USA Today story on adults with AS.

Post Reply New Topic

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/200 ... htm?csp=34


They really need to get there facts straght. Most people I know with AS want to date, have relationships, ect.

I would absolutly love to date, cant do it right tho...

Ten years later, she is STILL unfamiliar with Asperger Syndrome in adults.

That's for a good laugh, and nothing else.

Poor woman.

On a positive note, I just finished reading Liane Holliday Willey's memoir, which is cited in this article. It has already been a fabulous help to me. I wish I'd read it long ago.

But I'm mad. Those "experts" from Yale, need a serious reality check.

There are some great comments below the article! I hope Ami Klin and Katherine Tsatsanis pay some heed. I can't believe they work with people on the spectrum and still don't have a clue that those of us who are interested in relationships still have such a degree of impairment as to potentially destroy those relationships if we don't have help learning how to make it work. Why on earth do they want to place the arbitrary cut-off point at such a low level of functioning?

BTW, Marshack was against those experts, as was Willey. They're not the ones who said AS folks don't have an interest in marriage.

No Ken, people like to mate; i.e., they like to meet members of the other gender who they are compatible with. For autistics, it's difficult. [email protected] for more details

I like how the author pointed out: "But Marshack, whose self-published A Sliver in My Mind: Loving Those With Asperger Syndrome arrives this year, says experts who say Asperger's adults don't marry or have children either "have their heads stuck in the sand" or do not believe many have learned to compensate for their deficits."

Can't you just clarify what you mean, right here in the thread?

Wasn't it actually recognised officially in 1984?

I heard it was 1992.

The process is lengthy.. the criteria may have been submitted in 1984 but not accepted till the early 90s.

In any case this person obviously needs to learn something about adults with autism before stating "facts" that are based on nothing more than superficial observations of children.

What scares me is that these statements were not made by people who have made only superficial observations. They are recognized experts in the field of autism research. They have a lot of power. They're Yale for goodness' sake!

The research wasn't translated into English until 1991, so 1992 sounds about right for American doctors.

Here is a copy of the letter i just emailed to USA Today:

Hello,

I am a 39 YO male who was diagnosed with AS when I was 36. I have a good job and many friends. I am glad you had a story on AS in adults, as most doctors, ect. focus on children and teens with AS.

However, I felt you mad some streotypical generalizations about people with AS:

" Forming close friendships and dating run counter to Asperger's adults' goals, colleague Tsatsanis says; Klin says he has never known a parent with Asperger's."

People I know with AS want to have friends, some would like to have children. Many people with AS I know, including me, want to have good friendships and date, ect. Its not that we don't want to, but due to:

1. People with AS don't get body languge, social cues, ect. So its harder for us. to get what people are really saying. People with AS do need to work on this.

2. People without AS need to be aware of people with AS and know that everyone does not get the "games" people play when dating, ect. People need to be honest with each other.

Saying everyone with AS just wants to be alone is not right and shows the so called doctors that know about AS still have alot of work to do on the subject.

"Forming close friendships and dating run counter to Asperger's adults' goals, colleague Tsatsanis says; Klin says he has never known a parent with Asperger's."


Funy I remember reading that in most cases of adult diagnoses it happened because when the child was diagnosed with As, the parent recognized alotof the symptoms in themselves.

I am professionally diagnosed with AS, in a relationship with a man who was also professionally diagnosed with AS. We have discussed our longterm future together, and the possibility about having children. We're not quite sure on the children issue jsut yet, but with our ages being 21 and 25, we have plenty of time left to decide. Its definately a possibility

AS is pretty new in a lot of circles, so there's going to be a lot of ignorance (albeit from people who "should" know better); autism still has erroneous connotations and misconceptions attached to it and it's been around for ages.

How true do the people here think it is, that Aspies are not as hurt by solitude as NTs? One of the comments was from a woman who could have been my own mother, talking about how sad she is for her college-age AS daughter because the daughter has few friends and isn't dating. She thinks that the daughter must be miserable, but I don't think so.