where i did not believe them when they say they are AS



i have a 2 friends that are probably rather odd.
my girlfriend is autistic, but she is in the lower HFA region.

i am talking about "party animals" with lots of friends who seem to have no problem whatsoever in their lives.




i do not know how i seem to have conveyed that if someone is not exactly like me, that they can not be autistic. i never meant to infer that.
i mean that there are people i truly believe could not be autistic that say they are. that is all.

i do not challenge any actual diagnosis.
i am not a doctor and would never think i know better.

i meant you have to "take my word for it that i am diagnosed" (as all people on forums ca only trust others are telling the truth).

no i do not know how it feels to be every autistic person.
i am sorry if my "proclamation" was misconceived by you.
i will try to write with less supposition that my sentences can be understood (define my meanings better).

no i am not trying to squirm out of anything either if you are going to take that avenue.




well whatever the current "labels" they have for levels of severity of autism, it is a moot point.

it is just a label that signposts levels of ability to functioning in society.

it is like arguing that celcius has now disproven fahrenheit.

they are just points in a scale of severity, and not theories as to the mechanisms of autism that can be disproven.



i know that it has not been proven, and i should say "i believe" in front of my sentences. sorry.
and also i meant to say "i believe the MAIN problem...etc".

i think that the mirror neurons also play a part in connecting with what we observe in the world that is sensory and nothing to do with "social".

almost like i should be able to "mirror away" the sensory input that rains in on me.
but i can not and it all comes crashing in and is unpleasant to an extreme degree in "dazzling" and busy and noisy situations.

whatever, i do not limit the description "mirror" to just mirroring another animals actions, but mirroring all the worlds input.

but i know it is just a theory, and, well i do not think i am wrong for referring to it in my post.



i can not mirror back their feelings.

my face is ok looking, but i tried to practice that "social smile" thing with my camera.

every shot looks like i am being electrocuted, or that i am in some contorted fake facial poise.

i just can not look at someone and beam my emptiness at them and dress it up with a paper thin veneer of a poorly rehearsed smile.

i am not often "empty", but i am a lot when i am forced to deal socially with beaming NT people at the shops and stuff.

at home by myself i am full.

i never said my feelings were universal. i did not even say they were felt by anyone else in the universe other than me.





i have a couple of eccentric friends, and my girlfriend is autistic, and i rate well with them i think.

but i said "their MANY friends"
i was talking about people on forums who say they have held "parties" recently with 100 people turning up, and they are invited to most important "parties".

they are "socialites", and that is what i was referring to in my sentence.
not you with a few friends or me or anyone here.

i am sorry, but i draw the line at an asperger person being also a socialite.

i think not.


that does not compute.

sorry i was saying that if "deficit in social fluency", and also "deficit in fluid communication" are principles in the diagnosis of autism, then there can be no diagnosis if those two fundamental requirements for diagnosis are not established.



i know. i am "offline" in the real world and more "on line" in the web world.





hmmm. autism police?
maybe that would be a good idea.

i dislike "imposters" intensely.
they are like pollution.

if there was a forum for AS people that required authorized access to your medical records to verify you are AS before joining, i would be so happy.

i would not have to wonder whether they are genuine or not.
then i could truly relax and talk.

but in reality it is all up to trust, and i have had my trust burned away to it's roots.




i do not have to deal with it. he is just a single head that thinks some idea.

i think some people who read that einstein and newton and almost every famously intelligent person may be AS, are bound to want to come to the show.





i undiagnose them and send them on their way.

but seriously, you ask as if i am concerned with the matter.
i am not.
i never think about it and it is just because the topic asked a question, that i posted my simple response.
i do not care really if there are too many people who think they are AS who are wrong.
but i just answered the question of the topic and say i said "yes."

i am answering you because i am talking to the forum and not exclusively you.

i am responding to your concerns for the benefit of others who may like to hear my reasoning.

i think that you and me however, are vitally and fundamentally different and i think you will not like my response.

that is all i am going to say in this thread because i am tired of it.

no they are not proof.

they are evidentiary assuagement within the realm of my expectation however.

Thank you for clearing this up

I feel it was underdiagnosed for decades but now I feel the pendulum has swung a bit to far the other way and is now overdiagnosed especially amongst the ones that self diagnose.

b9, I think your impressions and even frustrations are valid about certain people on the spectrum. They really muddy things up for the rest in so many ways and it is hard, even painful at times to deal with. Thanks for expanding on what your thoughts were.

I have also held similar skepticism with the Asperger diagnosis because of all the grey areas. Then I began to think it was more an indication of High Function.

not now but it will be. Its becoming the fad dx that everyone wants to have to get special assistiance/services and avoid personal responsilbility. Its becoming the add of the new millineum.

Excuse me, but what was so bad about my post? Am I one of those " bad" guys?