Aspergers is defined by the world Health Organisation as a Psychological disorder. What are your views on this?
Aspergers is defined by the world Health Organisation as a Psychological disorder. What are your views on this?
I suppose if you want to do something you can't, it will feel that way. I'm comfortable in my limits, and have a better understanding now of where those are. What is difficult is when other people demand that I be able to do things that I can't, or which don't come easily. I was just on another (non-autism-related) forum and had been discussing my history of being bullied at school. Another poster challenged me as to whether I had "even tried to reach out" to other children, implying it was therefore my fault I had been bullied if I hadn't. But how can you reach out to people who try to hit you as soon as you open your mouth because of the way you talk and the things you want to talk about?
For me it certainly feels like a disorder. Before I was diagnosed with Autism it felt like a pschological disorder, I desperately wanted to engage with people and I kept telling myself I could do it. I tried so hard to socialise and yet I just couldn't do it, it was confusing to me and the more I failed the higher the anxiety became. I was convinced it was pschological.
Now I know it is Autism I am sure it is not pschological and I am not comfortble with the term pschological because for me it reminds me of the phrase I have heard so many times 'It is all in your head' and people use this to imply that you can 'get over it' and be ok. Well I can't get over it and it wont be ok.
So it is a disorder for me, because there are many things I want to do and I can't do them and I feel I should be able to do them, but I can't change it, it is just me. I have to accept it.
Just my thoughts.
T
Yes: when I was talking it over with my Dad, he said I should look on it as "a gift with strings". Sometimes I feel the strings more than at others, but I don't feel there's anything wrong with me.
I think it depends on how it affects you, and how severely. A friend of mine has far more overt sensory problems – visual and auditory sensitivity; while a family member had more severe problems with confidence.
For me, there are some difficulties in interactions with people, and with anxiety; but at the same time, there are things I know I can do and enjoy doing that NTs can't, or which require a great deal of effort from them. It's a matter of swings and roundabouts. I have disadvantages in some areas of life, but advantages in others.
Re: the analogy with being gay: I'm physically A, but bi-romantic, and used to be involved in LGBTQ awareness in the '80s. Gay people being "entirely comfortable with their sexuality" in this society, in the early 21C, has come about because they've worked for decades in educating and campaigning, and challenging and changing how mainstream society treats them. There were real difficulties – and, for men, legal obstacles – to be overcome. Many of us can become more comfortable with who we are if we don't feel discriminated against or disadvantaged by others in social and workplace attitudes and procedures.
One of the issues that I've come across is in the workplace, where more AS-awareness and friendliness could make a huge difference. Some jobs that used to be safe havens have been made more NT-friendly, and the skills and attributes we have are now seen as less important; that is a culture-shift and could just as readily be made to swing back. There are also management attitudes: managers need to be educated in working with us; that bullying people to the point of meltdown, and saying "you need training in self-awareness" isn't on…
electra said:Being gay used to be defined as a psychological disorder.
In ten years time people will look back and wonder how autism can have been thought of in that way.
There's a big difference in that people are often "glad to be gay". I know quite a few gay people who are entirely comfortable with their sexuality. I haven't detected a great deal of joy about being on the spectrum. Being on the spectrum involves very real difficulties in everyday life that require a great deal of effort and optimism to overcome. I don't think this will change in 10 years time.
For me it's best treated with psychological methods rather than medical or physiological approaches involving drugs. You can have a better quality of life if you understand your own mind, and the mind of others, with more insight. I think it derives from physiological roots i.e. our brain wiring is somehow different but it depends heavily on environmental issues. i.e. it's fundamentally nature but it can be influenced by nurture.
Psychological disorders embrace anything from insomnia and anxiety to schizophrenia. The Society of Clinical Psychology includes in their list ADHD, but not autism.
The problem with autism/aspergers is where do you place it. It normally sits in a gap between mental health and learning disability, a category of its own.
I think it is used in some contexts as psychological, but the problem is nobody knows.
OK, so if you follow the reference in wikipedia it takes you to
which is in
Chapter V
Mental and behavioural disorders
(F00-F99)Disorders of psychological development
(F80-F89)
I think the wiki author has used a bit of artistic licence to get to psychological disorder. Not sure if this helps?
p.s. I wondered what nosological meant so I had to look up
Never a reliable source I know, but I do believe the classifiction doesn't really give much weight to the physiologcal factors. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding it
Hi Coogy,
Do you have a reference for that?
I found www.who.int/.../ which says
Autism spectrum disorders are a group of complex brain development disorders
