Published on 12, July, 2020
I have Asperger’s syndrome. Why do they class Asperger’s and autism as the same now when they are so different from each other? I mean Asperger’s is a genetic condition which affects the way someone thinks and makes them slightly different and socially awkward and more anxious. Autism on the other hand in the classic sense is a debilitating condition characterised by the inability to speak and vocalise words, intellectual disability and aggression with violent outbursts. Why do people with Asperger’s dominate the perception of autism. Everybody seems to forget about these kids who cannot talk at all. People view people like us people with Asperger’s as what autism is. This is not the case classic autism as it used to be defined was basically someone who regressed around the ages 2-4 into losing all speech and ability to function. It seemed to start around the 50s to 60s. Whereas Asperger’s has been around for maybe thousands of years. There is cases documented of people who may have had Asperger’s way before the 50s. A woman in Russia in the early 1900’s at the beginning of that decade worked with under a dozen kids who would have been declared as autism highly functioning or Asperger’s syndrome nowadays. These kids were quiet and inhibited but showed great ability to work machines and understand mechanisms of things and patterns. However it appears that people who have Asperger’s are born with it and always have it. They may take a while to develop language but they never develop it and lose it forever the same way someone with classic autism does. I have known people who had one child who lost the ability to speak and function about 2-4 years old and never spoke again and had to be put in a care home. But none of the boys other siblings had this happen to them. So how do you explain this sudden regression in some people that doesn’t happen with every other kid in that same family. Something must be causing a sudden regression especially if it’s only in a specific family member and no others. Asperger’s on the other hand is genetic and if one family member has it they all are almost garuanteed to have it more or less. If anyone has any thoughts on this please do share them as I would like to make more sense of this.
Why does the distinction, if there is one, between grade 3 autism and grade 1, that used to be called Aspergers bother you so much? You write a lot of posts about this sort of thing.
I guess it because I feel sorry for people who are really struggling. You know there is people who have profound autism who don’t want that life. I just wish someone could help them. It’s easy for us to say how great autism is because we don’t have profound autism. Their voices never get heard. It’s sad. Do you not think?
Profound Autism is difficult for everybody the person themselves, their family and friends etc, but is it that different to someone with severe epliepsy or other serious disabilities? To me you see fixated on Aspergers/Autism and I wonder why? I don't doubt your sincerity about wishing seriously affected people could get better help, but the fact is we don't know enough about the causes of Autism. People with serious autism are not heard in the same way as other seriously disabled people aren't heard and it's sad and terrible. It's your feelings about your own autism/aspergers that get me asking questions.
Yeh I see what you mean I basically don’t really feel disabled in a way I guess. I mean I can do a lot of things myself. But certain things certainly seem to affect me more than NT’s like alcohol for example. I do have genetic susceptibility to alcohol addiction. As well as level 1 ASD / Aspergers. I struggle with needing alcoholic beverages to survive in the world and not have a meltdown everyday. Not sure if u can relate to me here. But other than that I am fine and dandy. Basically I come from a long line of alcoholics. But I guess I’ve always been the way I am and I am fine with it. I didn’t suddenly develop autism like a profoundly autistic person might. I could always talk. Never had a seizure in my life luckily. But I understand that a profoundly autistic person might also struggle with epilepsy and I feel that it would be helpful to acknowledge this more.