I’ve been very gratified by how excited and supportive people have been about the new name for my blog and my reasons for choosing it. Apparently, a number of others feel as I do about wanting to distance themselves from anyone using the Asperger’s label in an elitist way.
For me, dropping the Asperger’s label is the right decision. It’s been a long time coming, and I feel liberated by letting go of the pretense that I am anything other than autistic. But the process of coming to terms with who we are, especially for those of us who discover that we are autistic in mid-life, is complex and personal. I would never judge the process of a fellow autistic who is trying to carve out his or her path. For many autistic people, the word Aspie feels absolutely right, and I would never want to take that good feeling away. So, I want to be very clear: I don’t have an issue with anyone who self-identifies as an Aspie or uses the Asperger’s label, so long as the person is not being elitist, divisive, or dismissive of anyone on the spectrum. If someone self-identifies as an Aspie, and wants to be called an Aspie, I will respect that choice.
Remember: The DSM criteria do not even come close to describing the experience of being autistic. Not even close. Not even in the ballpark. Not even in the same country. And I’m talking about the criteria proposed for the DSM-V as well as those already in the DSM-IV. They are so far off the track, it’s ridiculous.
So I don’t want to put too much energy into arguing over labels. I want to do what I’ve always done with this blog: to talk about the experience of autism from the inside, to give and receive support, and to discuss the joys, challenges, difficulties, and gifts that come with being autistic.
© 2010 by Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg
Yay!!! You’re back!!!!
I was really upset when I tried to get to your blog t’other day and found a weird generic looking page with all kinds of links, none of which were to you. I was worried about you and hoped everything was o.k., but I kept checking back every once in a while. I’m very happy you’re back up and running
I am an Aspie, which means I’m autistic. My autobiography should be “A Portrait of the Autist as a Young Man.” (Apologies to James Joyce).
i’m so glad to see you again… funny, since i don’t know you.
i’m not even sure i’m on the spectrum. NLD for certain—it makes way too much sense of my life for me to be able to deny that “label.” but i’m still not sure about AS. (now that i have access to health care, i may go for diagnosis, so that i know one way or another.)
even so—i like the term “autistic.” i’m not sure why, but it feels right to me in terms of describing what my inner world feels like—the social confusion, the love of repetition, the sensory richness of it all, the frequent overwhelm. i don’t like that there’s so much stigma to the word. i think it’s brave to de-stigmatize it as much as possible. cheers to you.
Hey bluedancer, I know what you mean about liking the term “autistic.” I’ve always been drawn to it, even though I had such a narrow view of it at one time in my life that I wouldn’t have thought it fit me. Glad those days are past.
Anyway, if you feel like you belong here, then you do!
the problem is, everyone diagnosed with AS will be screwed when all the terminology changes and the already abusive and greedy “healthcare” corporations will screw everyone around, forcing rediagnoses and proffering up inappropriate meds. disaster in the short term is coming with DSM-V. the long term will create a lot more sociopaths out of the autistics who somehow survive. there will be more suicides and commitments and more negative press about how screwed up autistics are because no one understands the concept of shades of grey or a spectrum, because that’s what autism is: a spectrum of severity and comorbidities. all syndromes are.
Jace, I understand your concern, but the DSM-V criteria designate autism as a spectrum condition.They make explicit that there is a spectrum, whereas the DSM-IV criteria make an arbitrary distinction between AS and autism, as though the former isn’t a subset of the latter. Like you, I’m concerned about what will happen to people with AS diagnoses (will we need to get re-diagnosed or will our old diagnosis just translate into a new one?), but I’m glad to have our way of being called autism, since that’s what it is.