Why is "Asperger's" considered a form of Autism?

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Well, I'm officially diagnosed with AS and I can relate better to those with classical autism than to those with a diagnosis of AS in many cases.

While outcome for me seems vastly different for the outcome both classical and for AS (based on studies), my symptoms remained largely the same and I often identify a symptom similar to mine in a person with PDD-NOS and classical rather than one with AS.

Except the delay and MR it's absolutely the same issues in childhood too. At least I was pretty much the same.

To be fair, professionals describe me as extremely atypical in my develop (for having AS).

Typing is hard for me. Whilst I probably don't make too many grammatical and punctuation mistakes (I'm a stickler for accuracy), I'd rather cut up a decent sized tree with an axe than type this--to show the discrepancy between the difficulty. I do this because I need to.

This...helps my ability to relate, and that's something I need, even though I'll never be a part of society, I was born into it, and I need to ask for things. Typing may just help, or it might not; I haven't made much progress with interacting in person, no matter how much I've typed.

Still aloof.

age1600 welcome back! i have been quietly obsessing about you for the last few weeks (ever since your bf posted a thread, don't remember where), even though i don't think you know me. i also randomly disappear from social interaction randomly, don't know why either. but good to see you again!

Danielismyname. The article by Lorna Wing that you were referring to is in my favourites box. I find myself continually linking to it on WP anyway. Here it is.

http://www.mugsy.org/wing2.htm

Aspergers and Autism have a very similar, if not the same, fundamental cause. It looks different, and humans like having labels for things that look different, but I believe this difference merely reflects the reaction of a particular severity to the particular environment. (Rather than an inherent difference in the cause of the neurological disorder, which I feel should be the basis of a different diagnosis.)

I believe the difference between AS and HFA is minimal, if not superficial. I believe that the symptoms referred to as "Asperger Syndrome" are more or less a milder form of the symptoms which define "autism," once perceived environment is taken into account.

AS and HFA are so similar they are basically the same.

In fact, they may be the same officially eventually, not sure when though.

I'm not saying it is. I was just showing how I saw the spectrum. It doesn't mean it's accurate. As for the PDD NOS, everyone with PDD NOS I have seen have been a much more mild case of autism than even aspergers. That's why I put it at the mild end. Again, doesn't mean it's 100% accurate.

yea i guess i should have said typing is much easier and i love to type rather then verbally talk, i agree with u on the grammactical errors, i also havebeen having weird tics where i cant type for long or i gotta flick my whole arm up, then i flap then i jus disappear from the computer, or my arthritis kills me haha, something always decides to try to ruin my day haha. i made a joke about how in my brain its like a battle, autism, tourettes, usually autism wins haha maybe its stronger idk, but every now and then tourettes wins the battle and im left ticking all day, while autism although is not resting is sorta in the corner like dang i let that fool win, plannin a scheme to beat tourettes again haha. sorry i make myself crack up haha. anyways typing also helps me interact on a level i never could in person, to say the paragraph above is like murder sucicde to my little brain and vocal cords, but to type it is like a walk in the park heheh.



hehehe my bf made a thread? haha that son of a motherless goat, somebodys gettin the evil eye later lol jk. good to see ur back as well, i recognize the username but dont think we've talked personally through here. i thought ppl forgot me hehe.



ensabah6 sorry for hijacking the thread

But that phoebe is a no talent idiot that thinks she has lots of talent, and is ok. BTW age1600 seems a lot better than phoebe!

PDD-NOS LITERALLY, and apparently "officially", covers the ENTIRE spectrum from the WORST, to the BEST. It overlaps KANNERS which overlaps AS. The distinction is that if someone is OBVIOUSLY affected by a PDD condition, and doesn't fully meet the criteria for one to the exclusion of others.

yeah he was trying to figure out what you were thinking. (i think!) maybe you've become an obsession to me, hope that doesn't freak you out lol. (i talk about you to random people sometimes, i don't exactly "know" many people diagnosed with classic autism). autism is DEFINITELY an obsessive interest for me!

as others have said yea i kinda envy you sometimes that you don't really care about what others think and can just do your own thing. i'm diagnosed with AS and am forever locked in a battle with anxiety because i do "care" about what other people think even if i don't know what that might actually be.

re the distinction between aspergers and autism, i guess the difference lies between "truth" (objective reality - what the true cause is, eg neurological) and "diagnostic criteria" (what is useful for other people to know in order to be able to tell between AS/autism/whatever - ie, behavioural.)

truthwise, ie neurological distinction, i'm pretty sure aspergers should be considered simply a mild form of autism.

but i think behaviourally there is a visible (but very blurry) distinction. and because autism is diagnosed behaviourally in most situations you get different (and often inconsistent) labels such as "i'm not autistic i have aspergers." this contradiction is because the root cause is neurological, not behavioural, and you are diagnosing behaviourally, not neurologically.

would that there were a form of neurological diagnosis!

Hehe its okay dont mind at all. yea i dont have much anxiety especially social anxiety, and i dont have obsessions either weirdly also, the only thing i obsess over constantly is sensory related or stim related. i think tho asperger isnt always mild either, because the anxiety alone is probably crippling enough to just take over ur life, that itself is a disability, something stopping u from being able to live a normal life. anyways good chattin wit ya hehehe

When I write to an individual, I write very well. Well enough that my employment agent, her receptionist and the diagnostician psychologist complement me on it.

My verbal skills are wildly variable.

How can one tell that Autism and Aspergers are related?

Well, you cannot have both. So they must be the same.

As far as anyone is concerned. And that is good enough.

But what about Rett's Syndrome.

As far as I am concerned, Retts syndrome is 100% DIFFERENT!

From wikipedia:



The subset of autism symptoms in retts is COMMON, and should NOT be used to confuse it with autism. Development is caused simply by a wholesale genetic defect. Frankly, I think anyone should consider RETT'S and "CDD" to be 100% SEPARATE from autism or PDD.

PDDNOS is just "atypical autism". It can be any functioning level.

Example PDDNOS cases:

--Twelve year old non-verbal boy who spends a lot of time stimming; IQ measured in the MR range. However, enjoys physical contact and will immediately attempt to interact with anyone else in the room. Makes eye contact; understands simple gestures; language difficulty prevents from learning sign or writing.

--Twenty-five-year-old with normal physical and mental development; no speech delay; normal IQ. Stims, special interests, and disinterest in social interaction. No friends. Some stims are self-injurious. Delay in self-care skills due to executive dysfunction. Able to live independently; unable to work.

--Fifty year old with normal physical, mental, speech, and self-care. Married home-maker with grown children. Learned social interaction with difficulty; odd but communicative speech. Mild stims and obsessions don't interfere with functioning. Pt. reports being easily exhausted having to deal with socialization and organization.

Why are these cases PDD-NOS instead of some other category?
Case 1 would be classic autism. However, there are no non-verbal interaction impairments that aren't expected of somebody with developmental delay. A missing part of the diagnosis makes this atypical autism.

Case 2 is a case where it's hard to diagnose either Asperger's or Kanner's without running into problems. Normal IQ and speech development point to AS; the self-care problems point to Kanner's; but they're not very severe, with independence with intermittent support possible, so you might hesitate to diagnose Kanner's. PDD-NOS makes sense in this borderline case, with features of both specific categories.

Case 3 is a case where Asperger's would be diagnosed, except that throughout the lifetime this person has learned enough to no longer be defined as "socially impaired", and his repetitive/obsessive behavior has been toned down to the point that it no longer causes impairment. However, since dealing with life still takes more effort for this person than for most, a diagnosis is warranted--probably PDD-NOS.

Rett's causes autistic symptoms, though--very, very close to Kanner's autism. It's like the mental parts of it are autism; and the physical parts are something else--seizures, microcephaly, whatever. I'd also note that Rett's doesn't always involve that MECP2 mutation--usually it does, like 90%; sometimes it's something else; sometimes you can't find a genetic difference but all the signs are there. I'd call Rett's people "autistic" just the way you can call people with Fragile X or Down's "developmentally delayed", even though that one symptom occurs in isolation as well as being part of different syndromes that have other symptoms too.

Actually, I think CDD may just be regular Kanner's autism, only very responsive to stress. Regular Kanner's can involve loss of skills, like maybe when you get sick you lose the ability to speak and then have to learn it back later; or you get seizures and you suddenly lose self-care stuff and have to learn it back... Maybe CDD is like that; only more dramatic. Maybe with CDD, you have a kid with autism that's going mostly undiagnosed because it's so mild; but then he gets a knock on the head or high fever or starts getting seizures, and whatever it is about his particular case just triggers the regression; and it's a really big regression, and the first time during childhood instead of infant/toddler years--and the autism is suddenly extremely obvious instead of just a kid with a bit of oddity to him... CDD is very rare anyway--usually if you're going to lose anything, it's more falling behind than outright loss, and it happens before you're three.

Wow, thank you.

(Callista's posts are awesome. I am going to bookmark this one or something.)

i know what you mean theres an very autistic guy in my class and hes nothing like me at all i cant understand how my condition resembles his at all