Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have always wondered why so many people on the spectrum don't want to accept their condition. They will deny they have it, or deny it exists. Is that part of the syndrome?
School psychologists cannot diagnose you with anything, only a doctor can. She may suspect you have it, but she cannot put in your records that you have it.
It is however a spectrum, some are on the very edge of the beginning, and some farther along. Just as some overweight people are only 10 pounds overweight and others 200 pounds. The symptoms of the person with 10# too much will be very different than the person 200 pounds overweight, but both can still be classified as overweight.
I've often suspected I'm on the very low edge of it too sometimes. I'm very social, but I do notice that when a stranger meets my eyes, my reflex is to look away. And I have a lot of sensory sensitivities, for instance bright lights bother me and I keep my house pretty dark, with just TV and an offset light in another room or just nightlights. Tight clothes, elastic on clothes, certain materials bothers me. I am also routine-dependent. None symptoms that really interfere in my life, except to the point that they can make me kind of annoying. My honey doesn't mind though, he's happy to sit in the dark with me, lol.
I can be uncomfortable with eye contact as well, but in my case it is for a much weirder reason:
I feel that eye contact is fairly sexual in nature, so it feels weird to me to hold eye contact with other guys, whereas I definitely enjoy doing it if I talk to a girl that I find attractive.
Of course, I didn't really think of it as "sexual" when I was a kid.
I have always wondered why so many people on the spectrum don't want to accept their condition. They will deny they have it, or deny it exists. Is that part of the syndrome?
There are people all over the net and YouTube claiming to have it that have no sign of having it besides stories of not fitting in. They look, act, and talk like normal outgoing people and have careers. The guy who has the biggest YT channel on the subject got diagnosed and has a STEM degree and teaches over seas...
I've yet to see a diagnosed Asperger case where the subject wasn't actually performing above average economically or socially.. Literally every supposed symptom goes against this regardless of place on the spectrum.. Worse cases I've seen are planned community type kids who somehow hold exceptionally socially-demanding careers but get diagnosed cause they don't climb the ladder fast enough
I remember when this happened with the introversion community years ago.. I'll take all the _science only when it supports our narrative_ blow-back from the PC types on this..
There are people all over the net and YouTube claiming to have it that have no sign of having it besides stories of not fitting in. They look, act, and talk like normal outgoing people and have careers. The guy who has the biggest YT channel on the subject got diagnosed and has a STEM degree and teaches over seas...
I've yet to see a diagnosed Asperger case where the subject wasn't actually performing above average economically or socially.. Literally every supposed symptom goes against this regardless of place on the spectrum.. Worse cases I've seen are planned community type kids who somehow hold exceptionally socially-demanding careers but get diagnosed cause they don't climb the ladder fast enough
I remember when this happened with the introversion community years ago.. I'll take all the _science only when it supports our narrative_ blow-back from the PC types on this..
You probably understand less about Asperger Syndrome then any other person I have ever heard from. Your reality is entirely self-centered, and backed up by no facts whatsoever. A guy with the biggest channel on YouTube is not typical of most people with ASD. Most people with Asperger Syndrome are absolutely not performing above average economically or socially. As a matter of fact, most are not even performing at all. The unemployment rate for college grads with ASD is 85% compared to 4.5% for the general public. 53% of people with ASD get SSI meaning 53% live below poverty line. Which means they are performing below average economically, not above.
Quote:
Dylan Mah, 23, has been looking for a lab technician or research assistant job in Manhattan since he graduated with a degree in cellular microbiology in 2015. Breaking into such a competitive field is already difficult, but he finds the interview process especially nerve-wracking with autism.
"The most difficult part is, honestly, just talking to people,” he says. “It makes me anxious to put myself out there. I really do not like rejection, but I have been, repeatedly.”
There will be 500,000 adults on the autism spectrum aging into adulthood over the next 10 years. Yet a whopping 85% of college grads affected by autism are unemployed, compared to the national unemployment rate of 4.5%.
Peter, 29, who declined to give his last name, feels this pain. “It can be difficult to interview, because it’s hard to come off as natural and professional at the same time,” says Peter, who dreams of being an NYC librarian. “I have a degree in library science. I know how the Dewey decimal system works, but it can be hard for me to sell that to an employer.”
The transition to adulthood marks a big turning point in life for everyone, but for young people on the autism spectrum that transition can be really tough.
Young adults with autism had lower employment rates and higher rates of complete social isolation than people with other disabilities, according to a report published Tuesday by the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute.
Two-thirds of young people with autism had neither a job nor educational plans during the first two years after high school. For over a third of young adults with autism, this continued into their early 20s, the report found.
And 20-somethings with autism were less likely to be employed than their peers with other disabilities, with 58 percent employed. In comparison, 74 percent of young people with intellectual disabilities, 95 percent with learning disabilities, and 91 percent with a speech impairment or emotional disturbance were employed in their early 20s.
People with Asperger’s Syndrome are often said to be “high functioning” with the assumption that they don’t need much help and their outcome will automatically be better. Until you ask people with Asperger’s. Many categorize their situation as “severe, despite appearances”.
People with Asperger’s have an 85% unemployment rate
Only 53% get SSI – meaning 53% live below poverty line and 32% get no help and have no jobs either. We have to assume those people are living with parents or on the streets.
Underemployment rates are nearly 100%.
Higher rates of suicide and depression
I have always wondered why so many people on the spectrum don't want to accept their condition. They will deny they have it, or deny it exists. Is that part of the syndrome?
No. It's much more basic than that: They want to be like everyone else and they are keenly aware they aren't.
There are people all over the net and YouTube claiming to have it that have no sign of having it besides stories of not fitting in. They look, act, and talk like normal outgoing people and have careers. The guy who has the biggest YT channel on the subject got diagnosed and has a STEM degree and teaches over seas...
I've yet to see a diagnosed Asperger case where the subject wasn't actually performing above average economically or socially.. Literally every supposed symptom goes against this regardless of place on the spectrum.. Worse cases I've seen are planned community type kids who somehow hold exceptionally socially-demanding careers but get diagnosed cause they don't climb the ladder fast enough
I remember when this happened with the introversion community years ago.. I'll take all the _science only when it supports our narrative_ blow-back from the PC types on this..
Why would you see the ones that are t doing great? Why would they be out there making vids? There is a poster on the boards who is not performing well, she’s struggling and close to homeless because she wasn’t diagnosed until an adult and had no one to help with career choice, etc.
Again though why would you expect to see YouTube videos made by people who are struggling? Is t the point of the vids to help others not struggle? Don’t you think it would be the highest achievers most likely to make videos?
i made a few assumptions based on what you said. i welcome you to correct the parts i got wrong about your stances, but i think what i said about your reasoning is probably "close enough." feel free to try to correct me on that too.
your posts are quite dismissive of people who know more about it and care more about it, it would seem-- not just on the authoritative side, but also the personal side. you did imply that your perspective is more tolerant, but maybe you didnt mean it was more tolerant-- in a way that would make anybody elses perspective "less" tolerant.
all in all, i think youve underthought this. but youre very free to set the record straight here. people have direct/close personal experience like the person who posted above, and you dont seem to be moved by the damage done by the "lets not use labels, this isnt really important" crowd.
you may not be on that side of this, but the sentiment is present in your argument. no ones charging you with a crime, theyre just saying youre wrong. i think you probably are. the rest is just commentary. but itd be nice if you figured it out, i dont think we are holding out for that to happen. its not up to us, your opinions are still yours, naturally.
This is not a discussion I like to get involved in anymore. First of all, my background is science and biology so I'm not some anti-medicine wackjob. I simply don't agree with most so-called medical diagnoses of human behavior, and classifying them as disorders or disease. Without diagnosable physical pathology, they aren't.
Thoughts, feelings, behaviors are not disease. Just like Asperger's has now been lumped into Autism Spectrum, i think of everyone as just part of the Human Behavioral Spectrum. I accept each person as unique. I do not believe that telling people they have unproven mental-neurological disorders and diseases reduces stigma, I believe it increases stigma a hundredfold. And I believe much of the suffering that these conditions cause people is due to societal expectations that every man woman and especially child must be like A-B-C and think and feel like X-Y-Z, else they are "abnormal". I disagree with expectations of normalcy, and that's why I am more tolerant. People are who they are. OTOH if people want to change themselves to better fit in with what they think is expected or what they want themselves to be, that is entirely their business.
And I could go on but I won't, because nobody has ever changed their mind about these things based on an internet post. This type of discussion is a bottomless tar pit.
No. It's much more basic than that: They want to be like everyone else and they are keenly aware they aren't.
Or it is simply not a correct diagnosis.
A few years ago people could get this diagnosis pretty much only because they had been socially awkward for some time.
I was claimed to have this diagnosis in my late teens - this was after I had lost contact with lots of friends right after I quit junior high school in 1999 and my parents had divorced in 2002, which had a negative impact on me and made me uncomfortable and rather gloomy, and then this snowballed into some sort of depression.
But never during my childhood or my teenage years did I "stick out" in any way - I was always that kind of guy who hung out with lots of friends and connected with them extremely well.
I actually do believe that my problem was that I got into this depression state in my late teens and started to become awkward because of that - this can happen to anyone.
Or it is simply not a correct diagnosis.
A few years ago people could get this diagnosis pretty much only because they had been socially awkward for some time.
I was claimed to have this diagnosis in my late teens - this was after I had lost contact with lots of friends right after I quit junior high school in 1999 and my parents had divorced in 2002, which had a negative impact on me and made me uncomfortable and rather gloomy, and then this snowballed into some sort of depression.
But never during my childhood or my teenage years did I "stick out" in any way - I was always that kind of guy who hung out with lots of friends and connected with them extremely well.
I actually do believe that my problem was that I got into this depression state in my late teens and started to become awkward because of that - this can happen to anyone.
Did someone just say they thought you had it, or were you actually assessed and diagnosed by a medical professional?
Yes, let ignorance prevail across the land! Hallelujah and Amen.
Yep. Abolishing diagnostic criteria wholesale is a really great way to address mental illness, developmental disabilities, and neurological disorders. Really great.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You probably understand less about Asperger Syndrome then any other person I have ever heard from. Your reality is entirely self-centered, and backed up by no facts whatsoever. A guy with the biggest channel on YouTube is not typical of most people with ASD. Most people with Asperger Syndrome are absolutely not performing above average economically or socially. As a matter of fact, most are not even performing at all. The unemployment rate for college grads with ASD is 85% compared to 4.5% for the general public. 53% of people with ASD get SSI meaning 53% live below poverty line. Which means they are performing below average economically, not above.
