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There is no such thing as Asperger's or ADD. It's just the term boring morons use for interesting clever people. If we were in charge we would have medical ter

There is no such thing as Asperger's or ADD. It's just the term boring morons use for interesting clever people. If we were in charge we would have medical terms for "unable to set the clock on a VCR" and "unable to read a book when Oprah is on" But fortunately we don't care what a bunch of dreary moron office drones think of us - even when we bother to notice them.

cynicalkane 14y ago
I don't think you've ever met anyone with severe ADD, or severe Asperger's for that matter.
- excuse-me 14y ago
  PhD in astrophysics, worked at Cambridge, Caltech, MIT and in a bunch of military space projects. In my world 'Sheldon Cooper' is a wild party animal.
lmkg 14y ago
I met a friend in college with real ADD. The type where the medication he takes is about 2 chemical reactions away from straight-up cocaine. One day, he forgot to take his meds, and I was talking to him at lunch. He was in the middle of a sentence, and he just... stopped. Completely frozen. Motionless, mid-gesture, staring off into space. He stayed like this for close to a full minute, and just as I was about to ask him if he was ok, he yelled out "SHIT, WHERE'D IT GO!?!" Apparently the sentence he was saying evaporated from his head while he was in the process of speaking it. So yeah, there really is such a thing as ADD. I won't contest that it's overdiagnosed to hell and back. I wouldn't be surprised if only 1 case in 100 is the real thing, or even 1 in 1,000. But there actually is a real thing, that exists, underneath all the misdiagnoses.
- finnw 14y ago
  Could that not have been withdrawal symptoms?
  - cynest 14y ago
    From my personal experience this is an entirely plausible reaction.
strlen 14y ago
As cynicalkane said, you say this because you haven't met people who are very serious affected by these illnesses. These people will greatly disagree with you: yes, they are interesting and clever, but they do _suffer_ from their afflictions. Saying that these conditions do not exist discourages those individuals from seeking diagnosis and accommodations for their conditions. For example, an individual with ADD [1] might be very intelligent but will be unable to focus on timed tests and will suffer from worse academic performance. If they're unaware of their ADD diagnosis they and others around them will think they are lazy and/or stupid; this becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Being diagnosed with ADD doesn't just mean a prescription for medicine, it can instead mean being allowed to take more time on a test or to take the test in a closed office. This can mean they have a chance to be admitted to a university and be exposed to intellectually stimulating material (whether it's computer science, physics, economics, or philosophy).
- excuse-me 14y ago
  >it can instead mean being allowed to take more time on a test And is also widely abused for the same reason. In 2010 OFSTED (the UK govt school inspection agency) found that nearly 1/2 of the 1.6M pupils that were assessed by schools as ADD/Dyslexic/special-needs showed no sign at all of any condition. But did allow the school to either ignore their poor exam results in performance tables or claim extra funds for teaching them. Similarly there is a statistically odd large increase in the number of children suddenly diagnosed as dyslexic/ADD in their final year at UK `public schools` (= private fee paying) - just before they take final exams - allowing them extra time, the assistance of a teacher or to use a laptop to write essay answers.
coridactyl 14y ago
I appreciate the attempted compliment. It's nice to consider myself interesting and clever. Unfortunately, it's not so nice when I'm unmedicated to lose my train of thought constantly, be totally distracted by small noises (think Doug the dog: "SQUIRREL!"), be totally manic and creative for two to four hours only to be beset by a terrible fog of malaise for the next few days or even week. But with a boost extra norepinephrine and dopamine, however, I can actually function as a human being and feel like I have control over my life. Whatever peculiar chemical mixture I have, whether you'd like to call it ADD (or ADHD-PI) or some sort of minor bipolar disorder or depression or hypomania, has very real consequences on my life. Without medication, I am miserable. With it, I feel some semblance of what I would presume "normal" feels like. It doesn't fix all of my problems - my memory recording and recall skills are still very poor and my ability to manage my time is a challenge, which has taken years of practice to compensate for - but it stabilizes me emotionally and mentally so that I can actually focus on living my life vs. using all my faculties up struggling to do basic things like dishes or laundry. Now I'd like to turn the discussion back to you: what's with your hostility to people who aren't like you?
- excuse-me 14y ago
  "Oh my little darling could never sit down and read that 1000page book - it's not because he's lazy boring and stupid - it's because he has ADD". You can sit down and read a 1000 page book? when Jersey Shore is on? You must have Aspergers. Little "moonflower cherub" doesn't do well at school. It's because she's too delicate, fragile and artistic for math. She can't read either, she just sits in class eating crayons - she must be dyslexic.
  - j_baker 14y ago
    Do you have any arguments that aren't flippantly insulting and irrational?
    - excuse-me 14y ago
      That wasn't really aimed at the comment above. It was that the majority of "behaviour disorders" are 'diagnosed' by teachers or parents. In the US I have known children who were medicated for ADD on the word of a teacher or classroom assistant. Basically it becomes the socially accepted alternative to making the disruptive kid sit in the corner. The rather more laughable but harmless affect is the middle class parents who have decided that any deviation from perfection in their assumed to be perfect little offspring is obviousness a medical disorder
refurb 14y ago
I had a co-worker with Asperger's Syndrome. It was actually quite fascinating to me, since I'm a big science/medicine geek. The amazing thing was that you could pull a list of symptoms from wikipedia or the Merck Manual and put a check mark next to each one with this guy. Smart guy and very pleasant, but it was apparent his lack of social awareness was very challenging to him. I would get frustrated sometimes and other coworkers would be very aware of my frustration but this guy was completely unaware. Like I said, pretty interesting...
- swedenborg 14y ago
  yes interesting in that "normal" ppl gets a chill from others who by will or ability differ ...
anigbrowl 14y ago
I have ADD, and my diagnosis comes courtesy of a leading researcher in the field. I like to think that I am also interesting and clever, and there are aspects of the condition that are a positive asset, but these are offset by considerable disadvantages. I can tell you meant your comment positively, but it comes across as ignorant and obnoxious.

cynicalkane 14y ago

I don't think you've ever met anyone with severe ADD, or severe Asperger's for that matter.

excuse-me 14y ago
PhD in astrophysics, worked at Cambridge, Caltech, MIT and in a bunch of military space projects. In my world 'Sheldon Cooper' is a wild party animal.

lmkg 14y ago

I met a friend in college with real ADD. The type where the medication he takes is about 2 chemical reactions away from straight-up cocaine. One day, he forgot to take his meds, and I was talking to him at lunch. He was in the middle of a sentence, and he just... stopped. Completely frozen. Motionless, mid-gesture, staring off into space. He stayed like this for close to a full minute, and just as I was about to ask him if he was ok, he yelled out "SHIT, WHERE'D IT GO!?!" Apparently the sentence he was saying evaporated from his head while he was in the process of speaking it. So yeah, there really is such a thing as ADD. I won't contest that it's overdiagnosed to hell and back. I wouldn't be surprised if only 1 case in 100 is the real thing, or even 1 in 1,000. But there actually is a real thing, that exists, underneath all the misdiagnoses.

finnw 14y ago
Could that not have been withdrawal symptoms?
- cynest 14y ago
  From my personal experience this is an entirely plausible reaction.

strlen 14y ago

As cynicalkane said, you say this because you haven't met people who are very serious affected by these illnesses. These people will greatly disagree with you: yes, they are interesting and clever, but they do _suffer_ from their afflictions. Saying that these conditions do not exist discourages those individuals from seeking diagnosis and accommodations for their conditions. For example, an individual with ADD [1] might be very intelligent but will be unable to focus on timed tests and will suffer from worse academic performance. If they're unaware of their ADD diagnosis they and others around them will think they are lazy and/or stupid; this becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Being diagnosed with ADD doesn't just mean a prescription for medicine, it can instead mean being allowed to take more time on a test or to take the test in a closed office. This can mean they have a chance to be admitted to a university and be exposed to intellectually stimulating material (whether it's computer science, physics, economics, or philosophy).

excuse-me 14y ago
>it can instead mean being allowed to take more time on a test And is also widely abused for the same reason. In 2010 OFSTED (the UK govt school inspection agency) found that nearly 1/2 of the 1.6M pupils that were assessed by schools as ADD/Dyslexic/special-needs showed no sign at all of any condition. But did allow the school to either ignore their poor exam results in performance tables or claim extra funds for teaching them. Similarly there is a statistically odd large increase in the number of children suddenly diagnosed as dyslexic/ADD in their final year at UK `public schools` (= private fee paying) - just before they take final exams - allowing them extra time, the assistance of a teacher or to use a laptop to write essay answers.

coridactyl 14y ago

I appreciate the attempted compliment. It's nice to consider myself interesting and clever. Unfortunately, it's not so nice when I'm unmedicated to lose my train of thought constantly, be totally distracted by small noises (think Doug the dog: "SQUIRREL!"), be totally manic and creative for two to four hours only to be beset by a terrible fog of malaise for the next few days or even week. But with a boost extra norepinephrine and dopamine, however, I can actually function as a human being and feel like I have control over my life. Whatever peculiar chemical mixture I have, whether you'd like to call it ADD (or ADHD-PI) or some sort of minor bipolar disorder or depression or hypomania, has very real consequences on my life. Without medication, I am miserable. With it, I feel some semblance of what I would presume "normal" feels like. It doesn't fix all of my problems - my memory recording and recall skills are still very poor and my ability to manage my time is a challenge, which has taken years of practice to compensate for - but it stabilizes me emotionally and mentally so that I can actually focus on living my life vs. using all my faculties up struggling to do basic things like dishes or laundry. Now I'd like to turn the discussion back to you: what's with your hostility to people who aren't like you?

excuse-me 14y ago
"Oh my little darling could never sit down and read that 1000page book - it's not because he's lazy boring and stupid - it's because he has ADD". You can sit down and read a 1000 page book? when Jersey Shore is on? You must have Aspergers. Little "moonflower cherub" doesn't do well at school. It's because she's too delicate, fragile and artistic for math. She can't read either, she just sits in class eating crayons - she must be dyslexic.
- j_baker 14y ago
  Do you have any arguments that aren't flippantly insulting and irrational?
  - excuse-me 14y ago
    That wasn't really aimed at the comment above. It was that the majority of "behaviour disorders" are 'diagnosed' by teachers or parents. In the US I have known children who were medicated for ADD on the word of a teacher or classroom assistant. Basically it becomes the socially accepted alternative to making the disruptive kid sit in the corner. The rather more laughable but harmless affect is the middle class parents who have decided that any deviation from perfection in their assumed to be perfect little offspring is obviousness a medical disorder

refurb 14y ago

I had a co-worker with Asperger's Syndrome. It was actually quite fascinating to me, since I'm a big science/medicine geek. The amazing thing was that you could pull a list of symptoms from wikipedia or the Merck Manual and put a check mark next to each one with this guy. Smart guy and very pleasant, but it was apparent his lack of social awareness was very challenging to him. I would get frustrated sometimes and other coworkers would be very aware of my frustration but this guy was completely unaware. Like I said, pretty interesting...

swedenborg 14y ago
yes interesting in that "normal" ppl gets a chill from others who by will or ability differ ...

anigbrowl 14y ago

I have ADD, and my diagnosis comes courtesy of a leading researcher in the field. I like to think that I am also interesting and clever, and there are aspects of the condition that are a positive asset, but these are offset by considerable disadvantages. I can tell you meant your comment positively, but it comes across as ignorant and obnoxious.