What will this re-classification mean for you?
A lot of people
are up in arms, wondering how this will affect the resources they depend on
from their health plans and education systems. The question also exists of
perhaps many children and adults have been mis-diagnosed and now have to be
re-diagnosed.
This question
created many discussions. My opinion about this removal of Asperger's is that
it's a simple tactical move to generate more reveneu for Psychiatry. Only the
book sales of the new DSM, will bring some 6.5 million dollars in the pockets
of APA. Hora!
Scapegoats are
always available to be sacrificed. For the DSM they are the so called
"Aspies" by those who hold them near and dear. That was a joke
because just the "hold" and "near" might bring some chills
to many Aspie-a-back. Mine for sure.
Some don't think
that Asperger's syndrome and Autism are the same based on a neurological point
of view. Others believe that Asperger's should not have been even related with
Autism in the first place, because while Asperger's describes a disorder,
Autism, describes a spectrum. Maybe Asperger's should also be seen as a
spectrum like the schizoaffective disorder, another neurological
"difference" which resides on a spectrum. Maybe Asperger's/Autism,
OCD, ADHD, schizophrenia, mood disorders, etc. should all be lumped together as
a "Neurological Disorder Spectrum". There are enough similarities
between all of these disorders and the various forms of Autism and Asperger's.
Then we can't deny that Autism and Asperger's have also too many similarities
to be completely separated.
There are also people who are
starting to talk about "Aspie elitisism." As if Aspies are somehow
better than Auties, as Asperger's is connected to normal and high IQ, while
Autism is too often connected to mental disability and low IQ.
So, here is my argument.
As far as I am concerned
Asperger's is Autism with speech development! Both the autistic kids and the
Asperger kids, think and basically behave in the same logic manner, and need
the same structured environment around them, etc., etc., etc. These are the
many similarities the two share.
Only, here comes the influence of
psychiatry, because of the LABEL that Autism carries as a "severe"
from that also means mental disability and low IQ, parents treat and bring the
kid up in very, very, very different way than a kid that has early developed
verbal communication skills as in Asperger's.I have seen (severe) autistic kids develop into Asperger's-like kids (often called as high functioning). In reality these kids are autistic kids that were given the opportunity to bloom, to develop the dormant abilities that they have and they exist within all Autistics/Aspergers. When that occurs there is no visible difference anymore between the behavior of them all ("severe" autism, autism high functioning and Aspergers).
I am an Aspie and can understand and
communicate easily with severe autistic kids, its as if I know how they also
think, and when I respond the way they also understand based on this common
logic way of thought, the communication flows, whether it is verbal or
non-verbal/behavioral.
Autism is
ONE.
Asperger is the
early verbal form of it, HFA (high functioning) the late verbal form of it,
"severe" the non-verbal form of it. It has nothing to do with
functioning! All Autistics/Asperger's have the same (dormant of active)
abilities and skills. What makes the difference is the proper or improper
environment that will allow these (dormant or active) skills and abilities to
develop and grow, or in the worst case kept eternally in dormant state.
The child we've stereotyped as "severe" autistic with no verbal ability, without contact with the surroundings and great difficulty with emotions, is the dormant state. And that of course is what has been widely promoted by Psychiatry as an image of fear to keep parents terrorized. Once the terror is removed and the parents trained to reawaken the dormant skills and talents of these autistic kids, they bloom. I have seen it happen. It is not impossible. Autism is life in stasis! Life in winter hibernation.
To ensure the
parents will disconnect from the child, they connected "severe"
autism with diminished IQ. A mental disability, is the worst barrier between a
parent and her/his child. The path of communication, of understanding of
learning, is severed. The parent feels that s/he cannot reach the mind of their
child.
Yes, "severe" autism was associated with retardation and low IQ! A wrong assumption created and established by non-autistic scientists and specialists who draw assumptions on what they only see. They see but they do not know what it is they see. I can see what they see, but I also know what created each behavior behind the scenes. Believe me, Autism has nothing to do with IQ. It is a Sensory thing. If the mind is fully occupied in an alert state to ensure survival, it has no room to occupy itself with trivial matters. That is what you see. Kids who live in an environment that is not adequate to their needs.
Which
needs?
The basic need of
food, shelter etc, the sense of security which is constantly damaged by parents
who lose patience too easily and often resume to shouting, beating, punishing
the kid because they are made to believe the kid is damaged -autistic,
diminished IQ as you said, verbally disabled, and more, so they seek no other
way to correct them and control them.
If the kid is
thought as stupid, retarded, the parent stops making an effort to reach it, as
the parent is made to believe that no effort helps!!! He doesn't know how. He
loses hope and often rejects the child. I have seen this damage done to
families more often than not! I have heard parents say "What else could I
do?" She is mentally retarded they claim, so we result in using the same
methods one would use on an animal who is also stupid and non verbal. Brutal
force, physical abuse, verbal abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, shouts,
over-protection, immobilization, and more.
Yes, harsh language and harsh
actions. But assuming and verbalizing that Autism is
associated with retardation and low IQ is just as brutal! And what is IQ
anyway, but just another test? Where's the validity? Oh, wait, I found
it:
The IQ tests that exist today were
created and formed to measure neurologically typical intelligence. There are no
tests that were created and formed or adapted to measure non-neurologically
typical intelligence (Autistic intelligence), and also not adapted well enough
to cultural differences as well as educational differences. I have lived and
worked in 4 different countries in 3 different continents, and I know that not
all people around the world know the same, or have access to the same
information or experience the same facts while they live.
IQ
tests were created for a very specific reason.
To measure the intellectual ability
of soldiers. This meant that such a test was a sort of threshold to categorize
men who wanted to enlist or were enlisted into general groups to support
specific tasks (air force, navy, marines etc).
IQ tests do not even take gender
intellectual differences into consideration. They were created by men, for men.
Then IQ tests were applied to school kids, then to everyone else. We have
learned to apply too much meaning to such useless tests. Why useless? Because
just from a IQ score it is impossible to fathom a person's true abilities,
skills and talents. In some IQ tests I score around 135 in others 140 and yet
in others well above the 145. So what does that mean? My brain gains and loses
ability at random? No. It just means that they are not reliable!
For many Aspies, their Αspergers diagnosis was helpful because it meant average or higher IQ for
most people deleting it from DSM-5 feels like a loss of identity.
And that is exactly
why they deleted it.
They want to cut of
the top of the Autism "crop" of high IQ and feed it into the
corporate mouth waiting ever so hungry to eat up new talent and slaves who keep
routine easily over and over and over again. Come on! Who so blind that once
the DSM kicked Aspies out more and more companies kept popping up seaking to
employ Aspies!!! Dah!!!! They are off the DSM, and off welfare and services, no
more free money to pay for therapies and meds. Not being in the DSM, did not
take away the hardships Aspies face, Now they just have to earn their way back
to health care and services.
Come on people. It's the money-making game.
In the 1990's they
needed the Aspies to have a wide range of lab rats to test the first
psycho-drugs for Autistim treatment (Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft were made
available in the late 1980's). Then Psychiatry hand in hand with the pharmaceutical
companies had about 20+ years (1990-2013) to get millions and millions of
dollars to develop and better these drugs, make more varieties (Risperdal,
Zyprexa, etc.) and now they want to sell them. They change the locks on the DSM
doors to keep in the more "severe" cases whose parents are easily
terrorized and coerced to use more and more often drugs on their kids for
diagnoses such as ADHD, autism, bipolar, or what ever else.
Many Aspies like me,
saw the hoax! That is what we are good at. Noticing mistakes. Noticing when
something is not quite right. When something does not work. Also many Aspies
were convinced by specialists that the "oh! so high functioning form of
autism they had, called Asperger's", was in no way the same as the more
severe forms that were often also included mental disability diagnoses.
Divide and rule. They tried that but saw that autism rights advocates, did not fall for that and took all forms of autism under their wings without segregation. Aspies went too far on "taking matters in own hands" and "self-advocacy", so...
The DSM All Mighty expelled them from Psycho-Heaven!
Hell, here we come! From the stairway to heaven on the highway to Corporate-Hell where "social zealots" will swarm around us all day drinking coffee and chatting about their weekends and shopping sprees...
And since this discussion began with the DSM and the
removal of the Asperger's Syndrome from the list of mental disorders, here is
something to watch:
Personally, I am not bothered that it is
removed. DSM is a hoax... The only way that Psychiatry can think itself as a
serious "science".
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