Adam Mars

Boots

The DSM is all about mental illnesses. If you know of a way of identifying and classifying mental illnesses that isn't based on symptoms, then you need to get in touch with the psychiatric and neurological professions because you have an unparalleled insight into the workings of the human brain. Meanwhile, I expect mental health professionals will continue using a manual that they know has been developed through research and does have clearly defined diagnostic criteria. You seem to be unhappy with your diagnosis, or perhaps only with other people's responses to it. The problem here appears not to be the profession that diagnosed you, nor the manual that contains your diagnosis, but society's view of people who share your diagnosis.

If it concentrates on symptoms and has nothing to say about treatment, why would any drug manufacturer welcome it? Remember...not all the facts you think you know are true. There has been extensive scientific and statistical research into ECT, just as there has been for any medical intervention. I think you might be confusing psychology and psychoanalysis. Wilhelm Wundt - and countless psychologists - wouldn't thank you for that.

I've certainly no reason to doubt him. Unfortunately, he went on to say that this was an inevitable result of 'Asbergers'. I thought that needed some...clarification.

It was aimed more at A and A, who seems to think that a lot of these 'problems' have other, 'real' causes.

Alternatively, "You're on the autistic spectrum, nothing you can do about it, it's partly genetic, no point in trying to get a different diagnosis that you'd like better".

That's not my experience. There's nothing in the definition of Asperger's - or any ASD - that would suggest particular skills in 'getting on' and 'communicating'; quite the reverse, in fact. Women may be further away from us on the spectrum, but that tends to result in more empathy, better listening skills and more tolerance of difference. I've always found it easier to get on with, and talk to, women. All my romantic relationships with women have developed from friendships: if you get to know someone first, you can find out - usually quite quickly - whether they are "superficial, aesthetically driven and have no ambition". In my experience, women are no more likely to have those characteristics than men, but perhaps I've just been lucky in meeting mainly intelligent, thoughtful, independent women.

I'm shocked, I tell you. Shocked, stunned and not a little amazed. In other news, a report from the Pope has found that Roman Catholicism is probably the best religion in the world.

Do the three that own privately know that you rent from the council? It seems to me that if they do, they might routinely regard anyone occupying that flat as 'not fitting in', and it might be more to do with you being a tenant rather than you personally.

I understand the confusion: if he's diagnosed with AS, then he has AS...but if it's atypical, in what way is it AS? I think only the person making the diagnosis could explain precisely what they mean. Because AS is a syndrome and a spectrum condition, everyone's experience of it is different, so that last point is true of everyone; the person making the diagnosis has to identify what 'symptoms' they've identified in the individual. But everyone's experience of AS should share some aspects with everyone else's experience of AS, or there wouldn't be a blanket diagnosis and 'AS' would be meaningless. The label 'atypical AS' is not necessarily meaningless, but it does seem to be content-free. Having said that, AS (and ASDs in general) are complex conditions and it can be impossible for a doctor or psychologist to list all the ways in which any individual is affected by their condition. They can identify the 'headline' issues that have led them to a diagnosis, but that still potentially leaves a lot of areas where the individual - and, perhaps, their friends and family - has to look at their own problems, quirks, habits and personality traits, and ask themselves whether they are aspects of their spectrum condition. If they are, that might imply a different approach to dealing with them. Even if they're not, the presence of a spectrum condition might still inform how they're tackled. There's also the fact that many adults receiving a diagnosis have spent most of their life learning how to mask their problems, so any diagnosis might reflect- at least in part - not the underlying condition, but the level of success in hiding it. In short, I guess 'mild atypical Asperger Syndrome' means "Somewhere on the autistic spectrum - so probably having some difficulties in the three general areas of social communication, social imagination and social relationships - but probably managing to cope quite well with those difficulties in some situations, less well in others and not at all in some others. Has some characteristics of AS, but may not have some others...or may have them but they didn't show up in the diagnostic process, or perhaps they've just learned to hide them well. Not so badly affected that they need a carer, but still handle with care". Or something.

If he does have AS then I'd recommend "An Asperger Marriage" by Chris and Gisela Slater-Walker. In fact, I'd recommend it even if he doesn't have a diagnosis of AS: if he has many of the characteristics, it's still a useful read.

I was left slightly disappointed: it seems they've increased the budget for special effects and guest stars at the expense of script writers. Smuggy Smugteeth is looking older and even more wooden, there are even more glaring gaps in the plot and it lacked sufficient character development to make me care about what happened to anyone. And there's wasn't enough Welshness. But I'll still watch it next week.

Did you watch it yet? I recommend it: Josh Hartnett in particular does a marvellous job of portraying someone who copes very well with most things, has difficulties with - and coping strategies - for some other things, and can go into complete meltdown in response to some things. Parts of it were uncomfortable because it felt like watching me, but it's a very positive film.

It seems to me that the 'correct' answer - it's winter and he's building a snowman - isn't reached through inference or deduction, but through jumping to a conclusion. Darkshine's answer shows better inference and deduction, because it considers more information. I suspect the 'problem' is not in inference and deduction, but perhaps in the restricted knowledge base from which information to support inference can be drawn, and in the unwillingness to form a definite conclusion which isn't actually supported by inference or deduction. In fact, the 'problem' is excellent inference and deduction rather than the poor logic skills and willingness to believe one's own assumptions which are common to the neurotypical mind.

I agree...sort of. I had the same feelings, and the same way of 'coping' with them, and I just stopped. But that's me. Not everyone can just stop, and I wouldn't discourage anyone from seeking help.

Don't you think editing out the part that placed it firmly in the present tense - and so implied a single post specific meaning rather than a general meaning - is a little disingenuous?

'an oversimplification'? As someone who can and does, and also teaches other people to, I'd say the phrase you're looking for there is "steaming pile of meaningless prejudice". Seriously, nothing annoys me more than people who trot out a half-understood quote from George Bernard Shaw as though its constant repetition lends it any truth (Well, nothing except war. And preventable diseases. And famines. And racism. And hundreds of other things that annoy me more). It's one of those arguments "that carries inherent value judgements about others based on prejudice". Almost exclusively, those who can learnt how to do from those who could also do, but who chose the harder, less well rewarded career of teaching what they knew how to do.

Hi. I'm late 40s and only got a diagnosis (AS) about five years ago. My life is no more manageable, but a lot more understandable, since getting the diagnosis. Luckily I have a very supportive wife who helps with the life management stuff and a very supportive employer, which has helped me hold down a job for more than my average two months.