I'd like to ask people not to use the word 'Aspie'.

[DavyCrockett]

I find it really offensive.

To me it is like calling someone with Downs Syndrome a 'Downie'.

Am I being unreasonable? I ask as it seems acceptable in a lot of places and I honestly don't think it is.

Yes, ubik, we are all different

Being An Aspie sets up certain expectations in people's minds - and certain limitations to abilities and potential. Don't tell people = don't get assumptions made about your abilities. Where I work now, colleagues think I'm a bit (a lot) tactless, hugely competent, the data queen, and the best person to sit next to at staff conferences. On the whole, I prefer being thought of as an opinionated detail-twit than 'excused' and accommodated What With Being An Aspie.

I'm an Aspie. There are five of here, we're all Aspies. We are part of a much wider Aspie community, albeit mainly online!
I don't have a problem with it. It isn't generally used in a patronising manner, it is part of who we are, but not all about who we are, iyswim.
I will not stop using it to describe us.

I am a bit ambivalent about it: it sounds cute and minimising.

Mother to a DS with ASD, HFA. Guess he's 'Aspie' but that's not what's on his diagnosis. It just says 'autism'. He was diagnosed at 2.3 years old. It's not cute. It's life-altering for all of us.

See that's your prerogative Dawn, but to me, it makes me want to distance myself from this preconceived idea of AS that some sufferers are handing to non-AS folk on a plate.

I think it is a very fine line to tread iyswim.

Ubik recent research shows that in fact those with AS have a tendency to over empathise. Lack of organisational ability is also common. I spend a lot of my time dispelling the Kim Peek myth, particularly as Kim was an Autistic Savant, not an Aspie.

I'm completely with you Davey and think clutchesatpearls post highlights the point about defining someone as a diagnosis, which is not isolated to Aspergers, but it does seem to be more common amongst people with Asbergers for some reason, I don't know why.

I don't happen to think it's helpful to define anyone by their condition/illness/difficulty/disability/whatever; they are a person first, who happen to have, or be diagnosed with a condition/illness/difficulty/disability. If it were me, I'd much prefer to be introduced by my name and if relevant, that I had a diagnosis (whether that was diabetes, depression or whatever) but don't let that define who I am.

If it's not a problem on an individual level then fine, but I personally believe it is an important cultural shift we all need to make. Lets move away from calling people by the term a Dr or specialist has used to describe a bunch of "symptoms" and see a person as a person first. Then we will begin to break down some of society's stigmas that are attached to labels.

Ah, Davy As I said, I spend my time these days, dispelling the myths created by the likes of Haddon, Atwood et al.

x posts about a zillion there

DS sees it as a positive, integral part of his being, and he often uses the phrase 'Aspie eyes' or 'AspiePower' to explain how he can do something NTs can't.
He's also crap with computers and maths, so blows that particular stereotype. As a teenager, he found 'I'm an Aspie' something his friends understood and it was an explanation for some of the unconventional aspects that they observed.

Why not act the way Gay people have, reclaim the word and use it?

Otherwise with this and other terms we are degenerating the language. My DC know that "special" means that someone "has problems".

But then I know so many children with ASD, it is almost "normal". And do you know - they are all different! (Mock surprise).

The diagnosis is disappearing anyway, to be replaced with HFA, isn't it?
So the term 'Asperger's Syndrome' will cease to exist.

You see, it is a difficult one, because actually, having AS, whilst not defining us (if you've met one Aspie, you've met one Aspie) does make a difference to our experience of the world around us, an experience that is often very different to the NT perception therefore having an impact on who we are. Our perceptions are Aspie, we perceive things differently. Our brains are not wired up in the same way yours are.

'Ah, Davy As I said, I spend my time these days, dispelling the myths created by the likes of Haddon, Atwood et al.'

Sorry I really don't know what you mean. Could you elaborate?

Silver DSM V has dropped the term Asperger and is using ASD. HFA and AS are actually slightly different (so slight as to be miniscule). Having said all that, very few people in the UK use DSM.

'The diagnosis is disappearing anyway, to be replaced with HFA, isn't it?
So the term 'Asperger's Syndrome' will cease to exist.'

Is it really, how wonderful

Try and make a cute meme out of that

What's DSM?

ASC didn't last long then? As a less perjorative way of describing the condition.

Many people think that all people with AS are Christopher Boone, many people think that all people with AS have a superior intellect, cannot empathise, are good at maths an computers. Very little of this is true. I do not believe in censorship, but get very angry at the portrayal of those with AS in some books eg. Christopher Boone and Atwoods Oryx and Crake trilogy in which the Aspie is portrayed as a genocidal maniac.

See, I look at the huge, hairy werebear in the kitchen ATM, making himself a bacon sandwich and don't see a cure, fluffy or twee Aspie at all.
I see a man comfortable in his own skin, and with the way his brain works who has used his strengths in life-enhancing ways, and identified strategies to help him with the difficulties.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders!

Not cure, cute.

t and r are adjacent keys. Botheration!

I agree, *silver, neither my husband nor my kids need a cure. Nor me.
(DS really struggling at uni though and has already had to move flats due to bullying).

I call myself Aspie too. I don't like the phrase "suffering from Asperger Syndrome" though. Having it yes, not suffering. What I suffer from most is ignorant people who don't understand (not referring to the Op here, I hasten to add!).

Interestingly enough I have a friend who calls herself some pretty offensive terms, mong and spaz have already been mentioned. I don't like her doing it, because I find the terms offensive but I respect her right to call herself by such names. She has a major brain problem which is life threatening, and if this is her way of coping, then so be it. I DID tell her not to call me "hon" though :D

Silver

No, they don't need a cure. It's why 'Autism Speaks' sends a shudder down my spine. I was sorry to see 'Aspies For Freedom' has closed the website down, it was a useful sounding-off and sharing space.