Levels of severity?

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I find Asperger's to be a type of autism. They are not separate entities.

Personally I find the levels useful, if limited. I agree with others here who said the levels should be expanded, maybe to 1-5 or something, to allow for more nuance and clarity. I'd also like to see the Asperger's label be brought back, because even though Asperger's and autism are on the same spectrum, I feel like there should be a solid delineation between "bit of a geeky oddball who needs help making friends sometimes but is otherwise functionally independent" and "needs help with daily living or she'll starve to death and/or wander into traffic and get hit by a car" (both directly relevant to me, lest anyone think I'm speaking ill of those on the "lower functioning" end of the spectrum.)

Asperger's syndrome is still being diagnosed in the UK, because my brother has been diagnosed with it earlier this year.

I'm Asperger's too, or level 1 autism (if it's the same thing). Like I said in an earlier post here, I reached all the milestones at the normal stages when I was a baby. As a toddler I was interested in other toddlers, and I enjoyed preschool. As a child I played with other children a lot and desired playmates and social interaction, and I was also chatty with my parents and grandparents. Although I was social, I was still socially awkward enough to be diagnosed with Asperger's.

Actually it's only a subset of what was formerly called "Asperger's." "Level two autism with no delay in acquiring speech" would also have been "Asperger's" according to the DSM IV.

I agree with the DSM 5 decision that the age at which someone acquires speech is not a sufficient basis to differentiate a completely separate diagnostic category -- and in practice it was often ignored in DSM IV-era diagnoses, at least when diagnosing adults.

For example, my boyfriend's adult diagnosis of "Asperger's syndrome" was technically a misdiagnosis because he didn't start talking until age 4, and then only with the help of speech therapy -- and he still has a speech impairment. So his DSM IV diagnosis really should have been either "autistic disorder" (albeit "high-functioning") or PDD-NOS.

The age at which you learned to talk doesn't really make a huge difference once you are long past that age. Among adults, there are no significant categorical differences between Aspies and HFAs.

A categorical distinction based on when you learned to talk is also not very useful if you want to define a condition that can be diagnosed in infancy - before even an Aspie has learned to talk - to enable early interventions.

So if you want to define a lifelong condition that can be diagnosed in infancy and still be meaningfully defined throughout the lifespan, the DSM 5 concept of ASD makes a lot more sense than the DSM IV categorization.

Yep, I'm level 2 originally diagnosed with aspergers. I have speech problems but not a delay.

I have been away for a while, not diagnosed but I have the social cognition deficits as defined in ASD level 1. My abilities in planning and organizing are okay. The necessary skills were drilled into me over the years and I can reduce complex tasks into doable pieces.

As an adult, learning how to "mentalize" or use rules to get by in society is always front and center.. It has been a long and difficult effort. Avoidance is a constant struggle and is so easy to fall into. The world is a tough place when there are few safe ports. Sisyphus is allowed to take breaks.

I think that if I had been less sheltered as a kid I might’ve been a BAP person and probably wouldn’t have been given an autism diagnosis at all.

I’m not complaining, though, because I don’t mind having autism, and I don’t think of it as a bad thing.

I've mentioned this in a different thread, but I'm not a fan of levels and would prefer that they didn't exist at all. As someone who was diagnosed with PDD under the DSM-IV, I cringe every time someone with an Asperger diagnosis saying that it and autism are completely different things. If you ask me, the less categories/distinctions in autism diagnosis, the better.