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.
Asperger's is not in the current clinical diagnostic manuals. It was removed around 2013, so very few people have been so diagnosed since. It was replaced by autism spectrum disorder or condition (ASD or ASC). It is characterised by support levels from 1 to 3, with 3 requiring the highest levels of support. What you call Asperger's would now be found within ASD Level 1. What you are describing as 'classic autism' would fall under ASD Level 3.
There has been a move away from seeing autism as linear with Asperger's at one end and profound autism at the other. This approach is seen as less than useful, as people needing a great deal of support may not have their abilities recognised and people needing less support may not have their very real difficulties addressed. People with ASD are now viewed as individuals, with individual traits and difficulties, varying one from another.
All forms of autism (ASD) have a large genetic component.
The inability to speak can affect autistic people of all intellects. As a child I had selective mutism at school, I did not speak at school for 3 months after I started, aged four and a half. I have a science PhD, so am very far from being intellectually challenged
I was dxed with Asperger's in 2019. I scored at classical autism level for social communication, and Asperger's level for social interaction. I'm neither a highly successful autistic person or one requiring 24x7 care and supervision. I'm in the vast middle. I have cognitive strengths and relative cognitive weaknesses. I've been called everything from a dullard to a genius.
Martin said:Asperger's is not in the current clinical diagnostic manuals. It was removed around 2013, so very few people have been so diagnosed since.
firemonkey said:I was dxed with Asperger's in 2019
There are two major standards that are used internationally for the diagnosis of autism: DSM (an American standard classification that is used elsewhere, including by some assessors in the UK) and ICD (published by the WHO and also used in many countries world-wide, including by some in the UK).
Under DSM-5, autism has been diagnosed since 2013 as Autism Spectrum Disorder Levels 1-3.
As you were formally diagnosed with Asperger's in 2019, this would have been under the ICD-10 guidelines. ICD-11, which was endorsed by WHO members in 2019 and published in 2022, removed "Asperger Syndrome" as a formal diagnosis.
So no new diagnoses should reference Asperger Syndrome, other than perhaps as a passing additional comment that it might previously have been labelled as such.
People who were formally diagnosed with it previously are, of course, free to continue using it - if they wish. My earlier comment refers to one reason why they may prefer not to do so.
For me it's purely factual. I'm not wedded to the term. I prefer ASD, but I'm not sure which level I fit into - 1 or 2. Having both ASD and schizoaffective/schizophrenia dxes muddies the water somewhat.