So now that you're here, any thoughts on Aspergers getting expunged from the next edition of the DSM?
It's a complex situation.
On the one hand, there's the issue that we don't want to pathologize people who are borderline, because previously it could serve as a catchall "you are weird" diagnosis. So in that sense, it's good that people are not getting slapped with the stigma--the DSM doesn't classify lovesickness or bad sense of humor, it shouldn't be working on folks who have a little interest in spinny things. It will probably also cut back on popular self-diagnoses, because the word "autism" has such stigma. There is a legitimate problem with accessing diagnosis, though, so being kneejerk mean to someone just because they self-diagnosed can have its issues.
On another hand, 80% of the people who currently qualify as Asperger's will be expunged from the rolls and no longer qualify, and there really aren't many resources to help people with terrible social skills around and about out there--so what I'm saying is, better support for spectrum-ward people should be available regardless of clinical diagnosis, with extra provided for those of us who are firmly on that side of "the wall." However, I've found that there's no/little resources or support available for Asperger's folks past the age of 18, so for adults who are losing the diagnosis it really doesn't matter that much right now because we're screwed either way. For reference, I'm pretty sure that I'll still be stuck with the label. I'm bad enough that they won't let me in the social classes for normal people at the student health services center, so instead there's no resources, rather than resources that would have been too advanced. I'd like to see that start to change.
On the third hand, there's a lot of in-fighting between people with Asperger's and people with autism, because many of the folks with serious, hard-core autism see its eradication as a positive (hence side with Autism Speaks' agenda and its whiff of genocide) and the AS people as folks who are complaining about nothing much and aren't getting off their bums and working on their situation. The folks with Asperger's are upset because they feel that life could be pretty good if they just had some better support and find the eradication agenda, and the separation from the "people like them," painful. In some ways it mirrors the experience of bisexual people in the queer community, who can sometimes be seen as "not really queer" because they have a choice. A person with Asperger's who can pass a reasonable amount of the time is not seen as actually autistic. My hope is that the shift of the diagnosis bar will remove some of this in-fighting and generate greater coherence.
And, fourth, this will likely not remove the issue with the extreme stereotyping of the autistic condition. Asperger's should have created understanding of the existence of the spectrum (you need two data points to make a line, right... ?), but instead it became equally pathologized with an entirely different set of stereotypes. I'm not expecting this to do any better in that department, "three subtypes" or no. No one is going to know about those on the street, just the single stereotype.
My general verdict is that this is a good idea in theory, but the practice will likely lead to large numbers of people who could have used some low-impact support suffering unnecessarily, because it won't be attached to better governmental support of psychological services in general in the near future. However, that was already happening anyway, so at the very least we're going to get a more sensible diagnostic device with our side of masochistic pie.
Ohai Vector.
Hooray, Vector's back!
Not too much happened on the forums, except turning about 800% more gay. Seriously.
Hey, dudes
Glad to hear it!
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Topic: Things that made you sad today thread. (Read 9447609 times)