Autism or Asperger's... it might depend on your doctor

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link to an article, that isn't so much news or current events, but rather it sums up what has often been stated on this general autism forum... that a diagnosis really depends on which doctor you see, and what their opinions are ... reuters health - information about diagnosis

I encountered this myself when I was being diagnosed as a child. One place said I had Aspergers, the other said HFA.

Yeah, that's pretty much the only difference--how the doctor sees it. No intrinsic difference.

I've been diagnosed all over the spectrum too. Nowadays I just say PDD-NOS and leave it at that.

I have got diagnosed autism, HFA, Aspergers.
My psychologist, who is specialized in autism says "autism", because she looks on what people on the spectrum share rather than if you could talk before age two or not. I have a cousin who started talking age 4 and he is not autistic at all. He just started talking later than he was supposed to. Now he is a "perfectly "normal"" person, he just had one developmental delay.

Aspergers is Autism...

I agree with SweetLeaf. According to what I have researched Asperger's Syndrome is part of the Autism spectrum. People with Asperger's are usually at the high end of the spectrum. "Classic" autism covers a lower part of the spectrum. I first heard about classic autism in the 1970s or 1980s. I found it interesting as a disorder, but did not see myself in it. Less than 10 years ago, I came across info about Asperger's, and it was like fire works going off in my mind. I saw myself in the very first article I came across. I continued to read anything I occasionally came across about Asperger's over the next several years. Every article was like a mirror of my situation, so I finally started doing deliberate research into Asperger's, and eventually took an online test. I tested positive for Asperger's--no surprise. I eventually found WP and lurked here for over a year, before joining. This site has been very helpful to me.

As for questions about the difference between the different autism conditions, they are different enough for me to not see myself in classic autism,and other versions than Asperger's but there are similarities that make it clear that they are all related. I think the spectrum mode of describing the different manifestations these disorders take is a good way of describing them because it covers all of them while allowing room for each to be separately accounted for.

I also don't see any reason to quarrel over it.

Interesting topic Young Skywalker. I'm enjoying the read.

Tony attwood (reading his book on aspergers) says that hfa and aspergers are probably the same thing. and if someone would be HFA then they should be diagnosed as aspergers. It is all just semantics

People can go from severe autism to high functioning after many years of therapy and what have you.
They still show some signs of physical rigidity and maybe emotional immaturity which is very different for those who grew up with HFA/AS.
Which further confuses it.

Doctors. Yes, doctors. They're the ones to blame.

So, I think people here have missed what this is saying.

It's not saying Asperger's isn't a form of autism. It's saying that whether someone is diagnosed with "Asperger's Syndrome" or "Autistic Disorder" (i.e. classic autism), depends on the doctor they were diagnosed by in many cases.

DS was also diagnosed with both by two different doctors - I realise that it's only semantics but in my hours of research, when I read a book about aspergers, I find the info about 70% relevant to him as appose to autism, in which case the info about 70% irrelevant.