WOPR said:
dastardly said:
(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.)
Who the heck would do something like that?
seriously when did it become something people title themselves with?
I just don't get when that started, it's sick and wrong...
Are you really so surprised? It happens with a host of mental disorders. It's almost never
intentional, but people subconsciously assign themselves these disorders and stand by it firmly. People use them for two "benefits":
1) Surrendering Responsibility. The selected disorder comes with a particular behavior, or set of behaviors, for which the person can now claim they are not responsible.
2) Entitlement. The selected disorder also entitles the person to additional attention, or some side-effect label that is favorable.
Similarly, these disorders themselves are usually selected for two reasons:
1) They are hard to verify (or disprove). You can't fake a missing limb, but you can fake certain mental disorders, and no one can definitively tell you you're lying. They have no choice but to take what you say at face value.
2) They often come with a "trap door" built right into the disorder. Many disorders also come with a different or "milder" form that allows the person to claim the aforementioned "benefits" without having to accept the associated drawbacks.
In the case of Asperger's Syndrome, the benefits are that a person is no longer responsible for rude, abrasive, socially-unacceptable behavior (It's the disorder!), but they also can artificially label themselves as highly intelligent. Even if they're genuinely highly intelligent, this label gives
their claim more weight than a possibly equally-intelligent person with no such label.
Asperger's is a candidate for this fakery because it is (#1) hard to verify or disprove. A person can simply claim to have "very high functioning Asperger's," meaning that they don't have to demonstrate much in the way of symptoms, (#2) except those they find favorable at a given moment. It's a "buffet disorder." Take what you like, leave the rest, and who's to say otherwise?
OTHER EXAMPLES:
"Clinical" Depression - These people are always keen to use the word "clinical" as a way of saying, "You may not argue this point or assign any responsibility to me." This is despite there having been no medical tests to prove there is any sort of chemical imbalance. You can't disprove them, and they have a license to get free attention from anyone by having the saddest sob story at any given moment.
Bipolar or Manic-Depressive - All of the benefits of claiming depression, but without the burden of having to be depressed
all the time. You can be impulsive and rash, as well. But the bottom line is that if people are negatively impacted by your mood, that's just tough--it's not
your responsibility, you have a disorder.
ADD/ADHD - I don't have to do anything I don't like, or pay attention to you, because I have a chemical imbalance for which I have had no chemical testing. You can't prove I don't have it, and it doesn't mean I'm dumb or have any sort of drawbacks. I can selectively choose when to pay attention or when not to, with complete freedom--it's the disorder!
SPECIAL NOTES:
- I know these are actual conditions that actual people have. I also know that diagnostic techniques are spotty at best, so plenty of people are able (and willing) to get a rushed diagnosis in order to excuse behavior by using the misfortune of others. There are real examples, and there are many, many fakers. This does not detract from the reality of the disorder itself.
- The fact that a medication "works" is not proof that there was a disorder, and is not an acceptable diagnostic methods. That's like me saying that, because I feel better after having a Twinkie and a glass of scotch, I must have depression that is linked to a Twinkie-scotch deficiency in my brain. Diagnosis comes
before treatment, and it takes a long time and a lot of observation. Phony, armchair diagnosis is the only kind you can get on short notice.
- I'll repeat: In the majority of cases, I don't think people do this intentionally. I don't think they know that they're doing it for attention or excuses, but that doesn't make it any less true. The subconscious is powerful,
especially in the sort of people already willing to surrender responsibility for their own behavior to a hollow label--these are the sort that were already predisposed to letting the subconscious "take over."
