Kon wrote:
Any opinions?
Shyness and AS: similarities and differences?A while back, an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal called Asperger’s disorder “a pompous label for shyness”. While perhaps going a bit far, I think it highlights a point: there are a number of similarities between people with (mild) Asperger’s and people with shyness/social anxiety. While the standard issue answer to this question is, “Aspergers don’t know how to interact, shy people do but are freaked out”, one should consider that lack of social skills is widely reported in the literature on social anxiety and avoidant personality disorder. Many shy people withdraw for so many years that they lose the opportunity to develop social skills. Thus, they can’t maintain a conversation, awkward silences, may be socially immature and underdeveloped, be withdrawn…just like people with Asperger’s disorder.
Except in extreme cases, where the person in question is literally obsessed with some archaic topic, talks at people endlessly about said topic, has sensory issues, takes everything extremely literally and can not make generalizations, I would say social phobia/AvPD is almost always the more appropriate diagnosis. My feeling is a lot of people these days in the Social Phobia/Avoidant ballpark are misdiagnosed as Asperger’s because it is a “trendy” diagnosis and the outward appearance can be so similar. I am especially skeptical about those online who claim to have Asperger’s yet seldom ever mention any other symptom than the usual “I’m XX years old and never had a girlfriend.” To me, that’s classic Avoidant Personality, not Asperger’s, except if there are fairly clear-cut autistic traits accompanying it.
Am I wrong here? Am I off base? I think what I’m saying is fairly reasonable, and I wish people on the internet would stop calling themselves “Aspies” because they are introverts or experience a mild and very normal level of social awkwardness that would disappear if they stepped away from the computer for a few minutes. I’m actually glad Asperger’s is being dropped from the DSM-V and being merged into Autism Spectrum Disorder. This way, the people really afflicted with it will still qualify for an ASD diagnosis, and the shy, introverted nerds will no longer have an excuse for being a social shut-in and will actually maybe grow a pair and start…gasp! talking to girls…
http://www.goanxiety.info/archives/shyn ... ences.htmlYour rigid requirements for textbook cases of Asperger’s is actually the mentality that leads to it being missed in many diagnoses. Far short of being “trendy” AS is usually the last resort when a psychiatrist has exhausted all possible personality disorders. (This is doubly true for females who usually present with milder symptoms)
With age and time, even most severe Aspies learn their special interests needs to be restrained and that NT dont always speAk literally. Whereas there are bound to be slip ups due to the true nature
of an aspie, more or less you get a person who would be labelled introverted if one merely looked at the surface.
Simultaneously, there are introverts/ social rejects who claim the label. However, the difference is when social conditions are right, they are in sync with all other NT people. An Aspie is merely going through the script for proper social interaction.
21 Jan 2012, 9:56 am
