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Accepted. Words like "comorbid" just set my alarm bells ringing. I think it is very important for those of us who are reserchers to try and reclaim the moral high ground with our own reserch by challenging the paradigms which academia tries to force us into working with FWIW I suggest you read Richard Bentall, "Madness explained" to see what I am saying about reserch being forced down neo Kraepelinian lines. Psychiatric reserch which is just about validating existing notions and further refining them rather than questioning the basis of such notions in the first place, and investigations that are diminishing the roles of the participants, priveleging the gaze of pharmacological intervention and "normalisation" is what we should be taking a stand against in our own reserch design and the way in which we use research subjects. Good research should not only do something for the general group being studied but actually leave those who participate in a better understanding and a better position than they came to the reserch with. Anxiety and depression are not illnesses, simply less pleasant facets of the human condition that sometimes predominate in certain situations. Having recently had the additional dx of OCD added to my personal medical lexicon, I don't see that as an illness to be cured, but as something which if it gets out of proportion is a bloody nuisance, but the origins of it as part of human diversity are simply natural. I am beginning to sound like one of the old fashioned funtionalists now if I say that everything has a funtion even if it is apparantly a maladaptation, it happens for some purpose which needs to be understood as part of wider societal processes. Larry > -----Original Message----- > From: The Disability-Research Discussion List > [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Gillian Quinn > Sent: 08 October 2007 10:43 > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Reply > > Dear Larry and Colin, > > Firstly, I wish to apologise for any offence that I seem to > have caused as a result of my request yesterday. This was > totally unintentional and I can't help but feel that it came > about as a result of misinterpretation of my request. > > For the record though, I should clarify the purpose of my > request and my intentions/motives behind it. > > The reason for my request was primarily personal - yes I am > involved in research, but as a person with AS I have a > personal interest in accessing information too and in this > instance it was this personal interest that drove me to seek > this information. [So don't worry Larry, my apparently > badly-worded attempt at finding information is not going to > lead to yet more medical-model biased research as you seem to fear.] > > The only reason I ask whether there is any research on the > subject is because I read somewhere that prevalence of what > is termed !psychiatric co- morbidity' [and actually, I don't > like the terminology any better than you do, but to an extent > one is forced to rely on the terminology in common use in > order to express oneself - such is the rather flawed nature > of verbal communication] may be higher among higher > functioning people on the autistic spectrum, the thing I read > suggested that this could be due to an increased ability to > report these issues among people who generally had better > skills of verbal communication. > > I was wondering however whether the fact that many people who > are higher functioning are forced to live a greater part of > their lives without diagnosis and the tools to understand > themselves may in fact lead to increased prevalence of issues > such as depression, anxiety etc. > > Once again I apologise if terminology I used caused offence - > it's just that one sometimes finds oneself unable to express > oneself because of inadequate terminology and sometimes one > needs to jump in with both feet and use commonly accepted > language in order to get anywhere ... > > > Yours, > > Gillian > > ________________End of message______________________ This > Disability-Research Discussion list is managed by the Centre > for Disability Studies at the University of Leeds > (www.leeds.ac.uk/disability-studies). Enquiries about the > list administratione should be sent to > [log in to unmask] > Archives and tools are located at: > www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html > You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page. > > ________________End of message______________________ This Disability-Research Discussion list is managed by the Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Leeds (www.leeds.ac.uk/disability-studies). Enquiries about the list administratione should be sent to [log in to unmask] Archives and tools are located at: www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page.