would you be able to tell danial tammet has autism?

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I don’t think we have enough info for causation. Epilepsy is not a cause of AS. There are different schools of thought on if its genetic or not. I have my views on that but that are not simple or short enough for here.
From my perspective he is an Aspie with epilepsy.
With regard to challenging diagnosis well the very criteria and existence of the condition is under question from DSM5 but from another neuroscience perspective it still exists.
You sound like Catherine Lord.

Its a very complex subject but not meaningless or just a tag. But at the same time so misunderstood its hard to talk about the subject.

Epilepsy has been known to trigger savant abilities. So have head injuries. Doesn't mean he doesn't have AS.



Agreed. It is. What does this have to do with Epilepsy probably causing his Savantism?



So how does this mean he doesn't have AS? Who said AS was the cause of his being a Savant? I never heard him say it. Has he?

Even if he has said it, it is possible that his AS may have caused him to be predisposed for Savantism, and all it took was a seizure to unlock it. Nobody really understands what causes Savantism.



Epilepsy and Asperger's are nothing alike. I've known quite a lot of people with epilepsy, none of whom are on the spectrum, and not one of them acts anything like anyone I know with ASD's. Every one of them in fact, are about as NT as you can get.



Maybe you could explain to me then, why it took over eight years to get my son diagnosed, when we were 100% positive he had it, and every doctor we brought him to looked at him for an hour and said, "No he doesn't have it." If it's so in vogue, why was he rejected so many times? Contrary to what you think, it's not really all that easy to get a diagnosis, and no, it doesn't cover just anyone.



I find it curious that you think nobody wants to challenge diagnosis, when in my experience I see challenges all the time. Usually from people with ASD's seeing others with ASD's that don't think and act just like them. That obviously does not describe you considering some other things you said, so if one wonders why you're challenging this guy so hard, all one has to do is read on.



And there it is. You're a skeptic. Nothing wrong with that, unless it drives one to pretty much pick everything and everyone apart.



Perhaps. Perhaps not. But if you don't think you do, it give me pause to wonder.

Why do you have your diagnosis on your profile if you don't believe you have it?

And if you don't believe you have it, why are you here on Wrong Planet, a site designed to help people who do have it?

These are honest questions. It just seems as if you're very conflicted, and I'm wondering why you are here if you don't have AS, or at least don't believe you do.

Are you hear to convince us that this is all just a big joke?

I dont actually think its genetic but yet i do believe in genetic disposition and that environmental factors can play a role after birth.

This kind of thinking is why AS is not in DSM5 and diagnosis will be impossible for many. This wont really help them or mean that they are not on the spectrum.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/dsm5-in-distress

DSM sucks getting diagnosed sucks and it will only change when its based on scans

This is true. Tammet is an unusual case--most prodigious savants do have intellectual disabilities. Some, however, are closer to typical, and many autistic people have savant-like splinter skills such as perfect pitch.

His particular theory is that he was predisposed to savant syndrome because of his autism, and when the seizures caused damage resulting in synesthesia, the savant skills latched on to the synesthesia in a sort of a feedback loop, resulting in a prodigious savant with only Asperger's rather than more severe autism, TBI, intellectual disability, etc. as it usually is.

Can you explain why you think this? It's counter to everything I've learned about autism and epilepsy. I wonder whether you might have talked to people who weren't really representative of the general autism population?

Here's what I've learned about it: Most people with epilepsy don't have learning disabilities. Many people with autism have epilepsy. Seizures happen when the electrical activity in the brain goes out of control, and most of the time the seizures don't cause enough damage to be detectable. Sometimes they do--evidently Tammet's early seizures did; apparently they were quite severe--but usually not, especially if your seizures are well-controlled. Many people with autism also have seizures; I don't know the exact number, but it's much higher than you'd expect by pure chance. If you have one of either epilepsy, autism, or intellectual disability, it does raise the chances that you'll also have one or both of the other two. But it's not absolute. They're just common comorbids.

Epilepsy is present in 10-30% of autistic individuals. They're clearly not mutually exclusive.

Wow! That's roughly 250% higher than the general population then, isn't it? (1/26)

I never realized it was that much higher. It's surprising then, that all 3 of the epileptics I knew were clearly not on the spectrum. Still none of them were remotely autistic like in any way that I could ever see. That kind of leads me to believe that epilepsy itself doesn't cause autistic like behaviors, but that is only three people in my experience, so it's not much to go on.

I've read and heard that epilepsy can cause autistic like behavior. But not everyone with it shows autistic like symptoms. Same as for people with anxiety disorders.

Yeah, my older sister was epileptic but definitely not autistic. I am definitely not epileptic. I have come across many autistic people who say they're also epileptic as well, and I have no reason to doubt them.

I have heard of some people who appear to be severely autistic, but it turns out they're having constant severe seizures, and once those are treated they no longer appear to be autistic.

Just FYI and all,

This isn't social interaction (even the interviewer thought it was too); this is an interview on a set topic. It's the interaction that "we" are good at.

Last edited by Dillogic on 26 Dec 2012, 1:33 am, edited 1 time in total.

Kudos to him for figuring out how to make it in the NT world. I'd rather hear how brilliant he is than have to listen to endless streams of fake shock anytime a spoiled rich girl flashes her crotch for attention.

I read the Daniel Tammet was diagnosed with AS by Simon Baron-Cohen. Also, he was studied by Darold Treffert the savant syndrome eggspert. But I also read speculation on a mnemonic memorizer forum that he was using regular mnemonic techniques instead of special syneasthesia savantism something something for his mental feats. I've decided that I don't care about the authenticity of autistic public figures. It is fine for them to talk and write about themselves and their eggsperience of autism in public, but what they say isn't really relevant to me.

How very observant!

I noticed the eye contact too. He seemed to be staring right through Dave at times.

This thread?

http://mnemotechnics.org/forums/daniel-tammet-840.html

I don't really care either way.

You are incorrect about epilepsy and autism:

http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/198/4/289.short

If you Google you will find plenty more.

Females with AS in particular are very adept at masking skills and learning 'acceptable' social behaviour. That doesn't mean they do not have AS, whether you believe it or not.

Yeah, the things that struck me were his gait, and his awkward sitting posture ( both of which I also have). He seems quite eloquent and articulate but he is speaking about himself and his interestsin what is quite possibly a scripted interview.

I like having my own views on things. As Asperger's is such in imprecise thing ie not scientific or not proved scientifically yet, it's impossible for any one person to be more 'correct' than another. So my opinion is as valid as anyone else's. I would say I think a genetic cause is the most likely one.

I have met two people with epilepsy. One, a friend, had to have a large brain tumour removed when younger and this entailed severing his optic nerve which made him blind. It also affected him neurologically/cognitively ie it slowed down his thinking and focusing abilities and I think this is why we got on ie our thinking processes were slowed down hence he didn't have the usual impatience most NTs have with me. He also had epilepsy but it's not clear to me whether this was caused by the tumour or if he had a propensity towards developing it beforehand as he told me that as a child he used to bang his head a lot, which indicates some kind of brain disturbance or other.

Another person who had epilepsy was attending the same autism meetings to try and get services sorted out in my town and was saying she was autistic although hadn't been diagnosed. She was already involved with MENCAP and other learning disability groups and it was clear she had a learning disability. She did nothing to help me set up the group and was incredibly ignorant as regards even bothering to reply to my emails and as she had set up her own 'train employers to be less prejudiced against people with learning disabilities' business which had no work, it became clear she only saw the autism support group I was setting up as a possible route to work for her business. I realised she was not on the autistic spectrum at all and as NT as they come.
I had a short row with her on Facebook in which she was incredibly NT and it added to my theory that 99.9% of people with a LD are indeed very NT. She was also writing her life story which was incredibly long and boring as f-k. I felt that due to her LD she had been indulged to think she was far more intelligent and insightful than she was in reality and she really really irritated me.
Nevertheless, during the few meetings with the council she did attend I stood up for her to get people to listen when she wanted to speak as her slowness meant she wasn't being given the airspace to talk.

So, two people with epilepsy, neither with an ASD but one was sort of on my wavelength due to his slower cognitive function and the other I could have happily punched she was so annoying and self-serving!

I'm never in awe of these savant/celebrity Asperger etc types from the word go - they have to prove their credentials to me. I have looked into 'The Daniel Tammet Phenomenon' and lost interest quickly as I just didn't take to him.

I can envisage a lot of people with an ASD eagerly listening to him in rapt wonder though and that is why people like him will always be able to make a living. Not out of people like me though.