I have such mixed feelings about this sort of diagnosis. I don't for an instant deny that she may well fit the criteria and that autism and aspergers are both very real, but I find the seemingly increasing need for people to have a label, a category, a diagnosis, a reason... disturbing.
ADHD is the classic example of this. Were I school age today I would almost certainly have been given the dual badges of ADHD and aspergers - my brother, who is seven years my junior, is labelled as both. Me, I'm just eccentric.
Why this bothers me is the outcome it can lead to. Having a "reason" for you being as you are leads to self-justification, to complacency at one's station in life. In his case he's medicated and in the eighth year of an undergraduate degree. I finished my masters in two years and founded a startup two years later as I am incapable of sitting still. I like being an undiagnosed creature, as I've ended up finding something that suits those traits in me, rather than suffering from them.
I know this is anecdotal, and this really isn't done diatribe against mental healthcare - plenty genuinely need it - but I worry that too many engage in that funnel out of some misdirected need to conform, and end up losing part of what and who they are.
ADHD is the classic example of this. Were I school age today I would almost certainly have been given the dual badges of ADHD and aspergers - my brother, who is seven years my junior, is labelled as both. Me, I'm just eccentric.
Why this bothers me is the outcome it can lead to. Having a "reason" for you being as you are leads to self-justification, to complacency at one's station in life. In his case he's medicated and in the eighth year of an undergraduate degree. I finished my masters in two years and founded a startup two years later as I am incapable of sitting still. I like being an undiagnosed creature, as I've ended up finding something that suits those traits in me, rather than suffering from them.
I know this is anecdotal, and this really isn't done diatribe against mental healthcare - plenty genuinely need it - but I worry that too many engage in that funnel out of some misdirected need to conform, and end up losing part of what and who they are.