I've noticed more posts recently where people are saying they have received an autism diagnosis but then they add Aspergers in brackets.
It has been more than 12 years since it was dropped as a clinical term so I'm wondering why it seems to be talked about more in these last few weeks.
It was just a passing curiosity.
There are differences within the Autism Spectrum Disorder and probably people want to highlight it - which part of ASD they have. There is a big difference between a person, who only does one movement or sound whole day and is unable to do absolutely anything else, and a person, who gets very deep into some topic, even if it’s nothing really useful or productive, but has abilities to learn and function to some extent independently in daily life.
I had periods in my life, when I could pace my room whole day literally and not use toilet or eat or drink. My family stopped me from that. But I could do it half day without any problem. I didn’t even know it was half day passed. I also had periods in my childhood and teens, when I could sit long hours and draw floor plans, create some data, or draw tram line schemes with timetables. I had some difficulties in learning, because the subjects were all too much and I needed more breaks and time to process what I heard and red. My therapist mentioned atypical autism to me.
I think that the distinct names of conditions within the ASD should stay. Maybe the name of Asperger should be changed, for example to Sukhareva’s name. Grunya Sukhareva was a Soviet (born in Ukraine) child psychiatrist and first to actually identify and describe autism. So maybe her name could replace Asperger. But there are many people, who just identify with this diagnosis as it is, because they received it. And it’s widely used for example “Aspie quiz” - comes from Asperger, or Ritvo Autism Asperger diagnostic scale (RAADS- test) that we all here take and get some results. It’s also used in the diagnostic process. So it’s not that easy to remove this name from the use. I think that maybe there should be a clearer division within the ASD. I red, that in Island the Asperger is still being used as an official distinct diagnosis.
I get what you're saying but where would I fit in to the old way? I didn't meet the criteria for Asperger because I had language delay as a child. But I'm fairly intelligent, manage a job and live alone. This is the difficulty with categorising autism. There is always going to be someone that doesn't quite fit in a category.
I also had developmental delays, so my therapist told me, I'm his opinion it's not asperger.
I think that a problem with a spectrum disorder is the danger of ending up with a one size fits no one situation, I feel I already suffer from this regarding support needs.
I think allowing us to have some level of choice about what, where and how we get support would be really helpful especially in work and education and in some other areas of general life too. To often I think we end up as stray parcels, being passed around because nobody is willing or able to address our needs. Support groups, especially those that are funded by government or local authority need to be much broader in how they help, they need to say what they offer and what they don't clearly and from the outset, they need to rely less on technological answers and not send you a page from google with possible directions to go for help with your particular problem.
It feels like escaping the revolving door of actually getting tested and being shoved at another one that allegedly gets your support needs met, only to find yourself trapped all over again going round in circles, only to be spat out back at the begining still with no help and brised and battered from trying.
I just don't think grouping withing the spectrum will ever work.
I understand where you are coming from, but there is this to consider.
It seems a max of around 5% of the population is autistic so dividing this into smaller and smaller groups will make us less of a force to be considered for support.
It is for this reason I think it best we retain our identity this way.
As for receiving support, it does largely seem that only a tiny percentage get any NHS support as it is and I don't forsee that budget growing at anytime in the next decade at least, so creating splinter groups will have no real difference anyway.
Can you think of any tangible benefits to splitting the groups?
I just don't think grouping withing the spectrum will ever work.
I understand where you are coming from, but there is this to consider.
It seems a max of around 5% of the population is autistic so dividing this into smaller and smaller groups will make us less of a force to be considered for support.
It is for this reason I think it best we retain our identity this way.
As for receiving support, it does largely seem that only a tiny percentage get any NHS support as it is and I don't forsee that budget growing at anytime in the next decade at least, so creating splinter groups will have no real difference anyway.
Can you think of any tangible benefits to splitting the groups?
I think that a problem with a spectrum disorder is the danger of ending up with a one size fits no one situation, I feel I already suffer from this regarding support needs.
I think allowing us to have some level of choice about what, where and how we get support would be really helpful especially in work and education and in some other areas of general life too. To often I think we end up as stray parcels, being passed around because nobody is willing or able to address our needs. Support groups, especially those that are funded by government or local authority need to be much broader in how they help, they need to say what they offer and what they don't clearly and from the outset, they need to rely less on technological answers and not send you a page from google with possible directions to go for help with your particular problem.
It feels like escaping the revolving door of actually getting tested and being shoved at another one that allegedly gets your support needs met, only to find yourself trapped all over again going round in circles, only to be spat out back at the begining still with no help and brised and battered from trying.
