Do you think Heather Kuzmich have Asperger's? Do you think she might be misdiagnosed?
Is she too social and high functioning to disqualify for AS?
An clinical psych thought so. This person wrote that not only does Heather Kuzmich not have diagnosis, but that s/he uses clips to show how Heather is an example of someone who is wrongly diagnosed as AS. This individual goes so far as to show in professional presentations to other health care workers how Heather does not have AS based on her superiorer understanding of nonverbals and use of social language and is even putting together a DVD to show clinicians how NOT to diagnosis someone with Asperger's using Heather as an example of wrong diagnosis.
And DSM-V in all its wisdom wants to eliminate Asperger's, probably funded by big pharma.
I'm reading televisionwithoutpity and one "expert wrote"
http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com ... 556&st=345Quote:
nanasez
The thing that frustrates me is that Heather isn't Asperger's at all. As a psychologist, my specialty is assessment and differential diagnosis. I trained under someone who specializes in Asperger's. I've worked with many of his Asperger's patients. I'm very adept at identifying Asperger's Syndrome. In fact, I was testing a teen for clearance to get his pilot's license, and during the session some very subtle things had me suspecting Asperger's. I sent for his records, which included neuropsychological testing that he'd had as a young child, and that report documented perfectly a textbook case of Asperger's. His current psychiatrist, however, had him misdiagnosed as OCD.
Anyway, Heather is in no way Asperger's. Asperger's Syndrome is the "fad" diagnosis of the day, taking its place beside ADHD and Bipolar Disorder. People with little to no training in psychological diagnosis and assessment (i.e. teachers, general practitioners, even many psychiatrists) are quick to be swayed by the pop-psychology watered down interpretation of Asperger's that is perpetuated by "Aspie" web sites and people who like to claim the diagnosis because they think "high functioning" (as in high functioning autism) means superior intelligence and cognitively gifted. Heather's case (which isn't Heather's fault at all - she's not the one who misdiagnosed her) just perpetuates the misunderstanding of another psychological condition.
Because she doesn't have Asperger's. I know all about the continuum. I work with people all along the continuum. Even on the "mild" end of the continuum for Aperger's (which may or may not be considered a form of autism, depending on the school of thought one accepts), the signs are pretty unmistakable. The problem is that the diagnosis has gotten so watered down that "introversion" is pretty much getting diagnosed as Asperger's (as that bogus "test" demonstrates).
There are so many things that Heather does that no one with Aperger's, even on the mild end, would be able to do. There's a lack of the kinds of socially inappropriate behaviors that Asperger's people demonstrate. There's the ease with which she understands and uses nonverbals - definitely not Asperger's. Just something as simple as making eye contact remains something that an Apserger's person has to do consciously. It's a social rule that they're taught to use, and for them it's like someone learning to drive a car - only the various behaviors never become automatic. There'd be no understanding and use of something like an eyeroll. Or the way she automatically reacted on a recent show when someone was insulted and she gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. There's the focus on eyes in her art. An Asperger's person wouldn't be noticing and understanding emotional expression in eyes, and would never talk about "dead eyes." People with Asperger's are very concrete. Ask what "two heads are better than one" means and you'll be told that someone with two brains could think twice as much. "Dead eyes" to someone with Asperger's would mean someone went blind because their eyes died. Then the whole idea of living in a new situation, with a ton of strangers, outside of one's routine (which gets somewhat ritualistic with an Asperger's person) would be a huge trigger for anxiety and complete panic-like meltdowns for someone with Asperger's.
I was presenting at a psych hospital last week and merely mentioned Heather from ANTM, and it immediately triggered a discussion among clinicians experienced with Asperger's about how grossly misdiagnosed she is.
If took every kid in our Asperger's group, or every Asperger's indvidual in our practice, and filmed them all for 24/7 for a week, there'd not be any scenes (outside of sleeping) where viewers would see "normal."
But more than that, they can't "edit in" abilities that a person with Asperger's absolutely would not demonstrate. It's not just the absence of signs of Asperger's, it's also the presence of abilities that are at odds with an Asperger's diagnosis. Heather has natural affect. Heather understands non-verbals and effortlessly uses them. Heather has normal voice tone and modulation. Heather has normal vocal inflection. Heather understands emotion, can read it in others, and responds to it appropriately. Heather demonstrates ease of empathy.
Asperger's is a "hot" fad diagnosis. In the past few years, we see more and more people being given the diagnosis mistakenly. The number of referrals I get for differential diagnosis from some clinician who doesn't understand Asperger's has increased by at least 400%. One of my most recent cases was a girl who went to a psychiatrist who is a horrible diagnostician. On the basis of a few 15 minute interactions with her, he told her therapist that she was Asperger's. Why? Because she's always reading a book, and she doesn't look up from her books to make eye contact when he talks to her. That's it. The mother jumped on the diagnosis like a frog on a fly, and cannot be disabused of the notion that her daughter is Asperger's. So now she's got this inaccurate notion of Asperger's, and is out there dessiminating her misunderstanding of the disorder, thanks to a doctor who makes these snap diagnoses all the time without bothering to really study any research or professional literature. We're getting this all the time now, kids referred by general practitioners, educators, parents who read some web site or a pop psychology book, psychiatrists who haven't read more than some drug company pamphlet given out at a free lunch, etc. This is the way ADHD got so overdiagnosed, then bipolar disorder. Now, it's Asperger's.
All facets of human behavior and fucntioning occur on a continuum. Some people are more one way than others. Difference isn't a disorder. Heather is functioning normally. She's on the show, making friends, living with the other girls, winning competitions, etc. Without impairment, there is no disorder. We're actually putting together a DVD of Heather's scenes in our clinic so that we can use it to demonstrate a case of Asperger's misdiagnosis and do some diagnostic education.
I can do everything Heather can do that Nan.. says no person with AS can do, so should I not be diagnosed as AS?
There's a psych who says Einstein does not have AS since AS folks do not have a sense of humor. Maybe I should sue my psych for giving me the wrong diagnosis then discriminating against me for this wrong diagnosis.
Obviously I think Asperger should be kept at least as a subtype or severity designation in DSM-V
If she just seems like she has Asperger's, she could have it. Not all aspies have a severe time with social functioning, nonverbals, and social language; rather, some may either be more adept, or she could have learned those skills. My social functioning is pretty good, and that was through my own effort and by imitating my sister (who, although shy, has way better social skills than I do). Although mine is cleverly disguised, some of my teachers can still see my Asperger's through my complaints about how I don't really fit in with them.
22 Aug 2010, 8:25 pm
, a lot of us have actually had some successes with it.
