Is someone labelled PDD-NOS considered "aspie"?

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I was curious, is all

Because it's pretty!



In reality (and this is just me, of course), I'm just lazy; shorter word to say, shorter word to spell. Although, now that I think about it, it's been a while since I've used it.

I'm PDD-NOS as well. I agree with one of the other posters that there could as many variations on autism as there are human beings. I put "have asperger's- diagnosed" on my profile because there's no PDD-NOS option. I don't understand why you don't call yourself autistic. That's exactly what Asperger's or PDD-NOS is. It's all just a bunch of names for the same problems at different levels of difficulty. I find myself doing it too, but I don't understand the obsession with names and diagnosis. Once again, I know I do it too but it's so irrelevant. When you get down to it, most people come to this website for support and understanding of who they are. We all share similar problems to different degrees. The names IMO are completely useless because I think they were originally created to classify the level of severity in autism. At least that seems to be their intention. But when you have a person with classic austism who functions better than a person with severe PDD-NOS, it completely defeats the purpose of different categories. I think it should just be high functioning or low functioning austism. No matter how scary that word is to some people, I think it would clear a lot of the confusion.

For the sake of convention, those with Asperger's are usually called, "aspies." Those of us who are diagnosed as having autistic disorder are refered to as "Auties." However, I have not seen any term referring to PDD-NOS diagnosis. I have seen the term autie and aspie used interchangably. I think the best term is autistic or spectrumite. My local support group is called the Bay County Aspergers - High Functioning Autism Support Group. The name was changed, I think, to make me feel more included. I won't tell them that I am considered to be moderately high functioning.

Thinking over it seriously:

The reason someone is diagnosed at a certain point on the spectrum (AD, AS, PDD-NOS) is because they fit the symptoms there best and/or don't fit the symptoms on the others. To refer to yourself as anything other than your diagnosis is misleading. Yes, the cutesy nicknames aren't official, but they are indicative of what your place on the spectrum. I have a tendency to dislike when people just say they're autistic for the same general reason; it's not indicative of your actual diagnosis, unless you have autistic disorder itself. It's the most widely known (although the abrupt prevelance of people with AS in TV shows means that more of the general populance is now more aware of AS too), and while the others are on the autism spectrum, it's not the most accurate. I prefer "on the autism spectrum" if someone doesn't know what AS is.

I can't really imagine a point where these nicknames would come up in conversation anyway. I suspect that the reason the terms aspie/autie became popular in the first place is because people didn't want to type the whole thing out.

And dustintorch, technically, the "other autism spectrum disorder" would cover PDD-NOS. I can understand why you wouldn't put it, and it's a personal choice, of course, but technically there is an option there.

I tend to use terms like AS-ish...which in my mind means more "Autistic Spectrum"-ish...and then sometimes...Spectrumy...mostly pertaining to the board...If I ever bring it up in real life, I might say that I am mildly or slightly autistic...

Autie is just as cringe worthy to me. Cute and endearing names for medical conditions is a reason for why things aren't taken as seriously by "NTs" (another silly term). Plus they're open for future abuse (see: ret*d).

There's a number of conditions that come under PDD-NOS, and you have to delve into the textbooks to find the names:

They run from,
Atypical Autism/AD
Atypical Asperger's
Mixed AS/AD
Residual AD
BAP
SPD
NLD

You can see why they're moving to just "ASD", as when you try to break them all down by patterns of behaviour, you end up with an acronym overdose.

The other day my nephew saw a developmental psychiatrist, and he said they've don't utilize the term Asperger's anymore there, just "ASD".

I didn't realize that. I just changed it so now it's official, I am other.

Yeah PDD NOS is on the autistic spectrum, considered an Autistic spectrum disorder as is Apergergers. However calling your self an Aspie is not correct. Most people seem to call themselves Aspie if they actually have a DX of Aspergers Syndrome.

For brevity and because I don't like how people try to further segregate themselves I like to lump us all in together by using the term "ASDian" This suits me, after all we are all in the same boat so unless I need to be specific, like I am asking or telling someone something where the difference needs to be pointed out. I always use ASDian.

Even though they are diagnositc terms I also have issues with people using terms like high functioning which many seem to use to denote they are less disabled than some less H/F ing ASDians. My personal philosophy says that disability is relative to what you want and need to do in everyday life. How socially disabled are you if you are a hermit and have no other need or desire to communicate with people at all?I have an Aspie friend who seems brilliant mainly because of her proclivity for the typed word, and not very disabled at all over the net. She how ever assures me she is extremely disabled, both verbally and in everyday life, really requiring huge amounts of support just to get by from day to day. She is 50ish and is still at the mercy of violent bullies. She seems to have no ability to do the things most others would do to put an end to this and lives in isolation and varying amounts of terror because of this. Also Beacuse she is female,an adult and is considered H/F she gets very little of the support she needs and suffers because of this. Also there are those on the spectrum that are non verbal and have not always had the ability to communicate. Does that make them any more or less disabled that someone that for example never shuts up but is extremely violent or self injurous. No definite answers just questions to ponder.

Cheers

personally I think autistic spectrum covers it best. I also dislike cute names like aspie. when my husband and I talk we say "people like us" or "spectrum" to refer to any type of spectrum disorder because frankly I think the autistic spectrum is separate from the IQ and functioning spectrums and shouldn't be sub-classified by co-morbid conditions.

Last edited by bhetti on 17 Oct 2009, 2:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

How can one not be confused with all these different labels? That's why I prefer AD or ASD. It's just easier.

I think it wouldn't clear any confusion because High and Low functioning aren't any clearer than the other labels you put on autism. Sure, the extremes of high and low functioning are probably obvious, but there's a great big gray area in the middle where people's different definitions will put you in both boxes depending on how they think of it, or where your own skills will put you in different boxes depending on which skills you focus on, or where just having a bad day can kick you into LF when in a good environment you're HF... no, these wouldn't be any better. IMO, you're just not going far enough with that--we should just say Autism and leave it at that, and have sub-features that can be listed after a diagnosis. They already use that trick with schizophrenia, which is similarly diverse in both functioning and traits, and it works just fine to describe people's specific traits under the umbrella of a very wide general diagnosis.

In any case, we're really all just Autistic, and regardless of what we call ourselves, face similar problems.

That's really interesting to me personally because I always thought of myself as less disabled because I talk to people a lot. I've been told I don't shut up. However, I have had severe problems in the past with head banging and self biting. I still slip once in a while and I still can't really control my repetitive hand movements even though I'm 23 (I've just managed to change them to more socially acceptable movements. This is just me stating a fact about myself and it doesn't answer your question at all though.

Just a suggestion: How about nossies or nossers?

I think we should call it Rehanic for PDD-NOS, so it could sound better than using that word of Aspie or Autie.

Rehanic is a very good word for people with PDD-NOS. so we won't fight over that word. Rehanic is only for people who has Asperger's-Like PDD-NOS.

As a individual diagnosed with PDD-NOS, I would just say I'm high functioning autistic since not many people are aware of PDD-NOS, but are more familiar to terms like Autism, Aspergers or High Functioning Autism. Although I've been told that I do fit the criteria for Aspergers and the aspie quiz I took here graded me as "very likely an aspie".