This is the most widely read national newspaper in the US -- and there is some F***ED UP crap in here -- especially from "research scientist" Katherine Tsatsanis.

The paper needs to get some letters about this, particularly from diagnosed Asoies who are in relationships and/or have children...

A long shadow is lifted on Asperger's in adults
By Suzanne Leigh, Special for USA TODAY

Ten years ago, Kathy Marshack, a psychologist in Vancouver, Wash., was unfamiliar with Asperger's syndrome in adults.

Asperger's is a condition on the spectrum of autism disorders that most people associate with children and teens, but Marshack has about 15 patients who are either adults with Asperger's or are the spouses or grown children of them.

Marshack, who says her late mother had Asperger's and her adopted daughter has it, believes the condition is widely undiagnosed. In many cases, it doesn't come to light until a spouse or adult child seeks therapy for depression or poor self-esteem that results from the coldness and egocentricity Asperger's adults demonstrate in relationships, she says.

The number of Asperger's adults, like the diagnosis, is hard to pin down. Anecdotal growth in their ranks and a burgeoning online "Aspie" adult subculture that includes dating sites, advocacy groups and chat rooms raises the question: Are we starting to discover generations who escaped diagnosis? The condition officially wasn't recognized until 1994, which leads people such as Marshack to believe doctors are playing catch-up with adult diagnoses.

Because some Asperger's adults are spouses and parents and have enduring careers, others suggest that the diagnostic criteria are being interpreted too loosely.

"Almost by definition, an Asperger's person would not form an intimate relationship, get married and have children," says research scientist Katherine Tsatsanis of the Yale Developmental Disabilities Clinic. "They don't form connections. The desire, the drive and the social knowledge is lacking."

An explanation for behavior

What is not disputed is the testimony of those who say their diagnosis helps explain their lives.

When Liane Holliday Willey was diagnosed with Asperger's at 40, she felt she had been offered a key that would "unlock the mysteries that were me."

The Rockford, Mich., married mother of three wrote of her suspicions that she had the disorder in her memoir, Pretending to be Normal, published in 1999. In it she described an "overwhelming childhood desire to be away from my peers," preferring pretend tea parties in which "the fun came from setting up and arranging things."

The criteria for Asperger's, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the clinicians' diagnostic handbook, are "qualitative impairments in social interaction," which may include poor eye-to-eye gaze, failure to develop relationships and lack of "emotional reciprocity." The syndrome also is marked by "restricted repetitive and stereotyped" behavior, such as inflexible adherence to routine, hand flapping or twisting and an abnormal preoccupation with certain interests.

For William Loughman of Berkeley, Calif., a retired director of a hospital cytogenetics lab and grandfather of six, reading about Asperger's led to an epiphany when his conviction that he had the condition was confirmed by a psychologist three years ago. Loughman, 74, says that like many people with Asperger's, he has difficulty making eye contact and tends to rock back and forth ("stimming" in Asperger's parlance).

He believes Asperger's explains why he flourished in the highly structured environment of the U.S. Army and partially explains why his first wife of 10 years divorced him. (His second marriage, which has lasted 40 years, has weathered decades of turmoil but is now calm, he reports.)

Disparities in diagnoses

Like other conditions on the autism spectrum, Asperger's is believed to be caused primarily by errant genes, and it is not typically associated with low IQ. Although there's no consensus on prevalence, a study in May's Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry pins it at 1 in 400 among 8-year-olds, more often in boys than girls.

Though professionals use the same diagnostic criteria, interpretations make for wide disparities in diagnosis. Ami Klin, head of the Yale Developmental Disabilities Clinic, says some people may have family members with autism-spectrum disorders and exhibit features of Asperger's, such as "social deficits and a great deal of rigidities," but these traits are not tantamount to the diagnosable condition.

Forming close friendships and dating run counter to Asperger's adults' goals, colleague Tsatsanis says; Klin says he has never known a parent with Asperger's.

Bryna Siegel, director of the Autism Clinic at the University of California-San Francisco, concurs that an Asperger's parent would be rare, and she knows of just one short-lived marriage. Recently she does more "un-diagnosing" than diagnosing, she says.

But Marshack, whose self-published A Sliver in My Mind: Loving Those With Asperger Syndrome arrives this year, says experts who say Asperger's adults don't marry or have children either "have their heads stuck in the sand" or do not believe many have learned to compensate for their deficits.

Diagnosis can offer fresh hope to those who have been struggling, she says.

Holliday Willey says she fails to understand concern about overdiagnosis. "The idea that too many are being diagnosed — so what? I'd rather gather in more folks than leave one out."

Being one of the folks who has never, or at least not yet, been able to navigate the sort of intimacy required for romantic partnership or parenting, I've been wondering ever since I joined this discussion board how it is that so many folks here manage to do it. I'm good at friendship, I think, but sex, romance, and confronting emotional demons that intimacy can bring up from the depths--I don't see how it is made to work. Just the idea of sharing a bed with somebody every night--cringe!

And there's a lesson here--not everyone is alike.  I can do "executive function" pretty well, yet many on the board have said that they really struggle with it.  Others can do sexual intimacy well, and I can't.

Years of therapy could possibly have been more profitably spent if we could have focussed on asperger-related issues.

And many who are not in relationships long to be. I was most concerned with Dr. Tsetsefly's statement "Forming close friendships and dating run counter to Asperger's adults' goals"

I just don't think that is nearly as universal as she declares.

And I'm concerned that they sought out what seems to be such an extreme point of view.

Maybe she finds it easier if there is one sterotype of asperger. Seems like she wants the world nice and tidy put in her boxes. She'll probably think up another 'disorder' for those who match all asperger traits but do form close friendships or relations.
Looks like an NT sorting game to me.

No one would question that my 12-year-old is on the spectrum.  It is just too obvious.  Since we have not obtained an official diagnosis, what is in question is whether he is HFA or AS.  His standardized tests come back at the 98th and 99th percentiles, which argues for AS.  His echolalia / palilalia argues for HFA.  It really doesn't matter for the purposes of this discussion.  What matters is that he has 2 best friends, ie, young men who'd rather spend the day with John than with anyone.  Who could ask for more?  And I expect that when he decides that he likes girls he'll do OK.  He is being raised to have a strong sense of himself and confidence in who he is.  He is so much more put together than I was at this critical middle school age.  I had the message that something was wrong with me, I needed to shape up, nobody liked me and that was entirely my fault, etc, etc.  He has the idea that he is a valuable person who can find his place, be happy just the way he is, and lead a healthy life.  How can that not be attractive?  The most attractive thing about any person is liking him/herself.

Just a loose thought. Aspie men seem to have problems about mating. Aspie women are by tradition the courted side, the more passive in the first stages of the mating process. By that I mean it is easier for Aspie women to get into marriage than their male counterparts. It's still a male dominant society so we'd be permeated with misogynistic crap and old eccentrics, together forming the paradigm we call the world. A world that changes in every second...

Oops Sorry! I just tried to be positive there at the end, ie the ever-changing world...

Well gee, by that definition, Daniel Tammet can't possibly be on the spectrum, cuz by golly, he has been in love with his domestic partner and they've lived together for years. Phhhttt!!

Also, some people, like myself, form alternative relationships that others don't understand because it doesn't fit into their tiny preconceived mold.  There are many ways to be.

Common myths about autism, courtesy of the National Autistic Society.

http://www.autism.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopol...120&a=2202

So why do I bother with Equally Yoked and Dateable and maybe even E-Harmony?

Energeia, I am not even sure many of us are even given credit for wanting to, much less given an opportunity to.  The most dangerous thing is that the NTs believe it, because they certainly do not understand what AS is, certainly not loneliness and wanting to love with AS.

I'm surprised someone didn't say we don't want to work either.  Maybe the NTs think we don't want to fit in, stop the interview in their minds right there.

Max, I am in your debt yet again for another excellent post!  We can agree to disagree on another issue, but we have much to agree on with respect to Aspie issues and getting over the Republicans.  If I do vote Republican in 2008 it is only to get Cheney off the ticket in November.  Impeachment, yes!

Now, if I didn't want any female entanglements, I'd have no borderline suicidal moments, would I?

Actually, I can't believe they interviewed that person. It is mostly anecdotal. Other than information on prevalence of ASD related disorders, they don't cite a single study or experiment.

My response to letters@usatoday.com follows:
--------------------------
Subject: Reader response: A long shadow is lifted on Asperger's in adults

I found this article discussed on our blog site, http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com, and read it, however,
I have some concerns that the opposing viewpoint, although stated, is understated.

I am 37 years old with Asperger's syndrome, have a Master's inn sociology, and have been working in Web design 8 years.
However, I enjoy conventional levels of friendship and seek the same level of relationship intimacy my neurotypical peers have.  
In fact, I have joined two dating services, and the lack of a satisfactory relationship severely distresses me, to just short of a suicide
attempt.  This article seems to possibly explain a misunderstanding among neurotypicals that further explains my experience.

Your article gives much attention to the lack of desire for friendships, marriage, and parenting.  
However, without a heading to indicate that there is disagreement from the Asperger's community, a person reading quickly may miss the fact that there is
strong disagreement on this issue, and Katherine Tsatsanis of the Yale Developmental Disabilities Clinic represents only one opinion, perhaps not even
a correct one.

It is distressing to be dismissed, as Sergei in the comments section under the article suggested, as a jerk not worthy of consideration.
"Well, this would tend to explain an acquaintence of mine who, while being caustic and egocentric (my wife met him once and never wants to even hear his name again).
.... And all the while I thought he was just a jerk."

Both sides need to be discussed, as the issue really matters to many people.

---------------------------------------

I need to change my moniker to Tin Man.  Some people think I don't have a heart.

I recently borrowed "The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome" by Tony Attwood (2006) from the library, and iirc in it he said that Asperger's Syndrome is the same as Schizoid Personality Disorder. Also, the DSM-IV criteria for Asperger's are different from the Gillberg criteria... the Gillberg criteria seem to require a lack of desire to have friends or a spouse, whereas the DSM-IV doesn't have that requirement at all. I thought it was interesting that he mentioned Schizoid Personality Disorder, because I'd thought it came pretty close to describing me when I first learned about it when I was 12yo, but I'm really not so sure that AS and SPD should be equated and said to be the same condition. Obviously, there are a lot of people who fit the DSM-IV AS definition who don't fit the SPD definition, and it's ridiculous to ignore all those people... I think the confusion exists because a lot of Aspies are bullied and rejected so much that they claim to not care about friends and such anymore... Iirc though, Attwood's book also said that out of the initial group of kids that Hans Asperger diagnosed at least one got married... I would have to go back and check on that though.

Not autistic enough, I guess, to be part of the Asperger "community."  You should probably go sit in a dark corner by yourself.

I've been looking at match.com's guarantee.  I figure, with my unique combination of atheism, libertarianism, and unemployability, I'm a shoo-in for that year at half-price.