I live in a small town in the middle of nowhere with few options as far as counselors. I have been going to a guy for a while who has helped quite a bit with some depression and suicidal issues. He is, unfortunately, one of the many "Asperger skeptics" who essentially believes Autism is only a low-functioning disability title put on people who can't live independently or hold a job. Asperger's, he would say, is not a form of Autism, but just a faddish "code word" for quirky and highly introverted people.
He says I am just a brilliant person frustrated by a mundane existence or an "eccentric genius" personality like Einstein. It is funny that if you google
Eccentricity, you get a description very similar to Asperger symptoms. Einstein is also one of the first famous people you may mention if you are trying to describe Asperger's.
I wonder if this "eccentric" title is just a catch-all euphemism for nerdy people, many of whom clearly do not have Asperger's. I would also agree that to some extent it is a "fad diagnosis" similar to fibromyalgia or ADHD. Clearly there are many people who genuinely have these diagnoses, but also many who are misdiagnosed. This lowers the public credibility for those who genuinely need help.
What do you think? Is eccentric just an umbrella term for any atypical person? Is it what shrinks say when they are afraid of the A-word? Something else?
I think the description of eccentrics in the Wikipedia article that you linked to sounds much more like AS than like nerdiness. I mean, being unaware of and uninterested in social norms and socializing, etc, isn't nerdy, it's AS.
04 Aug 2009, 9:59 pm
