What exactly is "mild" Aspergers?

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My issue is with the NT misconception that if it looks like a sheep, it's a sheep.
I don't have insomnia. I just hate going to bed....much as I hate getting out of bed. It's a transition issue and for me to make the transition, my level of discomfort must outweigh my resistance to the transition.

Interesting observation. I never considered that before, though it had occurred to me that once one turns 18, they generally get written off. Why should someone garner so much interest to the point of harassment when they are under 18 and be almost completely ignored once they turn 18?

I suspect financial reasons because this isn't so much the case in countries with more socialized health care systems.

I like "a little pregnant" myself.

There is mild moderate and severe to everything. Look at your car and there is damage to it. Is it mild moderate or severe damage? Sometimes a damage can look mild but really it's severe because of what's under it and how much it cost to have it all fixed.

Look at someone with AS. They seem normal so they must be mild right? But you are only with them for a few hours so you can't see their difficulties and their struggles even though they have a job and have gone to college so they must be mild right? But they can be more effected by it than you think.

I think you can have mild AS and have a trait that is severe because of how bad that trait is.

You can have mild AS and still struggle getting a job or getting through school. You can be mild and still be very naive, incredibly.

You can be mild and appear to have very bad AS at times because of the stress level you are experiencing.

I could see how it could be hard to label someone as "mild" or "severe" given that different people with AS have different symptoms, with each symptom having a different level of severity. However, I still believe that the shades of gray do exist and that there can be a mild Asperger's

In my case, when some people meet me for the 1st time they assume that I'm either ret*d or severely autistic because I talk a little slowly and monotonously and sometimes with too low a volume. Also, there are some things that I learn at a fast rate and other things that I learn way more slowly than others.

When other people meet me for the 1st time they assume just the opposite because I have good conversational skills and my eye contact is ok a lot of the time (I did need to learn this skill though).

In actuality, I was barely diagnosed. I had 1 psychologist that took 2 years to diagnose me after seeing him 1ce a week. Another psychologist changed the diagnosis to PDD-NOS because I'm functioning ok in life and even though I go through some obsessive tendencies my interests are still fairly generalized. The only reason she still considered me on the spectrum is that I was delayed with language learning, didn't learn left from right or how to tie my shoe laces until the 6th grade. Though, she also told me that there isn't always a clear cut line between someone who's barely on spectrum and someone who's NT with AS traits.
And during the time of the early 90's when in special ed the school psychologist diagnosed me as autistic, and my parents got a 2nd opinion from someone who said I wasn't autistic. This was during the time of the DSM III, before people acknowledged Asperger's and PDD-NOS. After that, I was mainstreamed and never really fit in that well.
In a way, I have always viewed myself as autistic sometimes, and sometimes I've always viewed myself as NT. When I took the AS quotient it said that I have both characteristics.
So, I believe that there are not only all kinds of levels of autism, but all kinds of levels of AS as well. However, regardless of their level of functioning, people might have more visible characteristics than others (e.g. tone of voice, etc.), and people make quick judgements based on what they can directly observe at the moment.

One thing to remember is that there are two different concepts here. One is how autistic you are. The other is how functional you are. You can be mildly autistic and still not be very functional.

I suppose that to some extent you can be quite functional and still quite autistic (Temple Grandin?). Though it seems that at some point the autism takes over and dominates the functional issues.

True enough, but I was just saying that mild autism does not imply really functional. There are just so many ways to be poorly functioning. I was not addressing moderate or severe autism at all.

Last edited by Yensid on 04 Mar 2011, 4:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Wow Chronos! Thank you!

Although I knew from the time he was 2 that he had something "going on", my son wasn't diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome until he was 12 (he's 17 now).

I have studied and worked with him and fought the school system and tried to educate neighborhood parents and have never stopped trying to learn about why he "does this" or why he "does that", even built a website about Asperger's, and so on.

Just when I least expect it, someone else comes along and opens my eyes. You have just accomplished this!

My son has a *huge* problem with transition (well it used to be worse than it is now but it's still there), but it never occurred to me that going from "not in bed" to "going to bed" and from "being in bed" to "getting out of bed" are transitions.

It makes absolute perfect sense but it never occurred to me.

And as I think about it, transition occurs in so many areas. Transitioning from playing his video games to stopping to eat dinner ... I always tell him "20 minutes", then "10 minutes", then "5 minutes", then "about 2 minutes", then "I'm just about ready to put it on the table" ... I never realized this was a transition issue, I just knew from his reactions that "counting him down" was always better than just a one-shot "dinner's ready".

From being at home to going to the store. Again, I "count him down". Never realized it was transition, just knew it made a difference in how he reacted when it was time to leave.

Transitioning from school to home, and home to school, that was always an obvious transition to me, but these other things... Wow, you really opened my eyes here.

Thank you Chronos!
Diane

Diane:
I'm glad I could be of help. Many parents think a lot of difficulties they have with their children are sensory issues, when, in fact, many of them are transitional issues. It can be very stressful for someone on the spectrum to stop what they are doing, and changes modes to doing something else, and your method of doing a countdown is a great way to prepare someone to make a transition.

The transition issues are usually with little things...like getting dressed, getting undressed, getting in the shower or bath, getting out of the shower or bath, and for some children, might also include going to the bathroom and getting out of the bathroom.
This really isn't unlike the transition issues most NT children have when they are very young, and make them burst into tears when you take them away from an activity, or have accidents because they couldn't be bothered to stop what they are doing and go to the bathroom. But NT children usually grow out of them, and adopt some type of daily ritual with respect to most mundane tasks. Ironically, though people with AS are said to adhere to rituals or routines, they often take a different "flavor" in people with AS who have transitional issues.

The mind of someone with AS with transitional issues generally likes to idle on or absorb itself in whatever it is the person happens to be doing.

Too complex.

I need some ice cream.

I may or may not have AS (even though I changed my status to "Have Asperger's - Undiagnosed recently), but I do not believe in the whole "mild" label. I also have a problem with the HFA vs. AS debate. AS/ASD is unique to the individual; look at the wealth of diversity among the members of this site!

I have a friend I went to high school with had many problems that I now recognize as Autism-related. He is CLEARLY on-the-Spectrum.

-He had stimming (eye blinking)
-He had extreme problems with communication; in group situations he would go completely mute
-When he did talk, he would often repeat the same conversations over and over
-He had an unusual gaze and problems with eye contact
-He had extreme problems with making and keeping friends; many times he was completely invisible
-He had few meaningful friendships
-He has desired such things as a wife and family but has trouble attaining them because of his deficits.

But this guy was able to go through college and graduate, even though he had a lot of difficulties. He got a job with a grocery store of all things and got an apartment on his own. But he struggled with day-to-day living. He never learned to drive a car. Sometimes when I would get angry and vengeful, he would come up with statements of wisdom about human relations and sayings from the Bible that seemed to elude me.

Things that angered or baffled me are things that he dealt with a lot better.

Is he severe because of his limitations or is he mild because of how he deals with some of them?

On the other hand, I seem to be a bit more functional than him.

-I had a much easier time than him getting through college
-I have always driven and maintained my own transportation
-I have a circle of friends and associates
-I, too, have a job and pay my own bills

Still my troubles have been most apparent
-I struggled badly with social situations and making friends once I left high school after building a network; it was like somebody pulled the rug out from under me and I landed on my a$$
-I still struggle to this day with approaching people or even with maintaining conversation among people I know
-I struggled with college because I knew that whatever I was dealing with affected my concept of how to organize my life so that I could grow into a career and make it on my own
-I have never lived on my own for a variety of reasons
-The full-time job I have is hell because I struggle in a highly social environment among people who are intolerant of differences
-Not only do I struggle with intimate relationships, I have no desire for things like a girlfriend, wife, or kids
-Different people have NO PROBLEM noticing individual traits, but they refuse to put them all together to paint a complete picture

Does the fact that I appear more "normal" than him by outward appearances make me "mild"?

Is he HFA while I'm a potentially "mild" AS. Or vice versa.

I just look at it as differing levels of the same thing, really. that is if we were both to be classified as on-the-Spectrum.

Put it this way. I am medium functioning by this scale: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Ass ... unctioning
which can be applied to anybody, with or without autism.



That is always a good answer.

I asked the specialist who diagnosed me where I fell in terms of mild/severe. He also said there is no such thing, you either have it or you don't. He said that labelling someone with Asperger's as mild or severe is wrong because ..............I've rewritten the end of this sentence several times but can't get it to come out right. I'll give the example he used instead.

Imagine 2 people with idential brain tumours. They both have the same agonising headaches and the same life expectancy. 1 gets on with life as best they can, manages to ignore the pain to a certain extent, tries to remain cheerful and optimistic. The other cannot ignore the pain no matter how hard they try and is so stressed that they are aching all over, they feel sick all the time, can't work or do normal every day things. Would it be right to describe the first person's tumour as less severe?

Sometimes I wonder if the 'mild' and 'severe' labels have less to do with the perosn with Autism and more to do with how badly an NT reacts to your differences. It seems obvious but I think there is a clear distinction there that autism intervention community needs to recognise.

My daughter's school continually tells me 'she's not that bad'. Her grades are good. She has no behavioral issues in the class room. She doesn't meltdown often. Yet, she plays alone on the playground. She doesn't get picked for teams. After a single visit, school friends parents stop answering our phone calls for play dates. Is she struggling? Absolutely. But they can't see it from their perspective (or in their all so precious academic testing) so everything must be fine. I'm glad she's 'mild' but that shouldn't be license to pass to her over or discount my concerns for her.

I've read that people tend to describe themselves as mild when others wouldn't. I'd take anybody calling themself mild with a boulder of salt. I do not consider myself mild but the thought of calling myself something beyond mild makes me want to think I'm just mild. Does that make sense?