Difference between AS and HFA

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Is there a difference between HFA and AS? If so, what is it? Thanks

The difference was language delay (none in AS) but as of DSM 5 neither one exists anymore.

Then why do so many people on this website with AS keep calling themselves autistic? It kinda bugs me?

Why does it bug you?

I call myself autistic because I am autistic. That's tautological, but since you asked, that's why.

Because Asperger Syndrome IS High Functioning Autism.

That's what Rascal77s was just telling you. Other than one involving a delay in speech development in toddlers, they are one and the same. Therefore, anyone diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome has High Functioning Autism. We are all Autistic.

The most recent edition of the Diagnostic Manual doesn't even recognize the name Asperger Syndrome, although I hear a lot of professionals are refusing to acknowledge the new changes and the US Government isn't even using the DSM for Diagnostic criteria anymore.

Think of it this way; if you're a grizzly bear you are a bear. If you are a polar bear you are a bear. If you are a black bear you are still a bear. They are all different but they are still bears. Autism is a spectrum when it comes to severity and some individual characteristics but all share basic underlying problems. As I said in my last post, as of the DSM 5, most people who have HFA or AS (I'm still unsure of what will happen to PDD-NOS) will have their diagnosis changed to autism with a 1-3 severity level at some point. My therapist has already changed my medical record to reflect this.

Can you explain why it bugs you?

The reason it bugs me is probably because many people see it as a label and as a teenager I am still at the point where I care what others think about me. However, on this website I do feel more secure and less self conscious. Is it silly for me to be so self conscious at school?

Last edited by Musicgirl on 20 Jul 2013, 3:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Nobody is going to be mad at you. If you are diagnosed with AS or HFA you are autistic. You should care about how others see you, but hopefully you don't care so much that it causes problems in your life.

^^^^^

This.

Hans Asperger called AS autistic personality disorder (that's what "autistic psychopathy" translates to).

Aspergers has no language delay and heightened IQ.

Sorry for taking it so personally.

It doesn't have heightened IQ. It simply excludes IQs below 71.

The DSM-5, as someone already pointed out, has (fortunately) eliminated Asperger's Disorder from the lexicon. The new term is Autism Spectrum Disorder.

"Asperger's Syndrome" is still in the ICD-10, but it does not appear in the ICD-11 beta.

If I had been labeled Autistic as a teen, I suppose maybe it would have bothered me, I can't say for sure - in those days no one had ever heard of Autism, so nobody would have had any idea what I was talking about.

In my case, I had spent so many years being yelled at and oppressed and verbally and emotionally beaten down for being odd and different, it was a huge relief to suddenly have that label and realize that the things I'd been persecuted for for decades were not personality flaws in ME, as an individual, but an alternate neurological wiring schematic that many others had, too. I was actually thrilled to finally have an answer to the question that parents, teachers and employers had screamed at me all my life: "What the F__K is WRONG with you!?" Now I knew - and there was something cathartic about that.

As for feeling self-conscious, I can't recall many times when I haven't felt that way, except when I was alone, doing something I knew I was good at. I did experience a period immediately after being officially diagnosed, during which every time I had to go out in public, I felt hyper-aware of everything I did, like every little movement I made must be announcing to the world that I was Autistic. After a while it began to sink in that while that was probably true, it had always been that way, which was why I had always felt alienated from and been variously marginalized by my peers. So, if I did look odd to the world, I had ALWAYS looked odd, so no point in getting freaked out about it now.

Point being, I learned very early in life that I was not like everybody else, that to most of the people around me whatever it was that I am was never going to be entirely acceptable, but there was nothing I could do to change it. I was who I was, whether anybody else liked it or not. Then I began to realize how ridiculous and pointless and illogical were the behaviors and beliefs of the very people who considered themselves "normal" and I decided that I was actually glad that I wasn't like them, even if it meant being left out, ignored and alone much of the time - because, in order to become what they were, I would have to LOSE valuable parts of who I am, and frankly, THEY are not worth that sacrifice. Same reason if somebody invented a pill that cured Autism, you couldn't MAKE me take it. I'm proud of being different than those mindless monkeys.