High Functioning Autism v. AS--discussion of degrees.

[Aspieistj]

How do you see yourself within or between these two descriptions? What is "a little" Asperger Syndrome Vs. "very much" AS?

 

[pjcnet]

At first doctors thought I had full autism as a very small child in the early 1970s, but eventually I started to develop higher skills that a child with full autism normally wouldn't, although I was extremely late developing language skills and I held on to many autistic traits which made my whole childhood extremely difficult (it is still is making my life hard even at 43 years old). When I was about 7 years old I was officially diagnosed with higher functioning autism by Professor Michael Rutter (now Professor Sir Michael Rutter for his work with autistic children - he was interested in my family as I am 1 of 3 brothers all with autism where my 2 brothers have full and severe autism), this was at the Maudsley Hospital in London, but back in the mid 1970s they didn't know much about Asperger Syndrome. I now have more of the symptoms of Asperger Syndrome including obsessive behaviour, so I think I'm between the 2. It's very difficult to label people as everyone is different in my opinion. I've had more recent assessments by people who also think I've got Asperger Syndrome.

 

[King_Oni]

It's an intersting question I think. Especially with the up and coming DSM and the "elimination" of AS as a seperate thing. They planned to scale people on the spectrum as mild and severe (and some varying degrees in between), but eventually, that didn't happen, since the new DSM is due to next week or so.

What is severe, and why is it severe? Or... when is it mild? I can only speak from personal experience here. When I got my diagnosis for autism (yet there was more significance to diagnose me with Aspergers than anything else) back in January of last year I scored a whopping 46 out of 50 points on the scale. In terms of that, one might say that's severe. Looking at myself; yes, there's problems here and there, but I don't see how they're more or less crippling than some other people I know (and perhaps even some on this forum). Chances are there's stuff that applies to me that would even make people on the spectrum cringe, and similarly, there's stuff that does not apply to me, while it does apply to a lot of people on the spectrum. I for one, am not neccesarily one with the stereotypical routines and schedules. Granted; I need my own way of working with something, but don't we all?

And if I look at my girlfriend, who is on the spectrum as well, and apparently scored less on actual test papers, perhaps others will think she's more severe. But I can manage and put up with her things perfectly fine and it doesn't come as a problem or difficulty... since perhaps it's that a lot of stuff just seems perfectly normal to me. That opens up the perspective of "severity, graded by whom?" By your peers? By others on the spectrum? By society? And where does this benchmark come from? And what I'm usually more interested in; why is that benchmark set up like that? Are things the norm, because other people do it... but why do people do it? But I guess this opens a whole new can of social behaviour and anthropology questions, though I think they are needed to scale things and to put a scale in effect to start with.

 

[Peace]

I am new to all of this. I have had AS all of my life, but was mis-diagnosed and just found out a few months ago. From the research I have done (opinion only), aspergers are more likely to have a strict routine, are less comfortable in social settings, and are more likely to be quiet and relate to patterns and numbers. I however, am hyper social, could not adhere to a schedule or pattern behavior if my life depended on it, and although I readily recognize numbers and patterns, have a mind that works so fast that I scarcely pay attention to these things (or anything else). as near as I can tell I have High Functioning AS. As most of us have indicated, there is actually little known about this.
NOTE: There is no medical statement or evidence here, just thought, observation and opinion.

 

[SUM1]

I thought High Functioning Autism and Asperger's Syndrome were the same thing..

 

[King_Oni]

I am new to all of this. I have had AS all of my life, but was mis-diagnosed and just found out a few months ago. From the research I have done (opinion only), aspergers are more likely to have a strict routine, are less comfortable in social settings, and are more likely to be quiet and relate to patterns and numbers. I however, am hyper social, could not adhere to a schedule or pattern behavior if my life depended on it, and although I readily recognize numbers and patterns, have a mind that works so fast that I scarcely pay attention to these things (or anything else). as near as I can tell I have High Functioning AS. As most of us have indicated, there is actually little known about this.
NOTE: There is no medical statement or evidence here, just thought, observation and opinion.

For me, the lack of adhering to schedules had to do more with suffering from AD(H)D rather than being on the autism spectrum. The social thing; I'm not that social at all, but there's a few instances where I'm clearly more social, and those are more likely to be related to my interests. That also makes me think about when someone actually is social.. .and what is "being social". I remember playing tournaments for a cardgame in a local gamestore and it didn't bother me too much to be there, mix in with a small group of 25 to 30 people weekly and eventually chat with some of them. The thing however; I only discussed said game. I was not interested in small talk, nor have I ever been. And I remember, when I had a job... same thing. I talked about anything job related with co-workers, but had 0 interest in smalltalk... but obviously those co-workers had no interest to socialize with me when I was all over supply chain management, catching up on slow production, analysis of the most common products for the day, etc.

While on the subject of being social and talking. What didn't sit well with me, and still doesn't... it's not that I don't want to talk to people, but I want to talk to people that care about the same stuff, and most likely, if I talk about it, it has a goal. Be it to enhance skill, find solutions and not end up talking about stuff that is nothing more than talking for the sake of having a chat. But it doesn't sit well with me that I actually can't talk to anyone about certain things... that's probably more isolating.. just not finding a connection to discuss subject X. I've tried specific forums before, but I just don't mix in well with most people there... somehow I apparently can't get my point across... not to mention the immaturity and lack of decent moderation of some forums.

 

[Flinty]

I thought High Functioning Autism and Asperger's Syndrome were the same thing..

They are not. To give you the example of me:

I have high-functioning Autism; the reason it is not Asperger's is that I had a language delay, which does not appear in Asperger's.

Similar, but not the same.

 

[Peace]

How about, they are the same, just different sides of the spectrum.

 

[WildCat]

Some will insist they are one and the same, some will distinguish between the two, some will twist and bend the words to fit their identity. Whatever. Personally, I don't care much anymore since all that terminology is self-contradicting, and that the DSM-V is supposedly planning to do away with separate categories and merge everything into one big fat lump. I consider myself to be on the autism spectrum, that's it. No specifics needed, it IS a spectrum disorder and it DOES present itself in wide shades of color and grey - "if you've met one person with autism..." blah blah blah...

Speaking for myself, and I believe I've already shared this with the forum, I was diagnosed with "autism and PDD" at around 3 or 3.5 years of age. I had both language and speech delays (yes, there IS a difference between the two) that I eventually overcame by the time I hit my early school years, which by definition would technically eliminate a diagnosis of AS...only to be diagnosed again in my teenage years with a diagnosis of AS, and later with a diagnosis of "autistic disorder, high functioning". The fact that I received several different diagnoses over the course of my lifespan should be proof alone that this is more of a play on words than it is anything set in stone.

 

[oscar2012]

It is the same just someone trying to cut corners it makes me very cross