Asperger's vs Autism Debate

You may experience backlash for using "Asperger's syndrome" online. Why? We're going to cover the Asperger vs Autism debate and why each side feels the way they do - and why this shouldn't be a reason to divide the community.

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[autumn]

My “issue” is that finding information about my disorder is much harder under the ASD spectrum…. Pretty much all sites identify autism as learning and language challenges, so under all aspects of autism they talk about, how to deal with it, etc, they assume that.
Learning and language were easy for me, it doesn’t make me better, but it does make it difficult to learn more about how I can better live as an ASD person when the material doesn’t account for us “Aspies” under the spectrum information.
As time goes on and Aspergers is no longer used, obviously websites, videos, etc will need to improve to actually include more of the spectrum, but as someone recently identified as ASD, it’s frustrating being right in this transition time where information is hard to find that I can identify with and learn from.

[PukuDuckie]

See, I still believe I'm somewhere on the spectrum, but the thing was, despite how "smart" people said I was growing up and how I scored pretty high on IQ like tests, I really always struggled in school, I was diagnosed ADD (now adhd) pretty early on, however not much was done to alleviate this. Because I struggled so much in school, I maintained about an average gpa. When I finally tested at an academic learning center in high school, I was diagnosed with nearly the full gambit of learning disabilities and NVLD. It wasn't until I got to college and had someone who was really helping me, that I actually began to excel in academia. I think examples like that really blur the lines between things like Asperger's and Autism.

[fatehakamal]

As an autistic person I really don't care about the terminology on whether its autism or Asperger's. I just get happy with love and acceptance. I have faced discrimination in school, on the bus, college campus, relatives, family friends, etc. I however get offended by words like retarded or saying ASD is a prodigy based condition. I hate people who through others struggles out the window. I really like this vdeo btw.

[andreutormos]

Good video. As someone who fits more with Asperger's rather than classical Autism, I prefer the term Autism or Autistic for myself. But I want to respect each person's preference, and would use their preference when refering to them if needed. I feel the the responsability to learn and teach others about the history of diagnosis and how our perception has changed, but I would never impose on others how they should identify. I think the whole reason of identifying with a term is that which you feel to be comfortable with.

[noahfenn]

I was diagnosed with ASD, but I'm tempted to say Asperger's because people tend to get confused when an Aspie says they are autistic. Some people may think I can't be autistic because they think autism is always severe unless I specify that it's Asperger's. My psychologist said it would be Asperger's if that was still a diagnosis and he said I'm "as high functioning as it gets."

[winosandbar]

most of the old “aspergers” people like myself I know cling to the term because it separates them from “low functioning” (hate these terms) autistic people. I think that makes us no better than the NT people who tortured us growing up. I’m proud to be an autistic person and I’m proud of all my brother and sisters on the spectrum.

Can we also talk about how the whole low/high function labels really mean services/no services in the US?

[robertjohnburton]

People who attack Asperger's syndrome as a diagnosis are forgetting older people - like me - were given this diagnosis. He was quite dead and buried when the syndrome was named after him. So, leave us alone. It is on all my official paperwork. I have to say, with very few exceptions, the autism world is not a friendly one. Thanks Stephanie, I think people need to look at every person they hold up, for example, Churchill was a hero and a total bastard too! Some American Presidents were slave owners and racists right up to Modern times. Now, we endure conspiracy theories over Covid vaccinations? It is not an issue, history is full of well-remembered people who had dark pasts.

[alannah]

I don't mind if everyday people use the term Aspergers to describe themselves. I do it just because some of the people I have to deal with treat me differently if I say I'm autistic vs an aspie. The key is in the situation. If you feel better using aspie, then you can do that as long as you struggle with autistic, or if you're in an unsafe environment to use autistic.
My problem comes when people who say that they're trying to raise awareness about autism, and yet try keeps using asperges as their term of choice for their platform. Yes, talking about it sometimes for newer people to learn about autism is good, but some of these content creators act as if autism and asperges are different. That's where it gets bad, because it's separating the autistic community for no reason and continuing a harmful idea that the autism spectrum is a straight line instead of a colour wheel, which better represents the community. We all have different struggles, and we all deal with those struggles differently. That doesn't make one person less autistic than another.

[MarcelGomesPan]

I was diagnosed with Aspergers . However, i was always aware that it is on the spectrum so no ”better than” ideas here.
Having said that, i am 57 years old and getting told what words i ”may” or ”may not” use will never work with me ( not counting slurs obviously ).

[JaneTheMessage]

So the issue I want to highlight is that me not having verbal or intellectual impairments RADICALLY changes my life and my needs. I am completely flabbergasted by this being translated into some superiority complex. I went to a gifted/learning disabled school and I am very comfortable being around people with a range of abilities and disabilities. The few friends I could make as a kid (I was still badly bullied by more socially able kids) had a range of verbal and intellectual ability that were very different than typical development. My only friends growing up HAD those intellectual and verbal impairments that I didn't have. It is _so_ insulting to imply that by acknowledging that I do not have those impairments (and instead had precocious verbal development that made me even _more_ socially uncoordinated) means that I am trying to say I am better than people who do have those impairments or otherwise do not want to be considered similar to them. I just have a different life and presentation and needs that I need to identify and talk about so that I can make sense and my life can make sense. Differentiating this makes my behavior and existence make more sense, but it’s getting to be impossible to do.

I also think the giant lump of autism means some of us are more socially able and are clumping together to bully. I CAN’T EVEN DO THAT. I do NOT have the social coordination to navigate or instigate that kind of interpersonal complexity. We need to keep talking about this.

I think that people with frankly unnecessarily overdeveloped linguistic/intellectual performance relative to typically developing people often become _EXTREMELY_ reclusive and are at risk of imploding from their executive function impairments both from burnout and from things like hoarding disorder (terrible term, if there is time management, _why_ is it not space management?). I don't understand why my brain performs the way it does, but I do understand that it makes my isolation harder to escape. When I watch online autistic communities accomplish social feats that I CANNOT do while being at the ready to bully me if I try to explain from my perspective, which my brain screams at me to keep trying to do (and to re-explain and explain again when it fails), I just get completely exasperated and my bullying trauma is reactivated. I freaking hate it.

A final note is that many of the people who are more prone to the more "toxic" behaviors of bullying (very often older autistics) with the aspergers diagnosis are very young. They are people who are still in adolescent developmental phases. That could be part of this as well.

I find it all very frustrating.

[BipolarCourage]

My son was diagnosed Aspergers & ADHD as a child. The diagnoses were to get support at school, which were stripped for children who could speak as soon as DSM-V came in (Qld, Australia).

Formsl adult diagnosis was not available where I was at the time, so his clinicians didn't see an issue if I called myself an Aspie as many others did at the time, as shared traits.

Eventually I had an assessment and I was told my traits actually fit better other diagnoses including PTSD.

A medical diagnosis has been turned into a set of broad personality traits, that could come under several diagnoses, or none at all.

Many of the people arguing online are self-diagnosed, diagnosed ASD1 (very hastily with 1-2 visits or video), Aspergers. Also adults claiming to have been masking without realizing for no one to have noticed anything as a child.

The community is hostile & uses cancel culture on anyone who goes against ideology (eg by expressing one's own views.

I was called a heap of names & mob by bullied on Twitter by strangers who see me as autistic in denial.

They left fake & malicious reviews on my self-published books, especially the one I had written when I believed I was autistic yet the book was about a bipolar mania episode with trauma on top.

I didn't edit out the word Aspie as that would be lying. So I was called an Aspie supremacist, Nazi sympathizer & a bunch of other names to be mob cyberbullied by even more strangers.

It drove me to severe suicidal ideation. They kept going, accusing me of being an abuser etc.

The community has wolves in sheep's clothing. Toxic.

[in-serenesanity]

Thank you for this informative video. Importantly, Asperger's is now not just a part of ASD, it is ASD/Level 1 (out of the 3 Levels of ASD, according to the DSM-5). In my view, it pretty much resolves the dilemma keeping the cluster of the specific descriptions and symptoms somewhat apart from the rest of the spectrum.

Look forward to more of your videos, thank you.

[Daniel-vlmx]

I am of the view that the Asperger syndrome diagnosis was and is a useful way of describing a subset of autism, by reference to some particular characteristics. I certainly don't have any sense of superiority of anyone because of falling within that subset, but my own perspective is that I and my daughter both have that diagnosis and are similar to each other in a number of ways consistent with that description. My son and my brother were diagnosed as "autistic", and meet the description of what might be called "classical autism, and they have things in common with each other too, but while they are complete and equally valuable human beings they are what they are, and not aspies.

I can't help but feel a bit "erased" by moves to remove Aspergers and "aspie" from our lexicon. I am an aspie. It describes me, and my daughter. I think nothing is gained by acceding to moves to avoid the use of the term, but something is lost.

[s.b]

Thanks for the video! Just want to clarify that here in Europe (at least in my country, Sweden) aspergers is still being diagnosised to this day, as a part of ASD. Swedens journal-system (and maybe some other countries' too) isn't yet fully changed according to the new DSM-5.

Even though quite some clinics here have moved towards giving ASD diagnoses anyway, the official health care registration-system is lagging behind and it will take quite some time to finish (I had some insider-info from an autistic woman working in mental health care). Im waiting for an assessment myself, and I found out I will be assessed for Aspergers at my clinic from the DSM-4 critera.

So, I beg of people not to make this a divider within the community. If I get diagnosed I will want to be able to use the name that my official diagnosis says. So if people in my own community (where we should feel accepted and safe) would say: "aspergers doesn't exist as a diagnosis anymore and therefore it shouldnt be used"...that just wouldnt be OK. So please guys... respect one another <3 As long as people with aspergers diagnoses are alive, we should be fully accepted for using this term.

[ajkooper]

Thoughts i have on this is on one hand i get why asperger syndrome is being phased out in favor of the asd umbrella. On the other hand though it can be helpful on a personal level that if you know you're on the spectrum at least you can look for clues in somewhat the right "corner". The one thing we shouldn't be allowing ourselves to do is let different terms divide the asd community. Which i feel boils down to basic respect.

[DVDandFilmBloke]

I completely agree, even though I only ever say Asperger's in specific contexts (I wasn't diagnosed with Asperger's so I don't identify as an Aspie, I was diagnosed in the DSM 4 era as well) I don't mind when people use it. My philosophy is, as long as your not hurting anyone (or being a smug git about it) then I don't have a problem with it.

[trishawalker]

This was so beautifully done! Thank you for sharing information about each side with such fairness and generosity 🥰

[SuperPeppi]

My country uses a MODIFIED version of the ICD, still diagnosing Asperger's, and probably will continue to do so for the simple reason that a non-verbal/low IQ/out of control autistic person has very different needs from a high IQ Aspie that's capable of masking and conducting an apparently normal, balanced life. Neither of us is better or worse in the eyes of the professionals that are dealing with us, we are just different, with very different medical needs.
When I'm talking to people online, I'm using autism and Asperger's interchangeably (for THEIR convenience), but I'm diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, that's what's written on my papers, and no amount of "well meaning" bullying can change this fact. If you don't like the term, don't use it. But forcing others to use a word they don't feel comfortable with not only is rude, but it's abusive! Also, Aspies can loathe change just as much as a classic autistic, so be patient with them if they don't feel like abandoning the diagnosis they had for months/years/decades.
Last thing: in the nazi regime people were encouraged to snitch on each other. When saying mean things about some of his patients, Hans might have played a role in order to survive (and to be able to continue to save Aspie lives). You know, living in such a dangerous environment, you can bend only so many rules before someone gets irritated and make you disappear one way or another. Maybe he had a nazi sympathizer boss he had to placate. Or a co-worker that wanted his job. Or a nurse pissed off at him. We'll never know what exactly he said and why. Or how many (if any) patients of his ended up euthanized, or if it was his idea or he had to follow orders... It's all speculation and hearsay at this point. What we know for sure is that he saved thousands of people that should have been executed and we should be thankful for those lives.
The world became bereft of empathy and grace. Let's do better!

[gonnfishy]

I’m an Aspie Stephanie. it’s my diagnosis, I’m autistic first and aspie second.
It’s a useful label to describe most accurately my skill and disability cluster without me having to EXPLAIN IT specifically

[criticalmaz]

I was sad/disappointed to find out about Hans Asperger a little while ago. Probably not a good idea to name any sort of medical condition after a single person anyway.