Does anyone have a copy of the proposed DSM-V criteria?

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I just tried to visit the APA (American Psychiatric Association) website to review the proposed criteria (as I often do) and it seems they've now taken it down, ahead of publication in 2013.

So I've done a bit of Googling and it looks like pretty much every site that's been sharing or discussing it has either linked directly to the APA website or summarised the criteria into something barely resembling the original draft.

Does anyone know of another website that has published it in full, or have a copy of the criteria that could be posted here (ideally including the severity levels etc.)?

I think now might be a good time to make sure we have it easily available somewhere on WP (or maybe it's already on WP somewhere...?) before even more references to it start to vanish all over the net. There's a good chance the one that gets published in 2013 will incorporate significant changes too and I'm sure many of us will want to compare.

Thanks to anyone who is willing and able to share!

https://sfari.org/news-and-opinion/news ... -disorders

That's brilliant, thanks!!

Any chance anyone has the severity levels too? They were on a separate tab on the APA website so I haven't often seen them discussed or reproduced.

I've been looking for the too, but I haven't found them yet.

Personally, I welcome the changes mainly because this criteria fits me better than the current Autism or Aspergers one and I'm not quite sure what PDD-NOS really means. xD

Not that you asked, just making conversation.

Conversing is Good.

I can see both sides of the debate and my conclusion is that they need to start all over again as soon as this next one is published since there are still so many loose ends and misunderstood or poorly understood aspects of spectrum disorders.

It doesn't really apply to me since I fail to tick enough boxes on the DSM-IV-tr, proposed DSM-V, Gillberg or any other criteria I've looked at. It would be nice if there was a category for people like me, but I guess I do struggle far less than the vast majority of people on WP. If I were to go for a diagnosis of anything, I'd be labelled with garden variety social anxieties and/or mild depression etc. but the reality is that I can clearly see that the issues I do have are directly or indirectly caused by having strong BAP traits so my social anxieties are nothing like typical NT anxieties.

Hmm, I thought that if they were significant enough to cause impairment but kind of, not there enough in some areas or something, you could have a diagnosis of PDD-NOS. Is that a possibility for you?

I'd be surprised. It's my own personal assessment that I don't fit the criteria.

For example, where other people have this experience of reading books about ASDs (eg. Rudy Simone's Aspergirls as a good example for females) and finding that they suddenly identify with so much of the book as though it speaks their life, I contrastingly only identify with a few bits here and a few bits there and I have very few of the issues that cause most people so many problems (eg. hypersensitivity to sensory stimuli).

I also think I understand other people just fine, verbally and non-verbally, but I find it hard to subscribe to the appropriate reactions. I can though, I just find it really disingenuous. And my obsessions are there, but they present atypically. My repetitive behaviours are more for fun than to control or make sense of a confusing world. So no, I don't think I struggle clinically in the way that many do, even in the context of PDD-NOS.

My main issue is that I find I identify very strongly with this community in a cultural way. I love it here on WP and I've never been one to spend time on forums before. One of my main issues in real life is that I have never felt a sense of belonging anywhere, and now I think I understand why. However, I've never felt completely alien either, I did have the odd friend and was never bullied to any noticeable degree. It would just be nice for me to be able to say "I am an ...", because that feels incredibly important to me for some reason and would do my self esteem wonders and help me explain why I am me in a really positive way. But as things are currently, diagnosis is all about ability to function with neurotypicals and not about feeling at one with the world or one's self.

Sorry, that's quite long and off topic. I think I got carried away...

Wow. That was really interesting, thanks. And it made the proposed changes look a lot more positive for people generally than what I've come across so far.

I see. Well, good thing we let all sorts on here. Hence all the BAP topics? This makes sense.

I know personally I am not great (or even good) at self-analysis. I have little idea where I fit, what I fit, etc. Quite a lot of people think I do fit the profile of ASD. I would say probably Aspergers, but I had very impaired self-help skills, so who knows. My university is helping me get a referral for a diagnosis, so we will see.

Aspi-rant. Thanks for the video contribution. I'll have a look at that when I have the attention span, and bandwidth, for a twenty minute video. xD

I still am confused though.

Will we with an Asperger's diagnosis have to get re-evaluated so that we can then be called ASD? Or does the fact that we were diagnosed with Asperger's automatically make us ASD?

In other words, will my psychologist have to sit down and re-test me in order to call me ASD level (whatever) or will they just change the coding on my paperwork?

This really concerns me, as we know that I'm autistic but don't necessarily have the money to pay for another test just to re-confirm what we already know and change the silly name.

I mean, that's a heck of a lot of people that would need to be re-tested then just to change the name of their diagnosis.