Cinnamon Report post Posted August 8, 2012 Someone on facebook said that autism is a disease. I never looked at it that way. What do people here think? Is it a disease or not? And why or why not? Does anyone know what the medical profession or psychologist say about this? What do they say? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Special_talent123 Report post Posted August 8, 2012 No autism is not a disease, it is a developmental disability that affects how we interact, communicate and imagine. Whoever said its a disease ignore them because they obviously know nothing about autism and are ignorant just like the ones who are going around about curing it with vaccinations when there is no cure for autism. Autism is not a disease, ignorance is though- thats what i seen photo around on facebook Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
StoneDog Report post Posted August 8, 2012 In day to day speech "disease" and "disorder" are used as synonyms. Often it depends on what the person is trying to imply - if you want Alcoholism to be seen as an illness you can emphasise those aspects by calling it a disease. Disorder is often used for something without an established and accepted etiology, which has a varied array a symptoms - a spectrum in other words, So we have ASD - disorder not disease You certainly can't "catch" an ASD like you can catch a verruca! What context are people using it in? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Special_talent123 Report post Posted August 8, 2012 ignorant stone, i know people we need to educate them ignorance is the disease, not autism! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Special_talent123 Report post Posted August 8, 2012 and we should be seen for who we are not the label. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
A-S warrior Report post Posted August 8, 2012 i dont know what troubles me more here, calling autisum a disease or calling ignorance a disease. a disease is a an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organisum. i.e cancer, aids, botulism, legionnaires, etc. disease is a term that gets thrown around too loosely. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mike_GX101 Report post Posted August 9, 2012 From what we know today it isn't. It might seem like a bit of a dis-ease to some especially those on the more affected side of the spectrum to whom I have a lot of sympathy for because life must be hell for them. But that isn't to say that it categorically isn't; it's just that as far as we know today (as far as our medical science has got us) it isn't classed as a disease. Maybe one day someone will find a bug that we don't know about yet which causes autism. Like for example the mysterious bug people can apparently pick up from cats which actually cause changes in mental health: see here. There might even be bugs/viruses that alter DNA which again we don't know about. Who's to say there isn't some parasite that lives on the double helix of the DNA strands and eats bits of it? Just because we haven't found it yet doesn't mean it's impossible. Similarly all these microwaves we have could be exposing our DNA to disturbances no one has investigated properly yet. Radio waves are all around us and with the increasing usage of mobile phones and wifi only time will tell on that one. Just keep listening to the news and who knows another breakthrough might just be around the corner... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cinnamon Report post Posted August 9, 2012 One problem with that facebook post was that is wasn't in English. The actual word they used means disease, but could also be translated as 'illness'. I don't know if there is a real difference in the meaning of disease and illness. The context was well-intended. It was a message saying not to judge people because you don't know if they have some hidden disease that affects their behaviour. And then it listed a lot of 'hidden diseases' including autism. ADHD and anxiety were also on the list. Anxiety is, of course, definitely not a disease. (excessive anxiety can be a symptom of a disease, but anxiety itself is just an emotion - and often a useful one!). Epilepsy was also on the list, and a person who has epilepsy responded that he did not feel as if he was ill. I thought about it a bit more - I really don't think autism is a disease. Just like other differences are not diseases. For instance: Being exceptionally tall is not a disease, even though it can be debilitating and cause the tall person to become ill (back problems for instance). Many disabilities are not diseases either. Like being blind or deaf, or missing a limb - none of those are diseases. Even if we would one day discover that autism is caused by a mysterious microbe, then it would still only be a result of an infection, but not a disease in itself. And you never know, maybe we will discover that Asperger's syndrome is the normal state of being for humans, and what we call 'neurotypical' is actually the result of overexposure to radiation! Of course I meant that as a joke, but I do think that over my lifetime our society has become more and more obsessively focused on socializing ..... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
indiscreet Report post Posted August 9, 2012 I've always heard autism described as a condition, something different in the formation of our brains which occurs before birth. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
trekster Report post Posted August 11, 2012 i think a disorder affects the brain whereas a disease can affect any part of the body. also you can catch diseases from infectious agents, but i doubt you can catch a disorder. diseases i know of include cancer, tb, glandular fever and leprosy. some of these are more infectious than others. disorders include odd, adhd, asd, ocd which are triggered off by an infection but cant be caught directly by an infection. i do wonder why there has been this move to asc? blue eyes are a condition autism is a disorder or disability. also the avoidance of using the term 'autistic' or 'aspergic' in literature and instead use 'people with asd' (as though i pick up my autism when i get up in the morning). i always mention in any research that i am autistic and should be refered to as such. autism isnt a choice if it was i would be a 'person with asd' instead. jmho. alexis Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Special_talent123 Report post Posted August 11, 2012 there no proof but someone is saying i have to call it asc, which i said there is nothing online to say i have to use it Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mike_GX101 Report post Posted August 11, 2012 (edited) To the layman "disease" is probably the closest thing they would understand which is probably why they're using that as the terminology. I don't think it's meant as a way to undermine what we know autism as - it is simply a mask to raise awareness to the uneducated as simply as possible. Edited August 11, 2012 by Mike_GX101 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cinnamon Report post Posted August 13, 2012 I had another thought. I have not been diagnosed with asperger's or anything; I am still on a waiting list. So at the moment, I have no disease, no disorder; I am just a bit odd. Or eccentric. Or a whole range of other things (many less kind than the two above). And I have been called all these things all my life, which is 43 years now. Should I get the diagnosis, then I will of course still be the same person, but I would suddenly have a disease? That can't be right. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
