DSM-V Is taking away our identity.

Post Reply New Topic

The other thing is, I bet every single other person in that program was unjustly treated as if they were stupid as well. And they couldn't escape the labels they were given the way you eventually did. The fact is that many people with intellectual disabilities, and many people with autism who lack certain conversational skills, can get jobs in various medical-related fields. The reason that they don't more often, is prejudice, not lack of ability. For people who are able to work, there are jobs in nearly any field that are possible for them to do, it's just a matter of matching skills to jobs. Being put in with people with intellectual disabilities is not synonymous with being isolated from people you can talk to, or with being considered stupid, or with being shut out of job opportunities that are appropriate to you. Those only happen in situations that are just as bad for them as they are for you. (I have been in plenty of situations with people with intellectual disabilities where everyone was treated with a large amount of respect and everything went fine as a result. In fact, some of those situations were more accepting of me than situations with primarily other autistic people. It all depends on context.)

The other thing I don't get (speaking generally) is once the DSM doesn't have AS in it anymore, what exactly stops people who really really like the word AS from continuing to use it? There are plenty of words that don't exist in official diagnostic settings that people still use. (MPD or just MP or "plurality" or "multiplicity" instead of DID, for instance.)

I hadn't really thought of it; but medical labs--yeah, I can definitely see how you could employ people with developmental delays in that field.

I've done some tasks in my school's undergrad research programs that really were simple enough to be taught to just about anybody (my school is big on teaching labs, and the profs don't last long here if they have a problem with undergrads underfoot). It only looks complicated, really. Like maintaining cell cultures, for example: There's a five-step process, and all five steps are clearly printed out with the exact things you need to do. That kind of clarity is wonderful for me, but I bet that benefit extends beyond just plain autism. And there are so many people who would benefit from a quiet, relatively organized environment--so many jobs they give to people with developmental delays are chaotic and noisy and uncomfortable.

I have a friend whose daughter has various brain issues that cause developmental delay; she's also ridiculously hyperlexic (learned to read when she was two--and this was with developmental delay). She's around twenty now and trying to figure out how to support herself. They put her in this program where she was doing piecework, making firestarters out of candle wax and sawdust... she was making hardly any money at all, less than five dollars a week; and that work doesn't use any of her talents. And her mom has told me about how very good she is with reading and picking out small details (she's musically gifted too but hardly anybody gets a job doing that).

So I suggested maybe they should check into becoming a proofreader or doing data entry... I mean, makes sense, right, with her strengths? But apparently the voc rehab people had stereotyped this girl so much that her mom was actually surprised when I said that I thought it'd be a good idea, because she hadn't ever had anybody tell her that her daughter could be good at something, competitively good and not just given a job out of charity. Apparently developmentally delayed people aren't "supposed to" be able to proofread documents--and this is the same person who knows her daughter very well, knows her talents and interests, knows that her daughter's a whiz at spelling and can spot a grammar error or a typo a mile off... Last I heard, my friend and her daughter were gearing up to fight for a decent job and a decent paycheck. (I've only met the daughter once; so I don't know what she thinks about it, but if I were her, I wouldn't want a job that didn't use my talents and paid five dollars a week.)

When you have preconceived notions of what a person can do because of their diagnosis, you miss finding a niche for people where they can contribute their talents and do profitable work. I wish more vocational rehab people knew that.

They can have it, I fancy a new one.

Maybe the problem isn't that we have different views of what the actual issue is, so much as that there are practical matters to consider, like stereotypes, which are their own problems and should be addressed as such. Once we have a society in which we value people and treat them as humans regardless of configuration, it doesn't matter if it's called Purple Monkey Syndrome.

(Also, I finally figured out what I meant to say: shouldn't you know your cognitive style in case you end up in a situation where you need help, or even to prevent that from happening? Someone who only gets a dx when their problems get to be too much will be standing on different ground from someone who's known all along, and knows what's going on and why. And they're both going to do worse than someone who, knowing all along, prevented it. That's what I meant to say with all those words that had good points but weren't what I was getting at.)

The thing is, the difference you bring out, it's not part of the diagnostic criteria. Maybe there should be such a diagnostic distinction. But right now, officially, there isn't.[/quote]

I know that is what they should have as the criteria. The diagnostic criteria they have now is not that specific in the differences, which can put certain stigmas on people with Asperger's. I know everyone wants services, but you want to make sure you get the right services for you capabilities and not just any plain old services that are inappropriate. It would not be fair for a person with Asperger's to be put into a program where they are treated below their capabilities. Through this, they could create more program geared towards people with Asperger's, where they can give them job skills training in jobs that are more for their Many people with Asperger's have college degrees and if they had such programs, they can get them these jobs. Also, many people with Asperger's could get married and have kids, so these program can help them with family life and preparations for such events. In my state the only programs for disabled people are geared for the mentally ret*d with developmental disabilities, which is what they were originally created for, so that they could close the institutions. Unfortunately these programs only teach very limited skills, especially advanced social skills. They don't teach a person about marriage, how to raise a child, and the other things that allow a person who is capable of living a fully independent life anything. The social the teach is how to say hi, or go on trips, but no lessons on how to interact or date, or even sexual education. The job the provide are only medial jobs, like janitorial work, but nothing like a professional career. i wanted something like working in medical, like a lab tech or something, but they told me that those jobs were too advanced for the clientele that they serve. This was an autism program. This is why they need to separate these diagnosis and come up with more differences.