A question concerning high functioning AS and stims.........

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PDDNOS is a diagnosis that takes people who are on the spectrum who dont quite fit the criteria of any of the specific ASD labels but are significantly impared enough to be worth diagnosing,people with it can range from severely impaired who dont quite meet classic autism to lesser impaired with too less traits to get an AS diagnosis.
am have had the NOS tag before for trigeminal neuralgia when they didnt believe a teen could get it [facial pain NOS if am remember correctly].

and stimming a lot does not make someone low functioning even though it's more common amongst obvious autistics [auties more so than aspies].
functioning is about looking after self,communication ability,quality of life as a result of their autism or as, personal care etc.

WHO CARES what is better, with regard to chance? The question is do YOU have a good chance. Apparently, given what I have seen, people with AS might have lots of problems, and people with HFS might do fine.

Mage,

PDD-NOS can range from mild (atypical Asperger's) to severe (atypical autism). "HFA" is severe (it's autism).

PDD-NOS is usually seen as mild as one doesn't need many points to fit the criteria (it's also reserved for less severe symptoms), and many people are diagnosed with atypical Asperger's (mild Asperger's); I assume most people with the PDD-NOS label have the latter.

Wiki would disagree with you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-functioning_autism
"High-functioning autism (HFA) is an informal term applied to autistic individuals who are in some sense able.[1] A similar diagnosis would be Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) and refers to any person with autism that does not fall under the classic label.[citation needed]"

Until the world can reach a consensus on what these terms mean, I will continue to just say I am HFA. It seems like a much more descriptive term than Asperger's or PDD-NOS so people would be less likely to be confused.

Nah.

"HFA" is a diagnosis of autistic disorder without an Axis-II diagnosis of mental retardation. I have some research papers that state such.

Take me, I meet the full criteria for autistic disorder, but I'm in the one-quarter that don't have an Axis-II diagnosis of MR (those with MR are said to have "LFA"); PDD-NOS is for people who don't meet the full criteria for autistic disorder for example.

Here's one (Dickerson Mayes, S. and Calhoun, S.L. (2001) Autism Vol 5 (1) 81-94.):

----end quote


I know exactly what you're talking about. I've worked as a graphics designer for print in the newspaper biz for 13 years now, and even though I've won awards, done all the crap jobs no one else wanted to do and took extra work upon myself for my lack of schmoozing skills, I haven't been promoted and now my work is being outsourced to a company overseas. I've been taking classes to get caught up online/web design work, but being as I'm 40 and have health problems, I can see myself being virtually unemployable within 3-4 years. I'm too tired & too broke to go back to college and learn something else. Newspapers are all I know, and thanks to the proliferation of the internet, they're going the way of the wind. I'll probably be living under a bridge by next year if things get any worse. You can thank the internet and our crap economy for the pink slips. This is only the beginning. I expect my pink slip any day now, once they get the new outsource workflow in place. It's not all doom and gloom, though - I hear they're hiring graphics designers in Mexico for something like 150 pesos an hour.

Oh, so I'm not off-topic, my IQ is 136 and I'm AS, not HFA (though there was some dispute in the beginning). Stim every now and then, usually tapping fingers, hand-flapping and clicking my rings together on my hands, or else constantly touching my eyes or forehead, or twirling my hair. But, I catch myself doing it and try to look like I was counting to myself or scratching my head (but that doesn't look good, either, I guess).

Living under a bridge is not a good idea considering the crumbling infrastructure in the US. People keep electing republicans because they don't ant to pay higher taxes (but don't seem to realize every penny spent on the war is one less to help our kids and build the economy or infrastructure...don't believe me. Ask the people who fell into the Mississippi when the MN bridge collapsed(I live in MN). I lived under a bridge for awhile...noisy . On the upside there are a lot of brand new empty houses that aren't selling that you can squat in .

We are watching the decline of the middle class, welcome to the dark ages...they were so fun, we have decided to revisit them. Back in the good old days they just burned people like me...now they will weed us out with eugenics...to save taxes for the next war, (feeling a little cynical as I can't seem to find a job today).

So if...Aspergers is NOT HFA...is it still considered autism because it doesn't seem to be covered by programs that are designed to help autistics....either I am or I'm not...not... I am(unless some ones tax money is going to be used to help me find a job with my "limitations". Off to scream now.....

yeah... I know about those bridges. The roads & bridges where I live are falling apart and I take a deep breath every time I have to drive across one of them. I agree - the war needs to end, and soon.



Don't worry, I'm right with you in the Cynicism Department. Have you heard that Congress is considering a bill to ban companies from testing people for genetic markers indicating possible disease & disability? I didn't even know they were doing that sort of thing to start with... and I thought having to pass a credit check for a job was an invasion of privacy. If the bill doesn't pass, I wonder if that means we can't et a job if we have a 45% or greater probability of having a heart attack? It's the health insurance companies doing all of this, as well as corporations trying to squeeze out every last penny they can.



AS is supposed to be the one of the mildest forms of autism, or soI've heard. People wth AS still have problems ( a lot of them ), but they can and do function in society. (At least well enough to get by). I've heard it's pretty hard to get Social Security with AS unless one is really having a hard time functioning. Even if they can prove it, it will take several years to get your first SS check. I thought about applying for it on my son's behalf (he's a bit lower functioning than I am and he's having a very hard time dealing with the idea of looking for a job), but the stack of paperwork I'd have to fill out is daunting. I'm probably going to wait and see how he does once he goes to college and graduates from there.

Funny thing about that "function level"...mine can be all over the place and I have managed to find ways to adjust my life to work around that(working over nights wherre they desperately need workers helps a lot) but even those jobs are getting harder to find and the physical labor I used to be able to do...well, I'm 44 now and stuff is starting to fall apart)

I functioned pretty well in college considering,(or because of) the alcohol. It helped with the depression to not have to be alone all the time. I also learned to sign up for weekend and night classes. There are "work arounds" that can help,but...I also had several "breakdowns" that would have left me homeless if it hadn't been for my parents helping me out. It was much, much worse when I graduated and had to try and pretend to be an adult. I felt like I was about 15 and those were the jobs I applied for...with a BA in Psych.

Sorry to get off course but I just think it is not as clear cut as the "experts" would like to make it out to be. I am much more able to shower, shop, look for a job when I don't have to many stressors in my life...when I do I shut down and my brain just does not work the way I want it to...until they can see into my brain....they can not tell the difference between AS shut down,depression or laziness....so they will always chose the latter(it's cheaper).

I don't want to live on SSI/SSD...I want a job that uses my strengths, doesn't stress me out so much that it is all I can do, and takes me senory and social issues in to account. We are a watsed resource and I think it is messed up.

Asperger's is an autism spectrum disorder, and its social difficulties are as severe as "LFA" and "HFA", but they usually manifest differently [in a way that allows one to show interest in social interaction]; its repetitive behaviors are as severe as LFA/HFA too, but they too manifest differently in most cases (a way that involves a better chance at fitting in to society).

One can apply for and receive social services (disability pension for example) with either autism or Asperger's here in Oz if you're deemed too "severe" to work or study.

How could you possibly say that the social difficulties of AS are as severe as those of "LFA" when tons of people with AS have friends, family, spouses, etc. whereas there are tons of people with LFA who are completely non-verbal?

It says such in the DSM-IV-TR. A ton of people with autistic disorder have friends and partners too, it doesn't detract from its global severity as most don't.

Here you go:

I worked with a LFA autistic and he had family and I considered myself a person who liked and cared about him..I would have continued my relationship as a carer if I had been allowed to do so. He may not have cared about "me" but I was the thing that fed and cared for him and he would smile in repsonse to my rubbing his shoulders or scalp.

I am saying this because I keep seeing an "us and them" mentality here, being able to communicate in words or not is not what makes some one a sentient being. I personaly don't have friends or family in my life, just a BF. I think at times he was better at letting people in then I am.

I've got a pile of research papers regarding the fact that after a given period of development (some say 4-5 years post-diagnosis, some say adulthood, etc.) AS and HFA (with language) are indistinguishable. Another stack that discusses differences between the two in adulthood, and they are so small as to be negligible. I think a lot of it is the type of care and treatment.
I know that if my early language development was not known, I'd probably be looked at as HFA. My behavior is more in tune with that, though I do have the professorial speech.

Seriously. Who cares? It's all HFA. It may not all be HF "Autistic Disorder," but it's all HF "Autistic Spectrum Disorder." In the end, looking at an adult on the spectrum with language, you'd have no idea.

Well, even Professor Attwood, one of the biggest proponents of lumping HFA and AS together will tell you there are distinct differences between the two groups (as it's written in the DSM; he acknowledges such), it's just that the outcome is similar in adults (AS can be "worst" than HFA, and vice versa), and clinically, the treatment is the same.

There are differences, they're just not worth separating in many professionals' eyes (more state that they're different and should be separated, it's like 30 and a bit to 20 and a bit in favour of keeping "HFA" separate from AS in research papers).

I just think it is absurd to say that there is the same amount of social impairment in classic autism and AS when there are people with AS whose social skills are so good that people can't even tell them apart from NTs, while there are people with classic autism who can't even speak.