What is the severity of your autism?

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Mine varies depending on my mood. Sometimes, it can be light while other times it can be more moderate. It does pose a challenge for me when it comes to daily living skills such as cooking and cleaning, holding a job or going to college. However, most people don't even KNOW I'm autistic until you tell them.

I feel like my severity is Light/Moderate. In some situations you can tell I have autism but other times you cannot.

I'm moderate

I don't know where I stand really as I have not been assessed yet. Apart from shutdowns (Partial and full) and I have experienced burnout, if I am on the spectrum the other adpects are likely to be mild, so I put mild. If I am on the spectrum and you count the shutdowns and burnout, then it could alter the results a little, but the anxiety and shutdowns are the worst bit for me.

Last edited by Mountain Goat on 12 Apr 2020, 5:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

As part of a training event that I attended at the NAS recently there was an interesting discussion on the 'severity' of ASD

The consensus was that there may be ASD that affects others mildly or severely but there was not really any such thing as ASD that affects the individual 'mildly'

I agree with this

I am trying to understand this. The statement. I think the reason why I find I am puzzled is that I don't know if I am on the spectrum or where I fit, and as I have always been me and have not ever been anyone else, then unless I can compare by being someone else, how do I know if I am mild or severe etc?
Ok, I realize that if I had extra conditions which people with autism have then it would be different.
Yes, I can point a few traits and actually was rather shocked when a certain lady I know started to list them when I asked her to (I thought I just had one or two but she listed 30 traits and only two she listed that I can question).
The thing is that how do we know if we are struggling as we have naturally learned how to adapt to find ways to cope with the things we have not been able to do. A classic example is when I hit mindblank if I try to speak something out in a direct way when I am nurvous. If I do not speak directly and speak on various indirect tangents I can then steer the conversation round so I will come at the answer from a different angle and avoid the mindblank from occuring. To the other person it may sound like I just like talking and they never realize why I do it... And even I am so used to doing it, that it is only fairly recently that I realized that I am doing it. I wonder how many other people do this and have not yet realized that they are doing it?

Well, I guess thats the challenge of trying to view things form another perspective or insight. We view ourselves through the prism of our own mental processes, emotions and experiences. That's why someone else making an arbitrary judgement on how sever something is for you is pretty meaningless to anyone other than them. Only you can decide how much a particular aspect of yourself affects you.

That is why it is soo difficult to judge. I mean. Well. I tend to block out some issues because I really don't want to admit that I have a weakness but for other issues which I am mentally exploring (Assessing) I maybe over emphasising them to try to assess if they are a problem.
So it is not actually easy to work out.
If there was a definate scale and I could match myself on that scale via some sort of colour chart or definate form of measurement it would be a whole lot easier to work out.

In the POLL, I have to quibble between 'LIGHT' and 'MODERATE' - as both alone would be oversimplified. A cross between 'LIGHT' and 'MODERATE' is somewhat better indicator.

Neurotypical with some features (primarily social)...Nope! (although I'm receptive towards friendships with introverted NTs). The social weaknesses are more often in the 'MODERATE' category than the 'LIGHT' category - yet the 'LIGHT' category usually comes with good small-talk abilities.

In short, I'm caught in the middle - that is not disabled enough, yet not able enough!

I'm lightly affected.

I do not know as I have not been assessed yet.

It seems to be a mixed bag.

I'd normally be considered light but by these definitions I'd be between light and moderate socially.

Oops, I voted before reading the first post Diagnostically, I’m probably moderate, though to the best of my knowledge I was not given a “level” at diagnosis. No way would I say I’m severe overall. But by the definitions in the first post, I’m absolutely severe.

If I am on the spectrum, someone else would have to tell me because I don't know. I have been living my life for years so I really don't know anything other, but I was far more able then I used to be before I hit quite a few burnouts over the last decade and a bit.
I have come to realize how much mental pressure I have been in.

I am formally diagnosed ASD level 2 with no intellectual impairment.

It is interesting though because I did full IQ testing as a requirement for my evaluation. And my overall score was average-but when you broke down all the individual tests-some I scored in the 95th and 97th percentile and others I scored in the 8th percentile.

I have issues with reading comprehension and I am a very visual person.

I really thought I was barely on the spectrum bc this is my brain and I had no idea other people’s brains work differently. I was so overwhelmed when I got the level 2 dx. But once they started breaking it all down for me and I learned more about autism, it makes perfect sense.

I am also much less able to mask anymore due to years of stress and abuse. Me now is much much different than me a few years ago.

Edit to add: I also don’t care about masking anymore. I am autistic and I don’t care too much about adjusting myself to make other ppl comfortable.