That girl from America's next top model.

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You can see the malaise in pneumonia [and many other symptoms], just as you can see "(1) marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction", "(4) lack of social or emotional reciprocity" and number "(3)". #1 will show under that situation every time; the symptoms are always there, same with #4 and #3. You cannot suppress a "difference". You'll actually see AS manifest more so than many conditions under the aforementioned video, it's how it is. It's like someone holding a thermometer under the arm of said sick individual and filming it.

The Earth doesn't look flat to me, I can see the horizon, the curvature; people before me mapped it. People have mapped autism.

There's a reason why most (good) professionals take more than five minutes to make a diagnosis.

Well, it looks flat to me, so it's flat. That's my argument. If you can say from a video that Heather doesn't have AS, then I can say that from my perspective the earth looks flat so it's flat.

Daniel, we're going to obviously disagree about this. In all reality, it doesn't matter one way or the other. She's out there, people have attached themselves to her as a positive role model. She's stated she was diagnosed, so that's that. Neither of our opinions will change that fact.

Let's agree to disagree.

...And misdiagnosis is a fairly common occurence. A boy is presumed to have the most undeniable case of bipolar disorder imaginable; judging by his behavior, he has the classic euphoric manias and melancholia-type depressions, which are regular like pendulum swings and well-defined. Then one day he happens to mention is passing during an interview that he is being observed through special equipment. Further careful questioning reveals that all this time he had had delusions of reference and heard voices, and during his manias when it was thought that he fidgeted and kept jumping up due to distractibility, he had actually been obeying what the voices told him. He had not mentioned it before because he was too young to figure out that he had to, and too psychotic. A woman is believed to have schizoaffective disorder with personality deterioration. She has severe psychotic affective phases, inbetween which she does not go out, does not work, and seems to badly lack motivation to do anything. Then her mother dies, and the woman suddenly stops staying at home, makes new friends and becomes fairly friendly and vivacious. It turns out that her mother was an extremely domineering person, and the woman had dependent personality disorder, on top of bipolar, but her personality was intact. When her mother died, she finally felt free. She had not mentioned any of this before, because, like many people with this problem, she had difficulty speaking up. And so forth. Psychiatric literature abounds with accounts of cases like these. There is no reliable way of making a diagnosis based on observation alone, without having the patient describe their experiences, conducting tests etc. And even interviews often aren't enough since, for many different reasons, people often fail to mention things that are very important for accurate diagnosis.

AS itself is often misdagnosed as anything ranging from atypical depression to all things schizotaxic, to almost every personality disorder one could think of, because its external signs are so easy to confuse with any of these conditions.



I wasn't really talking about acting. I meant to say that some people make a remarkably good adjustment as they grow up, and that, from a person's observable behavior, it is often impossible to tell if they have AS or are a non-autistic person with a highly idiosyncratic way of speaking and acting (or have a different problem that is unrelated to autism).

Based just on these, one could be looking at an individual with schizophrenia or marked schizotypal/schizoid personality disorder and be absolutely sure they are autistic.

Come to think of it, even severe depression would match that description. The listless face, the monotonous voice, the lack of gestures and motionless posture, the still gaze fixed on some object in the room or something the patient sees through the window.

I agree that it is stupid to say someone "isn't autistic enough" or "isn't AS" based on minimal evidence. Even if you met someone in person, an aspie could come across as NT in some cases. I, for one, am good at public speaking. I am also good at dealing with people in a business setting. (I'm self-employed so its not 9-5). I have even been complimented on my people skills by clients who have no knowledge of my AS! I can turn on the skills when I need em once in awhile. Mostly though, I'm fairly awkward. I sometimes know the right thing to say or do, and sometimes I don't, but either way it is way too tiring to "perform as NT" all the time.

In contrast, there are times when I seem much more autistic than I am. Like when I'm extremely tired or stressed I need to help to do basic things like "brush your teeth. Good. Now wash your face." etc, haha.

So, my point is that, even amongst a certain individual on the spectrum, there is a spectrum depending on the day, circumstances, and the person's mood

So stop saying (insert successful AS person here) doesn't have Aspergers. I've seen people make this statement about other aspies in the public eye, and even alex. Its ridiculous and arrogant to think you can tell by a video, or site comments, or even a few meetings. Maybe those who like to deny the diagnosis of their successful AS do so to feel better about the lack of something in their own lives. It makes it easier to blame AS for your troubles when you can discount those who are successful.

1:27 - Mannerism - "ummyeah", lifts right shoulder, stares at the distance
1:32 - Filler word "Ah"
1:50 - Ungracefully slouches towards the interviewer
1:56 - Unnecessary filler word "yeah"
2:00 - Mannerism - "umm", stares at the distance
2:04 - Stares at the distance
2:13 - Filler word "Ah"
2:20 - Awkward handshake, stiff posture.
2:21 - Nods her head, lowers hands, stammers "Umm No problem"
2:26 - Stares at the camera, exhales, chuckles, blinks

Pretty aspiesh if you ask me.

Last edited by Mw99 on 12 Dec 2007, 10:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I think it is interesting that a lot of WP users seem to put more credence in a professionally diagnosed user's statements.
Yet, people are trying to undiagnose the officially diagnosed.

For anyone who still cares, Saliesha won. When they showed the retrospective of the two finalists' photos, one that they used was Saliesha's "effects of smoking" shot which, as you may recall, was supposed to portray the effects of secondhand smoke... on Heather.
Heather was in every episode, even after she had to go home.
GO HEATHER you f'in ROCK!! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!

All of the thirteen contestants were in all the episodes. (at the beginning of each episode except the first one)

Party pooper.
I hate being corrected, but you are right.
I meant within the show itself.

I did not correct you. I generalized your observation.

It's not minimal, it's everything. See James on the documentary "Unlikely Travellers". He's a perfect example of someone with run of the mill Asperger's; put him in her place and you'd be having everyone say he is "LFA" around here, no, he has Asperger's, he can function quite well for someone who has it.



Yes sir.

I'm pretty sure she has something. If it isn't Asperger's, what is it?

Garbage. Might be true for autism, certainly is not true for Aspergers.

A lot of aspies learn "how" to interact (eye contact, reciprocation, etc). That doesn't mean that they're suddenly "cured". (And, usually, that "interaction" isn't as "perfect" as you'd see with a true NT.)

Many aspies, once they're aware that they do "aspie" things (interrupt people, go on lengthy dissertations), learn to intentionally curtail that behavior. Again, it doesn't mean they're suddenly not aspies just because they might be able to go five minutes without displaying the behavior.

No idea. All I know is if people see themselves in her and assume they have Asperger's from how she appears, they will be sorely disappointed when they see a professional.

Some may say that I'm being hypocritical here; I'm not, she doesn't appear to have Asperger's going from the video, that's all. She may have a narrow/focused interest that precludes everything else; she also may be unable to develop peer relationships and has a marked impairment in empathetic feeling. That's enough to be diagnosed with AS. None of these can be exhibited in the video segment, all of the others can.

It's rare to not have the stereotypical presentation of Asperger's however (lack of eye contact, monotonous speech, lack of appropriate gestures and postures).

Is that kinda like the blind suddenly being able to see? The blind can use a stick; the person with Asperger's cannot add inflection to their voice if they lack it. Try it to someone you don't know. Try conversing to someone you don't know whilst appearing normal. If you have AS, you cannot do it; it's not there.