The falsehood and danger of Asperger syndrome: victim=disabled

MAINESTATEGOP ^ | MAINESTATEGOP

[mainestategop]

Over the past year I have been going over articles about Asperger's syndrome. Asperger's syndrome is considered to be a highly functioning form of autism yet it is also considered to be a disability. Members of the autism community have worked for years trying to downplay the severity of the disorder. I first heard about Asperger's in 1998 while watching a documentary.

Asperger's disorder was first invented by a German doctor named Hans Asperger. (the disorder was named after him.) Asperger did study on children who though they were bright were considered awkward. The world health organization began to use it shortly after his death in 1980 and then by the American Psychiatric Association when it became an official diagnosis in the early 1990s.

Several states including Maine require that children entering school be screened for Asperger's disorder and the criteria for diagnosis has been expanded and over stretched. In the years following the inclusion of Aspergers into the DSM, diagnosis has skyrocketed throughout the nation.

The diagnostic criteria itself is broad and based on certain traits that have nothing to do with mental state but more on social and economic status. Consider a few of what the DSM-IV considers diagnosis, failure to socialize with peers, restricted repetitive interests and inability to find work.

First there is the failure to socialize with peers, this broad criteria applies mainly to children who are feral, who are victims of bullying and abuse. This can also apply to children who are victims of sexual abuse. One victim was diagnosed because he was sexually assaulted by a classmate at school.

Second, there is restricted interests. People especially children are diagnosed simply because of an obsessive and repetitive interest. Owning a rock collection or collecting stamps falls into this category. The current prime minister of Japan is suspected of having Asperger's because of his interest in Anime. This does not take into account individuals who live in restricted settings where their interests and hobbies are curtailed and limited to a few places.

Third and probably another danger is failure to be employed at a job. This does not take into account, economic situations as well as a lack of educational opportunities. Not having a job can be a way to be diagnosed.

The criteria is dangerous as we will see in that anyone can be labeled with Asperger's and with that lose their freedom. Under this broad criteria, everyone of us is in danger of having our freedom and liberty taken by the state in the name of mental treatment.

Though Asperger's patients are viewed as highly functional and intelligent. The Psychiatric community as a whole does not really see it that way. Asperger's is viewed as a form of mental illness such as schizophrenia, autism and bipolar and even grouped as mental retardation. Many times those labeled with Asperger's find themselves under involuntary commitment, guardianship or other situations where they are deprived of liberty and Independence. Many are committed to institutions, other find themselves homeless or in extreme poverty.

I myself have seen the devastation and have told about it on this blog. Stories about innocent people who, because they are outcasts, because they are different or because they have no job are relegated as second class citizens. They are deprived of their liberty, their property and assets.

The media is 50/50 when it comes to portraying Asperger patients. On some instances you will see news stories about bright young children and maybe a TV show about some character with Aspergers such as Jerry from Boston Legal. On other occasions there is talk of how Asperger sufferers are considered to be marginalized and even violent. Several school shooters including the Columbine kids have been labeled as having Aspergers and the news sensations have not done well in depicting them.

All in all, most have been marginalized or denied freedom all because of a diagnosis of Asperger's. A diagnosis as I have said before that is broad and inaccurate. Aspergers is a good way for the government to control and oppress the innocent and for family members to abuse and persecute their family members. The social security administration has also considered individuals with aspergers to be eligible for SSI and that means they can be scammed and have their assets confiscated using the program.

Rod Parsley and his wife Joni are well known televangelists. Rod is pastor of Breakthrough covenant church in Columbus Ohio and they know full well the devastation of Asperger's. Their son, Austin Chandler was diagnosed with Asperger's at the age of two. The doctors were cold toward the Parsleys. In an interview Joni described the tragedy especially when the doctors gave a list of things that Austin would never do. This included finishing school, getting married, holding a job, driving a car riding a bike ETc.

That certainly doesn't sound like a high functioning disorder doesn't it?

The parents were advised to lock up their son in an institution. The parsleys however were not prepared to go quietly. They did not accept what their doctors said and chose to raise Austin as they saw fit. Today Austin is a bright young teenager in high school with a bright future. He is also planning to enter the ministry.

Not everyone is as fortunate as Austin.

Consider Kyle Prince. A web administrator with a wife and a career and bright future. Kyle was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome by a doctor in Acadia Hospital in Bangor Maine after his father physically coerced him to go. After the diagnosis his father was able to destroy his life. Add to this the death of his wife left him in greater shambles. He lost his job and his home as a result and became homeless.

Kyle was diagnosed because he had been raped as a teenager in high school and was bullied there. The faculty and staff did nothing about this. His parents also did nothing and blamed him for what happened. In all of Kyle's jobs, he was required to perform tasks that someone with Aspergers couldn't. He had to recognize faces, communicate efficiently, socialize ETC. But despite being able to do that he was diagnosed anyways.

Currently he is living off SSI. The checks pay barely enough to survive on and he has had to rely on food pantries and charity to get by. His chances at employment have also been affected harshly since many employers have refused to hire him because he was homeless and because he was receiving SSI. Some have even told him in his face why! Its all because of psychiatry that this happened.

Also consider Nate Tseglin of Huntington Beach. Nate was a bright High school student, he had a black belt in Karate but when his parents moved him to schools in Orange he had trouble adapting and was picked on and ostracized by classmates. School psychiatrists diagnosed him with Aspergers despite his recent accomplishments and even though he had been well liked in other schools.

The school also didn't look at Nate as a high functioning individual either. He was taken out of honor classes and put in special ed classes. He was also forced to take strong psyche meds that caused him to have seizures. His parents tried alternatives that worked such as homeopathic therapy but the school and government mental health workers were not impressed and demanded that nate be put back on his meds. They refused and he was taken away and put in a group home. He also was put back on meds and once more had reactions to them.

Nate Tseglin ran away from the group home after repeated abuse by staff back to his parents. This time the state took him and placed him in Fairview Developmental center, a former mental asylum that was supposed to be a place for helping mentally disabled and severely mentally ill teenagers and adults to be independent. That was not the case. Nate was given worse drugs than before, he was placed in a dorm with violent inmates and was kept locked in an isolation cell with no entertainment and fed sparingly. His doctors wrote that he was invalid and recommended indefinite incarceration in an institution.

The Tseglins found out that another reason they were not allowed to see their son and care for him was because according to staff at Fairview, they had the wrong set of beliefs. The Tseglins defected from the USSR in the 1980s and were activists in their community. The staff claimed that they had bizarre and unhealthy mindsets about the government and psychiatry that had to change.

This ordeal lasted for over a year. After a successful lawsuit and an outcry by local activists including activists on the web like yours truly, Nate was set free. Unfortunately Nate still suffers permanent damage from what happened. He will probably never grow up to meet the potential he once had. The parents are planing a civil suit with help from the Citizens commission on Human rights and the ACLU.

So as we can see dear reader, Asperger's is not about high function, its about marginalizing people who are victims and who are poor. You would think something like this especially involving Kyle Prince could only happen in Islamic dictatorships or some backward village in South America. It happened here in our own nation America the land of the free.

As psychiatrists focus more on promoting tyranny of the state and marginalizing the innocent rather than healing minds, we will see more and more labels aimed at innocent people who are only trying to struggle day by day and we will see even greater tyranny here in America.

[mainestategop]

Any of you folks have a kid who gets labeled with this crap take him/her out of school now! The schools WILL destroy your kid and you with them.

Also it might be good to freep the hospitals that Nate and Kyle went to.

FAIRVIEW DEVELOPMENTAL CENTER this is where Nate was,

Fairview Developmental Center is one of five state-operated developmental centers operated by the Department of Developmental Services. Fairview is a multi-service residential facility licensed by the California Department of Public Health to provide acute, skilled, and intermediate care to individuals with developmental disabilities who need 24-hour health care supervision, a structured environment, and a habilitation program not currently available in their home community. Services include training in daily living, vocational, leisure, academic, communication, mobility, socialization, and community skills. Services are provided both on campus and in community settings.

HISTORY: Fairview Developmental Center is the newest of the state's five developmental centers officially opening on January 5, 1959. It is located in Costa Mesa, California, a city that is the cultural and commercial center of Orange County. Originally occupying 752 acres, Fairview had an initial bed capacity of 2,622 and was intended to house some 4,125 residents. The actual population peaked in 1967 at 2,700 and much of the original land was transferred in 1979 to the city of Costa Mesa. The population on May 27, 2009 was 493. (Population Trends)

Here is the hospital that Kyle was under involuntary outpatient treatment by his abusive father. I happen to be good friends with him by the way. Acadia hospital. Not surprisingly in Maine the way communism should be!

Acadia Hospital

The primary mission of The Acadia Hospital is the provision of both hospital-based and community-based mental health and substance abuse treatment services to the people of Maine. Reflecting the caring nature of its mission, The Acadia Hospital is committed to providing quality services which foster dignity and a positive environment for children, adolescents, and adults with mental health and chemical dependency problems and to advocating for their mental, physical and spiritual well-being.

The services of The Acadia Hospital are responsive to individual needs and must be high quality, cost-effective, and accessible, achieving a balance between community needs and available resources. The Acadia Hospital shall seek to continually improve services by promoting education of patients, staff, students, families, and the general public in matters of mental health and substance abuse. The Acadia Hospital encourages non-patient financed clinical and non-clinical research within guidelines approved by the Board of Directors.

As part of the regional network of Eastern Maine Healthcare, the mission of The Acadia Hospital shall be at all times consistent with and supportive of the goals of Eastern Maine Healthcare.

[taxcontrol]

For those with children with Asbergers, the answer is not to coddle but to push. Coddleing under the public school system produced a situation where my child was “managing” a 30 F. Pushing my child and yes, lots of tears and fights and stress has her now making Bs in Saxon pre-Algebra.

But it required us taking out children out of public school, sending them to private schools and pushing HARD.

[mainestategop]

ping!

[Kansas58]

Aspergers is REAL, it was not “invented” it was discovered and researched.

Now, misdiagnosis is always a problem, but the author, here sounds like a Scientologist who hates Psychology and Psychiatry.

[mainestategop]

I am not a scientologist. I am a Christian. My Christian faith causes me to oppose psychiatry. The entire purpose of this abominable practice is to enslave human beings. Psychiatry is atheistic, it is racist and it is unamerican. Psychiatry was used to promote the holocaust, to promote eugenics and slavery and to promote communism. The fact that the Tseglins were told by these idiots that they had the wrong set of beliefs is proof of this.

I would refer you to psychiatry: an industry of death but there is an even better article here Pharmageddon: When drugs kill

[Kansas58]

I would also add that, often, there are “co-morbid” or combined issues.
For instance, the guy on Boston Legal probably has something like turrets, in addition to Aspergers.

[Texas Fossil]

“Aspergers is REAL”

—

Accurate statement, I have family members with the condition. Now the question of cause, is unanswered. There is not even an agreement on the name for the disorder.

“Crypto Sensitivity Syndrone” makes more sense to me than Aspergers. I feel it is a collection of disorders that are autoimmune related that have similar symptoms.

Is it a disability? I am still not sure. Is it a health problem, yes. Is it regularly miss-diagnosed? Yes, often.

This is very credible:

http://www.backlash.com/content/disab/2003/rvm1203.html

[Kansas58]

Sorry, you are a kook, by your own words.

I absolutely agree that psychiatry and psychology have been abused, through the years.

That does not, in any way, mean that DSM-IV or the findings of the mental health field are of no value.

Your piece is even contradictory! You seem to accept emotional damage, due to abuse, sexual and otherwise. What is emotional damage if not a psychological reaction to negative events?

It is entirely possible to be a strong Christian and STILL be a psychiatrist or psychologist.

As stated previously, ANY discipline can be abused and misdirected.

Those you love would be better served if you would get the chip off your shoulder, accept the possibility that the diagnosis is accurate, and work to provide coping skills to those you love.

[mainestategop]

Did I forget to mention that Kyle's dad is a major libtard? He supports increasing the minimum wage, giving amnesty to illegals, taxing and spending and thinks Maine has one of the best economies around. Then when his son can't get another job because all the jobs are being sent away and because business is going bad he calls him an f***ing retard and tells him its his fault.

Liberals are unfit parents.

[bamahead]

Libertarian ping! Click here to get added or here to be removed or post a message here!
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[mainestategop]

so you think just because someone like Kyle or Nate or even Austin were at one time in their lives picked on or unemployed that means they are mentally ill? You don't think economics has anything to do with it? You don't think the schools have something to do with it?

Sorry, but I will never take my kids to these quacks and let them destroy their lives. If opposing this makes me a kook well praise the lord I guess that makes me a kook.

I wonder what you'll say when the DSM-V comes out labeling defender of the constitution and conservative as severe disorders?

[Kansas58]

I suggest this book, written by a VERY successful person with Aspergers:

http://www.amazon.com/Look-Me-Eye-Life-Aspergers/dp/0307395987

The diagnosis actually took a weight off of his shoulder, and helped him deal with the world, on his own terms.

He ended up being the special effects guy, for the rock band KISS!

[COBOL2Java]

Asperger's disorder was first invented by a German doctor named Hans Asperger. (the disorder was named after him.)

I would've been pissed if my last name was 'Asberger' and it wasn't!

[neocon1984]

The Psychiatric community as a whole does not really see it that way. Asperger's is viewed as a form of mental illness such as schizophrenia, autism and bipolar and even grouped as mental retardation.

This person does not know squat about psychiatric diagnoses. Although it is listed in the DSM, the criteria for Asperger's is completely different than the criteria for MR.

[Kansas58]

Not at all.
I think that YOU are cherry picking diagnosis criteria, in an act of “denial” -— unable to accept the situation as it is.
I have a son with Aspergers.
I am as frustrated with society, with the mental health profession, with educational institutions as anyone.
However, I also understand that:”
1.) Aspergers is very difficult to diagnose
2.) There are several criteria to be examined, and you are looking at very few of them.
3.) A misdiagnosis of Aspergers really does little harm. At worst, the patient might have Aspergers tendencies or Autistic tendencies, with other disorders ON TOP of the Aspergers. In any event, the help and support of those who have lived with, and studied, Aspergers will do you NO harm, whatsoever. There really aren't very many therapists who push drugs for Aspergers alone, that I am aware of, so I think you are painting with a broad brush in that area.

[Kansas58]

“A pervasive developmental disorder, Asperger syndrome is distinguished by a pattern of symptoms rather than a single symptom. It is characterized by qualitative impairment in social interaction, by stereotyped and restricted patterns of behavior, activities and interests, and by no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or general delay in language.[15] Intense preoccupation with a narrow subject, one-sided verbosity, restricted prosody, and physical clumsiness are typical of the condition, but are not required for diagnosis.[5]”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome

[mainestategop]

You want to explain to me then why Nate was doped up and dropped from classes and put in an institution? do you also want to tell me then why psychiatrists at Acadia took the side of Kyle's dad when he made him lose his job and all he ever owned to force him on SSI? Maybe why the doctors told Rod Parsley his son would never do anything?

That certainly doesn't sound high functioning to me. Also I have read the diagnostic manual and I read part of Kyle's evaluations and they used the fact the he was raped and picked on and no other reason. Never mind that he socialised well as an adult and even got married.

[Kansas58]

Your post reads like a nutty chain letter telling me I must respond by such and such a date or bad things will happen to me.
Sorry, your case history is weak.

Do you have the entire file, in your possession, on any of these cases?

Do you know if any of them confessed to homicidal or suicidal thoughts or any violence, in their conversations with counselors and mental health workers?

NO! You do not konw that.

There are Saints in Heaven with Aspergers.

There are those damned to Hell, with Aspergers.

There are well accomplished, successful people, with Aspergers, I have posted a book, on this thread, about one of them, WRITTEN by one of them.

There are also complete social failures, with Aspergers.

Just as is the case with diabetes or hay fever or chronic depression.

It is entirely possible that someone with Aspergers ALSO has other mental disorders that would require an institutional setting.

It is also entirely possible that a person with Aspergers might learn to cope with the world, and do very well.

[mainestategop]

I do apologize if I presented it in such a manner but I take this seriously. Any one of us could be in a similar situation. Also you should know that the overwhelming majority of psychiatrists in this country are flaming liberal. Add to this they have way to much power. The fact that someone could be locked away for ages or indefinitely for something like thinking a different way disturbs me.

[Kansas58]

Then I suggest your argument is with the treatment, and not, always, with the diagnosis.
There is no reason, on the diagnosis of Aspergers, alone, that anyone should ever be locked up or institutionalized.