Aspergers the syndrome of the year

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Thank you for trying to clear up the point, but I think I still don't get it. I have only met a handful of people who are happy to have AS. I try to rise above the problems it causes for me, but most often it hurts my feelings when people treat me like I'm some kind of oddball. I don't know why anyone would want to have the label of AS if they could avoid it.

Let me see if I can try to get your point: It's not that it's cool to have the diagnosis, but because it is suddenly become mainstream, there are people deciding that certain characteristics they have must mean that they have AS, too?

I suppose there could be an epidemic, but I would tend to think it's more because of increased awareness. However, I remember that ADHD was the diagnosis of the '90's, so perhaps the same thing could be happening with AS.

I don't know enough to make the decision on this. So far, my experiences on forums, with kids, with IEPs, etc., is that no one wants to diagnose anyone with AS. You have to do some pretty good convincing, and I can understand why some people have to go to 2 or more doctors. I don't think enough people understand it.

And maybe that brings me to another point: I was discussing this issue with my husband this morning. He said that even if it is a self-diagnosis, most people with AS are highly intelligent and do a lot of research on subjects and really try to master it. Many of the people who self-diagnose, such as myself, have already performed a thorough investigation on AS.

The DSM is ridiculous in its description of AS. I remember when someone first said that she thought I had AS. She thought so because she had it, and she said I was a lot like her. And I kept getting into trouble on the forum where she belonged, which was actually a forum for ADHD.

Anyway, that is when I first researched it. I didn't really understand what it was. She had me take some AS test, and I scored high. In fact, her name is down at the bottom of the test as a contributor. Her name is Inger Lorelei.

I looked up AS on the DSM and saw what it said, and figured that I didn't have it because I couldn't seem to make any of it fit me. Ing talked me into joining a forum for AS where she was a member. That was the first time I felt like I was "home" in a forum. It seemed like everyone was like me. And it was a relief to finally understand that all of my behaviors weren't because of ADHD.

See, all my kids have ADHD, but none of them are like me except for the last one. It didn't make sense that we all have ADHD, but I'm the only one whose brain acts foggy, who can't remember anything I have done or anything my kids have done, etc. Their brains seem so clear and smart. I'm such a ditz. They have all been able to make friends, but not me. I'm come off as odd. When I found out that AS explained the differences, it made a lot of sense. Only my 10-year old is like me.

I don't know how anyone can read the DSM and make a diagnosis. It doesn't say anywhere that people with AS have bad memories, can't hold onto friendships or make friends, don't understand jokes, take everything literally, are easy to take advantage of, are naive, etc. Oh, maybe some in general terms, but there's a lot more to it than the DSM states.

I suppose some people might incorrectly misdiagnose themselves, but so what? I can usually tell pretty quickly who has it and who doesn't. Same with ADHD people.

I have a good idea. Why not find some AS people to make the diagnosis, rather than the doctors? The doctors don't seem to know what it is. But you take someone with AS, and that person will know exactly what questions to ask.

In partial response to Fretion's post, he's right. We work for the same employer, and a formal diagnosis would be more in line with "give them an excuse" to come down on someone. We both knew a young woman, diabetic, who's insulin was NOT correctly controlled. In her case, it was a question of medical professionals did NOT get it right. She was terminated for cause (by that point she was a raging force of nature liable to take someone's head off). Was it her? No, it was her blood sugar. I saw her a year later, on a new insulin regimen and she was her old self again. I may have been the one who first mentioned Asperger's to him, after my youngest son was diagnosed. Something along the lines of "DUDE! You HAVE to see this, it's US." And it is. Now years later, not only has my youngest, but his older brother been diagnosed, formally, by two different child psychiatrists. BOTH of whom spent years with me and my wife in appointments, and both of whom, without writing it down on a prescription form, agreed with us that we are also on the spectrum.

I understand the basic premise of "trendy". That's not what I've seen here. That's what you see on Oprah when the latest bimbette of the moment is hawking a ghostwritten "book" about how she's gonna cure her son. Those are the one's being "trendy". Those are the one's you want to shake and say, "There's NOTHING wrong with your son except YOU." I don't view Asperger's as a disability. Do we have DIFFICULTIES? Hell yes, and I've done what so many of us have over the years, come close to opening a vein to make it all stop. Then my son was diagnosed, I started to understand myself, and now I'm a department head at a bank, an Assistant VP and moving up, and FINALLY getting some recognition of ability. Because I learned what I am, and to be comfortable with that, instead of battling non-stop to be "normal". I don't look at myself this way to be trendy or "of the moment." I do it to function around normals. I do it to live. I think most of the people I've seen here do the same.

As far as hypoglycemic or lactose intolerant. I'm diabetic, I carry a glucose meter and glucose tablet with me at all times. You can MEASURE hypoglycemia, and there are at least 10 other diabetics in this building who do the same. Any of us could take a sample for someone who "thought they were going hypoglycemic". As far as lactose intolerance, if dairy makes you sick, take a lactase tablet and try again. If it STILL does, see a doctor. If the lactase works... "don't leave home without it". I have yet to see a meter or a pill that will let me "act normal".

I'm one. Who wouldn't want to be this focused, this able, this concentrated? My lack of "chumminesss" doesn't trouble me in the least, and I've managed to make it so that these extra-gregarious NT types have little-to-no effect on my life.

I've been diagnosed, but again, this ragtag, vague collection of symptoms in the DSM sounds like half the world to me!


See: you do get it!


Don't know if you've heard this: most medical students are convinced they've come down with *every disease in the book*, simply because they recognize themselves in each description. No fooling.

That's also my point: these are readily diagnosed illnesses, whereas AS can be confused with so many other things: Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Schizoid Personality Disorder, avoidant personality, plain-ol' shyness, etc, etc, etc...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_st ... 27_disease

I can only say what happened in my case. I had no idea I was an aspie. I just wanted to get some sleep. I contacted Blue Cross and got a listing of psychiatrists in my area who take Blue Advantage. I called three of them. The first two could not see me for about 2 weeks. The third was able to see me in 4 days.

He is a really nice guy, and our meetings tend to be more colleagial than therapist-patent. Many of our research interests parallel. (We may even co-author a paper at some point on an unrelated subject.)

Perhaps the problem is that you mention Asperger's syndrome.

I'm so textbook Aspie it's not even funny... but more importantly, my experiences fit so well with those of the other Aspies on this board, that a professional Dx is really just a technicality. I'm going for my Dx soon anyway, but mostly just for the hell of it. My childhood is a blur of being lost in an autistic fog, and now the older adults in my life are relating stories to me of how "strange" I was, and how Me + Asperger's makes complete sense to them to.

My point is, psychiatrists are just people, who have studied psychology and gotten a degree.
Self-diagnosed Aspies are often people who have studied psychology, and for our purposes, done a very intensive and specialized study of the autism spectrum.

A piece of paper doesn't make you smarter, so excuse my lack of a degree. But don't you dare try to pass me off as trendy with the "diagnosis of the year".

He uses Gilberg's

I'm surprised Gillberg wasn't laughed at and ridiculed since his criteria runs so counter to the DSM criteria, etc... There are MANY sites showing the differences, and they speak like these criteria have an equal reputation even though they make a mockery of one another. They have already watered down AS so much that people ask what the difference between HFA and AS is. Many say it is language development, and Gillberg says there is NOT even THAT distinction.


http://www.aspergers.com/aspcrit.htm

I CLEARLY meet DSM guidelines. With gillberg, I can't meet 4, and may not meet 6(2 of the 6 required for gillberg to say I am AS.). The DSM allows for people to seem normal/intelligent. Gillberg doesn't seem to allow for that really.

Anyone who ISN'T listening, too.

Gillberg's is closer to Asperger's original work, it's probably closer to Kanner's too (they were both explaining the same thing).

I don't meet #6, but the psycho at Attwood's didn't seem to mind; it's hard to tell if you meet #4 without a professional observing you (this applies to most of it in reality).

Firstly, I thought OCD was the 'flavour of the month' or so to speak...

Secondly, I self-diagnosed myself with AS, Tourette syndrome, OCD, dyspraxia and ADD.

Greedy huh?

Anyway. I later went to visit a BRILLIANT proffessor dude who confirmed that I indeed have all of these things! Just because we self-diagnose doesn't mean we are wrong!

Actually, 4 out of thos five go together! "AS, Tourette syndrome" would have been almost as meaningful.

The DSM is too confusing for me to even relate anything to, and it looks like I don't meet 4, 5, or 6 of that Gilberg's thing at all (unless you can count eye contact stuff for 5).

Here is an interesting page. It includes a few different sets of diagnostic criteria for AS:

http://web.syr.edu/~rjkopp/data/as_diag_list.html

Wow, you forget quickly how broad Szatmari is - on those criteria, just about anyone who wanted it could get a diagnosis, I suspect. I think one of the biggest issues in general is what on Earth "clinically significant," means? I don't know how much a psychologist's experience would likely make to that, but that's your biggest value judgement, right there. The line is so fuzzy it might as well be nonexistant.