Anyone Else Feel Like They Have Asperger Syndrome?

Doctor of Osteopathy

For anybody who wants to address the whole person in treating illness, there is a medical specialty Doctor of Osteopathy. This is different from a naturopath and is very credible. I have taken the time to google the qualifications for anyone interested.

What is a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.)



If you're like most people, you've been going to a physician ever since you were born and perhaps were not aware whether you were seeing a D.O. (osteopathic physician) or an M.D. (allopathic physician). You may not even be aware that there are two types of complete physicians in the United States.

The fact is that both D.O.s and M.D.s are fully qualified physicians licensed to prescribe medication and perform surgery. Is there any difference between these two kinds of physicians? Yes. And no.

D.O.s and M.D.s are alike in many ways:

Applicants to both D.O. and M.D. medical colleges typically have four-year undergraduate degrees with an emphasis on scientific courses.
Both D.O.s and M.D.s complete four years of basic medical education.
After medical school, both D.O.s and M.D.s obtain graduate medical education through such programs as internships and residencies. This training typically lasts three to six years and prepares D.O.s and M.D.s to practice a specialty.
Both D.O.s and M.D.s can choose to practice in any specialty area of medicine-such as pediatrics, family practice, psychiatry, surgery or obstetrics.
D.O.s and M.D.s must pass comparable examinations to obtain state licenses.
D.O.s and M.D.s both practice in fully accredited and licensed health care facilities.
Together, D.O.s and M.D.s enhance the state of health care available in America.
D.O.s, however, belong to a separate yet equal branch of American medical care. It is the ways that D.O.s and M.D.s are different that can bring an extra dimension to your family's health care.

American Osteopathic Association
 
jillio said:
Psuedo science. And yes, I read the article. So now you are saying that dilute strengths of poisons will eliminate the symtpoms of mental illness?
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Speaking of naturopathology, I'm told that due to the chemistry of water, minute doses of diluted chemicals or poisons will be ineffective in treating disease. I know almost nothing about chemistry so I refer readers to this page to explain why claims regarding diluted poisons is considered bunk.
 
deafskeptic said:
Speaking of naturopathology, I'm told that due to the chemistry of water, minute doses of diluted chemicals or poisons will be ineffective in treating disease. I know almost nothing about chemistry so I refer readers to this page to explain why claims regarding diluted poisons is considered bunk.
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Thank you, Deaf Skeptic. Like you, I know almost nothing about chemistry, so I found that link helpful!

Thank you!
 
deafskeptic said:
Speaking of naturopathology, I'm told that due to the chemistry of water, minute doses of diluted chemicals or poisons will be ineffective in treating disease. I know almost nothing about chemistry so I refer readers to this page to explain why claims regarding diluted poisons is considered bunk.
Click to expand...

Excellent link, deafskeptic. Thank you.
 
My cousin definitely has aspie altho he was not diagnosed as having one. I don't think his own doctor even knew what it was. He avoids social meeting like a plague and he flips a wooden stick repeatedly. He's now like 40 years old. Aspergers Syndrome wasn't well known 35 years ago.
 
netrox said:
My cousin definitely has aspie altho he was not diagnosed as having one. I don't think his own doctor even knew what it was. He avoids social meeting like a plague and he flips a wooden stick repeatedly. He's now like 40 years old. Aspergers Syndrome wasn't well known 35 years ago.
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You are correct. Thirty five years ago, your cousin would probably just been called eccentric or odd. Today we know that Ausperger's is a diagnosable condition. That is exactly what I was referring to when I said the austism spectrum disorders weren't necessarily being overdiagnosed, nor are we seeing an increase in the disorder. We just have the knowledge that allows us to diagnose it now, where we didn't before.
 
jillio said:
You are correct. Thirty five years ago, your cousin would probably just been called eccentric or odd. Today we know that Ausperger's is a diagnosable condition. That is exactly what I was referring to when I said the austism spectrum disorders weren't necessarily being overdiagnosed, nor are we seeing an increase in the disorder. We just have the knowledge that allows us to diagnose it now, where we didn't before.
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Likewise the same can be said for ADD. For many years people thought I was brain damaged or just emotionally disturbed simply because I'm a Rubella child. . I've been tested via CAT for brain damage and stuff and there's no evidence that I have any brain damage.. People assumed deafness was a factor. It wasn't until I was 27 that I found out i have it.
 
deafskeptic said:
Likewise the same can be said for ADD. For many years people thought I was brain damaged or just emotionally disturbed simply because I'm a Rubella child. . I've been tested via CAT for brain damage and stuff and there's no evidence that I have any brain damage.. People assumed deafness was a factor. It wasn't until I was 27 that I found out i have it.
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Exactly. What people are calling over diagnosis, is actually improved diagnosis. That is something to be grateful for, because it means earlier diagnosis and treatment leading to better outcome in the vast majority of cases.
 
fredfam1 said:
I do believe in mental illness caused by physical problems, and I have seen and been taught by many really good therapists. What I object to is trying to define things that are physical disorders as mental. For instance a neurological disorder is a problem with the central nervous system. treating a neurological disorder as a mental illness with medication because the cause is unknown is dangerous.

I quote them because when I quote other sources I was accused of spouting propaganda. There are many in the mental health field who also recognize the dangers of things like hypnotherapy and counsel against its use, going against many of their peers. The entire field is subjective in nature and not science based.
I dislike the use of drugs in mental health issues when other measure have not been tried first, like Individual Amino Acid therapies. The mental health field has caused way more harm than good in my opinion, because they are so tied to the pharmacutical companies.
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I totally agree. I have AS and mental health problems and I've found being given drugs has not helped me so now I don't take anything at all. It's better that way.
 
dreama said:
I totally agree. I have AS and mental health problems and I've found being given drugs has not helped me so now I don't take anything at all. It's better that way.
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"Better" by what measurment?

Drugs are not prescribed in the treatment of Asperger's. Drugs are sometimes prescribed for the treament of secondary symptomology.
 
fredfam1 said:
There is also the distorted cognitive process that presupposes there are no black and whites. There are. While I would agree that many cognitive disorders occur in a spectrum, there are also many things classified as disorders that are simply behavioral anomalies. And they are made into disorders by unnecessary treatments. I think that categorically saying someone has a disordered thinking process because you disagree that things don't come in black or white is "the pot calling the kettle black".
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Thank you - I actually have to admit that when I was 15, I was misdiagnosed with Bipolar II and high-functioning autism. High-functioning autism was confirmed a misdiagnosis when I was 18, Bipolar when I was 21. But I do happen to have some lingering symptoms of Bipolar II, and among the contagion of Bipolar is "extreme black-and-white thinking, which I am prone to. However, I do not allow myself to view life through the entire prism of these disorders; nor do they define me. You must NEVER allow your disorders or disabilities define you, especially if the diagnosis you have been given simply doesn't match; in that you only meet a few of the criterion of the DSM Diagnosis.

Just as an anecdote to this, I actually meet none of the criterion for HFA/AS, and only a few for Bipolar. But you have to keep in mind that these tests are given to people when they're in their adolescent years, and those are the most turbulent years of your life, where people are dealing with enourmous peer-pressure and transitions. That would make anyone crack up...I mean, shoot. So you have to consider the circumstances surrounding the diagnosis, and the situational aspects of it.

As for the criterion for diagnostic evaluations, they are as UNDIAGNOSTIC as they come. It basically consists of a series of survey questions like, "Do your moods swing often? Have you ever not been able to sleep for weeks at a time? Have you ever spent excessive amounts of money in a short period of time? Have you ever had suicidal thoughts?" I mean, let me just tell you, that all of these things have happened to me at one time or another. Particularly the suicidal thoughts...And I will be frank about this. I stand before you in all honestly, without fear of being judged. I have even to this day, right now, thought about killing myself. I won't do it, because I have attempted at length...Because I really think that someone made a mistake with me. I am just not intelligent enough, nor successful enough. And there's really no excuse for my lack of success. I am just an inexcusable human being. I just should cease to exist.

Then again, my feelings don't really matter. I am NOT intelligent, I am fat, miserable, and I want to just end it all. I just wish that I could jump out my window right now...
 
I apologise for that. I didn't mean to project that...and I have recovered. I have re-evalued my thinking, and I apologise for the contradictions inherent within the dialectics of my reasoning. I tend to be far too polemical - and far too black-and-white, with my thinking. I really do believe that every mental disposition (and not "disorder", for they are not disorders, they are just different perspectives on life).

And you know, everyone marches to a different beat. Why is it that the psychiatric industry has to designate precategorical boxes on people and label them with Bipolar or ADHD just because they're different?? Why can't a person just be allowed to be different?? What is wrong with our society that we have to label people with these disorders. I guarantee that a lot of people who were diagnosed with Bipolar, HFA, or ADHD were just boxed into a label because they were different. And actually, I was talking with a friend of mine who made an excellent point: "You know, the worry that I have is that labels such as HFA/AS or Bipolar are going to become very self-limiting to someone. I mean, a lot of these people think they have something wrong with them because they have a condition such as this, and they could have absolutely nothing wrong with them, but were mis-dxed cuz they're different."

It's very true - I have met people who have been misdiagnosed with Bipolar or AS just because they're different. And all people develop at different rates, so a lot of these people are misdiagnosed on the simple basis that they're unique. And unique far surpasses any diagnosis.

Psychological dispositions cannot be classified into precategorical areas of distinction, because of the metacognitive axiom that the facets of mind and personality are far too transitive, and far too subject to the whims of change. So behavior is simply contingent upon habit; and habits can change. Therefore, the logic follows that something that is purely behavioral can change. Therefore, the behavioral characteristics of HFA, ADHD, OCD, and bipolar can be changed.

But I do happen to think that the distribution of psychological 'phenomena' (and I really do see those with "disorders" as phenomenal people; in that the ones labeled as 'LD' or 'ASD' are brilliant beyond measure) does form a spectrum. But these dispositions do not occupy a 'fixed' point on the spectrum; we are constantly ramifying our cognition and adopting new methodologies. So what was thought to be 'variations' from the norm are not as such; they are just different ways of approaching things. And we all approach things differently. So people with disorders like HFA/AS, Bipolar, or even Schizophrenia can adopt new patterns of thinking, and hence new neural networks. It's like a person with brain damage who recovers new neural pathways; these pathways circumvent the damaged areas to form new networks. You see? it's a constant, ever-changing process. And if the mind of a brain-damaged person can recover new outlets of neural circuitry, so also can an autistic/AS patient recover new areas of circuitry, and overcome their conditions. The mind can change...it always does.
 
euclidean_lake said:
Psychological dispositions cannot be classified into precategorical areas of distinction, because of the metacognitive axiom that the facets of mind and personality are far too transitive, and far too subject to the whims of change. So behavior is simply contingent upon habit; and habits can change. Therefore, the logic follows that something that is purely behavioral can change. Therefore, the behavioral characteristics of HFA, ADHD, OCD, and bipolar can be changed.[/QUOTE]

As someone who has been diagnosed with bipolar (after having been hospitalized for severe mania), I'd like to share my input. I'm on meds for my bipolar. Without them, I have severe manic symptoms which include auditory hallucinations, depression, intense anger, euphoria and high levels of energy. No matter how hard I try, there is no getting around the fact that I experience them. While I can avoid "triggers" and *try* (emphasis on the word "try") to prevent my symptoms from getting worse, I can't eliminate them entirely. For someone like myself who has severe bipolar symptoms, behavioral change will be extremely difficult, if not impossible. For someone with milder bipolar symptoms, change will be easier (and most likely only temporary), but again, that person's symptoms will not be eliminated completely. Bipolar is a chronic life-long mental illness (i.e. chemical imbalance) that requires medication. Without it, people face the risk of having a progressively severe relapse, especially as they grow older. Even when people do take their meds, they can still experience "bleed through" manic or depressive symptoms. I wish things were as straightforward as you claim them to be, but this simply isn't the case when it comes to bipolar. If the behavioral characteristics of bipolar were that easy to correct, we wouldn't have a need for medication, therapy, inpatient hospitalization, etc.
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euclidean_lake said:
As for the criterion for diagnostic evaluations, they are as UNDIAGNOSTIC as they come. It basically consists of a series of survey questions like, "Do your moods swing often? Have you ever not been able to sleep for weeks at a time? Have you ever spent excessive amounts of money in a short period of time? Have you ever had suicidal thoughts?" I mean, let me just tell you, that all of these things have happened to me at one time or another. Particularly the suicidal thoughts...
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I'm curious...How else do you propose psychiatrists diagnose bipolar? Until blood tests become available, what else can they use besides a questionaire?
 
euclidean_lake said:
Thank you - I actually have to admit that when I was 15, I was misdiagnosed with Bipolar II and high-functioning autism. High-functioning autism was confirmed a misdiagnosis when I was 18, Bipolar when I was 21. But I do happen to have some lingering symptoms of Bipolar II, and among the contagion of Bipolar is "extreme black-and-white thinking, which I am prone to.
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If you were *misdiagnosed* with bipolar, how can you have lingering symptoms of bipolar II? :confused:
 
euclidean_lake said:
I apologise for that. I didn't mean to project that...and I have recovered. I have re-evalued my thinking, and I apologise for the contradictions inherent within the dialectics of my reasoning. I tend to be far too polemical - and far too black-and-white, with my thinking. I really do believe that every mental disposition (and not "disorder", for they are not disorders, they are just different perspectives on life).

And you know, everyone marches to a different beat. Why is it that the psychiatric industry has to designate precategorical boxes on people and label them with Bipolar or ADHD just because they're different?? Why can't a person just be allowed to be different?? What is wrong with our society that we have to label people with these disorders. I guarantee that a lot of people who were diagnosed with Bipolar, HFA, or ADHD were just boxed into a label because they were different. And actually, I was talking with a friend of mine who made an excellent point: "You know, the worry that I have is that labels such as HFA/AS or Bipolar are going to become very self-limiting to someone. I mean, a lot of these people think they have something wrong with them because they have a condition such as this, and they could have absolutely nothing wrong with them, but were mis-dxed cuz they're different."

It's very true - I have met people who have been misdiagnosed with Bipolar or AS just because they're different. And all people develop at different rates, so a lot of these people are misdiagnosed on the simple basis that they're unique. And unique far surpasses any diagnosis.

Psychological dispositions cannot be classified into precategorical areas of distinction, because of the metacognitive axiom that the facets of mind and personality are far too transitive, and far too subject to the whims of change. So behavior is simply contingent upon habit; and habits can change. Therefore, the logic follows that something that is purely behavioral can change. Therefore, the behavioral characteristics of HFA, ADHD, OCD, and bipolar can be changed.

But I do happen to think that the distribution of psychological 'phenomena' (and I really do see those with "disorders" as phenomenal people; in that the ones labeled as 'LD' or 'ASD' are brilliant beyond measure) does form a spectrum. But these dispositions do not occupy a 'fixed' point on the spectrum; we are constantly ramifying our cognition and adopting new methodologies. So what was thought to be 'variations' from the norm are not as such; they are just different ways of approaching things. And we all approach things differently. So people with disorders like HFA/AS, Bipolar, or even Schizophrenia can adopt new patterns of thinking, and hence new neural networks. It's like a person with brain damage who recovers new neural pathways; these pathways circumvent the damaged areas to form new networks. You see? it's a constant, ever-changing process. And if the mind of a brain-damaged person can recover new outlets of neural circuitry, so also can an autistic/AS patient recover new areas of circuitry, and overcome their conditions. The mind can change...it always does.
Click to expand...

People aren't diagnosed with psychiatric disorders simply because they are different. People are diagnosed with phsyciatric disorders when they exhibt a cluster of symtpoms that cause subjective distress in the individual, or create a situation in which harm to self or others is probable. Many mental disorders have a neurological foundation.

I think you must have meant, in your previous post, to use the word "criteria", instead of "contagion". Mental disorders are not contagious.

Mental disorders are indeed disorders and not something as simple as a different perspective. Yes, the mind can change, but one does not overcome a biologically based disorder simply through changing one's mind. Disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorders are just 2 examples of biologically based disorders. The symptomology manifests as behavioral and cognitive. However, the symptomology is not the disorder itself, but simply an indication that the disorder is present.
 
Hear Again said:
If you were *misdiagnosed* with bipolar, how can you have lingering symptoms of bipolar II? :confused:
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Excellent question. If one does not have the disorder, one does not have lingering symptoms of the disorder.
 
Hear Again said:
I'm curious...How else do you propose psychiatrists diagnose bipolar? Until blood tests become available, what else can they use besides a questionaire?
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Surveys are but one diagnostic tool. Diagnosis is not made based on the results of one diagnostic tool alone, as I am certain you already know. And self report is actually fairly accurrate when determining subjective distress resulting from the disorder. Why? Because of the subjective nature. In fact, someone who is exhibiting behavioral symtoms and cognitive symptoms that should be causing distress, but the indvidual is not distressed by the symtoms, is indication of a loss of connection to reality.
 
jillio said:
People aren't diagnosed with psychiatric disorders simply because they are different. People are diagnosed with phsyciatric disorders when they exhibt a cluster of symtpoms that cause subjective distress in the individual, or create a situation in which harm to self or others is probable. Many mental disorders have a neurological foundation.

I think you must have meant, in your previous post, to use the word "criteria", instead of "contagion". Mental disorders are not contagious.

Mental disorders are indeed disorders and not something as simple as a different perspective. Yes, the mind can change, but one does not overcome a biologically based disorder simply through changing one's mind. Disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorders are just 2 examples of biologically based disorders. The symptomology manifests as behavioral and cognitive. However, the symptomology is not the disorder itself, but simply an indication that the disorder is present.
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:gpost: :gpost:
 
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