Do you sometimes feel that AS is a made up disorder?

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Sometimes I feel that getting diagnosed with AS is the nice and professional way of saying, "You utterly fail at socializing." or a way to make excuses for major shortcomings.
I'm not trying to be rude, I actually was diagnosed with AS myself and just don't feel that it is a real disorder sometimes.
How about those who just self-diagnose to use it as crutch or to make excuses for every rude and annoying thing they do? Or those who want to feel superior yet have a victim complex at the same time? If it is a real disorder, those people are very vocal about their "disorder" and are making everyone else look bad.

I have no doubt AS is a real, non-voluntary neurological condition.

Plenty of people who fail at socializing do not have AS. Further, utterly failing socially is not necessary for an AS diagnosis, nor a necessary outcome of AS or attribute of all persons with AS.

Failing utterly socially and having AS are two distinct (although not mutually exclusive) things. Any one person could experience both, either or neither of these things.

Last edited by pandd on 06 Jan 2009, 1:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

no, I don't. I was Asperger's Syndrome long before Western Science knew anything about it. I learned to 'socialize' by trial and error, but never got past a lot of hurdles - like becoming an actual adult, even though my body is almost 60.

I never knew I was AS until two years ago, so I never had an excuse to give about my behaviour, only that I needed to work harder at overcoming my drawbacks. I am tempted, now that I have been Diagnosed, but frankly, no one wants to hear about it. Outside of WP, no one cares at all.

So for me, it is not an excuse. . .it's a reason.

Merle

I can understand why you feel that it's not real. Having been diagnosed by a specialist last week :::applause, thank you, thank you::: I think I have developed some denial in the past week; even though I have suspected I was AS for some time.

The thing I'm stuck on is: how can I understand something I simply don't understand; that is, Theory of Mind. How do I know I'm missing something that doesn't even enter my perception.

Very odd thing if you ask me. And I can see how it can lead one to think there is no such thing.

For all we know, this is a very mean spirited trick on a bunch of socially awkward people (Think The Truman Show).

Never for one minute have I thought it was made up. I don't know about other people here.. its not just about failing to socialise. You feel like a different species.

It's very real, but there are times I feel pretty neurotypical.

There are some who use it as an excuse, which is a shame because that hinders learning and improvement. But a lot of it is legit. Keep in mind some have more severe cases than you.

I know AS or autism is made-up. It's really obvious that it's a neurological disorder. However, research and knowledge into the study of these conditions is fairly new. I think we'll come to a much more specialized understanding of it, and it's possible causes and subcategories, in the future.

I often get those thoughts. Then I remember that it's not just socializing that I have a problem with, there's the sensory issues and stimming too.

No.

Even the "genius syndrome" is a real disorder in the ways outlined; they tend to have problems that those with an ASD have (only in certain areas, however), but of a different presentation.

I do not think AS is a "disorder" but rather a "condition" - a different neurological state. Although Aspies as a group have a harder time than NTs in some respects (socialization and coordination, for instance), we have more desirable traits in other respects (honesty, integrity, creative ways of thinking).

I am not formally diagnosed at this point, but I am determined to view AS as a way to understand myself better, rather than make excuses. Kind of like "everything I always wanted to know about me but was afraid to ask."

I also do not think it is "made up" since I have felt too different throughout my lifetime. Hale_Bopp sums it up in "feeling like a different species," although I can pass as NT well enough.

i think of AS as a different state of being.

I believe that asperger's is a real disorder; it's just the people who pretend they have it make the people with the real diagnosis look bad.

I thought it was made up for a while when I was 16 because I felt normal and there was nothing wrong with me. When you get told "That happens to everybody" you think AS is made up then and there is no such thing if everyone has symptoms of it. Then my shrink told me everyone does show symptoms of it but aspies are worse and they have them more often than other people so that's when it becomes a disorder.

I'm thinking of changing my profile to neurotypical since I don't feel effected by it and I feel normal and not suffering. I suffered all right but it was from depression and anxiety, peers, being bullied and different because of the way I was treated.

What would be the real underlying reason for those 'major shortcomings' if not AS? Surely 'major shortcomings' in socializing is a serious enough problem whatever you label them?



I think I see what you're getting at. I'd say it's definitely 'real'. I'm not so sure that it is a 'disorder'. There is increasing evidence from MRI scans that the AS spectrum brain really is processing information different to the NT brain. This is very strong evidence that there really is a difference. The problem is that we aren't all MRI scanned for diagnosis.



Yep, I'm sure that goes on. Partly the law of Big Numbers. There are so many people, that anything you can think of, somebody will have done. You can't say *everyone* is making it up for sympathy, when only a few are. The sensible approach would be to weed out only those who are incorrectly self-diagnosing, but allow that those who genuinely do have it can be supported and tolerated. It's also pretty obvious that the dubious cases tend to be younger people trying to rationalise their social difficulties at an age when even many NT's struggle socially. Just my opinion, but I have no doubts about the reality of AS in any of the over 30's round here. Doubts do creep in for the lower ages, though.

The full story of AS has not been written yet, it's still early days. I'm sure there will be a few twists and turns over the next decades as research and knowledge increases.

I'm fairly mild, and I was diagnosed when I was 14 so I've done a lot of reading and learning since then, and occasionally I do start wondering whether I actually have this or whether someone made some sort of mistake somewhere. Invariably something happens to persuade me I actually do, but yes there are times when I start questioning if I'm just making an excuse for myself.

Oh it's real all right. A hundred f*****g per cent real.
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Last edited by Everchanging on 07 Jan 2009, 11:08 am, edited 1 time in total.