In other words how do we know it’s the same neuro disorder that affects people with quirks and stimming and people who are non verbal and can’t function without a 3rd party. Wouldn’t it make sense it’s two different things going on in the brain
In other words how do we know it’s the same neuro disorder that affects people with quirks and stimming and people who are non verbal and can’t function without a 3rd party. Wouldn’t it make sense it’s two different things going on in the brain
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Originally we didn’t, but lately there has been a lot of DNA analysis.
The diagnostic criteria is the same, it’s just the severity that is different.
honestly, we really dont. Science is always evolving and with more research, updates to diagnostic criteria happens.
Autistic people themselves have rejected the functioning labels for a more accurate star graph. It lists the symptoms of autism and shows the severity in each field. This is held to be more helpful and allows for more targeted therapy.
https://cdn.psychologytoday.com/sites/default/files/styles/image-article_inline_full_caption/public/field_blog_entry_images/2022-07/sarah_autism_wheel.png?itok=NnOLLWvS
We don’t “know” two ends of the spectrum for any disorder are the same thing. At the end of the day, we’re fallible humans relying on what is observable to us to structure our conclusions. The difference between science and faith is acknowledgment of fallibility.
Often, people diagnosed with some form of neurodivergence might or might not be additionally diagnosed with other disorders that co-occur at a higher rate, like anxiety disorders, dysgraphia, or dyslexia
The same way we know diabetes Type 1 + 2 are the same disorder
I have Aspergers (a type of high functioning autism).
Yes, the guy did HORRIFIC stuff to innocent people. But the Aspergers diagnosis is the only reason I wasn’t put in a care facility. It is why I was allowed at school
A regular Autism diagnosis got me rejected from most services because “you don’t look or act autistic”. Aspergers, is the autism diagnosis for those who don’t understand the different functioning levels
Function level has NOTHING to do with intelligence.
People get offended and act as though saying “high/low functioning” equates to intellectual IQ
Funtion level is the ability to do day-to-day activities such as cooking, cleaning and laundry.
It can affect verbal communication too, but if people are willing, they can learn how each person communicates on good and bad days
On my bad days I need full support and lose my ability to communicate without making grunts and pointing.
I know several low functioning people who can’t cook or clean and need 24-hour care, but they are highly intelligent.
They are the best friends I’ve ever had even though they drive me insane; yes I can say it. It wouldn’t be inclusive if I didn’t say simply because of the diagnosis (thats called discrimination)
They aren’t offended at us having different functioning levels and often joke around about it.
Unlike the people that attend Disability Support Groups who virtue signal and talk in the patronisingly childish voice because we have autism and they think autism = intelligence. Autism first Language you have to say “person with autism”, not “autistic person” “noooooo you have to say ASD now and the puzzle piece is offensive”
No it isn’t. You find it offensive because YOU associate autism that way.
I still use the puzzle piece and say HFA
My autism runs on the slider spectrum for my function level. So on the left side of the slider means I need support and the right side means I’m doing well and don’t require any support
Some days I’m high functioning, other times I’m so low functioning to the point I cannot communicate at all.
The one compliment people with autism get is how they love that we are 100% honest and don’t let society change us (until we say the thing then our honesty is a bad thing)
Ironically, I, an autistic person, am told that my view of my own functioning level is “offensive” to other autistic people (cue the downvotes and “I know people with autism” comments because I said THE THING you dont like)
But saying that to me is offensive to MY autism. So thanks to my autism, I am left to fend for myself because I don’t align with how modern society wants me to act and say.
People are afraid of being labelled an outcast and treated badly for having their own views, so will dismiss any opinion that doesn’t align with what they are told to think and feel about the subject
(they are treating people how they DON’T want to be treated)
Now I’ve said THE THING, here is a Dinosaur Fact to brighten your day:
Did you know Littlefoot from Land Before Time is a Brontosaurus?
And that the T-Rex is closer in time to humans than a stegosaurus?
We just classify them under the same umbrella. None of the mental health conditions are the “same” “disorder” even within their own classification. Depression can present a million different ways. Eating a ton and not sleeping? Depression. Not eating at all and sleeping all day? Depression.
It’s important to remember that we made all of these labels up ourselves to talk between professionals, primarily for billing and treatment purposes. In reality we’re all different and we just happen to present in ways that we can group usefully.
Source: Clinical psychologist
I’m ASD 1. My youngest brother is ASD2. My middle brother is ASD3.
Trust me. They’re the same. We have the same ticks, the same obsessions. The same inability to recognize behaviors. The same meltdowns. They’re just at wildly different levels.
I’m a scientist with two master’s degrees. My youngest brother can barely hold a job or a relationship. My middle brother needs me to eat. We all have very big challenges with social interactions.
I thought that “high functioning” and “low functioning” were retired from use? And that it’s just autism spectrum disorder now?
I would think that to diagnose a condition, we should have some type of physical, measurable pathology, and that then when we could measure that, we could compare it to behavioral effects, and we could then establish a causal link, the larger the physical difference, the more the behavioral effects. And I am curious how that exists in autism.
It’s really just a matter of definitions. There is an argument to be made that no two people are exactly developmentally the same (or for that matter, no diseases/disorders/etc of ANY kind are the same, whether it be atypical brain development or hormone output or lung capacity or cancer or whatever else you can think of that would be at all affected by a person’s genetics + environment… but that’s not very useful or practical, so we need to agree on some criteria for categorizing
Not only are they the same developmental disability based on the same diagnostic criteria, but even the framework of “high functioning” and “low functioning” is harmful and outdated. The autism spectrum is more of a buffet than a thermometer. Each autistic person has their own ‘autism sundae’ of symptoms, challenges, and strengths. Some autistic people can mask (suppress autistic behaviors and act ‘normal’ around other people) while others cannot – that’s the difference that most non-autistic people notice. Masking doesn’t actually reflect a greater quality of life (in fact many masking autistic people experience severe burn out and debilitating mental illness).
Nowadays, support level model is more favored. Some autistic people are assigned a “support level” of 1 (low support needs), 2 (moderate support needs), or 3 (high support needs).
This approach is also flawed. What symptoms and abilities warrant each level of support is dependent on the assessor and their biases. Importantly, support needs fluctuate throughout an autistic person’s life based on stressors and how much informal communal support we get.
high functioning just means, “able to function as a human being”. The opposite being low functioning. Yea, a non verbal individual can most definitely be high functioning; they would just need to learn a form of communication.
Neuroscience research
Because, on any given day, one person can fit into either category. It’s what’s called a dynamic disability. If I have a job as a retail assistant at a big store, I’m going to be burnt out after a few days, and suddenly I go from a mostly normal, little bit quirky, individual, to curled up in the fetal position on the shop floor, having all the signs of a panic attack, but it’s actually an autistic meltdown, where my body tells me I’m in danger. I can’t breathe, chest tight, my vision goes blurry, if anyone touches me it feels like I’m being cut by razors, sounds are too loud and feel like I’m surrounded by those massive speakers with bass you can feel in your whole body at the club, etc. The cure for one day of meltdown is two weeks of a controlled environment. Dark, comfortably warm room with soundproof walls, or as close as can be. Then, I’m able to be “normal” again.
Say I have a job at a smaller place, that actually accommodates my autism and makes an effort to be a better place for me (which, let’s be honest, doesn’t exist, but I digress), if that place actually existed, all it would take is some loud road works, someone stopping me in the street, missing breakfast and my favourite bakery not having my regular order or being shut on the way to work, basically ruining my routine, it’ll mess up my entire day, which will start the ball rolling for autistic burnout (different to regular burnout) which will end in prolonged autistic meltdowns (as described above) until I’m given that safe space (as described above) to recover. This is not a choice. This is a disability.
Basically, the world, as it is currently set up, is hostile to autistic people. We find ways to regulate ourselves to seem “normal” to fit in and try to be a part of society, but society is actively hostile towards autistic people for these reasons.
Source: I’m diagnosed autistic. I speak 3 languages, play 5 instruments fluently. (Violin, cello, piano, guitar,mandolin) I still can’t get a job because I don’t pass the neurotypical vibe check that is a job interview. Back when I could pass the vibe check, I had 3 jobs, all of which were hell and the longest I held one was 7 months before I failed my extended probation.
If you go through the assessment process you learn about the markers. Those markers are what define autism. Your functional level doesn’t really matter that much. I mean it does, but not that much. Like say my son has the sensory issues, emotional dysregulation, and restrictive and repetitive behaviors and a few markers relationed to social communication. You have to have five markers for a diagnosis. Your functional level doesn’t matter as far as the diagnosis goes, it’s just a number that indicates level of support recommended. That’s why some autistic people seem like they’re thriving and others need 24/7 one-to-one care.
Autism is wildly variable in its presentation and can often appear to have the opposite effects in different people.
Some autistics have a very set personal style (like Steve Jobs), others have wildly varying presentations and wear unusual clothes or combinations of clothes.
Some are totally nonverbal, some will infodump to anyone for as long as they’re allowed.
Some can’t handle routine, some crave it. Same with certain kinds of stimulation- a searing hot shower might seem like bliss to one autistic person and hell to another.
Some hate eye contact, others hold very strong eye contact during conversations.
My personal hypothesis is that autism is highly likely to be comorbid with other mental health conditions. The “stereotypical autism” may be autism combined with OCD, where the more “manic pixie dream girl” autism may be autism combined with ADHD.
Why do we get so many questions on autism these days?
I’m high functioning until I’m not
If I don’t have a low level of support for my autism I collapse entirely in time
We don’t have a full enough understanding of the biology behind autism to say definitively that all types are the “same thing,” per say, but they all present with a similar set of symptoms at varying severity. A lot of how we categorize autism is an artifact of how it’s been studied and recognized historically – that is, poorly. These days we’ve realized we know jack shit about its causes and how it really works, so identifying the set of distinctive symptoms – issues with social interactions, communication, repetitive behaviors, manifestation of these symptoms in childhood – and assuming it’s a disorder that exists on a spectrum makes the most sense given our current state of knowledge. It’s the most useful way to classify them for the purposes of diagnosis and treatment, too.
For example, what we’d now call level 1 autism used to often be diagnosed as Asperger’s, because at the time the DSM-4 was released it was considered to present distinctly from autism. But after a while psychologists realized that it was actually quite difficult to differentiate many cases of Asperger’s from autism, because in practice the only differences were perceived intelligence and proficiency with spoken language – a patient diagnosed with Asperger’s by one psychologist could easily be diagnosed as autistic by another. If the symptoms are so similar as to be mistaken for each other, and both are idiopathic and thus can’t be differentiated by cause, then it obviously makes more sense to combine them into a single disorder for simplicity’s sake.
I get the feeling that if we ever figure out what actually causes autism, we’ll start differentiating by the specific genetic components involved while keeping it all under the general umbrella of autism spectrum disorders, sort of like how hypermobility spectrum disorders are. But as of now we just don’t know enough about autism to make meaningful categories.