Is Aspergers trendy?

Post Reply New Topic

[By the way I just accidentally clicked on the word asperger there and autocorrect wanted to change it to "aspirer". Thought that was nice, but wondering if the apples put it in on purpose lol]

This pees me off, but maybe it is just written for the masses to flock to his post and buy his book? He might have more traits than he wants to talk about here, but in that case it's irresponsible of him not to mention his other difficulties.

Link: huffington post article

^^^ this to me sounds like almost every man who hasn't been brought up being told manners/responsibility as the grew up- just bad parenting. Its also a very typical story of ANY marriage where the communication has broken down, then the wife just nags and husband shuts down. As soon as she put some effort in to support him, he's cured?! Thats what she should've been doing anyway, and he should've been looking at his failings and trying to be a better husband without the label. If he can think about self-improvement, write a few notes on basic manners and be cured then that's not enough to warrant a diagnosis.

The book is probably amazing if you take out the aspergers bit.

I wonder if he feels like the word 'autism' fits him?

(Disbelief)

Last edited by ImAnAspie on 26 May 2014, 4:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

Maybe I should've put "jk" instead of

Edit: ps. I could look at that pic for hours and never stop laughing!

You're right AlienorAspie. I was just hackin' on ya!

Yeah, it's hilarious, isn't it?

Asperger's... trendy? Eh, I don't pay attention to trends...

In some "severe" cases speak or communicate period. Many on the spectrum are not able to hold long term relationships. Even in a hypothetical world that does not discriminate against us and now matter how much will power a person has with some cases with very low Executive Functioning would not be able to do basic organizing or adopt to minimal change.

In a Autistic friendly world people on the spectrum generally would be much more functioning in society and plenty of NT's can't do these things either. But Autism by itself prevents people from doing things

AlienorAspie, I totally understand what you are saying and I know the point you are making and agree with you, I just wanted to make a slight correction on a technical point. Actually some people with two prosthetic legs can fun much faster than those with natural legs because their prosthetic are really advanced.

I would agree that AS has become a bit of a trend.

It's confusing reading all this about can't. Everyone who is a helper worth listening to focuses on can. There are plenty of teachers and therapists and counselors and other people who are negative, but the ones worth paying any attention to, they say can. Try to explain what to do, or help set things up to make can possible.

I don't think it's "trendy" to have Asperger's even these days, especially among people who are in the "working classes." It's common for people within this socioeconomic bracket to believe that Asperger's is a "rich man's" disease, and that people with Asperger's, if they make use of their "will power," would have their symptoms reduced, or even eliminated.

I believe Asperger's research is seen as being fascinating because of the savant abilities exhibited by some people with Asperger's, and the evident potential exhibited by people on all rungs of the Spectrum, especially those who cannot communicate verbally, but who could communicate quite well via Augmentative and Alternative Communications Devices.

Within a US context, it's still quite problematic to reveal that you have Asperger's, especially in view of the recent murders and their supposed connection with Asperger's. The fear of "going postal" amongst employers is quite high.

Maybe in certain "enlightened" circles, Asperger's is a trendy disorder--but amongst the masses (at least in the US), it is demonstrably NOT trendy.

To me , that supports my idea because being able to seem less affected already makes the people on WP less severely affected than many with ASD, I think. Nearly half the spectrum is still thought to have intellectual disability, 25% not able to speak, there are different figures but the majority are unemployed. Looking at the whole spectrum, most are not going to be able to (even expending exponential energy and effort) fake what they need to (reading non-verbal cues and all) to keep a job and relationship ect. Consider that you'd need the intellectual capacity which not all would have and other symptoms besides social ones might interfere, if you were severely impaired by an all consuming interest you might not have the motivation to put in the time and effort to learn those things even if it's to your own great peril. I'm NOT saying that someone with ASD can't have these things but those who do are a small minority. I think that minority is over-represented on WP, which is okay but it can give people a false sense of what life is like for most people on the spectrum.

Supporting documentation:

For example, only 55 percent of young adults with autism had paid employment, while 86 percent of those with a speech or language impairment, 94 percent of those with a learning disability and 69 percent of those with mental retardation did. From: link

I can't copy and paste from the site but the proportion of young adults with autism working full-time (35 hours or more ) was 1/3 that of young adults with disabilities in general , 26% compared to 71%.

Also 35% worked in a sheltered work environment (only with other adults with disabilities ) which was 7 times as high as for adults with disabilities in general , 5%.
From:link

Almost half (46%) of children identified with ASD has average to above average intellectual ability. From: CDCdata2014link

25% not able to speak From: link

Last edited by daydreamer84 on 26 May 2014, 11:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

If having ASD were trendy, that should be helping people with ASD be more accepted hence more likely to be employed.

Why would that be a problem? It seems like it should help with the employment issue anyway.

I focus on can, now and growing up, and my parents focus on can, and the people I know at nonprofit focus on can with both HFA and LFA kids, and the autistic people I know offline focus on can.

Trends get negative as well as positive attention by being in the public eye, so to speak.

How many jobs directly involve writing though? Per Tony Attwood's Complete Guide... (whom we'd all say is an expert in the field):

"Alternative ways to express emotion:
The person conducting the affective education program can also explore different ways of expressing feelings. I have noted that while the person with Asperger?s syndrome can have considerable difficulty talking about emotions, there can be a greater eloquence and insight when expressing his or her emotions typing an e-mail, writing a diary or composing a poem; or perhaps choosing or playing music, drawing a picture that repre- sents the emotions or recalling a scene from a movie" (157).

"About 50 per cent of children with Asperger?s syndrome have relatively advanced verbal reasoning skills, and may be colloquially described as ?verbalizers?. If such a child has difficulty acquiring a particular academic ability in the social ?theatre? of the class- room, then his or her knowledge and understanding may be improved by reading about the concept or engaging in a one-to-one discussion...The ?verbalizers? may eventually be successful in careers where verbal abilities are an advantage, for example journalism or the legal professions" (229).

I didn't become a good writer until I was in my 30's, and it took incredible work to get there. I have always had terrible executive functioning skill in organizing my thoughts. I was very close to being put into remedial English as a high schooler, even though my level of reading was well above my peers. It's possible that WP is simply populated with the end of the spectrum that prefers communicating through written word, i.e., the "verbalizers."

On WP, I've always been surprised that many people are good at talking about their emotions and knowing many social cognition things and using as much as neurotypicals on other forums, it seems, like when people project onto other people and accuse each other of having some weird motivation or thinking this or that, the act of which (whether or not they get anything accurate) is spontaneous social cognition.