Can we relate to those who are severely autistic?

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who is 'we'? not all of us on WP are HFAs.
am severly autistic and mixed functioning and can relate to people with severe aspergers as well as people with profound autism,am unable to relate at all to NTs though and find them completely alien if honest [not in a offensive way].

Despite the fact that I have a supposedly extremely mild presentation, I do have some traits, such as self-injury through hitting and biting, that is often associated with more severe presentations (and, yes, I have been known to flap--though mine is due to anger or frustration instead of happiness--and make weird noises; I don't think that I go completely non-verbal, but I do reach a state where my voice is much more soft and monotone and where speaking is more difficult).

I can also relate to the "severe" cases in being treated far beneath my chronological age--though I am not unintelligent (at least according to academics and standardized tests), I am still, at 18, treated like a prepubescent child at times by my immediate family (as in "Wait, WerewolfPoet--don't wander off too far! Stay by us!" and "If you leave this sheet wet, it will mold. Do you know what 'mold' means?) .

So while I cannot emphasize with having sensory perceptions or cognitive process so incompatible with "mainstream society" as to be completely unable to function in it, I can relate to those "further along the spectrum" in many ways.

I have spent a lot of time around "low functioning" autistic people of all shapes and sizes.

I have one friend who is diagnosed with AS. He is at least as well adapted as me, probably better (though it is hard for me to judge). People can probably only tell that he is disabled rather than a bit eccentric because he had a few high-profile meltdowns when we started secondary school (my meltdowns are much more internalised, but I think my eccentricities stand out more). He's studying law at a top-drawer University.

Then I have a few friends who I have described as being "low functioning", but been corrected by others on here. One has grown up a lot in the past few years, and now might not even be obviously autistic until you spend a while around him (but I don't think he'll ever have his autism challenged). One is very obviously disabled, he just doesn't fit into normal society at all, you'd know he was disabled within a couple of sentences if you couldn't tell from the way he was acting. They're both currently in college (note for Americans: college in the UK is generally the equivalent of community college, unless you are referring to collegiate universities like Oxbridge and London) so they've shown that they're capable when given support.

Then I've spent time caring for people who couldn't come in mainstream schools. At one end of the scale, there were children with severe ADHD who could easily just be mistaken for rowdy NTs. Then there were autistic children who were probably less obviously disabled than some in the mainstream system, but when it came down to it ultimately had more issues with rigidity or shyness or socialising. Then there were children with Down's Syndrome, and children with severe autism who communicated in single words (or echolalia).

Ultimately, whilst the presentation may differ, autism is much the same along the whole spectrum. We don't have the same tolerance for sensory stimuli that other people have, we misjudge social signals, and we have strong obsessions with topics. So yes, I think I can identify with people right across the spectrum.

This post nearly made me cry because I can relate to a lot of what you said. I am referred to as lazy, stubborn and impulsive, nobody knows how much I am struggling just to get trough each day.

But on the topic, I don't actually know anyone with low functioning autism.

Others have called me high functioning...Maybe I relate a bit?...a few years ago after a complete meltdown, sensory easily caused meltdowns for me. Before then I had filtering, then lacked most filters and I was nearly mute frequently (from sensory and emotional overload) for months.

Last edited by Lumi on 13 Dec 2013, 5:37 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I view severity in autism to be the level of hyper-connectivity in the brain, and therefore intensity of sensory sensitivities and confusion. Furthermore, an autistic individual's level of intelligence and personality can affect how they cope with their autism, and therefore how autistic they "appear" to others.

With this in mind, those that we interpret as severely autistic are:
1) truly severely autistic - their sensory sensitivities are so extreme that it is painful for them to connect to the world in any way, or
2) apparently severely autistic - their sensory sensitivities are not so extreme, but they have cognitive deficits that make it difficult for them to cope.

Both would "appear" as non-verbal and have explosive reactions.

I think most of us; Aspergers, HFA, and PDD-NOS, have middle-of-the-road to severe sensory sensitivities and we have the cognitive functions to help us cope. In either of the two cases above we may be able to relate to the sensory sensivities, but probably none of us know what its like to have the severest form or to not be able to voice our issues at all.

I know what you mean in regards to that one!

I agree 100%. To me autism is LFA, which I am not. and do not identify with at all.
I don't buy that AS is either. Sula Wolff wanted AS merged with schizoid personality disorder, I have seen online that some has wondered if it is an NVLD, and (just an opinion) it could be grouped with ADHD too.

I disagree with this. I don't flap or make funny noises (at least not since I was a child) but I have high functioning autism. I don't see any difference between myself and someone with Aspergers except for the fact that I didn't start speaking until I was 3+ years old.

To answer the original question, I don't know many people with 'classic autism' so it is hard for me to know if I relate. I would like to think that, if I entered a social situation with someone that is low functioning, I probably could relate to them.

Sure

Problems with:

social reciprocation
change
fixations

don't really care what one's IQ is.

I'm able to relate to people all across the Autistic Spectrum, whether they have mild AS or severe autism. I was buddies with with a boy who was LFA. He was a jumper, so I connected with him by having jumping contests with him. He also liked to talk about shopping, so I talked about shopping with him. I wasn't hung up with the fact that he still wasn't toilet trained even though he was a year younger than me. I was hung up about something different like which of my typical peers or older, more experienced peers were going to tease, bully or reject me on any given day.

Then why are you saying the things you've said?




You need to change your grasp of what "autistic" means.

It means people on all parts of the spectrum, not the ones you describe. Broaden your horizons, please.

Sometimes I do those. Less nonverbal. Thinking about it more, I have related most to "sensory confusing everything"

Last edited by Lumi on 15 Dec 2013, 5:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I probably have more cognitive than sensory differences, although my sensory problems were worse when I was a child than now. Most of my current difficulties have to do with intense, narrow interests that stifle the "flow" of conversations with people (since the bulk of most NT talk bores me very similarly to my special-interest talk boring them!)

I would VERY MUCH like to try relating to these "severely autistic" people! It would be about as much of a push in the "other direction" from me as the one from myself to NT. Heck, I'm doing a bit of it right here on Wrong Planet! That's how they best communicate anyway...

Oh, and I see programming a computer very much like trying to talk to someone who is EXTREMELY "autistic" compared to most, if not all, on Wrong Planet! Particularly taking things literally. One misplaced semicolon or syntactical/logical error and the program doesn't compile (if I'm lucky) or exhibits strange behavior (if I'm unlucky) or exhibits INTERMITTENT strange behavior (if I'm VERY unlucky!)

I think I can relate to severely autistic people.

Sometimes I even wish I was more autistic, so that people would see it right away and wouldn't expect me to behave like an NT.

Last edited by Astera on 16 Dec 2013, 4:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

Ackshuly, I do relate to children who shared my childhood traits and don't/can't communicate, but after a certain age, less, because eggsperiences diverged, and I developed my way, and others developed their ways.