In case you hadn't heard, the American Psychiatric Assn is proposing elimination of Asperger's from it's next version of the DSM (Diagnostic & Statistical Manual), and instead simply lumping us all under the umbrella of Autism Spectrum Disorders.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100210/ap_o..._disorders

From the article:  "The draft manual, posted at http://www.DSM5.org, is up for public debate through April, and it's expected to be lively. Among the autism community especially, terminology is considered key to describing a set of poorly understood conditions. People with Asperger's syndrome, for instance, tend to function poorly socially but be high-achieving academically and verbally, while verbal problems are often a feature of other forms of autism."

What's your thoughts on this?  

Donna

This is may help the segregation of aspies who feel the must constantly validate themselves as autistic as well as aspies who continue to play the "I am not that guy" card and further the segregation but disassociating with severe autists.

What do you mean by the "I am not that guy" card?

maybe this post should be in a different section of the forum???

I don't know whether changing the DSM will mean that it would be more difficult to find a job with Asperger's or whether it will be easier to get a disability pension with Asperger's or PDDNos.

In Britain, Asperger Syndrome was never officially a separate condition. I was diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorders. Though my psychiatrist did specify in brackets that it was Asperger's, that was just an informal thing.
I don't like being classified as 'autistic' - not because of a prejudice that I possess, but because of the prejudices of other people, so if I told people that I was autisitic, rather than that I was an Aspie, they would make unrealistic judgements of me. I've had experience with people treating me like I'm mentally retarded when I tell them I'm autistic, and that's why I hate to be labelled with that name. The majority of neurotypicals are completely ignorant to the 'spectrum' part of autism, and think that autistic people are all Rain Man-like characters who should be pitied and patronised.

Was there a game on at Parkhead tonight?  Who won?  Who were they playing?

http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com/showthre...#pid320009

Some confusion can arise from the fact that Austistic Spectrum Disorders include Asperger's and (Classic) Autism.  So someone could receive a diagnosis of Autism, still consider themselves autistic (as in on the Spectrum), but feel that a diagnosis of Asperger's would be more appropriate for them.  Does that make sense?

Not really.

I spoke with Bardwolf over MSN about it - she means people who act like arses then turn around and claim they are not culpable because they have AS - in short, using it as an excuse to be a tosspot.

They were playing Hearts - we won 2-0. Glenn Loovens and Marc Antoine Fortune scored.

I think it would be a seriously retrograde step to remove Asperger's syndrome from the DSM V. Where would it leave those of us who are officially diagnosed with Asperger's for one thing? If they are going to remove anything, it should be PDD Nos and replace it with Atypical Autism.

Asperger's is indeed different from HFA as Asperger's does not include the same delays in language acquisition and self help skills as HFA.

Delayed language acquisition is the only difference between so-called HFA and so-called Asperger's. I'm not sure where you are getting that those DX'd with Asperger's are better equipped with self-help skills than those DX'd with HFA.

Well, for my part I think it's a really bad move and it bothers me quite a bit.  Schools will probably lump students together innappropriately in special needs classrooms as a result of this.  Also it really does have something to do with how people identify themselves... I mean look at the name of this forum... and the debates people have about "Aspie Elitism."

I know the previous post meant this in some kind of negative way, but seriously -- "I am not that guy."

People with Asperger's are not "severe autists."  I don't know what you think would be gained by associating the two.  Also I don't know what you mean by "validate themselves as autistic."  I've never wanted to do that.

Actually I go out of the way to hide that anything is different about me and I've done that successfully in the army for over 16 years.  I don't think "severe autists" can do things like that.  I never even would have been allowed to join in the first place if I had identified myself to the recruiter as "autistic."

The trend in the DSM is overall depressing -- not just about Asperger's.  Everything is moving away from specificity...

I don't know.  I really wish I could just make them take back this change.  It genuinely bothers me quite a bit.