Ranty rant rant...

[syncopated_time]

About once a year this topic comes up SOMEWHERE, provoking me once again to rant my little heart out. The offender in this round is this post in bipolypagangeek. Note PLEASE that I don't have any issues with the OP -- s/he seems relatively well-adjusted. However the post still touched on my personal hot-button topic

Comments

[greyladybast]

I will just say that, on behalf of the officially-diagnosed and definitely needing the help he gets Boychilde, that I disagree with 99% of everything you've said. In fact, the only part I do agree with is not using the disability as a crutch, but that's hard to figure out without teaching and help.

As for the rest, I suppose "Agree to disagree" is the way to go.

[syncopated_time]

I'm fine with 'agree to disagree'. Because I seriously doubt any amount of logic or yelling would convince either of us to change our minds. And really, there's no point in spending the energy on a nice, lazy day like today. :)

[greyladybast]

Exactly. You'll never buy that Asperger's is a valid syndrome, and I'll never believe Boychilde would've done just fine in mainstream school without the extra help he's getting via his sped classes

Minor Points

[syncopated_time]

First, please don't think that all my picking and irritation is predicated solely on Boychilde. It certainaly isn't. And while you mentioning that he has AS reminds me that I think I knew that before, it certainly wasn't him I had in mind when I ranted. It sounds to me as if you're doing what you need to do to help him learn to live in the world, AS or no AS. Which ... well, if only all parents took that much interest in their childrens' welfare, yanno

[vultykins]

Not knowing much, if anything, about the disorder I can't comment on the validity of it, but I can certainly see your point of view. The purpose of diagnosing new mental disorders and the like is to study the condition and help people find a way to live normal lives by overcoming it. Unfortunately I believe our society is acting in opposition to this objective with the ever more popular entitlement disease that is fatally afflicting our culture

[syncopated_time]

Oh the good old days.

Ah, a man after my own heart. Refreshing.

Honestly, prove to me through some objective critera (brain waves, neurotransmitter levels, ANYTHING) that is exists as a disease and not a cluster of symptoms and I'll be more than happy to write a retraction. Until then...

[vultykins]

A perfectly logical stance, in my opinion at least. Though even conceding the point that it IS a legitimate condition I still 100% agree with the rest of your points. Too many people nowadays upon discovering something like that about themselves focus almost exclusively on "what does society owe me because I'm disabled?" or "In what way can I use this as an excuse to not do anything I don't want to do?" instead of asking themselves and those around them "What do I have to do to change my lifestyle so I can deal with this problem and still meet all of my personal and societal obligations?"

After I wrote my reply I did a little digging and while I've found a great deal of literature on it I can't find any evidence pointing to a definitive clinical diagnosis for the condition as a seperate entity. If anyone has any, please prove me wrong. This whole thing has got me curious and I wanna know ;p

[greyladybast]

Honestly, prove to me through some objective critera (brain waves, neurotransmitter levels, ANYTHING)

Dude, you wanna pay for the high-end testing, and I'll drag the Boychilde through it. In the meantime, I will always be glad his diagnosis spared my son the status of "weird kid everybody hates and picks on" and instead lets him be the "funny, smart sped kid doing his best to get over it."

[triskele]

I definitely agree with you that too many people claim it as a crutch. But I do believe it exists.

Case in point: I have a cousin who is quite clearly autistic. Working in reverse, some muckety-mucks have determined that his father most likely has Asperger's on a low scale of the spectrum. The father has his quirks (don't we all) yet makes a living as an aerospace engineer, functions through all his life tasks and responsibilities, and my aunt, also an aerospace engineer, is comfortable trusting him to provide for the family while she stays home with the kids. People with Asperger's are very well suited to certain types of jobs.

So I do believe it exits. I also believe that it's waved around as an excuse, and my personal rant has to do with ADD/ADHD, which in my opinion is overdiagnosed when in fact many children are simply not taught how to direct themselves.

[syncopated_time]

Ahh, ADD/ADHD. That's another one that irritates me, but since I haven't been personally burned by it like I have the whole Asperger's thing I'm less likely to rant about it with such vitriol

[greyladybast]

Maybe one of the problems with medicine today is that once people have a diagnosis they suddenly expect to be told to lay back and relax and let themselves be taken care of. When really, some things just aren't that serious and don't consign one to being an invalid.

Moreover, even if your diagnosis, whatever it may be, does put a very real crimp in your life, even to the point of being an invalid, that is STILL no excuse to sit back and expect to be catered to and waited on hand and foot. Invalids are perfectly capable of being productive. It seems to me to be mostly a matter of finding out how one can contribute, given the limitations of whatever disease is fucking things up. To be so lazy and entitled and embittered as to refuse to do even that amount of mental work is pretty much inexcusable. Everybody's got a talent. Everybody's got something they can offer the world in exchange for a living.

[syncopated_time]

Well said.

[syncopated_time]

I guess, like Bast said, we'll just have to agree to disagree.