Asperger's syndrome

[Alexander's Horse]

you need a good hiding for posting that Colon

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Colon
Please read my link people: Obsessive-compulsive is certainly not the same as Asperger's, it just tends to occur a lot with people who have Asperger's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger's_syndrome

http://web.syr.edu/~rjkopp/data/as_diag_list.html

IIUC the reasons are different. OCD sufferers engage in compulsions to reduce anxiety, produced probably by insufficient Serotonin. Aspergers have difficulty processing information, and use rituals to help deal with the overload.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
Its BS. This is just prozac nation crap.

Have you ever read Prozac Nation?

[St Leo]

I am dating someone who was (quite recently) clinically diagnosed with it. I can attest that it's a real syndrome that cannot be accounted for through mere individuality or human variation. Beyond that, the only description I can suggest is "confusing".

Thanks for the read, Colon.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
IIUC the reasons are different. OCD sufferers engage in compulsions to reduce anxiety, produced probably by insufficient Serotonin. Aspergers have difficulty processing information, and use rituals to help deal with the overload.

So they are the same behavior but different motivations for doing the behavior?

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Oerdin


So they are the same behavior but different motivations for doing the behavior?

No, Aspergers has a number of other symptoms besides compulsive behavior. Basically Aspergers is a milder form of Autism.

from the link in the OP:

"Autism is the most widely recognized pervasive developmental disorder (PDD). Other diagnostic concepts with features somewhat similar to autism have been less intensively studied, and their validity, apart from autism, is more controversial. One of these conditions, termed Asperger syndrome (AS) was originally described by Hans Asperger (1944, see Frith's translation, 1991), who provided an account of a number of cases whose clinical features resembled Kanner's (1943) description of autism (e.g., problems with social interaction and communication, and circumscribed and idiosyncratic patterns of interest). However, Asperger's description differed from Kanner's in that speech was less commonly delayed, motor deficits were more common, the onset appeared to be somewhat later, and all the initial cases occurred only in boys. Asperger also suggested that similar problems could be observed in family members, particularly fathers. "

[Japher]

Aspergers is the pc way of saying loner geek...

[St Leo]

Originally posted by Japher
Aspergers is the pc way of saying loner geek...

It's not a 1:1 thing. I am a loner geek, but I don't have Asperger's.

[Verres]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
Its BS. This is just prozac nation crap.

Everyone seems to believe they are suffering from a syndrome these days when all they really need is a good swift kick up the arse and they'd be right as rain.

I'm inclined to agree with you. Whilst Aspergers, OCD etcetc are genuine syndromes, they tend to be adopted as labels by every disaffected young adult in the western world as an excuse/ defining feautre or whatever.

Having been in an on/off relationship with someone suffering genuine manic depression and OCD, it annoys me in the extreme when so many people I speak to are convinced mood swings mean mental illness, short attention span needs medication, and that they are all clinically depressed.

90% of the time it's self indulgent bollocks, and certainly does no favours for the poor sods who do actually have a genuine condition.

[Japher]

It's not a 1:1 thing. I am a loner geek, but I don't have Asperger's.

That's because you haven't been properly diagnosed.

[St Leo]

Originally posted by Japher
That's because you haven't been properly diagnosed.

Fascinating, but my social interaction patterns and my knowledge acquisition patterns do not match those of someone with Asperger's. In company, I am a drama queen, and I tend to be a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to facts. I am sure I have a disorder or two of my own, but AS ain't one of them.

[Japher]

social interaction patterns and my knowledge acquisition patterns

eh?

[lord of the mark]

also, most things arent really considered disorders till they become disfunction. A doctor once told someone I know, that if you feel compelled to go to check that the oven is off 2 times every night after you go to bed, and you can live with that, thats NOT OCD (though it may result from the same underlying physiology, and may be genetically related) but if you have to go check 20 times a night, and you arent getting any sleep, than it IS OCD.

I think the same is true for Aspergers. There is probably a point where some inner focus, and some tendency to odd interests, is quite functional, and in fact is very socially useful. Its been noted that there seems to be a high rate of Aspergers among children in Silicon Valley - presumably many of the parents have some genetic tendency in that direction, but in them its expressed in ways that are functional. If this were not the case, how would syndromes like this come to exist, from an evolutionary perspective? My sense is that most psychiatric disorders are exaggerated forms of personality traits that have some survival value.

[Odin]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
Its BS. This is just prozac nation crap.

Everyone seems to believe they are suffering from a syndrome these days when all they really need is a good swift kick up the arse and they'd be right as rain.

As a person with Aspergers and ADHD I find this offensive. I do think medication is overprescribed to the milder forms of ADHD and Aspergers, but they are legitmite disorders. It is because of some people blaming every mental problen on bad parents/bad upbringing (which is totally incorect, I had quite good parents) that I cringe when people refuse to accept that there are genentic influences behavior.

[Provost Harrison]

I think that a certain Mr Spink suffers from this disorder. I am not being nasty here but several years of observation of him lead me to this conclusion...