Re: Re:Asperger's diagnosis change in DSM-V

[Guest guest]

another point I thought of was yes I wonder if the blanket dx (as I believe there are other changes to it being an asd not just adding aspergers) will make it easier for some higher functioning to get services?  at the same time I think using the term autism instead of aspergers can be confusing to ppl who have no clue.  since my dd is hfa I find that, a lot of people dont understand the hf part and yet she falls into the myth that she doesnt look, seem, appear, however you want to put it, as autistic.  So I do think her teachers, for 1, think some (or maybe a lot) of this is really just misbehavior.  we are in a horrible fight trying to keep her self esteem up, while still dealing with her and dealing with the school.  we are holding out this school year to see what we actually get offered when her iep finally comes thruogh, if we cant fight something acceptable we arent even going to try next year but will hs or vs.  But just to us, which I am sure is sensored, we have heard her teachers use the words tantrum, defiant, etc which pretty much is a red flag to us that they believe she is just misbehaving and dont " get " the autism thing.  Yet at the same time, before she was official dx in sept they were already pointing out all her " odd behaviors " to us so before she started misbehaving they saw she was different so youd think they would be a little more open minded.

 

Then again we are all over the board with dx just like many others.  she was dx adhd almost 4 years ago yet I have never had a school psychologist, guidance counselor or teacher agree with that dx, and even her own family physician referred her b/c she didnt want to treat her as adhd (and I agreed as i wasnt sure thats what she had and didnt even really consider it) b/c she wasnt sure thats what she had.  yet she was dx by a very experienced child psychiatrist.  yet otoh this same child psychiatrist has said flat out " this is not an autistic child " when a 2nd opinion psychiatrist and the school referred her for the dev ped eval b/c both suspected aspergers.  At times we feel so much like we are concentrating way too hard on what it actually should be when we would rather concentrate on the help but at the same time she is on medication that is currently not working well anymore and after intuniv there are no other adhd med options fo rher so we feel like we need to know more of what the issue is to know which direction to go from there.

 

it just seems like " autism " is a hard word to use either way, if you arent prepared it is a complete shock to parents, people who dont know dont understand, and even people that do you frequently have to make sure you throw in that " high functioning " or they get the wrong impression.  so at the same time as I think it will clear some things up I almost feel like aspergers should be 1, autism should be another, pdd-nos should be another and there should be an entirely different diagnosis for hfa and then blanket them all under another term that doesnt sound like it leans towards one. 

On Sun, Apr 4, 2010 at 7:18 AM, Milgrim <david@...> wrote:

 

I hadn't heard this. In one way it makes sense since ASD is really what it is believed to be. I usually end up using both terms now anyway. High functioning is another term I use and will probably continue to use even if AS fades away. I have got to add that asperger

is not a great word for obvious reasons. If it was something cooler, I might miss it.As for designer diagnosises, nothing will stop then skeptics. I've never personally run into anyone who seemed to think AS was a good

thing, but there are those who think we are overreacting and crying for attention or special treatment.Our son clearly has issues that impair his ability to hang with peers. He needs help. That is clear no matter what it is called. I also don't

doubt that other kids whose parents are crying out ADD or ADHD or ABCDEFG also need help. The real question is what can society do, or not do, for these families. It's a far more complex and toxic world than humans were designed for; it's no wonder there are so many

challenges. And our expertise as a culture is constantly growing in all areas, so it is no wonder that we are able to discern more subtle differences and give them names. The names help a lot, but also can never be entirely accurate, due to the inherent complexity of human

function.I would wonder about he dsm-v change from a purely practical viewpoint as to how it might effect services and treatment, and I don't know that answer. But it is persoanlly meaningless.

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