It seems like every few years a new mental illness makes the headlines, becomes more widely diagnosed, until it seemingly becomes “hip” to be afflicted with it. Starting in the late 80’s, it was manic-depressive (aka bipolar) disorder. The 90’s was the decade for Attention Deficit Disorder, with Ritalin and similar drugs being prescribed willy-nilly. Now the new darling disease appears to be Asperger’s Syndrome.
Ironically, according to the Wikipedia article, Asperger’s was first identified in 1944, but remained virtually unknown until fifty years later, when it was finally added to the DSM-IV. Since then it’s exploded to what seems like epidemic proportions – particularly on the Internet, where every day I run across yet another person who says they have AS. Some of them, odd as it may seem, actually sound like they’re proud of it! Even my own therapist has suggested I may have a touch of AS (whereas my old shrink was convinced I didn’t have it at all); not that I’m repressed or anything, but if I were diagnosed with a mental illness, I certainly wouldn’t brag about it!!!
I guess my question is…what’s the deal? How did such an obscure syndrome suddenly become so popular? Normally I’d blame pharmaceutical companies, who like to invent new diseases (acid reflux disease, “restless leg” syndrome, IBS, etc.) just to match whatever drug they just patented…but since there’s no medical treatment for AS, something else must be at play here.
I bet it’s similar to the autism diagnoses (imagine that!), where it’s now recognized as a diagnosable disorder on the DSM-IV. Didn’t the same exact process happen with autism? Both were medical disorders, but when they got listed as psychological ones, the incidence of diagnosis shot way up? Or am I confusing Asperger’s Syndrome with autism?
However, I think that there are a lot of parents who have fucked up kids, who don’t have Asperger’s Syndrome, and who are looking to pin their kids’ fucked-upedness on something other than bad parenting.
I suspect they were just lumped into the broad category of mentally ill, or something like that, before this paper was widely circulated. I bet a lot were also thought to be “crazy geniuses”, since many people with AS excell in particular fields of study.
Well, first of all, it isn’t a mental illness, it is a Pervasive Developmental Disorder. In other words, someone with this disorder simply develops in a different way than the vast majority of the population.
You seem to be under the impression that Asperger’s is something we should be embarrassed about. I’m not sure I follow this. Should people with other inborn traits be similarly embarrassed?
From the point of view of someone with the condition I will say that, generally, Asperger’s is a pain in the ass. However it also has some tremendous advantages. One of which is the ability to monofocus on a problem until it is solved. Another is that we are much less prone to emotional manipulation than most people. We deal with the message not the tone it is delivered in.
Because Aspies are such a small percentage of the population and because we interact with the world in such a non-typical way “normal” people tend to try and “fix” us. This often takes the form of being dragged out to parties that drive us bonkers because we “just need to meet people.” Or worse being told to “just act normal!” Ya, that’ll work.
As a result we tend to get testy sometimes and tell such people that we are Aspies, dammit, please leave us alone to debug the C++ app. I have no idea, but some “normal” folks may see this as pride.
My nephew exhibits these symptoms, although I’m not sure that he has been formally diagnosed. When I was a kid, he might have been diagnosed as mildly retarded. He certainly struggles in a classroom setting, and has special needs. He is fairly highly functioning, but he does not interact with the world like most people. He is a sweet kid, but has already been taken advantage of by classmates (inappropriate touching in a school restroom). His aunt is a retired physician who worked with adult mentally retarded and she has struggled with his exact issue is.
Beyond what people have said above, there is a category of people who don’t fit into a preset category, and only recently have medical professionals started to sort them into this categoy, even though it is not exactly new.
I guess my response here isn’t an answer, so isn’t appropriate for GQ, but I’m not sure that there is a GQ answer to this.
Hey, great to hear from a living, breathing “Aspie”! Any other insights you’d like to share? Do Aspies tend to interact with each other differently/better than they do with “normal” people? What age were you diagnosed, and can you share with us any therapy that you did recieve? If you feel any of those questions are too personal, no worries-- I’m genuinely curious about this but don’t want to pry beyond what you feel comfortable talking about.
One problem Aspies have is that there are so few of us and we are non-social so we don’t tend to run into other Aspies and we don’t tend to form support groups. (There are lots of groups for our family members though). Given that, I have gotten along very well with the few I have met. It’s just so much easier to communicate when you are both doing it on the same level.
I was diagnosed as an adult, in my early thirties. I was a really big, “AH HA!” moment to find out there was a specific reason I had been wierd all my life.
The therapy designed to help Aspies tends to be coping techniques. The montra is to stop banging your head against the wall trying to do things you just can’t do and instead find ways to compensate in those areas. For me it helped a great deal in my professional development. I now have a “business face” that I can put on and function fairly well in that environment. It consists of a list of concious rules on how to act. One is, when talking to someone look at their face. This has helped me move into an upper management position since I was diagnosed.
I might repeat what I said in a recent thread on this topic:
And thanks for offerring your perspective, Pábitel. My younger daughter is high-functioning autistic, and I notice that there are some others on this board who either are so diagnosed themselves or have a loved-one on the autism spectrum. I’ve started an IMHO thread, and might I invite people on the autism spectrum or who have a loved-one on the spectrum to participate there.
My parents always dressed me like a dork. They micromanaged the music I was allowed to listen to and the haircuts I was allowed to have. They seemed to be on a self-appointed mission to make me as uncool as possible.
But, lo and behold, by getting me diagnosed with ADHD and put on Ritalin (later Dexedrine) as early as 1985, they unwittingly put me on the cutting edge of coolness. I was ahead of my time.
A friend of my wife got a job working with adults who had trouble with employment for one reason or another. This group included several Aspies. After working with them she had a conversation with my wife that started, “Ya know . . .”
I think part of what happened is that many of the characteristics of Asperger’s Syndrome are superficially similar to the characteristics of nerdity (which of course is not a “disorder” at all). This has led many people to suppose that “Asperger’s” is synonymous with “nerd”, and most nerds are (justifiably, I think, but then I’m biased) proud of their nerdity. The result is many nerds who think they have Asperger’s, and are proud of it.
I work in a primary school with a large percentage of kids who have various learning and behavioural disabilities. Amoingst our school community is a woman who runs a business coaching the parents of children who may be mildly ASD in the symptoms of Asperger’s syndrome in order for them to be diagnosed and therefore qualify for special educational subsidies. This turns a bunch of little kids whom we have engaged in the educational system into a bunch of little kids who think they have no responsbility for their own behaviour, a licence to act out however they like and an increasing habit of escalating their syptoms.
My daughter worked for two years as a summer camp counselor in Pennsylvania specializing in a particular special needs children that exhibit symptoms like Aspergers and Aspergers itself. It is called Summit Camp My daughter tells me that Aspergers is by far the most common diagnosis for their kids that are described as
AVERAGE TO ABOVE-AVERAGE INTELLIGENCE.
DIFFICULTY MAKING AND MAINTAINING AGE APPROPRIATE PEER RELATIONSHIPS.
INABILITY TO ORGANIZE AND STRUCTURE THEMSELVES
DISTRACTIBILITY AND DIFFICULTY WITH CONCENTRATION.
Fortunately she was trained by the camp and found her role extremely satisfying.
Recently, a new child was introduced to her day care centre that was causing some problems. No clinical diagnosis of Aspergers, but she’s recognized the symptoms and enjoys putting her Summit Camp skills to work on the child.
