We have written quite a lot on this site about the DSM5 Mental Health Handbook, because it is such an important handbook in respect of Mental health and affects a lot of our members.
So it is with huge concern that I wanted to post the following link to an article I read on NHS Choices. The UK’s National Health Service’s online site.
You can view the article here. And I would strongly recommend it both as a read and as a launching pad for further investigation/research into this matter.
I, and other members of this guild, suffer with Aspergers.
The article in the source publication The Guardian – one of the news papers in the UK can be found here.
Your comments and feedback on this are most welcome.
Many Thanks..
Mental Health Writers' Guild 
Kevin.
Husband and myself both being Asperger’s along with other things, I think being lumped into one category of ASD is going to be detrimental. We will be overlooked because we are only “mildly” autistic. Excuse me, I don’t think AS is well described as “mild” with the severe anxieties and oversensitivities and overstimulation. I am pretty much housebound and cannot overcome issues to learn to drive which is due to my Asperger’s and that seems pretty disabling to me but is nothing compared to someone who cannot speak, etc. etc. So it seems dismissive to me.
On the other hand, I can now tell people I am mildly autistic when some of my Aspie things surface or after a meltdown and that may give them pause. Few people even now know what Asperger’s is. I have had medical secretaries ask me, “What, “Asparagus?” and this in a reputable hospital!
I don’t know how it will play out with insurance as my main diagnosis on the forms is Bipolar Disorder.
Hi Ellen,
Yes I immediately thought of you and hubby when I read this.
I think you make some excellent points here and I will be interested to see if anyone else has anything to say about it.
Kind Regards and God bless you.
Kevin
@Ellen – “seems” dismissive because it IS dismissive.
It is a heartbreak that our DSM establishment can be SO focused on the literal “science” of disorders that it can throw the PEOPLE with the disorders “under the bus,” disregarding the harm done to sufferers whenever diagnoses are shuffled around in their single-minded focus on producing an “ivory tower” diagnostic “bible.” (ahem – sounds a bit “aspie,” doesn’t it?)
No disrespect intended by that comment, but I have long noted that the biggest ADD nay-sayers show CLEAR signs of un dx’d ADD. Seems similar, huh?
To quote A Christmas Carol’s Tiny Tim, “God bless us, every one.”
xx,
mgh
Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CMC, SCAC, MCC
– ADD Coaching Field co-founder –
(ADDandSoMuchMore and ADDerWorld – dot com!)
“It takes a village to educate a world!”