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[quote=Anonymous]I also want to point out that the increased incidence of depression and suicide in kids and adults with AS is real, and has been statistically demonstrated.  Some of this may be situational -- the impairment is real but invisible.  People with AS appear to be like everyone else, but unlike everyone else they have difficulty with the "rules" of being, how people interact, what you do, say, don't do, don't say.  This is a huge impairment if you think about how much we use nonverbal and verbal communication in our daily lives.

But I happen to believe that increased rates of depression and suicide are also because people with AS have different brains, their wiring is different.  Since it is "pervasive" as the umbrella term indicates, it affects everything, including and especially brain chemistry.  This is the dirty little secret of Aspergers, the thing our media doesn't illuminate when they do stories about little professors and brilliant scientists, the few who have made it into adulthood unscathed (and I would guess that under the surface they are plenty scathed).

So PP really hit the nail on the head when she used the term "self-advocacy."  We need to prepare our kids to take care of themselves.  That starts with arming them with knowledge, an understanding of their unique wiring.  And it also starts with acknowledging their differences and removing the sense of shame.  Referring to a medical diagnosis as a "label" does perpetuate a sense that this is a shameful secret.[/quote]

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