Spectrum disorders are spectrum disorders. It's in the name - it is not a I do or not have it condition. It is a I have it but to what extent condition. The fact that you do have it to some degree will change the way you deal with the world compared to more "normal" reactions. It does not therefore endow some carte blanche excuse for doing whatever or excusing you from whatever. To argue that is as equally crazy as the people who deny such conditions exist. Once people get past the misconception that these are concrete things as such and more a set of symptoms then maybe they can think about it the right way.
One would not stop their life because they had a virus. You would differentiate it into how it actually impacted you - common cold, take some paracetamol and get over it, ebola panic and say your last goodbyes. I know from the criteria tests I fail both ASD and Aspergers - so what it does not stop me from living my life. In many ways I see it as a plus. I never sought to be the social butterfly and knuckled down instead and worked hard to get where I wanted. It never debilitates me to the extent I can not function. Like most people I learnt appropriate responses from observing other people and how they are applied. If I had been further along the spectrum then I would not have learned the application and then that would have been a problem. The more severe ends of the Autistic spectrum are very very debilitating and likewise if you have Aspergers to a great extent then that also is the same.
Like all these things there is a environmental factor and also a physical factor. Once you go down that growth path then that is it. You can teach people how to cope but never really cure. In the same way you can not really stop an angry person from being angry but you can teach them how to control that anger appropriately. It does annoy me when people so flippantly disregard such things with so little knowledge of how they occur, why they occur and why they are most likely occurring more frequently. But I also get annoyed when people see such a thing as an excuse of not giving things a go when if they actually met people who really struggle they would see they are not in the same ballpark.
@bhavv - Don't presume doctors do not know. Some know quite a lot about such things. For a start they can quite clearly demonstrate visible changes in brain formation in people with some of these symptoms etc.
Sorry for the wall of text
One would not stop their life because they had a virus. You would differentiate it into how it actually impacted you - common cold, take some paracetamol and get over it, ebola panic and say your last goodbyes. I know from the criteria tests I fail both ASD and Aspergers - so what it does not stop me from living my life. In many ways I see it as a plus. I never sought to be the social butterfly and knuckled down instead and worked hard to get where I wanted. It never debilitates me to the extent I can not function. Like most people I learnt appropriate responses from observing other people and how they are applied. If I had been further along the spectrum then I would not have learned the application and then that would have been a problem. The more severe ends of the Autistic spectrum are very very debilitating and likewise if you have Aspergers to a great extent then that also is the same.
Like all these things there is a environmental factor and also a physical factor. Once you go down that growth path then that is it. You can teach people how to cope but never really cure. In the same way you can not really stop an angry person from being angry but you can teach them how to control that anger appropriately. It does annoy me when people so flippantly disregard such things with so little knowledge of how they occur, why they occur and why they are most likely occurring more frequently. But I also get annoyed when people see such a thing as an excuse of not giving things a go when if they actually met people who really struggle they would see they are not in the same ballpark.
@bhavv - Don't presume doctors do not know. Some know quite a lot about such things. For a start they can quite clearly demonstrate visible changes in brain formation in people with some of these symptoms etc.
Sorry for the wall of text
