One Defining Autistic Characteristic

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The new DSM5 criteria included sensory sensitivity as part of the "restricted or repetitive behaviors and interests" (RRBI). They are an optional feature, but they count towards a diagnosis. A person must have some RRBIs to be diagnosed with ASD, and sensory sensitivity counts as one of those.

The next ICD (ICD-11) may do the same, although it is not due until next year (2015).

What is ICD?

ICD stands for the International statistical Classification of Diseases and related health problems. Quite a mouthful of a name - in the UK it seems to be up to the professional whether they use the ICD to help with diagnosis of mental/neurological disorders, or the DSM, or some consult them both.

I think the social deficits are definitely a symptom, but they are not the thing itself.

It's the weak sense of one's own self that leads to the social deficits/stigmata.

If you don't have a very coherent sense of your own persona, you don't have a social self to project onto the world around you.

Thank you!

Some things I take issue with:

1) This is really a semantic point, but I'd rephrase this as something closer to having a particular style of mental function that lends itself much better to certain activities than others. As someone else mentioned, not everyone has some super special gift. It's language like that which tends to support the inaccurate idea of everyone with autism being a savant or secret genius at something. That idea, while one of the few positive stereotypes about aspergers, is indeed frequently inaccurate and can definitely be harmful to someone who has special interests that wouldn't be traditionally categorized as talents or skills.

2) This I just disagree with. Maybe I'm some sort of unusual or exception (I'm also the--in my experience--rarer extreme verbal thinker) but at my best I can perform bizarre and incredible feats of coordination. Just this morning I was texting with one hand and making scrambled eggs with the other. The caveat that pulls the scene back to aspergers is that I was at work risking burning myself (or my clients' breakfast xd) because I was derailed by texting about a special interest at seven in the morning. I also took incredibly well to martial arts, which itself was a special interest for the first 17 or so years of my life (thanks to Power Rangers and the Three Ninjas xd).

Hell, it probably returns to the semantics of (1). Some people are psychologically predisposed to be highly coordinated, while others are just the opposite.

The body coordination and movement issues is interesting for me. I am very good at sports, even achieved a red belt in Tae Kwon Do before moving from the place I lived in when I was on the Tae Kwon Do team. I tend to be good in many sports and pretty coordinated in them but I stumble a lot just walking. I sometimes trip over my feet and stub my toes more than most. I have also played piano and other instruments and I can type decently but sometimes I fumble with my hands doing simple things. So it can be inconsistent for me.

Also with the talents thing, I am not extraordinary gifted in anything but there are things that I tend to be predisposed to learn easier and quicker than others. I have been able to pick up languages easier than my siblings and also certain sports. So even though I am not like an amazingly gifted person, there are things that come naturally much easier for me and many people are surprised by how I can pick up certain things. I always seem to be slower than everyone else as well. I can swim for hours but I have never been fast, same with walking or running and even biking. I even got fired from a job once because I was too slow at putting items on the shelves in the store.

So maybe that is more along the lines of what these two things are talking about.

Hi Fogpatrol,
Also something I have observed is that people that were diagnosed as a child & put into "special schools" manifest more ASD characteristics when it comes to daily living.
I suspect it is because such persons had role models of people like themselves & copied behaviours (some positive & some negative). Whereas people that went to mainstream schools copied NT's, and therefore learnt how to mimic NT behaviour (artificially but none-the-less convincing), and therefore blend better in with NT society than people that had only other ASD people to "copy".

this is true. I thought I had wonderful social skills, until a number of people told me that I was inappropriate, or lacking in concern or kindness , or that I would say the wrong thing, etcetera. In other words I was so tone deaf to social communication that I didn't even know how bad I was at it.

I think I don't have a social self, but I do have a sense of self, just not a social sense of self that I can project unto the world.