Asperger's isn't autism?

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Dr. Tony Attwood, the English psychologist currently living in Queensland Australia and who is considered by most to be the foremost authority on Asperger's Syndrome, would strongly disagree with anyone who says that Asperger's is not a form of Autism. It most certainly IS Autism.

Period. End of story.

He's written countless books on Asperger's Syndrome and has been studying this very serious neurological disorder since 1952 and the only other person that would know more about Asperger's would be Dr. Hans Asperger himself, the Austrian doctor who first diagnosed it in the early 30s. The very idea that Asperger's is not Autism would be personally offensive to the countless millions out there who know first-hand how it feels and the similarities therein.

There's always some nut job and troll out there in YouTube land who's trying to stir up trouble and this situation is simply no different. Trolls live for the reaction they don't care what kind of reaction they just want a reaction so I think this YouTube video should be deleted immediately.

Well said sir.

I think a more accurate way to put this is that there may be many possible causes, including all you mentioned, but none have, as yet, been confirmed.

+1

I like the term Aspergers Syndrome because the traits are well identified. I do not like the term High Functioning Autistic. If it is really a spectrum then how many of those who were low functioning have progressed with therapy into becoming high functioning?

Suggesting YouTube video be deletted simply because it disagrres with what Tony Attword says is downright infringement on freedom of speech. With this approach, Einstein's theory would have been thrown out on the basis that, at first, less than 10 people understood it. You know the kinds of YouTube videos that get deletted? The ones with pornographic content. Do you really want to lump this together with an unfashionable view of one of the less known conditions?

What you just said implies that both terms can be used but there should be very clear distinction made between them. One can, in fact, transition from LFA to HFA, and in this case HFA label to describe current situation (not the past!) would be appropriate. On the other hand, nobody can transition from autism to Asperger because this distinction is based on history: did language develop on time or not? And the past can't change

This is not just technicality. There was a study that shows that autistics (both HFA and LFA) have right hemisphere stronger than left, and aspies have left hemisphere stronger than right. So this finding sets Asperger and HFA apart.

It didn't have to be the case. Not every diagnosis costs money. Extreme example: common cold. More relevant example:ADHD, Schizoid personality disorder, etc are all less severe than Asperger, yet they weren't removed, so appartly they don't cost money either. In fact, the part of Asperger spectrum that doesn't meet DSM 5 criteria for ASD is now diagnosed as social communication disorder, which apparently doesn't pose a burden on the insurance companies either.

So, if it was up to me, I would have kept Asperger, I would have simply made sure Asperger label doesn't cost an insurance money. I don't know who makes the decision as to what label costs how much money. Perhaps, the fact that Asperger is considered part of autism spectrum us what makes it coat money? In this case, I would have simply removed it from autism spectrum and classified it separately? I mean, they did that with social communication disorder -- despite the fact that one might argue that it is related to autism, too. So why not simply re-name social communication disorder into Asperge? Then the new version of Asperger won't be in autism spectrum any more, since social communication disorder isn't, and therefore won't cost insurance any money.

I think spreading lies about serious neurodevelopmental conditions such as Autism and its verious forms and trolling those who have said conditions qualifies as an excellent reason for deleting said YouTube videos.

Mockery and bullying are things that all Autistics endure on a daily basis and to provide a worldwide digital platform for that treatment to be spread everywhere is a gross and disgusting way to use YouTube.

But if you're playing Devil's Advocate as a way to troll those with Autism then you would be no better than the NTs that bully and mock us on a daily basis.

Malchik is not a bully just because he has a different opinion.

Btw, Atwood is not infallible.

I don't have an opinion either way on the topic. I just don't like seeing someone called a bully just because he questions what most on here believe.

While considered part of the Autism Spectrum by professionals in the DSM IV Aspergers was a seperate diagnosis. The point of the subsuming Aspergers was not to have different diagnosis but less diagnosis. If a person is not diagnosed they are expected to need no support and just try harder not costing insurence companies money and school districts extra money. If something is in the DSM it is supposed to mean one need supports. DSM stands for “Diagnostic Manuel of Mental DISORDERS. The diagnosis was “Aspergers DISORDER” not “Aspergers Personality”. That is one reason why there are people that are happy that the Aspergers diagnosis is not in the manuals.

Decreasing the number of labels available won't decrease the number of people diagnosed because then everyone who used to be diagnosed with a label they got rid of will simply be re-diagnosed with a different label. The key factor that *might* reduce the number of people being diagnosed is raising the diagnostic threshold. The DSM 5 threshold for ASD is, indeed, higher than DSM 4 threshold for Asperger. *BUT* in the current scenario it doesn't help because the threshold for social communication disorder is *lower* than Asperger, so everyone with Asperger that can't be diagnosed with ASD will simply be re-diagnosed with social communication disorder. That's why I don't see how this move would lower the number of people diagnosed, if what you talk about is the diagnoses across the entire DSM rather than its particular sections.

Bullying means degrading someone. I don't see how separating Asperger from autism would be degrading to aspies. If anything, I think its quite the opposite. When aspies are lumped with autistics they are subjected to the stereotypes such as Rainman. Being separated from autism would protect them from some of those stereotypes.

On a different note, for a lay person the whole topic of autism is rather obscure knowledge. If you want youtube to ban videos that are wrong on some obscure topic, the same standard would apply to all other topics: you would also ask youtube to ban videos on quantum field theory that misrepresent common view, and so forth. Do you really expect youtube owners to be experts in all those fields in order to make professional judgement?

And this goes back to bullying: people don't bully based off of misrepresenting something obscure. Thats not what bullying is.

This argument got old many years ago.

Pecans are not walnuts but they are still nuts.

Nuts = Autism therefore Aspies are nuts.

End of lesson.

What about looking at mental conditions at-large as nuts? Then you would end up relating Asperger to schizophrenia and bipolar, but you wouldn't like that one would you.

Also ask yourself this question: whom is aspie closer to, to an NT or to a severely autistic who can't say a single word and just rocks all the time? I would say to an NT.

And then there are some other conditions that *might* be related to autism, such as social communication disorder and schizoid personality disorder. Yet they are classified separately. So where do you draw the line between classifying something separately from autism and classifying it together?

The same question applies to any other personality disorder by the way: for example, Borderline Personality disorder might well be related to bipolar, so why is it classified separately?

And finally even normal personality traits can be viewed as shaddows of various diagnoses (look up "shaddow symptoms").

The point is that there is a lot of gray area all over the place, and its not as obvious as you think.

Well, it appears that Asperger's is in fact a form of very minor autism, or a very light autism.
To find out how it relates to actual autism, you have to look at the similarity of the symptoms.
People with asperger's often have some social issues, or lack social skills, etc. This is something that happens to autistic people as well, but to a larger extent.
If we can agree that the definition of Autism is impaired, speech, social skills, etc. etc., then Asperger's is a form of that.
However, I understand the disagreement of some people on that matter, too.
I just regard asperger's as a form of autism, but I don't feel ashamed if I were to assume I really have it.
I think whether we are autistic or have asperger's, or have nothing, everyone is still human.