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Acid Reindeer
I got an e-mail from a man with Asperger's who said that he had never met anyone who regreted having Asperger's. this information surprised me, actually. you can make of that what you will...
Those with aspergers often have co-existing depression or anxiety which they would rather be without.
IMHO psychiatry doesn't help with its idea that you can "have depression". feelings have causes. you have a problem that you haven't solved, you have a belief, you have something bothering you in your past. perhaps you have a biological predisposition towards a particular emotion... anyway, belief in the emotion itself as a problem creates a
strange loop. so, again, I don't find it useful.
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In your next post you say 'change the world, not them' referring to the social model of disability.
change the world in all sorts of ways, to the educational system to the expectations given us by our culture. including the social model of disability.
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Can you recommend a good website/messageboard etc where I can try and get a handle on this concept?
up until about a year ago I had some involvment with the antipsychiatry movement, when life circumstances intervened, I didn't have time and never got involved again. (also, I had sort of burnt out on the work involved.) I know of the autistic rights/neurodiversity crowd (who do not intersect that much with the antipsychiatry, funnily, or hadn't back then) though I wouldn't really know what specific sites. do a search on search terms like Aspies, neurotypical, spectrum, and some will turn up.
anyway, you can look at a good general introduction to antipsychiatry at
MindFreedom or
Dr. Paul Breggin's site. Antipsychiatry.org had a site which has subsequently gone down. the Scientologists have an organization called the CCHR, which despite the involvment of Thomas Szasz, I consider Scientology no real alternative. you can also look at some of the links at the Wikipedia entry on antipsychiatyr.
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I can see how it can work for physical health by providing wheelchair access etc and for learning disabilities in providing more time for exams, but can't get to grips with how it would work for mental 'disability'.
you set up schools geared towards children with a particular style of learning. fast, slow, linear, non-linear or whatever. don't expect everyone to learn the same way and at the same pace. pay attention to what sensory channel they primarily use (according to Neuro-Linguistic Programming theory) and tailor to that sensory channel. for instance, I learn well visually, not so well by listening to someone speak.