Hi, I'm Steven. Among a couple of other things I'm also an aspie, as we like to call ourselves. Indeed, "person with Asperger's" makes it sound like a disease, quod non.

I became interested in Asperger's after reading an article about it in a psychology magazine. I delved deeper in the subject until a day when I found out: I'm an aspie. My self-diagnosis was later confirmed by a psychologist who's an expert on autism and asperger. ("No doubt about it, you're 100% an aspie"). I could have gone one step further and take an official test, but I didn't bother; these tests are pretty expensive, and the "diploma" was not of extra value to me.

I was 57 at that time, which is rather old for getting the diagnosis, and there are a couple of reasons for it. Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger described the condition in a German-language medical journal in 1944 — World War II era — which made that the paper went largely unnoticed at the time. It wasn't until the late 1980s, after the original paper had been translated to English by Uta Frith, that psychologists and psychiatrists became interested.

For me this meant that I was already an adult by the time tests were developed. Which was a pity, because it's in a child/adolescent's interest that the diagnosis is made at an early age. So that didn't happen for me. As a consequence I've felt "different" all my life, without knowing what could be the reason. In the article I mentioned earlier a 40-ish woman testifies how she cried for two hours on end from relief when she was diagnosed.

Not a disease

Asperger's is not a disease, no more than having green eyes is. Unfortunately the term most used, however, is "Asperger Syndrome", which very much makes it sound like a disease. I prefer the word "condition".
Not being a disease there is no "cure" for Asperger's, nor is there a need for one.