aspergers is the new bi polar!

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ok so as we all know, autism, in particular aspergers is the big "it" disorder these days. a few years back if you can recall bi polar disorder was the big thing to "have" as if mental disorders are mere fashion accessories collected by neurotic people starving for attention. back when i was a child add/adha was all the rage i approximate about forty percent of my elementary mates went to the nurses office to take their ritalins and adderalls and whatnot. other disorders recieving varying popularity and epidemisc include... eatind disorders(anorexia mainly) self harm,sociopathy,depression,borderline personality and such. here is why i think people make certain disorders popular while others remain stigmatized.

aspergers pro: percieved genius,special skills/talents,creativity,wisdom

add/adhd pro: creative,funny,kind,interesting,intelligent,fun

bi polar pro: ummm creative unique interesting, talented

depression pro: deep,dark,mysterious,talented,

eating disorder pro: skinny "body ideal" perfect,will power,smart,super-human,special

cutting pro: "ballsy" daring insane deep dark worthy of attenton

sociopathy pro: cunning sly smooth slick charming daring cool brilliant suave



i assume nobody claims/exploits disorders such as schizophrenia and munchausens and retardation because they are not associated with admirable traits they are associated with slowness word salad bad hygeine neediness insanity and helplessness

please give me some input as to why some disorders become cool it boggles my already jumbled mind!

I think society likes to focus on conditions so it makes them look trendy because you keep hearing about it. But the downside to that is it makes people think it's over diagnosed and they take the condition less seriously when someone has it milder than others or they don't really take someone seriously when they say they have it.

Also when I was in school, I didn't hear of other kids having disorders. But when I was in high school and middle school, it seemed like there were lot of kids that were in special ed. It made me feel better about myself.

also syd barrett was schizo he was a very interesting man. right now wer not sure whether my schizophrenia syptoms are the result of a lingering effect of adhd medication. only time will tell. i am being evaluated next week i think people like to have disorders because it makes them feel a sense of being cared for and appreciated. mostly teenage girls and young women also you never hear of autism being attributed to fetal drug use probably because the parents of autistic children USUALLY not always are well to do families. just a thought!

I really do agree with this. I think just about everything in the DSM-IV has been a trend at one time or another. This has been going back for a very long time. What's really sad is this simply shows how incompetent the mental health field is. Diagnoses shouldn't be trendy, they should make sense and should point to necessary treatment.

Disorders become "cool" because they somehow become publicized by the general public. You can thank the drug companies for that. I seriously don't think that stigmas are the worst problem. I think the worst problem is incompetent professionals. I also feel that the medical model has done a great deal to reduce stigma over the years and reduce the ridiculous freudian/psychodynamic theory that plagued the mental health field for a great deal of the 20th century.
The other thing is can the average person show sympathy for some of these disorders. I think that the answer is yes, except for the personality disorders.

i didnt mean to say aspergers and bi polar are in the same family of disorders by no means . i apologize for that sometimes i dont chose my phrasing wisely on another note there are new "disorders" coming out left and right! if you have a messy house you have a disorder or if youpluck too many hairs or if you have needs or fears or feelings of any kind....

Whats really annoying is the fact that now some of my teachers roll their eyes when they are told I'm an aspie because "everyone is, get over it and work like everyone else, and stop making excuses." yes it is overdiagnosed sometimes, that doesn't mean everyone who claims to have it is a lier. I have 3 diffrent psychologists who have agreed with the diagnoses. Isnt that enough?!

I'm wary of the popularized disorders that come and go, or come and stay. There were no "<disorder> kids" when I went to school. That doesn't mean kids didn't have problems, but if they did, either they were in Special Ed or it was between the kid, parents and school officials. No one else knew about it.

Whenever someone calls their child "my ASD child" "my OCD child" my "ADHD child" or identifies themselves with the disorder "I'm ADHD." "I'm Aspergers" "I'm OCD" I cringe. I want to tell the parents that their child is not "an <insert disorder here> child" but a child. It's more than just a medical diagnosis, it becomes a human classification.

I knew of no kids who were on anti-depressants, ritalin, anti-psychotics and whatever else kids are being pill-popped with these days. Absolutely none. And there was no great epidemic of undiagnosed disorders running rampant that needed medicating. There was no major classroom disruption or learning impediments or kids that "just couldn't sit still so we must drug them". When I was in school, kids got ample time for physical activity.

I've been diagnosed with AS, but I have a very hard time saying "I'm Aspergers."

I think that the problem can be the romanticisation of certain disorders; pointing out positive possibilities in what seems to be an entirely negative condition makes it more palaltible for some parents and individuals to accept as a possible cause of issues. Practicioners in the psychiatric fields are loathe to give a diagnosis of a disorder that is non or minimaly treatable or has few redeeming characteristics to be built upon; how could the psychiatrists and psychologists justify therapy? So instead of highlighting the negative truths of AS or ADHD or whatever the darling diagnosis of the moment is, positive traits are attributed to the disorder so that more people will accept being identified with it and treated for it. It can also be treated as an acceptable excuse, its bad points downplayed and the good possible traits overinflated or misattributed or the benefits of medication overstated. The extremely wide interpretation of diagnosible symptoms makes it very easy psychiatric professionals to use these diagnosis as a catch-all. Some people with these disorders are going to be correctly diagnosed and some incorrectly diagnosed. Some will be diagnosed for professional gain or parental need for confirmation and some won't be diagnosed at all because some psychologist can't see the benefit of diagnosing the person, whether it is in terms of benefit to their practice or the individual. There are going to be some kids who get diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed Ritalin because their parents can't be troubled to be parents and some adults who won't be diagnosed with AS because they've adapted too well, held a job, and don't melt down in public. It's all so subjective and so easily manipulated for someone's gain that I think that the whole subject of psychiatric diagnosis makes everyone suspicious and sadly, the people who are most hurt are the people who genuinely have the disorders.

ASD's are great. Everybody should have one.