People who don't "believe in" Aspergers?

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I met a guy who is diagnosed with Asperger's, but he does not believe that it exists, he says its just a diffuse syndrome of made up symptoms and its a bit like a cult/religion.

To make matters worse he cannot get a job and refuses disability benefit, so his elderly parents have to give him their retirement savings lest he starves and/or has no where to live.

That's horrible.

WOW, did you earlier tell him you had it? Or, if you didn't, how did he go about telling you? Hopefully it was the good stuff that really stood out. Yeah, I don't think anyone I know ever really checked it out. My step mother knew SOMETHING about it, and didn't seem very surprised when I told her I thought I had it, but that is like the closest.

I bet some of my old classmates/teachers may find themselves wondering about me from time to time if they hear the symptoms though. I'm sure they never forgot about me. I met one guy over a decade after I left his school and, though we never really met, he still knew my name, etc...

Good point-dissimilar things (with unrelated internal origins/causes) can appear similar (indistinguishable) on the surface (externally).

I worry about this too-my natural skeptical defensiveness-fear of being made fool of for believing in or "buying into" anything, especially something so subjective, relative, involving judgment calls & setting symptom thresholds that seem arbitrary. I have been dx'd (late in life) and accept the label at least half the time, since whether or not I have this or that label, I'm still however I am, and need terminology with which to refer to my experiences.

This part's really long, sorry !
What is Stereotypical Syndrome, really ? In reference to autism spectrum diagnoses & "medical student" or "textbook" disease (learning about disorders can induce temporary hysteria/hypochondria, where the reader/listener becomes convinced he/she has a malady that he/she does not).

There's no "control" group (a comparison with only one altered variable) for one's particular life, and how it has unfolded over time as a co-creation of genes & environment. Ever since I can remember, I felt different ("what's wrong with me ?"). Have spent all these years trying out possibilities, searching for what could explain my peculiarities, many of which I was unaware of until after being diagnosed (in adulthood). Doesn't mean those differences didn't exist-only that no one (incl. me) knew how to conceptualize & verbalize them.

Assumed that if only I'd grown up in a different family (I blamed nurture, not nature), I'd have been happier-and that once I grew up & left my family, I would recover from their influence-and my issues. Have come to realize that problems are the natural outgrowth of human life, and that problems aren't limited to the home in which I was raised. It's obvious to me now, but when I was ignorant of this, I had no way to understand that I didn't know. Suffice it to say, events that transpired during my childhood (conscious interpretations of my external environment) are insufficient to explain the adult I've become-so that leaves biology (unconscious expressions of my internal environment). Have been told both that "there is definitely something 'off' or 'weird' about you" and "there's nothing wrong with you-other than your false belief that there is something wrong with you".

Hypothetical comparison:
If I had a brain tumor, the symptoms would be present ("real", physical, perhaps also only noticed as less clear neurological signs) but I wouldn't know what to make of them. I'd have no name to group them under, as parts of a single phenomenon, and would wonder "am I crazy, imagining this, delusional ?". Once I went to a doctor, if he/she diagnosed me with some other problem instead, I'd try to explain my symptoms as being expressions of that wrong diagnosis. This might replay itself over & over until I got what turned out to be correct diagnosis-brain tumor. Then I'd settle on that as being the proper "Rosetta Stone" with which to decode & interpret my subjective experiences.

With research, I'd assimilate & integrate specific information about that dx and how it fits with my individual situation. I'd start using the terminology of that medical problem & overlaying that framework atop all sorts of things in my daily life. I'd "seem" more like a person with a brain tumor, though of course I'd be no more or less "someone with a brain tumor" than the day before I got that diagnosis (officially, from doctor-whether or not I'd suspected this might be so, on my own). Would radical revision of my perspective (for what seem like valid reasons) cause people to categorize me as displaying "stereotypical syndrome" ?

I've had plenty of "mental" diagnoses floated (whether assigned by a professional or that I've seized upon in a book) as applying to me, and with each one came "keys" (like the legend in corner of map) through which to interpret my "symptoms". I used those in trying to comprehend myself, though these ideas just perpetuated themselves with superficial & circular reasoning. It's not my fault that I didn't get this label first, so have 'worn many hats' before trying this one on-yet, all the while, I was basically same person with similar problems. Didn't go from BEING a depressed or anxious person to someone with a personality disorder to someone who has an autism-related-condition. Whatever the concepts or precepts, I interpreted my idiosyncratic hieroglyphics using the keys I had, with unproductive results/conclusions. The current (most recent) label I've acquired (Asperger's Syndrome, a "high-functioning" person with autism spectrum disorder) seemed ridiculous when first it was suggested to me-but I've gotten more used to it (in the almost 4 years since then). ASD label comes without blame towards me, which in itself is very freeing-especially since other diagnoses seem to fault the person suffering from them (if only you would do this, you'd feel that, and then be okay"). It also happens to be closest thing to an accurate "Rosetta Stone" with which to decode (not overnight, but in slow process of unearthing connections between words and experiences) my physiological hieroglyphics.

People may react differently towards me (as in the past, with my previous diagnoses), based on what they call (how they explain) what it is that's different about me. I may attribute my pre-existing (lifelong) difficulties to this new label, connecting problems that never had a name with the plethora of acronyms suddenly available to me. I do have skepticism about whether I'm "buying into" a type that will turn out not to fit me after all-but that's been a hazard for every & any diagnosis (depending on how well the label seemed to fit, in the minds of the doctor and the 'client'-me). Inherent "wiggle-room" in deciding the threshold, cut-off point, and "where does one draw the line ?" (of "real" dysfunction vs. "normal" variation) doesn't render all judgments/determinations moot. It means everyone has to remain careful, on guard against erroneous assumptions-but not all assumptions are untrue & invalid-they may just arise from an incorrect origin.

Once one has a word for something, that (named phenomenon) may suddenly seem omnipresent-or at least a lot more frequent. Until point when I got ASD diagnosis, if asked to list my "symptoms" my profile might not seem to add up to an ASD. The words I used to describe myself wouldn't be couched in PDD terms, because my available conceptual framework was amalgam of all the previous diagnoses I'd accumulated. Those were the only ideas for which I had words with which to narrate, contextualize and encode conscious memories/experiences. So, of course that might make someone seem even more (whatever the new identity is)-but that doesn't mean the person is automatically changed, physically (bodily condition) he/she is the same.

How an individual expresses & presents oneself, relates to oneself & other people, and how others perceive/interpret that person (and how the "new name for an old face" affects the relationship) in light of new information* can lead to gradual or sudden changes in one's life (mental condition and societal status-social networks & being external/out in the world). What difference, if any, does getting a diagnosis make ? What changes does it enable, influence, allow, initiate, reveal ?
* diagnosis being just one possible example of a personal disclosure.

I was diagnosed at the age of 15. When my mother told my father, he said..."Thats rubbish, there's nothing wrong with her". This would be expected coming from him, anyway, as he hadn't seen me since I was 11 until last year [when I was 16].
I truly don't understand how people can deny something, that has scientific proof.

Your friend probably meant he doesn't believe Aspergers is a disease. He probably thinks your Asperger traits are part of your personality or part of a normal genetic variance. All of us are different. A group of psychologists decided to group some of your differences together and call it a disease. Some people don't agree with this.

Here's some examples:
Someone is shy and avoids people, they have avoidant personality disorder
Someone lies, is aggressive, impulsive, unable to make friends, they have antisocial personality disorder

They may even create a religious fundamentalism disorder for people they think take their religion too seriously

They can make up disorders and label people with anything. Everyone is different. If they don't like your differences, they will make up a disorder and label you with it. Your friend probably thinks this is a bunch of nonsense and sees your AS traits as part of who you are.

I'm autistic and when my parents said there was something wrong with me I told them there was absolutely nothing wrong with me and refused to change. I saw my autistic self as part of who I am and not as a disorder I must get rid of. Your parents aren't denying your autistic traits. They just see them as part of who you are as opposed to you having a disorder that needs to be fixed.

Often when Autism is diagnosed the last thing the parents want is for their child to be marked off. That is why they might not go with a diagnosis. A guy in my class (who I'm sure is AS) wasn't diagnosed because the doctor said he couldn't get a job with it. Another friend of mine won't admit to being AS because she sees it as being this overwhelming weakness that she "doesn't have"
Whenever I meet new people I make sure that if I do tell them about me being AS that I'm not going to be seen as either diseased or mentally ret*d. I let them get to know me personally first; let them get to see that neither is true. Also, if you do tell someone it tends to be better to make sure that person has an open mind; this will ensure that they will be understanding and not think poorly of you.
Some people have the narrow-minded view that AS people are disabled. But from my experience you'd be pretty hard pressed to find one that was; its more of a different frame of thinking than an inferior one. And that it is through thinking differently and stepping out of the norm that progress is made. If it is explained as less of a disability and more of a frame of mind; then you might have better luck them understanding you.

Well, religious nuttery IS a mental disorder IMO!

The most hilarious thing about my situation is that he's telling everyone that I have Munchausen's because I got my kid diagnosed with autism. How stupid is that? Yeah, that's really getting me alot of attention to have a kid with autism and to be autistic myself. Oooh. I'm such a sick camper.

Mental stuff like AS are not obvious, unlike, say, paralysis. Also a lot of people tend to assume, based on the naive assumption of "free will" as well as this country's "Calvinist-Puritan" cultural biases that "deviant" or "anti-social" behavior has to do with a lack of willpower or "moral fiber."

My ex uses this reason as well. My son will be saddled with this horrid diagnosis for the rest of his life. It will keep him from getting a job, a life, a wife, some kids. Like he's going to suddenly lose 100 IQ points because he's on the spectrum. Well, unfortuneately, it can be a disability. And it can give you issues in the workplace, school, etc...but you learn how to live with it. Just like people learn to live with other things. Acting like your life is over because of it is just stupid.

That's the best way. If they have a bad impression of what you have, let YOUR circumstance improve the general impression! That way, you don't let their impression make them deny you the chance to show them how YOU are.

Do employers even check if you have autism or AS? HECK, it is ILLEGAL in the US anyway! Life is what you make it! Women care about the prospects and what they see, they aren't going to see your medical records. As for losing 100 IQ points? I might STILL be able to get/hold the job I have with close to that much of a decline, even if I wouldn't be nearly as good. I say that only because I have seen some pretty stupid people in computers.

But it seems like many AS people are a couple or a few dozen points above normal. The WORST meltdowns probably don't lower it by much more than that, even if they DO seem to affect social and communication areas most of all. So, over all, IQ shouldn't be a general issue EITHER!

Anyway, your ex, if he even hopes to ever FEIGN care for your son, should SHUT-UP!! !! ! I really hope he does, he sounds like a real NUT! How did he even know how to have a kid? Did you help him there TOO!?!?

There is this stuff called DNA, it makes everyone different. Most are defective, know it, and are socially dependant because they will not survive alone. They can be useful in a limited way.

They are lowest common denominator people. They are evolution's buffer.

Some mixes do next to nothing, and some do too much. This is evolution's game. Genetics shows that the children of a few women at some point, now make up a lot of the population. Their mix worked, and I doubt they were NT.

Being social seems to block out getting anything done. So perhaps they just spent more time alone gathering food, or did not live with the group when the famine came, and people ate each other. Improved insight, reaction time, something made them and their line survive.

Billions of the least common denominator lines have ceased to exist. The world, through technology, now the Internet, is turning autistic. When plauges come, we have the least contact with others. When it is war, the brave good, one way, and we get told we have to stay home, because our tech skils are needed to make weapons. When it is famine, we will eat the same thing every day for years, all good survival traits.

Lowest common denominator was happy, till this education age. They worked very hard in school, and there was that strange kid who just understood math, science, without trying. The LCD could not cut it for Science, so they went for modern religion, Psychology, and in several years, learned everything about how the human mind worked. In their early twenties they had the mind totally figured out, and could test and group everyone.

Autism I believe, Asperger? I think it is a study of the quirks of smart people, and learning how to agravate them.

The autism part we are learning to deal with, it is a childhood thing, some stuff helps.

The Idea tha adults are failures because they do not over socialize, is someone trying to forceably convert me to their religion, The LCD Church.

The mental program they are pushing makes as much sense as demanding that everyone be of average highth. Since most are to short or tall, I try my best to cure them, they run to avoid me.

I just want everybody to be like everybody!

Cure Short People Now!

Shoot Low, they are Short!

It is real and we all have nothing to apologize for (regarding AS). The thing is that there is an awful lot of ignorance around concerning aspergers and autisim. A very good friend of mine is a social worker and he has over 100 clients who have AS. He tells me that they are all so different from one another (just like NT's )

I really support what the National Autistic Society are trying to do in the UK W/R/T trying to change public perception of autistic people. We need more of this. We care and we hurt just like anyone else! - we just might have different ways of showing it.