Employer told I have asperger DISEASE!

I think this inappropriate use of 'disease' and disliking 'disorder' and 'condition' is absolutely why I just prefer the all-encompassing word 'autistic'.  I don't 'have' autism, and I am not subject to a 'disorder',  and I cannot be 'conditioned'. 

I am autistic and proud of it!

Definitely ask them to correct it. 

Hopefully it was a typo thus easily explained and remedied, but if not, then that person needs correcting so they aren't doing it for others too.

I would ask them to correct it if it were me, it's not over reacting, it is about getting it right.

In

Trainspotter said:

Someone who is pregnant doesn't have a disease. 

This is exactly my thinking as a midwife ️

Thank you all for your thoughts on this. I have written a polite letter/email but I am swaying between sending it or not but I have a meeting with my manager soon I hope so I can discuss things with her and hopefully I can get back to work soon. 

I was going to quote the parts if what you wrote that I liked until I realised I would be quoting half your message. This is exactly my thought. Words are important to me. 

NAS36609 said:

. I understand you could think that writing a letter is a bit over the top when you could ask verbally, but for some of us (myself included), written communications are simply much easier than verbal. 

This exactly. I'm always better at writing when it comes to things like this. I did write a letter but did not send it... Yet as I have a meeting with my manager soon hopefully. The wording bothered me because the reason why I am off work is due to aspergers and struggling to keep up in work. Words and their meaning are very important to me and also quite important in my profession (I'm a midwife). I consider myself to be quite healthy and not diseased at all. I very much want to go back to work and if my manager is misinformed over what my problems are then I feel it makes it harder for me to negotiate my return to work. That said it did not spoil my weekend but I do have a strong desire to educate the misinformed. Incidentally the nurse also seemed to think Aspergers was a mental health problem. 

It may only be a 'word' but I think the distinction between a 'disease' and a state of being is fundamental.

Someone who is pregnant doesn't have a disease.  Someone who is absent an arm or a leg, who is blind or deaf, does not have a disease as a result of these.  And neither does someone who is autistic have a disease.

The problem with an occupational health professional calling something a disease is that an employer automatically thinks there is some treatment, som medication, some counselling that can be done to alleviate or 'cure' it.  In my experience, an employer tends to take everything written on an occupational health report as gospel, as well as ignoring other parts which may be in one's favour.

By suggesting that there is some sort of treatment then suggests that the condition (and I have tried hard not to use disablement, condition or disorder but I can't now think of another word!) will lessen with treatment. 

I would definitely write to the occupational health service and suggest they have made a mistake as you do not have a disease.  I would also contact Access to Work (https://www.gov.uk/access-to-work)  as I think they will be far more able to give you proper help at work and be able to arrange a workplace assessment, provide funding for a support worker if necessary, and also training for your employer as well as your colleagues in what autism is and how it affects you.  I am not saying these will circumvent all the problems you may have at work but it can go a long way in helping an employer understand and giving you the support you need.

Being autistic is nothing to be ashamed of, any more than being a neurotypical is.  But the way a workplace is structured often does an autistic person no favours and as such some adjustments would probably greatly assist you.  Remember that as someone who is diagnosed with autism you should come under the Equality Act to prevent discrimination against you which should also mean making allowances for the way you can be affected in the workplace.

It may only be a 'word' but I think the distinction between a 'disease' and a state of being is fundamental.

Someone who is pregnant doesn't have a disease.  Someone who is absent an arm or a leg, who is blind or deaf, does not have a disease as a result of these.  And neither does someone who is autistic have a disease.

The problem with an occupational health professional calling something a disease is that an employer automatically thinks there is some treatment, som medication, some counselling that can be done to alleviate or 'cure' it.  In my experience, an employer tends to take everything written on an occupational health report as gospel, as well as ignoring other parts which may be in one's favour.

By suggesting that there is some sort of treatment then suggests that the condition (and I have tried hard not to use disablement, condition or disorder but I can't now think of another word!) will lessen with treatment. 

I would definitely write to the occupational health service and suggest they have made a mistake as you do not have a disease.  I would also contact Access to Work (https://www.gov.uk/access-to-work)  as I think they will be far more able to give you proper help at work and be able to arrange a workplace assessment, provide funding for a support worker if necessary, and also training for your employer as well as your colleagues in what autism is and how it affects you.  I am not saying these will circumvent all the problems you may have at work but it can go a long way in helping an employer understand and giving you the support you need.

Being autistic is nothing to be ashamed of, any more than being a neurotypical is.  But the way a workplace is structured often does an autistic person no favours and as such some adjustments would probably greatly assist you.  Remember that as someone who is diagnosed with autism you should come under the Equality Act to prevent discrimination against you which should also mean making allowances for the way you can be affected in the workplace.

 yeah, if people give me a chance, they usually find I’m on the same page as them and visa versa, I also have to flesh out conversations to get to a mutual understanding

My support worker pointed out to me as well that most  people don’t understand what I’m saying and she said something else which I haven’t worked out what she means yet, but ultimately, I am only responsible for what I say, not for what other people hear. 

But yeah, definitely, we’re on the same page and I love it when we come to the point of mutual understanding

Yeah, that sounds straight forward enough. I could cope with that although I wouldn’t send one because I wouldn’t care what the paper said about me but if I did, that sounds like a perfect solution ~ nice simple, straight to the point, no emotion, no accusations, just what it says in a form of communication that could be reproduced at a later date if necessary and no unpleasant face to face interactions  

I would write am email explaining that although you understand it was probably a typo having Aspergers referred to as a disease did cause you a lot of distress, therefore, you'd like the report to be amended to include the correct terminology.

Hi PurpleFeathers,

I don't think it's a huge deal - if someone asks, you can say it's a disability. 

Much love <3

I understand all that and agree with you BluRay. I do think that PurpleFeathers has thought a bit about why they are annoyed:

‘...the suggestion that that part of me is diseased I find very offensive.’

Though I do agree that it may be helpful to explore these feelings further, if they are still unhappy with the word then I think it’s fine to write to ask for it to be changed (as you have also said). See, we’re on the same page really! 

...probably because I really would not be bothered to even get involved with something like that. I wasn’t giving advice though, that would take more communication between me and the original poster and it would have nothing to do with letters or what the nurse said. 

Yeah, I see where you’re coming from, written communication would be way easier for me also, most of the time, but honestly, I would not give a s***t what a word on a piece of paper says. I would be more concerned with why it annoyed me. I would spend my time  doing inquiry into that rather than stressing about whether I should write a letter or not. How I feel is more important to me than some word on a document so I would uncover the root cause of my annoyance and after that, if I still felt it was important to me then yes, I would agree with you, I would write it in a letter or email, for several reasons, not least because you then have clear evidence of you asking etc. 

I don’t think writing a letter or the person’s reaction was over the top, it’s just not something I would be concerned with but the reason why I felt annoyed would be something that I would most definitely be interested in at that is where I would place my attention. 

BlueRay, you said this:

‘You can...ask the nurse, calmly and politely, to change the word, it will probably take less than a minute to ask her to do that but you could spend the whole of this weekend being annoyed about it.’

But, whilst PurpleFeathers mentioned being annoyed, this does not lead me to immediately assume that they wouldn’t write a letter in exactly the manner you describe above. This is certainly how I ask for changes to documents when there are mistakes - I am not ‘hot and bothered’ by them, I just request them to please be corrected and explain why. It certainly wouldn’t ruin my weekend to quickly write a polite letter and then do whatever I was doing.

So when you say ‘definitely not’ to writing a letter I don’t quite understand why. Perhaps, ‘definitely not in an angry mood or tone’ would be better advice. I understand you could think that writing a letter is a bit over the top when you could ask verbally, but for some of us (myself included), written communications are simply much easier than verbal. 

Autism is not cooties.

Now what could have happen spell checker, error.  Disorder and Disease have similar spelling.

I have been there, in my first report of ASC stated that my brother had "dies" and should been "does". It got corrected latter version. Yep my brother is very much alive and annoy me most days on the phone.

Yeah, I prefer the word condition but even that’s not correct in my mind. I don’t think we’re a condition. For me, I just think the word autism, is a way to enable me to understand some things I could never quite figure out about me but as we move away from the medical model of disability and into the social model, maybe we could just call it autism. I do anyway because condition or disorder doesn’t fit with me and I would find it hard to believe that any half sane person who had even the slightest inkling of what autism is, wouldn’t seriously think it was a disease. I would question the users understanding of the word disease. Maybe English isn’t their first language? I don’t know but because I’ve never heard of anybody thinking it was a disease, I would first consider what their understanding of a disease is. As far as I know, I don’t think people are lucky enough to be catch it, I think you have to be lucky enough to be born that way ;) maybe she was wishful thinking. I’m sure if I was nt I’d want to be nd, so I wouldn’t blame them :-) 

If it was a typo it's another good reason for using condition instead of disorder

Definitely not, I’ve got better things to do with my life than to get all hot and bothered and upset over a word written on a piece of paper. I’m sure your boss already knows it’s not a disease. Are you sure it wasn’t a typo error? 

Have a great weekend, and when you speak to your boss about it, I’m sure it won’t take more than 60 seconds or so to confirm that it’s not a disease, it’s just a way of describing some of the traits you have that are causing you some difficulties. 

Go out and have a lovely weekend. You know you haven’t got a disease and most people on the planet know that. What would be more useful to you would be to ask yourself why you got so annoyed over a word that doesn’t even relate to you in any way? 

It’s easy for us aspies to get all hot and bothered by things but we can break that habit. It’s up to you though, the choice is yours. You can have a lovely weekend with your husband, family, friends, yourself or whatever or you can get more and more annoyed as you simply devour and chew and eat some more of this word, that was written on a piece of paper that is probably at this very minute sat in a draw doing no harm to anyone. You can choose to obsess over it, get annoyed, get inflamed, ask why people are so incompetent that they don’t get every word exact and correct, or you could chose to be happy and address it when you speak to your boss or simply ask the nurse, calmly and politely, to change the word, it will probably take less than a minute to ask her to do that but you could spend the whole of this weekend being annoyed about it. It’s up to you, the choice is yours. 

I have just complained about an access team member writing I had communication difficulties rather than differences just because I refused to be assessed for bipolar over the phone so I probably don't need to tell you what I would do. (And yes, I waited a couple of weeks before complaining.)