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.
'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.'
That's news to me. I can speak, I have three degrees, and I'm not aggressive. I'm not debilitated by having an autistic brain - I'm debilitated by a chaotic and uncaring world. Also, please can we stop referring to 'profound' or 'serious' autism? It's very unhelpful. As Martin has said: '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.'
Do you see your autism as being a disability? Personally I can't understand the urge some have to get the dx whilst claiming that they are not in any way disabled. The worst being those who claim they are homo superior.
firemonkey said:Personally I can't understand the urge some have to get the dx whilst claiming that they are not in any way disabled.
I have some in-laws who are like this.
They think of it as a way of gaming the system. The money is there to be taken and they are smart enough to fool the people doing the assessments so believe they have earned it this way.
The amount they get away with is shocking but I'm not close enough to make a credible report (I'm 6,000 miles away) to the social services and at times I don't think the social services people care. If it were to be highlighted that they were fooled for decades by the familiy member then it would reflect badly on them so it is best to keep quiet.
There is a distinct sense of them feeling superior to suckers like me who had to go out and be a slave to a company to pay the bills when they could spend their day playing on their playstation, smoking bongs and going out to parties in the evening.
They even have their own groups that get together regularly to talk about new ways to claim benefits as the rules change - they are a depressingly organised bunch.
Home computers and socia "benefits" have this in common:
The more vital it is for them to work for you, the less likely they are to actually do that...