Is Asperger's overdiagnosed or underdiagnosed?

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Do you mean straight as in heterosexual? So they didn't want bi sexuals or homosexuals in the military?

That's what I meant, yeah. At the time, it was "if you're gay/lesbian/bisexual you're out." Don't Ask, Don't Tell was some years later.

I wonder when they changed it then? I also wonder if they also didn't allow asexuals to join?

But how are they going to know who is gay or lesbian or bi when they join? I can just see them joining anyway not even telling anyone their sexual orientation.

September 2011 is when the US ended the ban. I do not believe that asexuals were targeted in any way.



Many did, but I think it would have been rather impossible for me to keep it secret. I also did not need the stress.

I've only skimmed this thread, but the discussion highlights why I've gone back and forth on whether I should pursue a formal evaluation.

I don't have a diagnosis, but I seem to meet the DSM-IV criteria for AS in terms of social deficits and repetitive behaviors. I've had a therapist tell me that I seem to "tend toward" having AS (I don't feel comfortable with outright self-diagnosis, so I qualify and say I have AS tendencies, though I may not meet the full criteria).

But am I impaired? I have a few friends and steady employment, so those count against "significant impairment." Just the same, I tend to struggle in social settings for a few reasons and I nearly got fired from my job a couple years ago because I got so absorbed in one of my duties (which became a special interest of sorts) that I largely ignored the others. Does that count as significant impairment? Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. I've seen some point out that you may not realize how impaired you are until someone points it out to you, so I can't say either way.

I think it's underdiagnosed, if the statistics I've seen touted around are right about more being diagnosed today than before. There are lots of older people that are undiagnosed as the % of the population probably has stayed the same but the awareness has risen. Or if there actually are more aspies being born too, and then that would probably be due to Rhogam allowing more RH neg women to get more children.
I don't think the rate of misdiagnosis is higher than other syndroms.. It sounds like fearmongering.

I don't know you but I doubt you're the most "high functioning" person in the world. Btw, Wikipedia says "People with AS may not be as withdrawn around others compared to those with other, more debilitating, forms of autism; they approach others, even if awkwardly. [...] This social awkwardness has been called "active but odd". Don't know the original source but that sounds about right.



Very weird to think people should be exactly the same when they are adults as they were as children. Because I assume this skepticism wasn't directed towards kids. People grow up. Holding up children as the ~true form~ of autism (or anything) is just ludicrous.

I think it is over diagnosed. I assume many people have social anxiety and self esteem issues that everyone experiences mixed up with mild autism. Because there is so much overlap with symptoms and people tend to reach for an identity they jump right on the Asperger's band wagon. But then again there are people who are honest with themselves and do the research.

Autism is a serious developmental disorder.

Well it is a spectrum disorder, so there will be more severe and less severe manifestations of it. In addition to that, some people who weren't diagnosed early had to adapt - no one would allow them to not learn to be social because of a diagnosis, because there was no diagnosis. (This doesn't mean they truly adapted, because you don't really, they simply learned skills, and how to fake it.) On top of that, it's impossible to peek inside another person's mind or how they experience life, so really how can you know?

There's also the flailing about with things we couldn't adapt to or that no one understood, like obsessive interests and stimming, that we may have repressed without understanding why they existed to begin with. I remember getting in trouble in school for something I now realize was a form of stimming. There were other forms that were acceptable, but I never understood why I liked to do either. But you'd better believe that being embarrassed in front of the whole school made me stop the one. I have finally let myself resume it - in my 50s - and find it very calming.

It's apparent that even professionals have trouble agreeing on a diagnosis, so I don't see why any of us who aren't pros would think they could make that determination for another person. We can make an educated guess, but a guess is the best it's ever going to be.

And I'm just more prone to trust the three medical professionals who diagnosed me as opposed to deferring to the judgement of someone's mom.

I also don't talk about my special interests all the time because I don't LIKE talking about them (or much of anything else).

Same. Even none of my friends (parents probably have worked one of them out) don't even know what most of my special interests are.

I do know some people with Autism who are the same.

Define "medical condition". A label is not an inherent property of something. Now, what do they have in common?