TSR Sharing your infomation!

[calalily]

You just say that cause you tested high on the internet test for it.    Typical avoidance behaviour - deny its existence and maybe you don't have it. 

Actually, I didn't. Also, I'm too old to have it. The disease wasn't even invented until recently. It's just not possible to retroactively acquire such things. No, I am simply your garden-variety sociopath.

Actually you did:

26, hah! I clearly do not have this "Assburgers".

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,9909.0.html

I took the same test and tested way lower than you - and 26 is in the "think about getting a formal assessment/diagnosis" score range. You can have a disease undiagnosed for years - but I'll let you stick with sociopath, because I know you like that diagnosis.

In any case, more evidence for its utter nonexistence as a real disease is the fact that it didn't even EXIST until recently, yet suddenly, everyone has it. It is fundamentally impossible that such a condition simply appeared in totally unrelated people out of thin air. TRUE genetic conditions originate from a single mutation and spread from there.

There's no reason to believe Aspergers is genetic - but none of my or my husbands' ancestors were tested.  Even if they or I did, there is little point in a diagnosis, so why bother?  None of us are going to get remedial help with socialising - just have a diagnosis.

As this "Assburgers" thing has just suddenly appeared on half the people on the Internets, it is clearly a made-up disease. There is no Assburgers, you are just an ass.

Look - I have to agree about people on the internet and their Assburgers.  I almost always disbelieve them - because from my experience, people with Aspergers don't want to socialise at all - and can't see the normal human need for socialisation - so why are they placing such importance on socialising?  If my kid didn't talk all day to anyone, this would not upset him - getting him to actually talk some days can be difficult.  So I'm naturally inclined to believe that anyone claiming Aspergers on the internet has diagnosed themselves.  That's not to say I disbelieve all of them for that reason.

The minute you use it as an excuse though, you're fucked.  People with Aspergers (and a diagnosis) don't use it as an excuse - they don't expect people to make allowances for them - they know they have to learn social mores and often STFU when told they're doing it wrong.  They're liable to react with anger and frustration - not with precious hurt feelings - that requires an emotional depth of understanding that they often don't have.  They don't have the depth to manipulate or the guile to wish to do so, and rarely perceive that others think badly of them - that would require them understanding how others see them, and they can't do that - that's what makes it a problem in the first place.

[neriana]

I don't know for sure that Gates has Asperger's, obviously, since I haven't diagnosed him.  But multiple sources that I trust say that he does.  And since Asperger's symptoms are on a continuum, there's not a uniform set of behaviors for everyone who has it.  So he can be perfectly good at running his business and his charities and still be affected in some ways. 

I've seen plenty of arguments for it and none of them hold a drop of water. You cannot be good at running a huge business, which is an inherently social enterprise, and have Asperger's. You can be a good scientist, or mathematician, or artist, or many other things which don't demand constant, skilled human contact. The creator and head of Microsoft had to be: charming, ruthless, manipulative, dishonest, and really smart about how to deal with people. These things are the precise opposite of what people with Asperger's are like. You cannot excel at building and running a massive globe-spanning corporation with Asperger's Syndrome, any more than you can be a marathon runner in a wheelchair.

I'm with Darqstar: claiming that people who do not have a mental illness, have it, is insulting to those people who actually do have to deal with it every day of their lives. Considering the criteria people on the internet use for it, which basically seem to include being shy, being smart, and being geeky, I have it, my boyfriend has it, my mother the teacher has it, and my father, who works in public relations, has it. Further, my father's brother has it, and all but one of my mother's siblings has it -- he has actual schizophrenia, you see.

I thought Pescado was more schizoid than completely sociopathic.

[Pescado]

I thought Pescado was more schizoid than completely sociopathic.

I have both. I am a complex set of what others would classify as "mental illnesses" that combine to create a stable state of homeostatic equilibrium. Since the "conditions" are naturally self-stabilizing, this state is much more stable than the fragile metastable states of lesser mortals.

I took the same test and tested way lower than you - and 26 is in the "think about getting a formal assessment/diagnosis" score range. You can have a disease undiagnosed for years - but I'll let you stick with sociopath, because I know you like that diagnosis.

Well, specifically, I'm antisocial, paranoid, and schizoid. And I'm cool with that. All these are beneficial evolutionary traits and it is good to have them all.

There's no reason to believe Aspergers is genetic - but none of my or my husbands' ancestors were tested.  Even if they or I did, there is little point in a diagnosis, so why bother?  None of us are going to get remedial help with socialising - just have a diagnosis.

There's no reason to believe it exists, either. It's just a label that exists to stigmatize those who are different. It's not even as catch as the old label, "dork".

They don't have the depth to manipulate or the guile to wish to do so, and rarely perceive that others think badly of them - that would require them understanding how others see them, and they can't do that - that's what makes it a problem in the first place.

See, I don't have this problem. I'm perfectly fine with manipulating, although I find it to be more tiresome than the direct approach. My Russian blood prefers the brute force solution. And I understand how others see me just fine: They hate me and want me dead. Understandably, this does little to endear them to me. And personally, I like it this way. Let them hate, so long as they fear.

[calalily]

I took the same test and tested way lower than you - and 26 is in the "think about getting a formal assessment/diagnosis" score range. You can have a disease undiagnosed for years - but I'll let you stick with sociopath, because I know you like that diagnosis.

Well, specifically, I'm antisocial, paranoid, and schizoid. And I'm cool with that. All these are beneficial evolutionary traits and it is good to have them all.

Not beneficial if you don't breed. 

There's no reason to believe Aspergers is genetic - but none of my or my husbands' ancestors were tested.  Even if they or I did, there is little point in a diagnosis, so why bother?  None of us are going to get remedial help with socialising - just have a diagnosis.

There's no reason to believe it exists, either. It's just a label that exists to stigmatize those who are different. It's not even as catch as the old label, "dork".

It's not the same as dork either -  dorks are not known to have ever claimed that hugs hurt their skin.  Few dorks want to never talk to anyone ever.  Dorks can reason out why they are the way they are, and understand the difference - kids with Aspergers can't. It really isn't as simple as they are obsessed with one subject - it goes further than that.  There's also few dorks who have a compulsion to steal their favourite material - I know a kid with a compulsion for feathers - mine has one for metal.  I could start a scrap metal yard and an office supply shop.

See, I don't have this problem. I'm perfectly fine with manipulating, although I find it to be more tiresome than the direct approach. My Russian blood prefers the brute force solution. And I understand how others see me just fine: They hate me and want me dead. Understandably, this does little to endear them to me. And personally, I like it this way. Let them hate, so long as they fear.

I don't hate or fear you - you're just that important. And Russian?

[novastar]

I have now been taken out of my school and put into homeschool because I have Aspergers and serious suicidal thoughts.

The minute you blame it on the Asperger's is the minute everyone loses respect for you.

Grow a pair kthx and stop making the rest of those with it look bad.

[Darqstar]

I thought Asperger's was first described in 1944.  That is not that recent. 

Perhaps, but no one seemed to have it until the internet was around.  Again, I worked with autistic kids and I did a lot of research on it and I saw Aspergers mentioned  a couple times in text books, and it was considered to be a fairly rare offshoot.  None of the kids I worked with had it.   

This isn't to say that it isn't real by any means.  ADD existed when I was a kid too, but in those days, those kids were called brats, or if trying to be polite, "very energetic." If it was really bad, the kid was called "Hyperactive," and sometimes given speed.  (One of the weird things about true ADD is that speed will often make those who suffer from it feel sleepy or lethargic)  For some kids, being diagnosed as ADD has been a good thing, they've gotten the help they've needed and gone on to live better lives.  For others, it's been terrible, as it was just a label stuck onto them, and an excuse to medicate them. 




I strongly dislike seeing anyone use any mental illness as a get out of trouble free card. 

[Paden]

Pescado is also an asshole, let's not forget that, so arguing what kind of rotten bastard he is only pleases him...

[SoggyFox]

I know that most things that gt folks moving slow me down, but I never had problems related to ADD either.  I loved paying attention in school.

[Eskimo Pie]

 What bothers me now is that some people like to believe that vaccinations cause autism and therefore do not get their kids vaccinated at all. There has only been a few small studies that suggest that link but people are running off with that information as if it was gospel truth. Now we will have a whole new problem, a new generation of un vaccinated kids. I rather have an autistic child than a dead one.

[calalily]

I thought Asperger's was first described in 1944.  That is not that recent. 

Perhaps, but no one seemed to have it until the internet was around.  Again, I worked with autistic kids and I did a lot of research on it and I saw Aspergers mentioned  a couple times in text books, and it was considered to be a fairly rare offshoot.  None of the kids I worked with had it.  

It wasn't added to the DSM (Diagnostic Statistical Manual for those not familiar, this is the book of all psychiatric disorders) until issue 4 (published in 1994) - so few doctors knew about it or diagnosed it. Plus, not cool to diagnose a kid with something still being researched.

What bothers me now is that some people like to believe that vaccinations cause autism and therefore do not get their kids vaccinated at all. There has only been a few small studies that suggest that link but people are running off with that information as if it was gospel truth. Now we will have a whole new problem, a new generation of un vaccinated kids. I rather have an autistic child than a dead one.

My Dad had polio as a kid - so that's not even an option for me.  I honestly don't think these parents are looking hard enough - my son's behaviour stayed consistent - just at 2 he was more able to express it. I think the real reason though is that no one wants to admit there might be luck or serendipity or something wrong with them that caused it - so much easier to make out it was evil outside forces, and blame others.

[Darqstar]

Vaccinations are blamed for everything these days, it seems.  I know of at least one parent who believes her child being deathly alergic to peanuts is because of vaccinations. 

The peanut thing freaks me, because I'm alergic to peanuts and I had friends who were too  This means that I sometimes get a rash on my throat when I eat peanut products.  It itches and goes away in about eight hours.  Now adays, the kids are being told they aren't even allowed to bring a sandwich to school that was cut with a knife that someone used to cut a peanut butter sandwich yesterday, if the knife hadn't been properly sterilized.  And it's no rash, these kids are dropping dead because of it.

Either the new generations are getting weaker, or we did have kids with those alergies, but they died before we knew it.  But we all ate peanut butter, and I never saw a kid drop dead or go into a dead faint at school.  The worst I saw was a kid almost choke to death on a butterscotch candy.  The next day we were all hustled into the auditorium and told that we should NEVER run with hard candy in our mouths.  Now kids go home with huge lists of stuff they can and cannot bring to school because if they do, it's gonna kill some kid.  That's scary stuff. 

[Paden]

It may be just the pain killers making me stupid, but I can just see a kid attempting to hold his class hostage with a peanut butter sandwich. "One step, and I shove it down Mary's throat! She'll either die from allergic reaction, or salmonella! I mean it, man, I'll do it!" I blame the drugs... Sorry.

[eternal_darkness]

Peanut allergy as a result of vaccination  . I'm going to agree with Cala about people wanting to blame some outside force for any allergy/mental illness. Anaphylaxis ( Type I Hypersensitivity) is the category that drug and food allergies belong to. It has been proven that there is a genetic component to it. It may not pass directly from parent to child, it can skip generations. So, even if this woman's child had developed the peanut allergy after the vaccination, it would be because of the GENETIC disposition. The whole thing with schools cracking down on peanut butter and anything that came into contact with it is mostly a matter of liability. If little Jimmy does have a fatal allergic reaction, with those policies the school can safely say " It wasn't our fault, look at the accommodations we made for Jimmy. Jimmy's parents should have given the school nurse an epi-pen to use in case of an emergency."

[Darqstar]

Actually, it's not the child getting vaccinated.  Supposedly, the generations that did get vaccinated are now completely messed up and are now producing kids who have horrible alergies.  So, if you are a child with deathly alergies?  Be sure to sue your parents for being evil and having you vaccinated when you were too young to know any better.

When I had shingles, Earth Momma wanted me to baby sit her youngest, so hopefully, the kid would get chickenpox so they wouldn't vaccinate the brat against it.  I'm standing there, covered with red, angry sores and in so much pain I can barely walk, and this idiot wants me to babysit, so hopefully, some day, her kid can go through what I'm going through. Because you know, shingles, which is a herpes type virus, is soooo much better than having a vaccination. 


EDIT: Changed "have" to "are" to clear things up.

[dietofworms]

Sorry about snapping out, I'm not usually this prickly.  We had a very ugly incident this week with someone who definitely should have known better.  So I do tend to get defensive when people deny the reality of mental health issues.

Darqstar, thanks for your comments.  

My son is also severely allergic to peanuts and tree nuts.  We were told that while it has a genetic component, it can be made worse by early exposure.  He'd adopted and we had no medical history, so I stupidly gave him a peanut butter cracker when he was about 11 months old.  He went into anaphylactic shock.  After he recovered, we had him fully tested, and the allergist recommended not giving him any other likely allergenic food--eggs, fish, or seafood--until he was at least five.  Apparently that's enough time to develop immunities that can protect against severe allergies, or something like that.