Mild vs Moderate vs Severe Autism.

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Well it took me until I was 8 before I could say words and even now I don't converse. It took me until I was 10 before I started reading and writing. I'm classified as a significant special needs person who requires significant support.

This is late but I have level 2 or moderate autism.

I didnt talk til I was 5. I was in diapers til I was 7 and I still wet the bed. I have speech and language difficulties. I look "normal" to people until they try to have a conversation with me. I can barely look them in the eye and I speak quietly.
I stim a lot. I flap my hands, rock, spin and talk to myself. I have ADHD as well that causes me to be hyperactive alot too. I can barely sit still in class sometimes. One of my teachers sends me down with the attendance sheet. I love walking around.

I always find I have a lot in common with other moderates. I like walking around too. I probably notice things others ignore. Then again I probably ignore things others notice.

That's like saying "I don't know if I have six, but I do have half of a dozen".

"Aspergers" is part of he autism spectrum, but its at the high functioning, or "mild" , end of the spectrum.

So if they declared you as having aspergers then by definition they have decreed that you have "a type of mild autism".

Not necessarily. Aspies have been later diagnosed level two because the main difference between Aspergers and classical autism was a speech delay which isn't the only classifier for functioning.
Not likely to see a level three aspie at all, but level two is possible.

I've seen Asperger's-type people who seemed "level 2-ish" to me.

I think I was diagnosed with Asperger's because 1. I started speaking at a "typical" age and 2. It probably impacts my life much more apparantly now than when I was first diagnosed (for example, I did just fine in school, grade-wise, until college, but have had a heck of a time getting hired for a job I might actually be able to perform). I don't seem as "mild" as many other Aspies I know, both online and in person.

Looking at the level of support I need, I'm currently unable to work and have only been able to get part-time cleaning jobs in the past, so I'm completely financially dependent on my parents. I can't drive and we don't have good public transportation in my area, so I rely on them for transportation, too. I have selective mutism, and sometimes need my parents to do the talking for me (because somehow they think that's okay but using a text-to-speech app on my phone isn't ), and I'm incapable of answering a phone because I get so anxious about it that I can't talk. I'm trying to work on my self-care, but I have trouble doing things like showering or even eating as often as I need to. I need a service dog and a game on my phone for distraction in order not to completely shut down when out in public (except places where there aren't that many people and it isn't too noisy). Based on these things, I don't seem "mild" to me, but I'm definitely not "severe," so I'd classify myself as "moderate." I'm more of saying "I was told about fifteen years ago that I had six, but I think I see a full dozen now." Also perfectly willing to accept that I may be wrong - hence "I think."

I think that's a valid point. The whole "level" thing is very reductionist and we're dealing with a multi-faceted condition that would tend to defy any attempt to distill it down to a single number. I scored about halfway between the NT threshold and the maximum possible score on the AQ test, and when I asked my dignostician how severe my autism was, she pointed to that. I gather the AQ test and its author has been criticized for being so reductionist that the truth gets lost in the process, and I've long known that I can get any result I want with AQ without really lying, because the questions demand black-and-white answers to things that I can only accurately reply to with answers of the form "sometimes, you see it depends on the circumstances." With the right people and few autism-unfriendly challenges I'm barely distinguishable from NT. With the wrong people and challenges galore I'd have to get out fast or the mask will slip and they'll know I'm not normal at all.

I think the severity level thing is largely an attempt to make it simpler for benefits and official adjustment purposes - mild = don't give them anything, severe = we'll probably have to at least make it look like we're helping, and moderate = try fobbing them off with nothing but be prepared to throw them a few scraps if they seem to be fighting back effectively.

Then maybe they are level 2. What level 2's have in common in my experience is a very early diagnosis, significant speech delay, significant lack of interacting, significant developmental delay and requirement of significant support. There's like no grey area. No masking. Others can easily see that person has significant autism.

It seems to me there's a fairly good percentage of us who were not only diagnosed very early, but were also originally diagnosed as level 3 severe.

Never hard of these levels being used. I was diagnosed with Aspergers in 2016 and it wasn't mentioned.

Aspergers and level 1 are the same thing. If you were level 2 you probably would have been diagnosed autistic at an early age. If level 2 wasn't recognized back then then maybe brain damaged or similar.

The levels are part of the "Autism Spectrum Disorder" diagnosis in the DSM 5 manual. If you were diagnosed with Aspergers you were not diagnosed using that manual. There are no levels that come with an Asperger's diagnosis that I am aware of.

Level 2 autism. But I can not function alone. I can get dressed myself but I can't do basic hygiene without being reminded. I can't go out alone. I don't have meltdowns but I am always in sensory overload. I don't talk to people (I have selective mutism but I wouldn't talk anyways) often/if at all

Not quite. Someone could, for example, have learned to talk at the normal age (hence Aspergers) yet still have extreme difficulty carrying on a spoken conversation and/or have extreme sensory sensitivities (and thus be ASD Level 2). On the other hand, someone could have a speech delay (hence NOT Aspergers), but could then, after learning to talk, do fine (at least academically if not socially) in school and end up being able to live at least semi-independently (hence Level 1).

Makes sense then. My diagnosis specifically states using ICD-10

Yesterday I got the paper draft of my diagnosis report from my psychologist. We talked through it for several hours to make sure I understood it, and I wanted to spend a big chunk of that on the level. I went in pretty stressed about what level she'd assess. We hadn't talked much about my adult life, focusing instead on my childhood. I assumed she'd default to level one since I've been consistently employed and was able to get myself to my appointment. But I was worried that level wouldn't reflect the signifiant difficulties I have. I've been in trouble with the law several times for failure to understand how things work. Failing to read expressions has gotten me a loaded gun pointed at my head. I have several learning disbilities and dropped out of college multiple times. Recently I've been shutting down frequently in noisy restaurants and occasionally melting down at work. I almost never have energy in the evening after work, and weekends are mostly resting and recovering to prepare for the next week. But despite all that I *am* holding down a full time job. I can travel to my psychologist appointment. I get a lot of support from my partners, and that support is invaluable, but ultimately I have a basic level of functioning despite all that difficulty. She stressed that there's a huge range of life stress and difficulty wrapped up into the neurotype itself in our society, regardless of level. So my diagnosis says asd-1.