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nominalist
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07 Dec 2008, 1:50 pm

ephemerella wrote:
According to nominalist's advocacy blog, Crystal children are the actual Aspergers and, IMO, Indigo are the Asperger phenotypes (pre-Asperger).


It depends on who you ask. For writers who make a distinction between indigo and crystal children, they usually say that indigo children are often diagnosed with ADHD, and crystal children are generally on the autism spectrum. For those who refer only to indigo children, they see both ADHD and the autism spectrum as related to it.

Personally, I find it silly but fascinating.


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sinsboldly
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07 Dec 2008, 2:01 pm

irishwhistle wrote:
My goodness, this has been an entertaining thread. But I'm not calling my child or myself indigo or crystal or any other such hippie claptrap. .

HEY!
This is not 'hippie' claptrap. It is just claptrap.

Merle


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ephemerella
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07 Dec 2008, 2:14 pm

nominalist wrote:
ephemerella wrote:
According to nominalist's advocacy blog, Crystal children are the actual Aspergers and, IMO, Indigo are the Asperger phenotypes (pre-Asperger).


It depends on who you ask. For writers who make a distinction between indigo and crystal children, they usually say that indigo children are often diagnosed with ADHD, and crystal children are generally on the autism spectrum. For those who refer only to indigo children, they see both ADHD and the autism spectrum as related to it.


Wow, I'm stumped. I just tried to make a search but can't find this... last week, I think it was, there was some new study that was hailed as growing proof that ADHD is an autism spectrum thing. Can't find it tho...

nominalist wrote:
Personally, I find it silly but fascinating.


Sounds like the right posture for successful sociological research. But I like the materialist theories of society, and these New Agers are about as far from being able to relate to those concrete ascriptions of behavior as one can get. I like the Marxist revival and the economist Stephen J. Leavitt's "Freakonomics" style of analysis of societies and systems of organized behavior. I'm not sure where understanding the New Age community could even begin to fit in there! It's silly but baffling, to me! If a New Age does indeed dawn in 2012, maybe I'll run out and get an "XTAL CHL" license plate.

I'm afraid of professors, by the way, due to being traumatized -- twice -- as a research assistant. Had one mentor become romantically obsessed with me and stalk me and had another one... well it's complicated. I'm trying to pull out of the PTSD from the retraumatization of the first PTSD. You might not want to cross-talk with me. My hypervigilance is not yet under control. I'm going to get therapy...

edited to add: My hypervigilance is not yet under control, and I sometimes get too defensive or aggressive. I wasn't trying to say that I found anything offensive about your post. I'm the one who can get offensive if I start blurting overly-defensive opinions.



nominalist
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07 Dec 2008, 2:44 pm

ephemerella wrote:
Wow, I'm stumped. I just tried to make a search but can't find this... last week, I think it was, there was some new study that was hailed as growing proof that ADHD is an autism spectrum thing. Can't find it tho...


I have three books which make similar arguments:

1. Lisa Blakemore-Brown, Reweaving the Autistic Tapestry. Philadelphia. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. 2002.
2. Diane M. Kennedy. The ADHD Autism Connection. Colorado Springs. Waterbrook Press. 2002
3. Robert Melillo and Gerry Leisman. Neurobehavioral Disorders of Childhood: An Evolutionary Perspective. New York. Springer. 2004.

The third book is more of an academic work (and, unfortunately, rather poorly written). However, it is the most explicit (p.11):
----
The similarities between the symptoms and autistic spectrum disorders are actually significant when one looks at the symptoms associated with ADHD. In fact, when we examine them, they seem almost identical.... It has also been noted that there is a similarity between autistic disorder and Asperger's syndrome and that Asperger's syndrome goes under many different types of names, some of the names are semantic-pragmatic disorder, right hemisphere learning disability, nonverbal learning disability, and schizoid disorder.

Much of this confusion has come about by the way we diagnose these problems. We would like to believe that there is a lab test or an objective test somewhere that confirms the diagnosis of ADHD, OCD or Tourette's; but in fact, the diagnosis is purely subjective. There are no consistent anatomic or physical markers for these conditions. Most often, these disorders are diagnosed by a professional sitting down with a parent or teacher and reading to them a list of symptoms and checking off if the parent or teacher believes that the child manifests the relevant symptoms. However, even this process is not as clear-cut as it sounds. The list of symptoms is extremely vague and many of these symptoms are hard if not impossible to distinguish.

One problem, according to Linda Lotspeich ..., Director of the Stanford Pervasive Developmental Disorders Clinic, is that the rules in the DSM-IV do not work.... What is happening is that a group of symptoms is being called a disorder and if we add or subtract a few symptoms or make a few more severe, then it is called a different condition or syndrome. However, when we look at the areas of the brain involved in all these conditions, and the neurotransmitter systems involved, they are all basically the same. Therefore, in reality, these are all possibly the same problem along a spectrum of severity. The most common of all comorbidities is OCD, developmental coordination disorder or more simply put "clumsiness" or motor incoordination.


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ephemerella
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07 Dec 2008, 3:27 pm

nominalist wrote:
One problem, according to Linda Lotspeich ..., Director of the Stanford Pervasive Developmental Disorders Clinic, is that the rules in the DSM-IV do not work.... What is happening is that a group of symptoms is being called a disorder and if we add or subtract a few symptoms or make a few more severe, then it is called a different condition or syndrome.


The DSM-IV is somewhat half-baked and hopefully DSM-V will be much better. In particular (and this is my interest in psychological social psychology) I think that everyone agrees that the DSM-IV is hopelessly incoherent when it comes to multiple personality and identity disorders. There seems to be a lack or organic sense, in the diagnostic criteria, of how to manage the internal consistencies and inconsistencies of differential diagnosis of related disorders. I feel that the relationship between related disorders, in the area of abnormal social psychological function, is very poorly understood. I have developed my own theory, kind of mathematical, that identity and personality disorders are dual, interdependent functions, kind of like phasors in electromagnetism. Electromagnetic phasors are composed of current and voltage components, and electromagnetic signals "phase" in and out of each apparent form. Each component (current and voltage phasors) interacts with its environment in different ways. But the phasors are orthogonal in the sense that they occupy completely different spaces mathematically, although they occupy the same physical space (they also are orthogonal in time). Similarly, my theory is that all social function can be broken down into identity and personality component processes, and that accurately and rigorously describing social psychological dysfunction depends on understanding these interdependent, orthogonal processes and how they impact interaction with the external social contact. IMO there is very little that I can understand as clearly defined in the DSM-IV in the area of pathological abnormal social psychology. I can't really make heads or tails of it, and depend on my own system of explanation and analysis that I have worked out. My Asperger diagnosis was made medically by someone else, not me. I can't really get the DSM-IV or feel confident talking about diagnostic criteria using it.

nominalist wrote:
However, when we look at the areas of the brain involved in all these conditions, and the neurotransmitter systems involved, they are all basically the same. Therefore, in reality, these are all possibly the same problem along a spectrum of severity. The most common of all comorbidities is OCD, developmental coordination disorder or more simply put "clumsiness" or motor incoordination.


Yes, that was it. It was some neuroscience finding, supported by brain imaging, I believe. It related ADHD with other autism spectrum disorders in a new way, I think. I can't find the reference.



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07 Dec 2008, 3:46 pm

^^that's interesting. I'm diagnosed with ADHD and also have SID and when I look at the symptomps it's really hard to tell how it is different from having full-blown AS.


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07 Dec 2008, 4:11 pm

I do think crystal is a much nicer name than aspergers, but its not on the doctors list so wont provide much assistance.

I think the parents who say that their kids are indigo/crystal just want to view their kids as positive and not under a medical model as "sick". I dont see anything wrong with that as I dont view myself as sick. I think they are trying their best with what they know and who they are. If we want people to be tollerant to us we should be tollerant to them.

I met a lot of folk who dont like autistic labels (and labels in general) and I thnk this is because of the prejudice that is asociated with autism.

I think the way to overcome this is awareness raising that autism is not a negative thing rather than re labeling with a new name. We have seen with other renamings that the new name just takes on the stigma of the old.

The only way forward is autistic pride.

crytsal is still nicer sounding though.



nominalist
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07 Dec 2008, 4:54 pm

ephemerella wrote:
The DSM-IV is somewhat half-baked and hopefully DSM-V will be much better.


Yes, there is some preliminary info that "autism spectrum disorder" may replace autism, Asperger's, and PDD-NOS. Distinctions will be made by focusing on "dimensions."


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nominalist
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07 Dec 2008, 4:56 pm

lotusblossom wrote:
I do think crystal is a much nicer name than aspergers, but its not on the doctors list so wont provide much assistance.


Yep. It sounds nice, but I agree with you. It largely reflects some parents who simply don't want to acknowledge that their children are autistics.


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08 Dec 2008, 3:02 am

each to their own. I don't like all that indigo and crystal children new age stuff. I cannot relate to it at all. i had some woman come up to me once and talk to me about indigo children and i just thought it was flippy trippy.

But if anyone else likes it. GREAT. have a nice day and call yourself whatever you want to.

Me? i don't mind the term Aspergers. it just encapsulates it all.



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08 Dec 2008, 3:03 pm

sinsboldly wrote:
irishwhistle wrote:
My goodness, this has been an entertaining thread. But I'm not calling my child or myself indigo or crystal or any other such hippie claptrap. .

HEY!
This is not 'hippie' claptrap. It is just claptrap.

Merle


Quite right, I just love quoting from "Waiting for God."


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08 Dec 2008, 5:47 pm

I first heard of this new Age Idea when I read Jenny McCarthy's book, Louder than words.

She was out and about with her son and a stanger, a lady, said that her son was a Crystal Child. (Jenny's son).

Jenny MacCarthy went home and looked up Crystal and Indigo children and found the characteristics of her son on a checklist on a webpage about these kinds of children.

It makes sense, but it is probably a foofy New Age way of thinking and should be used as entertainment, not as a diagnosis.

For the record, though, I took the Indigo quiz and found out I am an Indigo.

After looking at the characteristics, Indigo's sound like anyone who has Autism or Asperger Syndrome, and Crystal sounds like Downs Syndrome characteristics, or even someone who has Cerebral Palsy because aren't they passive like Down Syndrome people are?

I'm not sure.



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08 Dec 2008, 5:53 pm

irishwhistle wrote:
My goodness, this has been an entertaining thread. But I'm not calling my child or myself indigo or crystal or any other such hippie claptrap. .


That's easy for you to say. You don't have to be a hippie. You're the Fifth Element, "LOOOVE". 8)

On the plus side, "Indigo Child" makes a better bumper sticker.



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08 Dec 2008, 6:43 pm

millie wrote:
Me? i don't mind the term Aspergers. it just encapsulates it all.


Personally, I prefer the term autistic or, when clarification is needed, Asperger's autistic.


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08 Dec 2008, 6:55 pm

Indigos have a warrior spirit. They come into this world to reform it. They are very intelligent and often hyper active, or get labeled with PDD because they are more advanced souls. They are the trail blazers who make way for the Crystals.

Crystal children are sweet and pure. They come into the world spiritually enlightened. Unlike Indigos, they don't enjoy arguing and do not have a sense of superiority.

Shamanism is not understood by science but I don't know of any anthropologist who has studied them that does not believe in psychic phenomenon.

Check out this little survey of Indigos and Aspies.

http://indigosociety.com/quiz-indigos-r ... ns-t11577/


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08 Dec 2008, 7:18 pm

Magnus wrote:
Crystal children are sweet and pure... they don't enjoy arguing and do not have a sense of superiority.


LOL. Then that is another species of Asperger... some love arguing and have BIG EGOS despite an inchoate social mind!

I supposed I was sweet and pure at one time, before the weight of the world crushed my spirit, soured my outlook and embittered me to the bone.