"Downtown Shop Owner Battles With Aspergers"

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BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- "Bad Girl Designs" continues to develop its clientele of costumers seeking the abstract look all while its owner battles a socially debilitating disease. Between the all absorbing narrow interests, the structured routines, or the speech and language problems Asperger’s syndrome can grip a person's everyday interactions with the outside world.

Owner of “Bad Girl Designs” Gabrielle Lopez has dealt with this high - functioning form of autism for a decade now. Lopez demonstrated to ABC 23 how she copes with this socially awkward condition: http://www.turnto23.com/news/19367811/detail.html

Wow, how uttely sensationalistic.

"Battles socially debilitating disease". Give me a break.

Anything to grab people's attentions.

Pickin' yer battles topic

Reporters are TROLLS. To those like him I feel like doing something VERY unsociable.

She looks older than 10...

"Disease"?
Sensationalist American media...

Sadly, I hear this everywhere now , even where I live.
People even make jokes about this whole "disease" idea.

These stigmatising attitudes are the reason why I'm currently afraid seek help.

This word in itself depresses me, it's almost as if people want me to "suffer" for being myself.

I mean what the heck?! .

I was very happy before this word "disease" was even mentioned.
I even enjoyed myself for a time when I forgot about this word "syndrome" and people accepted me for who I was. I didn't walk around wearing a tag. Many didn't even want me labeled.

I really didn't know that "social awkwardness" even existed before about a month ago.
I thought I was just human like everyone else doing the best I could.


If AS is a "disease" I'd like to see the objective medical and/or genetic evidence that proves this claim.

As for a "Folk illness" who knows?
Perhaps certain difficulties are exacerbated by social expectations and pressures.


As for what "illness" is, that topic's being debated on a whole other thread...
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt98075.html

Diseases and Illnesses can be cured, Syndromes cannot. Still, anything's better than calling it a "disability" or a "disorder".

I'd much rather it be called a disability or a disorder than a disease.

Disease is, to me, about the most objectionable and inaccurate thing it could be called.

Some people age better than others. (or maybe they couldn't use her photo on the internet because she was a minor). In any case, I think they should arrest the guy with whom she had the teenage son.

I agree.

Ugh, this article is horrible. So inaccurate.

Judging from the comments to that article, WPers are not the only ones angry at channel 23 for that tripe. Bakersfield, California is a minor TV market (250,000 people or so). Such places usually get the worst reporters. I've followed news from smaller cities, and the reporting is dreadfully awful. Anyway, any aspie who has the steel balls to run a retail store gets a big pat on the back from me, since retail is usually horrible for us.

I actually liked this article, despite some obvious errors. I thought it did a pretty fair job of representing what the experience of aspie life is all about, a passionate fascination with specialized interests coupled with extreme difficulty in dealing with people.

Okay, Asperger's isn't a disease, but it's definitely socially debilitating or it would be an unmixed blessing, and "battles" isn't an overly dramatic term for an aspie trying to function in society.



This is absolutely true.



"Socially awkward" is as good a description as any.



Despite the use of the word "disease," I absolutely love this because it describes the biggest obstacle we face. Our everyday reality is something most people couldn't imagine; How could interacting with people, something so easy and natural, be a struggle?

That's why it's so commonly assumed that the difficulties we face are our own fault.

Since the reporter is making a damn impressive effort to promote respect and understanding, I'm willing to excuse the factual errors.

Apologies for double posting, but this reporter also caught on to something that a lot of people with more factual knowledge would have missed or ignored:

If the aspie in question was an engineer explaining to other engineers that the waste water treatment system she designed would remove pollutants more efficiently and cost less than conventional systems, she would have much less difficulty caused by her aspie social limitations.

Instead, she's dealing with retail sales of unorthodox fashions, where purchasing decisions are entirely based on emotion, and aspies are not too skilled at generating positive emotional states in people they talk to.

This is one of the most difficult situations for an aspie working to realize a dream, and despite the obvious deficiencies in factual knowledge, the reporter recognized that this was significant enough to include it in the story.

I would still take objection with "socially debilitating".

There are actually a lot of conditions that are more socially debilitating than AS. Classical autism for one. Tourette's is another (and I'm not just talking about the stereotypical random obscenities. Facial tics and twitches tend to turn off people more than the average person with AS does).

Being physically handicapped is also just as bad for socialization. Sure, people might say hello to you; but as far as actually being a real friend, many people can't put the person before the handicap.

If you're deaf and can't read lips, it greatly limits the people you would be able to interact with.

At least with AS, if you were committed enough to practicing at socialization, you would improve to the point of being able to maintain friends and acquaintances. And these friends and acquaintances would be members of the general population, not just a small sub-set that are willing to interact with a person who has (insert noticeable disability here).

Guess I have the socially debilitating ass-burrrgers disease.
Why can't they get basic details right?

Nice store, though.

I'm glad you told me that. I didn't know.

Oh wow, words cannot express how bad this is...

I wonder if the lady featured knew that AS was going to be described like this?