They plan to delete Asperger from DSM 5

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I wouldn't say that's the case, as it can go either way; most individuals with autism who have mild mental retardation would be indistinguishable from those with a normal IQ for the most part. It's when you get to a really low IQ score due to greater verbal difficulties that it's easier to distinguish them (the inability to talk and understand language as an adult being the big things).

I agree. There isn't a hard line between what is HF and what is LF. I used to live with some people with mild mental retardation and autism, and in some respects they were higher-functioning than I was (severity of behavior problems for example), and I have a high IQ. Also, some people look LF due to lack of language, but once they learn adaptive communication, can cross the border to the HF end.

Hodor wrote:

Why do say this? Because HFA's can communicate verbally?

I would consider myself HFA, and I often feel more akin to LFA than I do to AS. For some of us autists, the world of words, especially the spoken word, does not hold the importance that it does for you.

Also, the notion that the autistic spectrum is similar to the color spectrum grossly underestimates the complexity of autism.

"So why are you so awkward?"
"Oh, i have Type 1...or Type 2. Type 2 maybe er..."

i'll say i'm just wierd like that from now on.

probably just it's a neurological disorder related to autism(duh duh)
if you mention autism in a sentence then people think that you're subhuman or something.

wildgrape,

Most with LFA can communicate verbally. It's a small percentage that are actually nonverbal as adults.

Their desire for routine, their social indifference, and their motor mannerisms are more evident, but they can speak functionally (it's the social talk that they can't do, whereas those with AS try it, even though they aren't good. People with traditional HFA usually don't bother with it outside of structured environments, as it's just too hard for them to even bother trying).

Daniel,

Thank you for that information. I didn't know where the line is normally drawn between LFA and HFA. In a way I don't care because I don't like the distinction, but I do wish to be accurate. In any case, I mostly associate more with the non-verbal stimming autistic boy than I do with angry very verbal Aspies.

I am not sure how to describe my autism. My social indifference is pretty extreme. When I was younger, my motor mannerisms (autistic flapping) were very pronounced, but that is no longer the case. I can be normally verbal, but find chit-chat intolerable after a certain time.

Perhaps I will initiate a post about this.

Believe me, I have met quite a few people with HFA, and I don't think I would have been diagnosed with it in any case, I think those people with HFA who function THAT good have AS, I think most of the people here with HFA has AS, and I've come to the conclusion that I\m either an aspie or a narcissistic or mentally disturbed NT who is extremely developed and adores social gatherings at nights, fashion, group hugging and celebrity bashing, so I wouldn't have been diagnosed with anything else than AS, Personality disorder, or disturbed NT, don't you think?

After the way I've behaved here on Wrongplanet, you\ve got a vbig insight of how I think, it isn't so very aspie like, huh?

"Passing for 'normal'" was my most recent special interest up until a few weeks ago. I played the NT really well, or so I thought. Now I know why I was DXed with moderate AS instead of mild (as I had deluded myself into thinking I was).

People who may have thought I was NT as recently as the first part of 2009 would certainly not think so now. Starting in June, one catastrophe after another happened, and I had no chance to even begin to recover from one before the next one came. I am now all out of energy to even attmept to be able to "pass." I have been home on winter break for six days and have barely gotten out of bed. That whole thing about the invalidation, the lower functioning autistics having the REAL problems, is very scary to me. When I was a kid, and nobody knew about AS, I would get very easily upset, and my dad would always say, "What would you do if you had a REAL problem?" This sent me promptly into the basement alone with a knife for the next half hour or so. I don't want to go back to that. I CAN'T go back to that.

Getting my DX in 2007 has opened a lot of doors for me, gotten me a ton of long-overdue help (although I am still not entirely sure that the help hasn't arrived too late), and helped to repair some damaged family relationships. It would be devastating for me to lose this assistance, along with any chance of achieving my potential in life.

Of course, the anxiety, depression, and other conditions that have developed as a result of my overdoing my NT charade for too long are probably enough at this point to keep me eligible for assistance, as it is now becoming increasingly clear that I am having some pretty serious problems right now.

No, it would naturally rollover to HFA.

I agree, Asperger Syndrome is mostly misunderstood and it is like double teaching people about autism.

Let get the merger complete, leave the name Asperger left alone for abandon insult.

Narcistic...?

Wrong... wrong.. wrong... we aren't pathological liar and our social have been impaired where we feel godlike in skill. It is actually an ego and our repetitiveness that make us think we are good.

I just think with self-discipline, we can cut off our ego but focus in avoiding flattery from people who just aren't competitive to you. I believe, we keep on empowering ourselve until the earth shatter apart from our skill. Forget flatter, forget "WOW you are the most intelligent person I met..." blah blah blah, ignore that, there is a bigger fish to fry beside people in your small town.

Almost all the flatter I got was inaccurate, it make you feel like there isn't much competition when the fact that there is more to the challenge in life.

great, no more "ass burgers" jabs.

i'm okay with this.

Bopkasen, where did you get pathological liars from? Narcissism is egoism, the placement of the self above all else in terms of love and importance - not riddled with deception. And I do not understand the suggestion of abandoning Asperger's to insult - could you explain what you meant there?


M.

I'm really relieved about this change and think it will solve a lot of the existing problems and confusion we see around Autism. I think AS is a source of misdiagnosis in some cases and it will be really good to see it corrected.

What they really need to do away with is PDD becuase it's just a fancy word for "I don't know what your child has but it seems to be a form of autism." Most kids with PDD end up getting diagnosed with AS anyway.

Most people have never even heard of Asperger's unless they personaly know someone with it or have a friend or relative who does. Autism is a spectrum, AS is a part of that spectrum. No two autistic people are alike. People just need to be educated better. We need to make a blockbuster motion picture about AS. Before Rainman, even doctors weren't famaliar with regualr autism. If someone were to make a cool movie about AS and have it get major publictiy and good ratings, I think people might become more aware.

I'm hoping that the experts keep it, there. It is a real disorder. How would they like to say to my face, that AS isn't a real disorder. I have it worse than most of the members, here.

Well, I voted for HFA since it sounds like the AS label will be done away with. Personally, I hate to see the AS term gone, but I often refer to myself as having "Asperger's Syndrome which is a form of high functioning autism." People just seem to understand HFA better. My therapist even told me that I might be HFA rather than AS.