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Belushi87
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13 Oct 2014, 1:42 am

i don't think that Aspergers would be considered a mental illness, but would Aspergers be labelled as a personally disorder?
how would explain Aspergers to someone that doesn't have Aspergers?



LupaLuna
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13 Oct 2014, 2:07 am

It's defiantly a different personality. Whether or not it can be called a disorder, I think is more based on the cultural standards of the NT society that we are compared to.



Jono
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13 Oct 2014, 3:23 am

Belushi87 wrote:
i don't think that Aspergers would be considered a mental illness, but would Aspergers be labelled as a personally disorder?
how would explain Aspergers to someone that doesn't have Aspergers?


No, it's not a personality disorder, it's more of a developmental disorder. It's more to do with impaired development of social functioning at an age-appropriate level but has little to do with personality. In fact, there's no one kind of personality associated with asperger's, personality is about as varied in the ASD community as it is in the general population.



The_Walrus
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13 Oct 2014, 4:06 am

I agree with Jono. Autism is a developmental disability, not a personality disorder. We have a different neurological wiring that makes it difficult for us to "read" people, and gives us strange sensory issues, amongst other things.



zer0netgain
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13 Oct 2014, 4:35 am

I say no.

A personality disorder can be addressed with therapy to teach people how to properly interrelate.

People with AS have legitimate processing issues with incoming stimulus...not just a difficult time interacting with others.



ASPartOfMe
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13 Oct 2014, 6:00 am

It causes problems/differences with communications, sensory and executive functioning and is liked to co-morbid conditions. Even the communication issues such a poor eye contact are probably sensory overestimation. All the emphases is on personalty "disorders" mainly because that s the priority of the majority. That does not make it right.


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13 Oct 2014, 6:13 am

No, it isn´t. Technically and administratively it falls under psychiatric conditions, but it is a specified developmental disorder/different-ness.
Since autism has many traits, that superficially could look like a personality disorder, many, especially those, who were dxéd as adults, have had those labels, before it was discovered (often by themselves), that they in fact are autistic in some way, at some level.

The typical misinterpretations from professionals::
Obsessive interest in self: Narcissism: Need to control appearence/"personality"
ASD: Why?

Social anxiety: Phobia: They are out to get me somehow.
ASD: Clueless. What´s happening?


There are more. Read the descriptions of personality disorders, trait by trait and ask yourself, if you can identify. Most people can´t.


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Gizalba
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13 Oct 2014, 7:21 am

I read in Tony Attwood's complete guide to Asperger's that Hans Asperger himself originally called Asperger's 'autistic personality disorder', which I found interesting. However with more research they re-labelled it, and today it is not classed as a personality disorder.

I agree with those above who have stated why it isn't personality disorder, regarding the problem being developmental and more to with the brain processing sensory information differently or deficiently (e.g. one difficulty with social communication can be not being able to read a person's face or body language well enough to understand the silent information being conveyed, as well as a neurotypical person can). The problem here isn't to do with personality, but some may mistakenly assume it is if they don't realise the reason behind the autistic person's response/behaviour. Jono makes a very good point in saying that personality variation occurs just as much within those with autism as it does within those without autism.



b9
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13 Oct 2014, 7:47 am

Belushi87 wrote:
i don't think that Aspergers would be considered a mental illness, but would Aspergers be labelled as a personally disorder?
how would explain Aspergers to someone that doesn't have Aspergers?


it may seem like a personality disorder to many people.

i will talk about me, and i was diagnosed as autistic when i was 2 years old, but i have an adequate IQ in order to "strut my stuff" in the world of normal people albeit with limitations of "affectation".

i am a normal looking person, but i sometimes attract people who like my absence of facial expressions coupled with my attention to what i am doing, and sometimes they have fallen in love with me for whatever reasons they have, but i never felt the same way about them.

i can not deeply love anyone because i just can't. i do not know why.

i always am most interested in my point of view, and i never understand other points of view held by other people because they are not mine. i can not disassociate myself from myself enough in order to feel empathy.

i can see that some people in my life feel poorly, but i have no subjective idea as to how, even though they may tell me over and over.

it is unfortunate in some ways that i am closed off to the depths of humanity, but in other ways i am so grateful for it.

i do not feel the passions of humanity.

i do not ever feel "elated" or "euphoric"
i do not ever feel "pride" or "vanity"
i do not ever feel despair or hopelessness.
i do not ever feel loneliness or boredom.
i do not ever feel shame.
i do not ever feel guilt either.

i do not know what they feel like.

i can still be a good person without that knowledge or feeling, and so i am me who is, incidentally, autistic



ZombieBrideXD
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13 Oct 2014, 9:15 am

neurological developmental disability


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13 Oct 2014, 10:14 am

zer0netgain wrote:
I say no.

A personality disorder can be addressed with therapy to teach people how to properly interrelate.

People with AS have legitimate processing issues with incoming stimulus...not just a difficult time interacting with others.


A lot of personality disorders come with more than a difficult time interacting with others.


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