Posted on 06/22/2009 2:30:44 PM PDT by 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.
“Aspergers is REAL”
Indeed it is.
To better understand the difference between a diagnosis of Aspergers and other syndromes, the DSM-IV TR would be the manual of choice. All DSM diagnoses of psychiatric disorders involve a specific pattern of symptoms. As our knowledge expands, these patterns and diagnoses change.
That said, the Wikipedia definition makes it clear that Aspergers is quite a bit different (and far less severe) than MR or autism. Perhaps, that is one reason it is over-diagnosed (along with AD/HD) in educational settings.
IMO,the human brain is *SO* complex and we know *SO* little about it that we should be careful not to attach political/social motives to everything that psychiatrists or neurologists do/say.
I appreciate your comments.
I am frustrated, as I have family who will NOT try to learn anything about Aspergers, and insist on taking things personally, when the poor social skills of my son cause a problem.
It is not an excuse to allow under achievement.
It is not an excuse to allow malice or abuse or even bad manors.
However, understanding the syndrome does help reduce the hurt, the pain, the guilt, and even a bit of the frustration in dealing with this disorder.
It is like you are dealing the “Dr. Spock” on Star Trek, or a robot, at times.
They just don't think or react like the rest of us.
Just because I am hungry for information about Aspergers, from the Shrinks, does not mean that I will listen to them, when it is time to vote in any election!
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.
Maine sucks on disability issues. The Educrats will disable anyone for the bucks.
I appreciate your response. Your emotions are perfectly understandable and not something to regret. IMHO, there are things in life that we should get angry about.
Unfortunately, “psychiatric disorders” are loaded terms for many people. As a result, many deny that disorders exist and others conflate them into much worse clinical syndromes than are the case.
As a psychologist, I blame my profession for failing to educate the public about how diagnoses are made and what they mean. The result is that some people feel stigmatized and fail to get the help they need. Others struggle because their social network does not provide them social support because of their ignorance. You may consider expanding your social network, such as finding an Asperger’s support group in your community.
If you are not getting the appropriate professional help, I recommend that you seek a specialist referral from your state APA or a well respected hospital system in your area. Please don’t be afraid to switch doctors.
Thank you, again.
You’re absolutely right. Children aren’t permitted to have different personalities anymore. All must conform. If they are unique in some way, they’re labeled with a disorder, and professions make money off it. Welcome to the Brave New World.
I'm inclined to agree, although I do believe that Asperger's Syndrome is real. The diagnosis can be used to bully the out-of-step, just as schizophrenia was so used in the 1960s. The best way to see if Asperger's is being used to lean on an out-of-step kid is to look at how loosely the diagnostic criteria are being used - and how the diagnoser takes to being rebutted provided that there are objective grounds to do so.
A rule of thunb used to detect real Asperger's is the theory-of-mind test. Here's an example, which closely follows the standard quiz:
Person A walks into a room with two boxes, Box 1 and Box 2. He puts his watch into Box 1, and leaves. Shortly afterwards, Person B comes in. She takes the watch out of Box 1 and into Box 2, and then she leaves. A couple of minutes later, Person A comes back in the room. What box does he open for his watch?Someone without Asperger Syndrome would answer "Box 1." Asperger's sufferers answer "Box 2," because they can't place themselves into another person's shoes. They just remember that the watch was moved. Note, though, that a person could answer "Box 2" for other reasons. "Person A saw person B sneak in and spied her moving the watch", for example.
Because of that theory-of-mind deficit, Asperger's sufferers do much worse in English-literature class than in others. To take a single example, they're incapable of comprehending dramatic irony.
The danger with a too-loose diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome is that an abused person shows many of the same superficial symptoms - i.e., little or no social life, restricted activities, narrow focus. A diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome, in addition to stigmatizing the different, can be used to cover up cases of abuse. Therein lies the potential for getting rid of a problem (i.e. giving a hurting kid the heave-ho) instead of recognizing it.
I think any responsible clinician should have a differential-diagnosis checklist that (s)he should work through for any suspected case of Asperger's Syndrome. That list should be used to tease out cases of pseudo-Asperger's. It should include abuse and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, as well as "very high I.Q. score."
Also, it should include narcissistic personality disorder and psychopathy. Not every case of misdiagnosed Asperger's is a saint or victim.
Common-sensically, I think the English-literature disparity is a good sieve. If a kid is getting As and Bs in science and math, ad Ds or Fs in English literature, (s)he shoud be looked at more closely. Someone whose English-literature grades are comparable to or higher than his/her math and science grades should be spared.
Hi there. I’m sorry I missed your well-reasoned reply to my post. I’ve been away from the forum due to medical reasons. I agree with you that Asperger’s is real; I know a young man diagnosed with it. He is a very intelligent young man, I might add, who is doing very well under the guidance of his loving parents. I believe he will go far in life. However, I also agree with you that the diagnostic criteria is too loose as it is applied to many other children. Have a good night.
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