Even if Autism was an "epidemic", since when is the best way to deal with it than to narrow the definition, now we'll be able to say that a large number of those affected have been "cured" overnight. It's unfortunate that many have this mentality that for anything to exist it must have a label. I do understand that there may be things about these changes that I don't understand and only time will tell how this will all work out. I still have my concerns. I do understand that there are a lot of politics on many sides in this "Autism movement" and that there is a lot of over-diagnosis. It is also important to note that Autism can manifest in such a wide spectrum of ways and people need help on all ends of it. It's just that these needs vary. I don't people to assume that those on the Asperger's end of the spectrum are just "faking it". Even when someone is misdiagnosed as Autistic they still may have something else.
One can learn a little about "spectrums" by visiting the paint store and looking at the swatches. I grew up with 64 color crayon boxes, yet in many paint stores there are closer to 1,000 colors or more. We are taught about "Roy G. Biv" to understand the colors of the rainbow. Lets say from that spectrum you decide you want some orange paint only to be asked what shade of orange. There may be over 100 shades of orange from "Pumpkin" to "Mesabi Copper" to "Tangerine"... Each shade may have a different purpose, but they are still in the Orange family. Then there is "Harvest Gold" from the early 1970's. That is more of a yellow, but it has a lot of traits of Orange so it is kind of in-between. In many paint stores the border between the reds, oranges, and yellows may not have a sharp border and there will be overlap. Then there are the earthy shades, not only will there be overlap between two adjacent colors on the spectrum but a hint of brown or gray. These more sophisticated colors may not appear on a linear color spectrum. These differences can be more significant than they appear. Turquoise may be rightfully grouped in with the blue shades but that doesn't mean it will suffice for painting the blue part of the American Flag. Notice also when editing a picture how many different dimensions there are. You can adjust the hue, the saturation, the brightness, the contrast, and the sharpness. To make things more individualistic, try patching up a white ceiling with paint from store A with a white paint that appears exactly the same from store B. (Shouldn't "Extra White" and "Arctic White" look the same since white is white?) Yet you patch up the ceiling only to discover a noticeable contrast. So then you go back to store A and get some Extra White but forget the sheen. Patching up a flat ceiling with a satin sheen paint of the same color will still stick out. My point is we are all unique, yet in a bureaucratic society we need categories to get the services.
While I'm not a neurologist or a psychiatrist, I have a pretty good intuitive feeling that most cases of Aspergers are in the family of Autism. Perhaps there may be a few here and there who may have severe OCD, severe ADD, or a personality disorder that may slip through a crack and get misdiagnosed with Aspergers. Even so this does not mean that they don't need help or social services or that they will need to wait until their real diagnostic label becomes a fad. There is a lot of money, time and energy going into Autism causes and if all that was a worm in a mother birds mouth than there is a very crowded nest of open mouths pushing each other out of the way. Sure there may be a few greedy birds in that nest but for the most part they are all in need. Don't forget that people with special needs are not just consumers, but can also be producers.
As far as diagnosing there are many in the clinical/professional world that can't seem to think beyond black and white (a trait more often associated with Autistic people). I mean one does need to be smart to get a professional degree and I'm not going to arrogantly say that these doctors have no "common sense" or intuition. I think it's more that we have a system where their hands are tied from using their intuition. If several symptoms are necessary for a diagnosis and the patient only has 6 then they don't have "condition X" period, so it must be in their head. A while back I had this respiratory infection that was going around. I had the same exact symptoms that many people who I was in close proximity to had which included an on and off fever. I went to a P.A. who typed everything I said into a computer and seemed to be reading to me what the computer said. Now I may be a health geek but I'm not one of those pig-headed patients that read one website and think they know more than the doctor, but while the professional may have more knowledge than I do know what my symptoms are (I mean a doctor can't tell me my bedroom is blue when I know I just painted it white.) The P.A. said I don't have anything except allergies -because- I don't have a fever (She had just taken my temperature.) What I couldn't get into her head is that I had low grade fevers on and off that past week but since I didn't have one at the moment she took my vitals and entered them into the computer, then it necessarily means that I never had a temperature at all that week and I must have been dreaming. I'm not saying the P.A. was stupid as she did have to get through a lot of schooling, but she may have had her hands tied by an overly rigid protocol. Sometimes for a diagnosis a symptom needs to have occurred in the last six months- but if that one missing symptom occurred 6 and a half months ago instead does that mean one is totally fine and wasting the professional's time? I can't even say I have a perfect solution to these dilemmas because if things were too flexible than it opens up doors for services to be drained by people who don't need them. There is no perfect, one size fits all, crack-proof system as long as it involves human beings. Even in an almost perfect system people can find loopholes and semantic games to suit their own needs at the expense of others. Sometimes a pendulum swings from under-diagnosis to over-diagnosis but that doesn't mean we should push the pendulum back the first extreme. The following is a New York Times article on this issue: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/health/research/new-autism-definition-would-exclude-many-study-suggests.html?_r=1
One can learn a little about "spectrums" by visiting the paint store and looking at the swatches. I grew up with 64 color crayon boxes, yet in many paint stores there are closer to 1,000 colors or more. We are taught about "Roy G. Biv" to understand the colors of the rainbow. Lets say from that spectrum you decide you want some orange paint only to be asked what shade of orange. There may be over 100 shades of orange from "Pumpkin" to "Mesabi Copper" to "Tangerine"... Each shade may have a different purpose, but they are still in the Orange family. Then there is "Harvest Gold" from the early 1970's. That is more of a yellow, but it has a lot of traits of Orange so it is kind of in-between. In many paint stores the border between the reds, oranges, and yellows may not have a sharp border and there will be overlap. Then there are the earthy shades, not only will there be overlap between two adjacent colors on the spectrum but a hint of brown or gray. These more sophisticated colors may not appear on a linear color spectrum. These differences can be more significant than they appear. Turquoise may be rightfully grouped in with the blue shades but that doesn't mean it will suffice for painting the blue part of the American Flag. Notice also when editing a picture how many different dimensions there are. You can adjust the hue, the saturation, the brightness, the contrast, and the sharpness. To make things more individualistic, try patching up a white ceiling with paint from store A with a white paint that appears exactly the same from store B. (Shouldn't "Extra White" and "Arctic White" look the same since white is white?) Yet you patch up the ceiling only to discover a noticeable contrast. So then you go back to store A and get some Extra White but forget the sheen. Patching up a flat ceiling with a satin sheen paint of the same color will still stick out. My point is we are all unique, yet in a bureaucratic society we need categories to get the services.
While I'm not a neurologist or a psychiatrist, I have a pretty good intuitive feeling that most cases of Aspergers are in the family of Autism. Perhaps there may be a few here and there who may have severe OCD, severe ADD, or a personality disorder that may slip through a crack and get misdiagnosed with Aspergers. Even so this does not mean that they don't need help or social services or that they will need to wait until their real diagnostic label becomes a fad. There is a lot of money, time and energy going into Autism causes and if all that was a worm in a mother birds mouth than there is a very crowded nest of open mouths pushing each other out of the way. Sure there may be a few greedy birds in that nest but for the most part they are all in need. Don't forget that people with special needs are not just consumers, but can also be producers.
As far as diagnosing there are many in the clinical/professional world that can't seem to think beyond black and white (a trait more often associated with Autistic people). I mean one does need to be smart to get a professional degree and I'm not going to arrogantly say that these doctors have no "common sense" or intuition. I think it's more that we have a system where their hands are tied from using their intuition. If several symptoms are necessary for a diagnosis and the patient only has 6 then they don't have "condition X" period, so it must be in their head. A while back I had this respiratory infection that was going around. I had the same exact symptoms that many people who I was in close proximity to had which included an on and off fever. I went to a P.A. who typed everything I said into a computer and seemed to be reading to me what the computer said. Now I may be a health geek but I'm not one of those pig-headed patients that read one website and think they know more than the doctor, but while the professional may have more knowledge than I do know what my symptoms are (I mean a doctor can't tell me my bedroom is blue when I know I just painted it white.) The P.A. said I don't have anything except allergies -because- I don't have a fever (She had just taken my temperature.) What I couldn't get into her head is that I had low grade fevers on and off that past week but since I didn't have one at the moment she took my vitals and entered them into the computer, then it necessarily means that I never had a temperature at all that week and I must have been dreaming. I'm not saying the P.A. was stupid as she did have to get through a lot of schooling, but she may have had her hands tied by an overly rigid protocol. Sometimes for a diagnosis a symptom needs to have occurred in the last six months- but if that one missing symptom occurred 6 and a half months ago instead does that mean one is totally fine and wasting the professional's time? I can't even say I have a perfect solution to these dilemmas because if things were too flexible than it opens up doors for services to be drained by people who don't need them. There is no perfect, one size fits all, crack-proof system as long as it involves human beings. Even in an almost perfect system people can find loopholes and semantic games to suit their own needs at the expense of others. Sometimes a pendulum swings from under-diagnosis to over-diagnosis but that doesn't mean we should push the pendulum back the first extreme. The following is a New York Times article on this issue: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/health/research/new-autism-definition-would-exclude-many-study-suggests.html?_r=1
