Do you believe that Aspergers is a mild form of autism?

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The definition of Asperger's I knew was - high functioning autism with no delayed speech in childhood.
Is it mild? The impression I take from talking to the people on this forum is that the level of one's functioning often more impacted by co-morbids and traumas than by severity of the autism itself.

I like what the Czech Republic poster said that any quirky person seems to want to call themselves an Aspie. There lies the trendy aspect.

True Elaine....or to just get attention. I know people like that.

Autism is trendy in Hollywood and TV but IRL as you can find out by reading post after post after post on Wrong Planet it gets you bullied, excluded on one hand and other people wanting you to fix their computer problems for free, constantly fired from jobs if you can get one, thought of as a lazy rude bum whose problems are completely your fault.

I can see people thinking oh would be cool to be an Aspie like the TV character Dr. Shaun Murphy or Shelden or part of the next phase of human evolution but those people are in for a rude awaking the shortly after they leave Tumbler. So where besides Tumbler and the like are the hordes of self-deluded NT's who think they are Aspies and Aspie wannabees I keep reading about? IMHO they are mostly a fiction of peoples imagination.

Whatever real problem Aspergers as a fad may be, the much bigger problem is the perception of Aspergers as trendy.

I’m so far from Aspergers, it’s hard to say. I think in some cases, what has been labeled Aspergers is really a form of autism. In other cases, it just resembles it

I'd love to be cured of my "trendy" diagnosis and instead be merely "quirky".

These wanna be Aspies are all over. Just because you have not encountered them does not invalidate their existence.

This is a grave injustice to those people who endure the difficulties of Asperger's.

I do not think AS is all bad--I wouldn't want to be and can't even imagine being NT--but it has so many disadvantages in this society that I can't imagine why NT people would want to be us. I couldn't get a non-drone job till I was nearly 40, after many years of stressful learning to deal with the world. Even now, at 54, there are plenty of basic (to NTs) things I struggle with.

What I do find to be a major source of irritation are those who think that being "on the spectrum" whether it's Asperger's Syndrome or not is something cool. We have Jerry Seinfeld to thank for this because of that famous interview where he thought he was on the spectrum but then later recanted his statement. I wouldn't wish this life on anyone and it certainly hasn't given me an advantage over anyone for anything worth the excrutiating intolerances that I have.

Asperger's Syndrome is simply another form of Autism and although people like us have one foot in the mentally disabled world and one foot in the NT world we are none the less mentally disabled persons with severe social deficits among other things that all Autistics share.

One thing that seems to set us Aspies apart from other types of ASDs is that overall our anxiety seems to be unusually high if not the highest. There are several different theories as to why this is and perhaps one of them is that high-functioning Autistics have higher anxiety in general due to being high functioning overall. Factors include intelligence, energy output, awareness, and the demands of trying to appear NT are many ways that our anxiety is constantly being driven up. It's almost like having ADHD built into you.

My therapist has listed my current anxiety status as "inconceivable" and I started to relax when I stopped trying to appear NT and just let all my typical Autistic eccentricities show themselves for all to see instead of attempting to suppress those actions which really stressed me out considerably. Simply accepting myself as being Autistic also helped me relax a bit and forget about what NTs are saying and doing and trying to mimic them as I have been for the last 40 years -
woefully unsuccessfully I might add.

Autism research is ongoing and evolving as every year passes so I don't think it's fair for anyone to say that Aspies are not Autistic because we are and we're here to stay. I think a better use of every ASD's time is to find ways to accept all Autistics as being part of the same marginalized group - mentally disabled.

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*** High Functioning Autism - Asperger's Syndrome ***

ADHD, OCD, and PTSD.

Keep calm and stim away.