Why would somebody fake any form of autism?

As many of you may be aware, I have Aspergers' Syndrome. I was first diagnosed as learning-disabled with autistic features when I was 2 or so years old, and my official Aspergers' diagnosis came about a decade ago.

On another board I'm on, there are people who think this disease is nonsense and an excuse for jack-ass behavior. They say that tenets of the disorder (social awkwardness, pre-occupation with a certain subject, things like that) aren't part of a disorder, but part of everyday life.

Why would anybody fake any form of autism? That's despicable behavior, but I feel that I will never be able to convince these people that Aspergers' is a legitimate disorder.

How would you advise me to handle this situation?

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

I wouldn't bullshit anybody.

Re: Why would somebody fake any form of autism?

"They say that tenets of the disorder (social awkwardness, pre-occupation with a certain subject, things like that) aren't part of a disorder, but part of everyday life."

And you disagree why? Social awkwardness and pre-occupation with a certain subject are things that can affect anyone. I dont see the issue with that statement. Unless im missing something? You're saying the only reason youre socially awkward is because of Aspergers and if there was a cure you would suddenly become the life of the party?

Re: Why would somebody fake any form of autism?

Maybe the following link might help to explain things better: Autism Society of America: Asperger Disorder

There are many things that have yet to be learned about this disorder, but this page should provide you with an overview of the situation.

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

And yes, I had worded my first post wrongly. There's more to it than what I first wrote. I just wasn't able to find the proper site to describe it.

EDIT: Here's another link that can provide some information: Asperger's syndrome - MayoClinic.com. The information applies to younger people who have been diagnosed with it, but hopefully, it can provide some sense of what I'm talking about.

Re: Why would somebody fake any form of autism?

We label what we don't understand to claim power and control over it. To have a diagnosed condition -- even if it's still untreatable -- feels better than to suffer the unknown.

More cynically, some people do claim disabilities to gain sympathy and a waiver from responsibility.

Even more cynically, pharmaceutical companies invent conditions and convince people they are afflicted to their products (cf. RLS).

As for Asperghers -- I don't know anything about it, except it's a recently "popularized" form of Autism. I've known my share of people with "social awkwardness, pre-occupation with a certain subject, things like that" -- they're normally called "geeks" where I'm from. Some of them perhaps were far enough along the curve to actually have Asperghers -- I have an in-law who is a likely candidate. And I can see how a person who doesn't fit in would find comfort, even empowerment, by claiming that it's not that they lack social manners, and lack focus, but rather it's Asperghers.

Re: Why would somebody fake any form of autism?

Yes, it has become popularized, but the condition was around long before it had gotten a name. As I said, I was diagnosed with it about a decade ago. I spent all of my school years in special education classes. I only participated in the occasional mainstream class...My school years were spent around people who had varying forms of mental problems.

I wouldn't fake this for sympathy or anything, and I resent being lumped in with those who do. None of you are like that, but on other boards I've been on, I've had to deal with people who think that those who claim to have Aspergers' and other forms of autism are faking it.

I would never do that.

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

And I know several people in real life who have been diagnosed with it as well.

Re: Why would somebody fake any form of autism?

Well yeah? Perhaps not the life of the party, but interact better with people. Not sure what's so hard to understand.

John's obsessive tendencies have been evident for a long time and I only understood and sympathized when I learned it was a symptom of his condition (and read about it; it made a lot of sense.)

This forum (and the internet in general) is full of geeks and none of them has made countless posts and threads about the 80s and have appeared to take anything related so personally.

--
H

Re: Why would somebody fake any form of autism?

There are people on the internet who love to hide behind their keyboards as they hurt people. You won't ever convince them of anything, so your best option would be to just avoid them and not engage them.

Now, if I'm wrong, and these are people you have enjoyed interacting with in the past and they just can't believe in your condition, the only thing you can probably do is point them in the direction of information and hope they'll learn something. If they can't or won't, ask them to drop the subject. From what you've said in the past, I don't think you need to subject yourself to these people if you don't have to.

Re: Why would somebody fake any form of autism?

And I don't mean to suggest Asperghers or your diagnosis is anything but a real condition. But as to why someone might lay claim to a condition, real or imagined...

We can also appropriate such conditions too carelessly. It can seem that everyone who is a bit too careful with their surroundings has OCD and everyone with geeky tendencies has Asperghers.

Re: Why would somebody fake any form of autism?

I guess I should read the sites John linked to, but when I read his first post all I could think was, I guess every sci fi convention is also an Apsherghers support group meeting.

Re: Why would somebody fake any form of autism?

That isn't an uncommon thought. There are some similarities between "geeks"/"nerds" and Aspergers' Syndrome, but not all Aspies are "geeks"/"nerds" and not all "nerds"/"geeks" have Aspergers' Syndrome.

Here's a link about Dr. Hans Asperger, the man who studied the disorder: Hans Asperger

Hopefully, it can provide some sort of explanation into the disorder, and offer some proof that this condition was around long before it had been given a name.

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

I have a co-worker who has worked with kids on the autistic spectrum, and she's dealt with cases of Aspergers' as well as full-on autism.

Re: Why would somebody fake any form of autism?

I doubt that many Trekkers have Asperger's syndrome, and I'm not even sure that a person with Aspergers would necessarily attend a convention.

Several years back, an autism researcher published the Autism Spectrum Quotient. It's now on the internet, and was published in Wired magazine. I'm not sure that it's capable of distinguishing the autistic from the merely geeky-- I scored a 32.

Some people want their personality traits explained to them. Faux Asperger's may do that. But these personality traits in a person with Asperger's are merely symptoms of an underlying neurological syndrome.

If the majority of people in a support group forum or mailing list are "faking it", their thoughts are not going to be helpful to the individuals who are struggling with this illness. They'll suggest coping strategies that don't work, for instance.

I wouldn't really bother explaining autism to these malcontents, but if I had too, I'd try not comparing it to something they know about. I'd try to describe what's different about autism-- and why it's not merely "more geeky than thou".

Re: Why would somebody fake any form of autism?

John,

As much as your willingness to educate these people about a condition you're suffering of yourself is understandable, it's simply not your duty to try and enlighten them. Let alone convince them.

If people like those were really interested and wanted to form a well-founded opinion of their own, they would not challenge you, but instead read medical articles, perform independent research and engage in scientific discussions.

What you describe look more like the usual internet geeks, sitting behind their keyboards, frantically typing, attacking other posters on subjects they don't know anything about themselves, hardly coming out of their rooms because of their social awkwardness, and pre-occupied, it seems, with their narrow view of the world and in their case basic fear of almost all other people and/or thought concepts. Just like if they.. hey, wait a minute.


Cees

Re: Why would somebody fake any form of autism?

For the record, I have Asperger's and I'm a full university professor of psychology who has published work on Asperger's.

Asperger's forms the relatively mild part of what's called the Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). There isn't the space to go into the details, but basically, most of the key symptoms held by people with ASD are held by the rest of the population. The difference is the severity with which the symptoms are held. Thus, we can all think of people who are socially awkward or a little bit obsessive about their interests. But just because some people have what could be loosely described as mild symptoms doesn't mean that they have ASD. Let's make an analogy. Some people have slightly higher resting temperatures than others. But someone with a higher resting temperature doesn't need treatment as someone with a fever does. The point is that it isn't the simple presence of symptoms, but their severity and the extent to which they impinge on everyday functioning.

The other crucial point is that whereas someone with relatively mild symptoms may be in a position to modify their behaviour, this isn't as easy if you're at the extreme end of the spectrum. Some changes can be made with practice (and certainly someone with ASD should try as hard as they can with any training offered) but isn't simply a case of 'snapping out of it'. Some things simply can't be easily mastered.

And it isn't simple shyness either. It often comes down to how structured the event in question is and how confidently you can work within this event. For example, in my case, I can happily lecture to hundreds of students, give talks on national radio, etc, but place me in a room with a stranger and be asked to make small talk and I crumble. Parties are a complete nightmare and I will do practically anything to avoid large social gatherings of this kind.

If John is reading this and feeling despondent then I should add the following. Do I therefore feel 'handicapped'? No. I have a perfectly happy social and work life because friends and colleagues know of my limitations and can accommodate them and I've been happily married for 18 years and have two lovely kids. And in addition, along with problems in dealing with social situations, Asperger's has given me an instinctive ability to compartmentalise complex problems automatically. Given the choice between that skill and being able to chat mindlessly about the weather I know which I'd choose.

Which sort of leads back to the original question of the thread - why would anyone want to label themselves as an Aspie when they're not? Well, there are several possible reasons:

(1) as already said, someone might want to have a label for what are basically inadequacies that they could do something about. But if they can have a label slapped on them, then they take it as an excuse to do nothing. This makes anyone with genuine ASD just a little angry.
(2) a lot of people like putting labels to things no matter how inappropriately
(3) Asperger's is getting some sort of cachet about it because it's reckoned that a lot of famous people in the past 'must' have had Asperger's. IMHO, some famous folks probably did (Newton and Beethoven seem likely candidates). BUT: that doesn't mean that everyone who is an Aspie is intelligent/gifted. I've been blessed with a reasonable brain, as has my son who is also an Aspie and is starting to take his national school exams two years early. I can also think of Aspies of my and my son's ages who are far from intelligent and have not done particularly well for themselves. The problem is that some people only look at the exceptions and think that therefore Asperger's must be a great thing to have. Not in all cases.

Re: Why would somebody fake any form of autism?

I was at a SF convention a couple of weeks ago. A graduate psychology student was there, interviewing people & doing research on perceptions of Asperger's syndrome. She was interested in questions such as whether, since "geeks" tend to have the same sorts of traits associated with AS, they are more accepting of people who are severely enough affected to be diagnosed, and whether, since there are groups of people there (filkers, costumers, LARPers, &c.) exhibiting behaviour widely different from each other, and from what outside society considers normal (not to mention that there is usually someone who will tell you the rules), people with AS tend to feel more comfortable there. As someone diagnosed with AS, in attendance for reasons other than social (not that I wouldn't go to a con for social reasons, but I wouldn't cross half a continent to do it), I talked to her for a while.


side comment : I can't help but feel that "Asperger's Syndrome" is a good example of the conversion of normal human variation into pathology, like the "insufficient height syndrome" created by doctors so they can prescribe human growth hormone for short children whose parents want them on the basketball team. It is perfectly true that people who are far enough from the mean in certain traits have difficulty performing certain tasks that people close to the mean take for granted, but it runs the other way as well. I may have to put conscious effort into fitting into social situations, but on the other hand I can do partial differential equations. If that is the trade, I'm not dissatisfied with it.

Re: Why would somebody fake any form of autism?

I think this only happens if we concentrate on those Aspies with mild symptoms. Inevitably at the milder fringes of the condition there are going to be cases of over-inclusion. But it's arguably better to have that than no identification of the condition at all. In answer to the question, 'what happened to people with AS before the condition was identified?', the answer is a simple one - they were misdiagnosed. I can provide several horror stories of older people with AS who for years were misdiagnosed as having childhood psychosis and had their lives ruined by being dosed with anti-psychotic drugs.

Re: Why would somebody fake any form of autism?

Ten or fifteen years ago, you would not have been able to describe me as an "Aspie with mild symptoms". Most people would have described me as "someone I'd cross the street to avoid". Between a supportive environment, my own efforts, & the simple process of maturation (but with very little help from "mental health professionals", who were always convinced that I was withdrawn due to clinical depression), I am able to function socially these days well enough to get along most of the time. It probably doesn't hurt that I have always been gregarious — another reason why I tend to think that what is labelled as "ASD" is probably an overlapping group of factors which have in common only their being off the norm.

Re: Why would somebody fake any form of autism?

On a side note, the public radio program Studio 360 covered "Art and Autism" last week.