I previously wrote about removing the Aspergers diagnosis from the DSM and to my dismay there are people with Aspergers out there who are against removing it for very hateful reasons.
One person with Aspergers recently wrote on a support group:
I just don’t like the idea of being put in the same category as children who have limited intelligence, or other extreme limitations. Because I went to school in the 1960′s, I was put in the same class as kids who had some level of mental retardation (I know that’s a bad term now, but it was appropriate, then) and kids who had some kinds of insanity. We were all “special” kids in the “special” classes and I hope never to be so classified again.
So let me get this right, you think your smarter then other people. I know some people with classic autism that are very bright, they just communicate with the world in a different manner.
I am disturbed by comments like this online, are you?
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m not keen on merging the two extremes of autism but mainly because I think it will negatively impact support for those who need it most.
I’m starting to rethink my position on that because the comments I’m reading around the internet are elitist. I don’t want to be part of a group like that.
i am happy to be associated with autism. i AM autistic i hv felt that to be so for a long time. i hv no elitist inclinations. but i think gavin has a point abt ppl who need aid more getting less becos those who need it less may get more. it will all depend on HOW this new DSM V be implemented where aid is concerned. anyhow, i come from a place where there is NO aid at all for autism, only for the poor regardless of neurological differences. if u r poor u get aid, if u r not, they dont care. so for me, it makes little practical difference. we all hv to just suck it up and struggle thru to be independent financially, or just rely on our families for help. it is not the govt’s problem they dont really care.
so yes, apart from the aid issues, i am please to be associated with the mentally challenged of us, those who hide under tables and cannot feed themselves. it has no nasty connotations for me. i kw they struggle too. as do i. and i embrace the title autism.
“…So let me get this right, you think your smarter then other people…”
What a snob that person is!
Lemme guess, he or she also thinks only popular people are snobs and will accuse someone else of snobbery simply for making several friends and keeping those friendships going…
“anyhow, i come from a place where there is NO aid at all for autism, only for the poor regardless of neurological differences. if u r poor u get aid, if u r not, they dont care.”
Sounds like if you’re poor you get aid because they think you can’t go get and pay for care yourself and if you’re not poor they think you have enough money to go get and pay for care yourself.
Like how in some places if you’re poor you get food stamps and if you’re not poor they don’t give you food stamps. It’s not that they don’t care if you eat, it’s that they think you can afford food on your own and will eat just fine without their help.
No, I am not disturbed by the comments.
The individual who made the comments went through a very aversive, traumatizing experience and associates the broader DSM-V classification with being “lumped in” with others in an incompatible way. At one time (and perhaps still) some places lumped autistics and even mild neurotics in with dangerous psychotics. Many experienced trauma from that as a result too.
What the individual does not understand is the DSM-V separates different dimensions so that autism is supposed to be considered separately from intelligence. Instead of trying to create arbitrary sub-classifications of autistics based on things like language delay or IQ, the DSM-V considers cognitive challenge separate from autism.
DSM-V is a step in the right direction toward not arbitrarily lumping incompatible groups.
Instead of judging this individual harshly for expressing a strongly conditioned fear, I suggest extending a welcoming hand saying: “It’s not as scary as you think. Here’s why…”
I have aspergers myself. What I can tell you is that growing up with this disability is like being in a war zone. You are always a target for humiliation and because of that, many of us (including myself to be honest) will sometimes act colder and than usual in order to keep people off of us. “Better to be a jerk than a dork” as I used to tell myself. However a lot of this behavior mellowed down once I left high school and met more reliable friends. You wanna help someone with any social disability, stop standing on the sidelines like an idiot and help them out. Almost all the behavior people don’t like in adults with aspergers comes from frustration from social rejection.
I’m really just trying to explain this as best I can.
As a mother with a child with Asperger’s syndrome (and very close friends to a couple with son with “classic” autism), I was very dismayed at the removal of Asperger’s from the DSM. To me, Asperger’s Syndrome and “classic” Kanner’s autism are very different circumstances and should be treated as such. I think to lump the two together does a disservice to ALL patients of autism — I think the distinctions are very important, and allow everyone to be treated completely and adequately. To me, it’s similar to dumping patients of diverticulitis and Crohn’s disease together, simply because they are both diseases of the bowels. I was shocked that it was even suggested. As for the person who wrote, I think that Aspie is trying to express that he feels that he is different (not necessarily “superior”) to the Kanner’s autistic and needs to be treated appropriately, and I agree with that completely.