Poll: Autism. Bad or Good?

[Dags90]

The connection between autism spectrum disorders and increased intellect are often improperly characterized and overstated. It's pretty rare for people autism spectrum disorder to even have it, and is usually very specific. Most people with autism spectrum disorder are just people who aren't smarter than anyone and have trouble communicating. I think the "Aspergers" category is detrimental to the cause of autism. I think a fair amount of people are misdiagnosed, but I suppose it's preferable to having a bunch of people undiagnosed.

The average IQ of someone with Autism spectrum is about half of average.

 

[JordanMillward_1]

I'm going to start off saying this "My little brother has autism", he wasn't born with it he was given a vaccine when he was 2 years old

He was born with it. You're going to have to accept that some day.

But yea, Aspergers is bad. Not being able to develop real social skills whilst being an obsessive isn't a good thing.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

He wasn't born with it he was given a vaccine when he was 2 years old to help him from receiving the flu, but all of the vaccines in that year had expired and had mercury inside of all of the expired bottles and effected hundreds of kids within those years.

They have disproved this SO MANY TIMES.

Drives me mad to hear it.

Not to mention the fact it's fucking ridiculous. Every vaccine was out of date for an entire year? Bullshit.

And mercury in the bottles? What possible medical use would that serve? This has been explained to me. Don't continue to do so.

 

[Dark Link]

Having Aspergers myself, it's kind of hard to say whether it's good or not.
I have no real life friends, no social life, can't conversate for shit and so on, but i'm the best at everything in school which is for ppl with aspergers only.
But knowledge is not really worth paying for with depressions, mood swings, insomnia and etc.

I think you were looking for "converse", not "conversate". I personally disagree with the need to put AS sufferers into a special school which won't teach them anything about actually coping with the disorder.

 

[Lavi]

So my question is. Is Autism good because of the learning boost or bad because they don't have any social time because they cant deal with others?

Autism is a spectrum. This sort of shit is utter bull we don't need. What the fuck use is Autism when it causes an inability to comprehend language?

 

[THAC0]

I'm going to start off saying this "My little brother has autism", he wasn't born with it he was given a vaccine when he was 2 years old

resisted urge to stop reading.

and i will say that autism is bad. My roommate has it, and i can see how it really hinders his ability to relate to, and communicate with others. sure he can tell you all about his one little thing...but no one cares. and he will never get that.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

He wasn't born with it he was given a vaccine when he was 2 years old to help him from receiving the flu, but all of the vaccines in that year had expired and had mercury inside of all of the expired bottles and effected hundreds of kids within those years.

They have disproved this SO MANY TIMES.

Drives me mad to hear it.

Not to mention the fact it's fucking ridiculous. Every vaccine was out of date for an entire year? Bullshit.

And mercury in the bottles? What possible medical use would that serve?

There was mercury in the vaccines. Or, there used to be. When a load of fucking idiots claimed that it was "RETARDIN MAH BABEH", every qualified and responsible professional in the field pointed out that there was nowhere near enough mercury in them to cause negative side-effects. Very few people actually listened, and neither did the media, which was doing quite nicely out of this frenzy.

I stand corrected. Thank you, good sir.

 

[Dott]

Everything is relative.

 

[MassiveGeek]

I doubt it's that easy to summarize it as "good" or "bad".

I have ADD, and a lot of people in my family have diagnoses. I don't really know how to approach this, but I'd definetely say that your diagnose doesn't define you as a person. And while a diagnose probably does have an impact on your life, most people with them doesn't seem to really care in their everyday life. At least I don't, I just take my meds when I have school and live my life as I see fit(and is necessary). I'm not that different from people without a diagnose. I'm not even that alike to people with a diagnose.

-Sigh- I don't know how to put it in any other way than I already said it: A diagnose doesn't completely define your personality or your behavior. It affects you, yes, but so does everything else around you, and this goes for all people.

I'm rambling now, I hope you see some sense in this.

 

[NicoDK]

Having Aspergers myself, it's kind of hard to say whether it's good or not.
I have no real life friends, no social life, can't conversate for shit and so on, but i'm the best at everything in school which is for ppl with aspergers only.
But knowledge is not really worth paying for with depressions, mood swings, insomnia and etc.

I think you were looking for "converse", not "conversate". I personally disagree with the need to put AS sufferers into a special school which won't teach them anything about actually coping with the disorder.

Accualy this school is teaching us how to turn our disorder into a strenght by taking our common special interrest of IT and teaching us nothing but stuff that has to do with IT, and helping us a bit on the social part, not much but enough to go get a job instead of early pension.

 

[Abengoshis]

He wasn't born with it he was given a vaccine when he was 2 years old to help him from receiving the flu, but all of the vaccines in that year had expired and had mercury inside of all of the expired bottles and effected hundreds of kids within those years.

They have disproved this SO MANY TIMES.

Drives me mad to hear it.

You get more mercury eating a single piece of tuna.

Agreed. That one paragraph put me off reading the rest of the topic.

 

[Megalodon]

And mercury in the bottles? What possible medical use would that serve?

No medical use, but the mercury containing molecule Thiomersal has been used as a preservative in vaccines, not sure if it still is. Of course it has never been present in sufficient quantities to cause harm to the recipient, that would be idiotic.

 

[Dastardly]

(Oh, also, because you came to a video game site, be prepared for a mega-malillion self-diagnosed "Asperger's" cases to tell you all about how it is.)

That better not have been aimed at me, I was properly diagnosed by professionals when I about 10 for Asperger's and I have spent years learning how to socialise somewhat normally, even though I will never be able to pick up all the suble cues and will always be a little awkward. As I said in my previous post it isn't that bad if you can teach yourself to act "normal", though I have a good friend who is further up the spectrum to me and he'll never be able to do that, certainly for him and similar it is a disadvantage.

It isn't aimed at anyone in particular. It is a general statement that we will, invariably, have a whole bunch of people come into this thread and claim to have Asperger's Syndrome, despite the fact that less than 1% of the population has been diagnosed with it. And all of those that poke their heads in will claim to have a "mild form" or some other qualifier... yet none of them claim to have the social downsides without simultaneously laying claim to the "highly intelligent" benefit.

I've got a friend with it. He really likes trains, and he knows a lot of trivia about them, but he's not especially intelligent in any regard. He's average, with about as much knowledge about trains as I used to have about Star Wars in my middle school days. He will, from time to time, make comments that most people would "self censor," but other than that he's relatively normal.

I'm speaking about those people who put the label on themselves. And hell, it's the internet, I could claim to have a certificate from Jesus that say's I'm diagnosed, and who's to argue? The problem also comes in that disorders like these--with no glaringly obvious indicators--might be very, very over-diagnosed. This could happen for a variety of reasons--doctors want more money, drug companies want more money, parents/teachers don't want to take responsibility for altering undesirable behaviors so they push for a diagnosis, or professionals don't want to get sued for mistakenly not diagnosing someone, so they err on the side of caution.

Regardless, there are too many people out there laying undue claim to too many disorders for the reasons enumerated in my above post. I'm not saying you're one of them, I'm just saying they're out there, and they'll likely flock to this thread.

 

[Gigano]

Decidedly a bad thing I'd think. Any "learning boost" - aside from possibly being the result of an unrelated high intelligence to some degree - is to me not worth the excessive speculations necessary to function in even basic social situations. In the wise words of young fictional Ms. Granger; "Books and cleverness! There are more important things...".

Not that it's an insurmountable obstacle of course, especially in more advanced countries which seek to compensate for these disadvantage to maintain social mobility and play on the strengths possessed, but ultimately it's a development disorder which despite some strengths comes with weaknesses, the greatest of which being falling somewhat outside what's normative in a society built around social interaction and the "regular" ability of this. The world is always harder for minority groups whose needs it's not often built to accommodate.

There's of course also an increased risk of other problems, such as depression, though again it's hard to say whether it's due to Asperger's itself or the external factor of society posing a greater challenge. I'd go with the latter.

Guess this is an occasion to mention the resident Asperger's user group [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Asperger-s-Of-The-Escapist].

 

[runnernda]

You've been informed about how you're wrong about the vaccine thing, so I'll let that be.

I don't think good and bad are the terms that should be used in the case of autism. It's such a grey area because there are so many degrees of functionality. But it does make life harder for just about everyone who has it because we're such a social species. Does your brother attend school? Things might start to get very difficult for him soon, since 10-11 tends to be the age when kids generally start to become cruel to those who are different. Be there for him and support him. Make sure he knows he's loved.

You say your brother has no social skills, but he likes playing on XBox Live? That's good; it's a form of social interaction. I hope the treatment goes well for your brother and that he's happy.

 

[Fury Is Me.]

I have mild autism and full-blown Aspergers. It's NOT fun at ALL. Half the time, I feel like I'm trapped in a body that doesn't listen to me. I'm unable to develop relationships with my friends because I cannot talk to them. Hell, I've never been to ANY of my friends' houses, they don't invite me to go places, we just hang out at school. IO don't give a damn about the learning boost, my grades are slipping because, recently, suicide and the meaning or our pathetic, insignificant lives is and why we continue to work towards a goal we don't know, desperately trying to keep ourselves going until we find that "ultimate truth" that will somehow bring us everlasting peace and contentment. I don't see the point. So i'm now constantly depressed. It's a fucking curse, don't even THINK for ONE MINUTE that your brother would stay as he is so he can just be more intelligent. I know another little kid, his name is Kevin, and he has severe autism. The way he acts would make you think he's a retard, but he's not, he's a genius, and he KNOWS it. In his head, he KNOWS it. He KNOWS all this stuff, but his entire body refuses to listen to him. It's like being placed in a fucking cage. Oh, and then there's the insufferable fucking retards, known as bullies, who don't have enough of a heart not to pick on the kids who have autism and Asperger's, even when they KNOW it. I don't care what anyone says, I would rather have one arm, and NOT the domminant one, and be sociable, than live with this another SECOND. And I'm not even a bad case! Come meet Kevin here, he's worse than me!

 

[CharrHearted]

I have asperger syndrome but I don't say that I suffer from it because frankly, I enjoy being austisic.

 

[Fury Is Me.]

Post eaten

 

[DiMono]

I'm going to start off saying this "My little brother has autism", he wasn't born with it he was given a vaccine when he was 2 years old to help him from receiving the flu, but all of the vaccines in that year had expired and had mercury inside of all of the expired bottles and effected hundreds of kids within those years.

No, he didn't. He was born with it. People need to stop blaming vaccines for autism because it simply doesn't work that way, but it's easier to blame somebody for things you don't like than to admit that sometimes shit just happens. Relatedly, the number of kids with autism hasn't actually gone up, they just broadened the definition without telling anyone so it looks that way. Not that that was their intent, it's just an effect. If you expand the definition of red to include purple and yellow, then suddenly a whole lot more things are red, even though nothing has changed.

Moving on.

It depends on the severity of the disorder. There are high functioning autisms and completely crippling autisms. Your little brother obviously has a high functioning variety, which is good for him, but in general autism isn't that kind.

 

[RatRace123]

Wow this thread devolved into about 3 different discussions.
I'll pipe in by saying I agree with the general opinion that vaccines don't "give" anyone autism.
And I don't think I can form an opinion on this, but I will say that several revolutionary thinkers have been retroactively diagnosed as autistic.
I don't know if that has any bearing on this case.