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Radio 4 Out of the Ordinary

DaisyGirl

I have just heard this programme on BBC iplayer. It was broadcast on Monday 3rd march 2014 at 11am.

I can't belive what I was hearing. According to the presenter, who seems to have absolutely no understanding of Asperger's/autism, we can be "trained" out of our Asperger's behaviour and then just not be Aspie anymore. We're all just introverted and selfish.

He doesn't seem to realise that those of us with a diagnosis of Asperger's meet the diagnostic criteria for autism, we just didn't have language delay (and some with the Aspie diagnosis did have language delay).

Awful.

Just to add, he also doesn;t understand that Asperger's is not and has never been a mental illness, it is a developmental disorder, but because of the way medicine is organised there is no other branch to deal with the diagnoses than psychiatry. 

Parents

  • I listened to this, and objected to the use of the term 'mental illness' to describe Asperger's, when Asperger's itself is not a mental health issue but a neuro-developmental one. It is also, of course, erroneous to suggest that you can grow out of the condition.

    However, I do concur to some extent with Allen Francis, the chief editor of DSM1V, who believes that Asperger's has been watered down ; the crucial diagnostic criteria of 'clinically significant' is open to a great deal of clinical subjective judgement. Whether or not this is a bad thing is open to debate, and I am not clear myself on what I think about it, but it is worrying to hear far-fetched claims about both living and dead celebrities who may or may not have been on the spectrum: Hitler (no way, he was extremely charismatic, capable of manipulation, and was an obvious psychopath!), Bill Gates, Einstein (maybe, but could have simply been an eccentric genius), Newton, Darwin.....  This desire to diagnose any remotely strange, eccentric, or psychopathic individual with Asperger's does a disservice to those who really are affected by spreading misinformation and unsubstantiated opinions.

    This programme did nothing to challenge the notion that more men have Asperger's than women (while male over-diagnosis may occur , women are often overlooked because of the male bias and cultural norms). So all in all the programme was disappointing, although it certainly kept my interest for its duration.

Reply

  • I listened to this, and objected to the use of the term 'mental illness' to describe Asperger's, when Asperger's itself is not a mental health issue but a neuro-developmental one. It is also, of course, erroneous to suggest that you can grow out of the condition.

    However, I do concur to some extent with Allen Francis, the chief editor of DSM1V, who believes that Asperger's has been watered down ; the crucial diagnostic criteria of 'clinically significant' is open to a great deal of clinical subjective judgement. Whether or not this is a bad thing is open to debate, and I am not clear myself on what I think about it, but it is worrying to hear far-fetched claims about both living and dead celebrities who may or may not have been on the spectrum: Hitler (no way, he was extremely charismatic, capable of manipulation, and was an obvious psychopath!), Bill Gates, Einstein (maybe, but could have simply been an eccentric genius), Newton, Darwin.....  This desire to diagnose any remotely strange, eccentric, or psychopathic individual with Asperger's does a disservice to those who really are affected by spreading misinformation and unsubstantiated opinions.

    This programme did nothing to challenge the notion that more men have Asperger's than women (while male over-diagnosis may occur , women are often overlooked because of the male bias and cultural norms). So all in all the programme was disappointing, although it certainly kept my interest for its duration.

Children
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