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Comment by cookiecaper | Hacker News Reader

Autism, like cancer, is not a single thing. Toward the start of the spectrum, including Asperger's, it seems to be essentially "clinically-significant weirdness, not otherwise specified" (on the later end of the spectrum, it's "major or profound mental retardation, not otherwise specified").

A more productive discussion might be why we feel the need to pathologize so much about ourselves. Why do we need a person to look us over and say "Ah, none of what you are is your fault" to feel OK?

Worse, why do some parents need to hear that about their children? I've known kids who've been paraded to several "mental health professionals" until one would finally give the parents what they ultimately wanted, a diagnosis-as-scapegoat. In the 90s that scapegoat was ADHD. Today it's Asperger's.

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"Some people see a formal diagnosis as an unhelpful label, but for many, getting a timely and thorough assessment and diagnosis may be helpful because:

it helps people with Asperger syndrome (and their families, partners, employers, colleagues, teachers and friends) to understand why they may experience certain difficulties and what they can do about them it allows people to access services and support." - http://www.autism.org.uk/about/what-is/asperger.aspx

Also, if you read the article, you will see, that for people with ASD usually find the diagnosis as a relief.

Also, I'm not sure, if you talked to any parents with kid(s) with ASD diagnosis, ask them about what is different since the diagnosis.

Also, please try to show a little more empathy because your comment is hurtful to Aspies who felt that the diagnosis changed their life.

Well, if it significantly impacts functioning, whether social or otherwise, it's pretty helpful to label it and find ways of solving the problems or coping with them (using said label to refer to the particular issues).

That said, I do agree that at least in the 'public mind' there's too much focus on these weird things being a problem. In fact, I've found that with those who struggle with mental health issues of many kinds, the pathologizing is a significant part of the problem. There's a strong pressure, both external and internal, to conform. Very often that's part of the problem, or the cause of many of the symptoms, and it strikes me as frustratingly pointless.

I've worked with kids with autism, I can tell you your comment is very accurate in my experience. The amount of difference between kids with autism (in the way it presents itself) is huge. Its not a single disorder.

All that ADHD might well have been a red herring, and it was Asperger's all along. When all you have a is a handy drug, everything begins to feel like the sort of condition you could treat with that drug!

Knowing that you're "on the spectrum", no matter how subjective or meaningless you might think it is, can be very helpful to the person and their loved ones.

> A more productive discussion might be why we feel the need to pathologize so much about ourselves. Why do we need a person to look us over and say "Ah, none of what you are is your fault" to feel OK?

It's not as much pathologizing, for me personally, it's got more to do with self-discovery and having some kind of independent and external feedback for it.

I can introspect a whole lot about why I am the way I am, but that perspective can never be objective on its own due because it's all subjective to my internal memories, interpretations, and perspective, which will be biased and flawed in ways unrecognizable to me.

A diagnosis gives the feeling of defining something about one-self there, nothing just imagined by that person, but confirmed by an external person, an "expert in the field" too. If you tend to OCD about certain topics, like personality/consciousness, this can have the interesting allure of giving some supposed certainty that probably never can be given.

Mental Retardation is not autism, though it is often correlated.

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1088357606021002...

> "Overall, the findings indicate that more empirical evidence is needed before conclusions can be made about the percentages of children With autism Who are mentally retarded."

Diagnosis isn't a scapegoat, it's a doorway to effective engagements and improved quality of life.

I think you're missing his point. What good is a diagnosis if its not accurate?

Right, we all just stop playing with legos, spend more time at the playground and don't do math before the age of 5 and no more autism?

Sorry mate but cancer is something you develop later on and can influence with your lifestyle, Autism is something that burnt into your brain from the very start.

When you say diagnosis-as-scapegoat your probably refer to an increase of diagnosis, but that is simply explained by the increased knowledge of the condition.

For children, one advantage of having a formal diagnosis is that it allows access to funding for support resources during school. Such as having a teacher's assistant available in class to provide additional 1 on 1 teaching time.

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