Here are the old criteria for AS: http://www.autreat.com/dsm4-aspergers.html

Here are the new criteria for AS: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/my-l...ect-people

I don't understand why people are objecting to the new diagnostic criteria.  They're pretty similar.  I'd get a DX based on either one.  Can someone please explain why people are objecting to the revisions?   Am I missing something?

This post was last modified: 07-16-2012 05:07 PM by AspieMomma.

I think there was a thread here recently that explained this - I had not seen anything too bad (I felt like I was missing something too) - but I think it was skyblue that posted soemthing from ASAN that spelled it out.  Was it something to do with gender/age? I cannot believe that I forget... BUT I was glad that ASAN - and others with comments were trying to address the language...
sorry mind is fuzzy at the mo - be back later if I can find it (I was going to try to explain it when I clicked here, but now the explanation eludes me -  but they said it so much better)

From your link,

"All that aside, I do think people who receive services face a real threat of interruption or disruption when this change takes place.  Not because they “won’t have a diagnosis,” or for any clinical reason.  Rather, I think people with autism are at risk to lose services because ignorant, ethically challenged, or financially pressured bureaucrats will use the diagnostic evolution as justification for changes that may benefit some other group at our expense.  Obviously, not every government official or service provider will think this way, but some surely will, and we need to both be on guard and continue to raise awareness about this risk.

For this is the real threat to the autistic population, from the DSM changes.  "Losing a diagnosis" is a red herring.

Many school are already using any loophole they can find to escape IEPs and their obligations under the spirit of the law.  State social service agencies can be even worse.  A big change like this could make that kind of treatment easier for them to justify and perpetrate, and that is highly undesirable."

If you don't get support then no real problem.

If you need support then you will face problems especially in these budget cutting times.

still amazed - what darned services? none exist (in New Jersey) none.

skyblue- do you recall the thread you linked from ASAN?

http://aspiesforfreedom.com/showthread.php?tid=24555

http://aspiesforfreedom.com/showthread.php?tid=24473

http://aspiesforfreedom.com/showthread.php?tid=23787

This post was last modified: 07-17-2012 03:45 AM by skyblue1 .

What, no services? So you are coping without support. Then you probably won't qualify for ASD level 1.

Wow Windy you are cured!!!

Don't worry you are not alone.

Bye bye ASAN.

You can always start up a Social Communication Disorder for freedom forum.

(Ha ha ha the master plan is coming together nicely ha ha ha...)

not sure what to make of your post - do not not what you mean perhaps PM me?
(this is the USA we all have to pay for health insuracne, still not be covered, for example "therapy" (mental health) is not covered for autism (have to say one is "depressed" but he is not - yet...) and then depression would be a pre-existing condition and if we switched health coverage would not be covered (hopefully the obama health reform act willa ctually stay in force).. meanwhile deductibles are like 5,000 per family... so well you get the picture...)

being under 18 - if parents are not "poor"(medicare)  there is nothing... and there is nothing for autism anyway - we have done all the learning of coping mechanisms for years/// OP, Sensory diets, ieps, routines, etc., now it is just the fact that the world is not going to change... for one person.

son still would qualify big time. no issue with that.

If you do get him therapy, he can always receive services without a diagnosis of depression... And some ppl will see him on a sliding fee...thats what I did. When I was 16 I managed to get a sliding fee of 5 dollars per visit (when I look back, I am both amazed they saw me for that little, and also that somehow I was able to come up with 5 dollars every week without allowance from my parents...perpetual luck I suppose).

Anyways, the advantage of a sliding fee was that I never had to get a diagnosis because they weren't getting reimbursed by an insurance company (I think...Im actually not all that sure how it worked out, i had a huge deductible that I couldn't pay so they decided to not gor through insurance (at first)...thus, i dont recall a diagnosis). meh....if our healthcare system sucks, our mental healthcare system is 50 times worse. but there are good opportunities hidden in the chthonic cracks.

how is it in the UK (or Australia for that matter)? do you get pretty good mental health services or what?

This post was last modified: 07-17-2012 07:40 PM by sg1008.

Thanks SB, I will check those out.  

DX has little bearing on services, it is much more about budgets - at least that's how it is in the schools.

Youngest didnt qualify for occupational therapy, and the kid has serious sensory integration problems. They were just out of funding in the school district.

Hi Windy
Not sure what to make of your reply either. So I will try to make my previous post clearer.

Most people with a current ASD diagnosis would still qualify under the new DSM V criteria so people are saying what's the fuss.

Well ASD under the new DSM V is going to be graded into levels of severity.

ASD level 1 (the mildest form of autism) is defined as this:

"A - Without supports in place, deficits in social communication cause noticeable impairments.  Has difficulty initiating social interactions and demonstrates clear examples of atypical or unsuccessful responses to social overtures of others.  May appear to have decreased interest in social interactions.

B - Rituals and repetitive behaviors (RRB's) cause significant interference with functioning in one or more contexts.  Resists attempts by others to interrupt RRB's or to be redirected from fixated interest."

So any aspies who have learnt coping mechanisms so they can get by without support will no longer be classed as autistic.

Of course this is all hypothetical for you and current members of ASAN because you should have no reason to get rediagnosed.
But for an adult who has fought all his life to integrate and learnt to cope with their environment will no longer be able to get a diagnosis of ASD to explain their life.

To put it another way, can you imagine anybody saying to somebody in a wheelchair, 'You can pull yourself up those stairs with your arms so therefore you are not really disabled.'

That is what the DSM V is saying to autistics. Even though it is very difficult for you to manage, you can do it, so you do not qualify as ASD level 1.

There is also the ridiculous spin off that people will be able to 'catch' autism and lose it and catch it again, or move up and down the severity levels depending on their environment and circumstances as they go through life.

But hey, that just means more work and more money for the psychologists, which is why they are so keen to introduce it.

There is no benefit to autistics here and there are no more able autistics.

So ASAN whatever happened to autism is a neurotype.

America is lost, partially due to the feeble acquiescence of ASAN but mainly due to the Aut squeaks carpet bombing of America with negative propoganda about autism.

The firewalls are going up, the insidious DSM V must not be allowed to ooze out of the States.

Good luck to you all, its going to get very messy for you.

Thats right at the moment. But that all changes with the DSM V

Unfortunately, the best way to get good interventions is privately.  You just need to take out a second mortgage or work 3 jobs to afford it.  I've known parents who've done either one or the other.  That way, they work with the child where they're at, and each therapist does an individual skills test, even if the child doesn't have a DX or has a bad one.  

Its all so much guesswork anyway.  In a hundred years, I wonder what the psychological community will think about this?  It will be similar to the way we look back on Freud, I think.

Or Red Indians maybe.

In those days the white men considered themselves to be inherently superior. Everything they did was considered the right way.

These days everything the NTs do is considered the right way. Any differences are considered disabilities.

Hence the ridiculous situation where literal interpretation or straightforward accuracy is considered a handicap whereas prolixity, exaggeration, logorrhea, deception, effusiveness etc are considered the right way to communicate.

Even being very ordered is considered a disorder! lol

The predominant neurotype rules.

That is why they are going to such a lot trouble to show that the number of ASD cases are not increasing.

Never heard of Red Indians. There are a lot of tribes though.

Perhaps you meant Native Americans.  

Never heard of Red Indians. There are a lot of tribes though.

Perhaps you meant Native Americans.  

Yes, of course you are right. My apologies.

I said Red Indians to differentiate from the Blue Indians in Avatar, who suffered from the same problem