SearchAsperger’s: Was It Useful?
At the beginning of 2012, I first heard about
possible plans to remove Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism, from
the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.
Yet I wasn’t aware for five more years that they did so. Many who had been diagnosed with it, including myself, feared that it would end our status as disabled people, and thus eligibility for the applicable services.
Luckily, I was merely grandfathered in and new children who would have been diagnosed with Asperger’s are instead diagnosed with autism. I have since thought about how useful Asperger’s was as a diagnosis. It was also known as “high-functioning” autism, and thus primarily used to distinguish those who are traditionally “more intelligent” or blend in better (Asperger’s) from those with more severe symptoms (Classic Autism).
In that case, it was a disservice. For one thing, I’ve met people who’d been diagnosed with Asperger’s and others diagnosed with autism, but I found it sometimes hard to believe their diagnosis matched their emotional and intellectual ability. For another thing, many people who didn’t know anyone with autism were led to believe that Asperger’s and autism were interchangeable. Except for Kim Basinger’s niece in the awful movie Bless the Child – a cardboard character anyway – the few fictional people with autism I’ve seen in movies and TV were Aspies or savants.*
Saying all people with autism have Asperger’s or Savant Syndrome is like saying all gay men are effeminate. And just as different types of gays and lesbians have their own cliques, so too did there use to be social groups for those with “high-” and “low-functioning” autism. I was in one from July 2010 to November 2012, and ended up making a couple good friends. I’ve since been in other groups that were merely for people with intellectual disabilities, and there have been fewer I could relate to.
But even that problem could be solved if people with autism were given more chances to be active in the community. In short, the removal of Asperger’s was probably necessary to advance autism acceptance, and reinforces that autism is not as simple as “high-” and “low-functioning.”
*-There have been some fictional characters with autism whose symptoms were more severe. But I haven’t seen them personally!