Who is here?

As DC says, unfortunately you can’t vote twice with different responses, instead the poll will just change your vote.  I also overlap categories, and that’s why I mentioned a bit further up that we need polls that allow you to vote for more than one option.

Still though, I think the results have been interesting and many of us have been able to express in the comments the different categories we fit into despite the poor voting facilities.

At this rate, I think I need a new category in my poll - Copybot! Arghh......

thank you DC

Greetings. I just voted also, for two maybe silly reasons:

Because a lot of other good regulars seem to like this Thread and voted.

The second reason is mainly to reply to Miss OrinocoFlo - it is not really possible to vote twice, but the vote can be changed. But most of all, I have not had good excuse to say this in ages and so I say it now...

Your Icon is a Pokemon STARMIE! Yaaay!   :-)

I just voted as a parent of someone with ASD, because that's official, but am also self diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. Would it work if those who need to vote in two categories voted twice? Or would that mess up the results?

I never saw the comment from NAS38247 before the moderators removed it, but I think I can guess who might have voted ‘Other’ in the poll...

I think you’re probably right there Song, as I’ve noticed that some people ask a specific question and then never comment again after that. 

NAS38247 said:

The topic is personification, the attribution of human qualities and feelings to objects.

In what context? presentation of personification in both ND and NT individuals? Personification to objects or to any non-human thing (i.e. animals).  I guess you have cleared this request with NAS based on the forum rules?, yes?

Comment removed by moderator - please note community guideline 8 

"Requests for research study subjects and surveys need to be directed to research@nas.org.uk for data protection and research ethics reasons. Further information can be found on our research pages. Please be advised that any requests for research subjects or surveys posted on the Community will be deleted without warning."

Regards, Heather - Mod

I don’t really have a problem with the word autism, but I didn’t grow up in the U.K.. Where I live, we just call it autism, unless you’re a doctor, or something.

I am a diagnosed autistic. I am not sure as to why I am pointing this out.

NAS36609 said:

I’m not sure why we don’t have many relatives, friends etc. of autistic individuals on this forum. There are many possible reasons, but I think only they really know why they don’t come here

I think it's possible that NT  friends or relatives come in to find out something right away where as 'we' the autistic people who generally talk to each other in here are a loose  community and come in to perhaps belong/chat/not feel so alone rather than get an instant answer to a specific dilemma.

qwerty said:

Well, left-handedness doesn't require additional support to function in life

It's fairly minimal, but it might include left-handed tin openers or guitars. Back a hundred years ago, it was punished at school and people forced to write with their right hand. There's also an analogy with homosexuality being listed as a disorder in previous versions of DSM.

qwerty said:

But why do people have no trouble with ADHD and not wanting to change it to ADHC? 

I don't know. I'm not formally diagnosed ADHD. Maybe with autism there's a stronger sense of needing deeper understanding and having the autistic community in control of their lives.

qwerty said:

You said earlier that people who understand jargon have privileged expertise.

Not quite. I meant there was usually a perception if you hear a TLA that it is a specialist term with lots of associated knowledge. I've met social workers who didn't know what ASD means.

My main point was actually that we hadn't had a response from parents/carers.

I understand your feelings over the term ASD. I really used it because it’s what most people are formally diagnosed with and because I couldn’t fit all possible terms that a person would use into the poll unfortunately. I thought about using ‘autism’, but I know that some individuals don’t like to use that term either. What I will do is edit the original post to explain why ‘ASD’ is used and make it clear that you can interpret it into your own favoured terms. I hope that will make it a bit less offensive to you Cassandro ,  and

I’m not sure why we don’t have many relatives, friends etc. of autistic individuals on this forum. There are many possible reasons, but I think only they really know why they don’t come here.

I think I meant for those to come under ‘A person with undiagnosed ASD’, as you would have to either suspect it in yourself or someone else suggest you have it for you to fall into this category, it’s just that it’s not formally diagnosed. I will see if I can amend the poll though (I’m making no promises though as I’ve never tried that before and I have to go on a different computer to do it).

Cassandro said:

Well, it depends how broadly. Is left-handedness a medical condition? Is it a 'disorder'?

Well, left-handedness doesn't require additional support to function in life, and the percentage of left-handedness is high, so I wouldn't call it a disorder. 

Perhaps 'disorder' itself had a more negative tone associated with it then other words, and I do agree 'condition' has a more positive and encouraging tone (to e.g., focus on strengths).

I do agree with Marian Tom's point of view that a lot is about perception (e.g., having difficulties others don't have may be perceived as a disorder).

But why do people have no trouble with ADHD and not wanting to change it to ADHC? 

Cassandro said:

But if you don't, and aren't using it in your own way, it's jargon. Even if you unpack it to 'autism spectrum disorder' it is meaningless to most people, and would have been to me three years ago.

You said earlier that people who understand jargon have privileged expertise. But then this is not true for just ASD. If people have not heard of ASD, then they probably would not have heard of ASC or autism, and vice versa. Usually if you have heard of one of the three you would understand the rest.

To me they are just slight wording variations of the same word. Like among vs. amongst; or American flavor vs. British flavour.

qwerty said:

I do not think that it is not a medical condition broadly defined.

Well, it depends how broadly. Is left-handedness a medical condition? Is it a 'disorder'?

qwerty said:

I don't think the term ASD implies this...it's not a difficult word to encounter if you have any autism-related conditions, concerns, or interests.

But if you don't, and aren't using it in your own way, it's jargon. Even if you unpack it to 'autism spectrum disorder' it is meaningless to most people, and would have been to me three years ago. It sounds like it must be describing something quite precise and understood, leaving the listener at a disadvantage. I just cited http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1362361315588200 in another thread.

Yes, reality is more important than perception of words, and I take the point about discrimination from Curious Incident. 'Condition' was a euphemism for 'disorder' which was a euphemism for 'illness'. There's some phrase for that kind of euphemism treadmill (edit: OK it's 'euphemism treadmill'). However, I wasn't making a point about discrimination or fear. I've met both professionals and autistic people far more concerned with terminology than me, and one reason I take a side in that is that I think the autistic people still understand autism better than the professionals. I'd have been happier with 'person with a diagnosis of ASD' even though my diagnosis was of ASC, specifically AS. I suppose that might make the other options on the poll a bit less clear... I'd note this organisation has 'autistic' in its name, not ASD.

Cassandro said:

as it implies some kind of medical condition

I do not think that it is not a medical condition broadly defined. Even if it is a personality / neurological difference, it stems from biology. And as most people with ASD have difficulties in areas such as social communication and sensory processing, which require support. Doesn't the combination of stemming from biology and requiring additional support because of difficulties fall into the category of medicine?

Cassandro said:

where people who understand jargon have privileged expertise

I don't think the term ASD implies this...it's not a difficult word to encounter if you have any autism-related conditions, concerns, or interests.

Cassandro said:

but even the psychiatrist who 'diagnosed' me was very willing to use 'ASC' and NICE seems to be switching to 'autism'

I don't really care at all about the small differences in wording, as they really just imply the same thing. We don't call ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) ADHC (Attention deficit hyperactivity condition). So I can't understand why people care so much about differences in wording? 

In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, there's this well-stated passage I greatly agree with: 'All the other children at my school are stupid. Except I'm not meant to call them stupid, even though this is what they are. I'm meant to say that they have learning difficulties or that they have special needs. But this is stupid because .... But Siobhan said we have to use those words because people used to call children like the children at school spaz and crip and mong, which were nasty words. But that is stupid too because sometimes the children from the school down the road see us in the street when we're getting off the bus and they shout, "Special Needs! Special Needs!" ....” The full passage can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/356553-all-the-other-children-at-my-school-are-stupid-except Changing the wording from nasty words to 'special needs' can still turn 'special needs' into an insult as people are referring to the same thing. 

I'm not trying to hang on to every word of the diagnostic systems, I just don't care why which word is used, but sometimes do find it a bit frustrating that people keep changing it, and in more extreme cases get offended if someone used a term they don't prefer (e.g., autistic vs having autism). I know in English there are subtle differences, but  mentally I think people usually just mean the same thing regardless of which words they choose.

Voted as the 'A person with diagnosed ASD', although I'm not at all happy with the term 'ASD' as it implies some kind of medical condition where people who understand jargon have privileged expertise, which appears to me to be false. Yes I know some people hang on every word of the diagnostic systems, but even the psychiatrist who 'diagnosed' me was very willing to use 'ASC' and NICE seems to be switching to 'autism'.

The results are consistent with the idea that parents, relatives and partners of autistic people don't hang around these forums to chat. Maybe they're too busy? It's mainly autistic people responding to parents' queries. Is it paranoid to wonder if we put them off and they prefer a forum where they can talk about themselves rather than the autistic person?

Might be interesting to add two choice options: (1) A person in the process of an ASD diagnostic assessment; (2) A person with suspected ASD or relates to the condition (I think self-diagnosed is too strong a term, and sometimes one can't confidently be sure).