Schizophrenia Just Mental Breakdown in Asperger's Syndrome?

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At least in some cases, schizophrenia seems to start early with delayed developmental milestones, motor clumsiness, and social anxiety. That sounds a little like a pervasive developmental disorder. Many of the symptoms that develop in schizophrenia closely resemble autistic symptoms: flat affect, literalism, echolalia, and more. On top of these negative symptoms, many schizophrenic people develop positive symptoms: hallucinations, delusions, and highly disorganized thinking and behavior (usually, the behavior is immature and bizarre). To me, psychosis seems to be the psychiatric outcome of all kinds of stressors pushing an autistic person's mind into perpetual overload.

NTs, on the other hand, are more likely to develop a less pervasive mental illness under stress: anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or personality disorders. Their minds are not pushed to the point of frank psychosis in most cases but rather only to the point of severe depression and anxiety. We, on the other hand, can completely lose it and become detached and oblivious to our social surroundings, enabling us to develop weird ideas.

Yup.

I have thought the same thing.

Really not something I can identify with at all I'm afraid.

Well, my ideas couldn't really be considered "weird", but people have accused me of being a misanthrope because of some of my statements. An example would be the time one girl acted really b-tchy towards me after I casually mentioned that I didn't like kids.
Of course, there are also those bizarre that completely defy logic. Like the theories about how time travel would work. I've often envisioned a scenario where I found a dead body lying out on the road and then met the dead person, totally alive and intact, several hours later.
Or the bank clerk looking up my mum's records on the computer and discovering an anomaly- that the same card was used by her in two locations at once.

Your mum would time-travel just to buy things at different locations in the same time?

i would've thought the opposite actually, since NTs have the imagination skills that could fuel hallucinations if they were under extreme stress. i think i've experienced about as much stress as an aspie can endure and yet i have never had a hallucination. i have suffered paranoia, though. also, i am diagnosed with OCD.

Not on purpose. There are always anomalies in the space-time continuum. And let's say that the car was out of gasoline and she stopped at a petrol station in Florida and one in Pennsylvania -at the same time-.
I'd rather not present a negative image of my mum, although I see how what I said earlier could be misinterpereted that way.

This makes sense. According to quantum mechanics, a particle can be in two places at once. Maybe this includes your mom, who may just be the densest particle of them all! (Sorry, that was just a yo'-momma joke.)

The thought of developing schizophrenia scares the hell out of me. Before I heard of AS, I thought that might be what was wrong with me. I never told anyone I thought that. I know now that I'm not.

I agree that Schizophrenia is extremely improbable, but I think the most common age range of onset is 19-23, when the brain goes through rapid changes to catch up to the maturity of the rest of the body. Schizophrenia can occur along with ASDs, but it is not a comorbid disorder and to the best of my knowledge, is less common in ASDs than NTs.

That is why I am still keeping my eyes open to the possibility of it. Maybe I'm just a little paranoid about it.

There is a difference between creative thinking and psychosis - to me you are all coming up with interesting possible ideas - but I assume none of you really believe they are true - but a psychotic person really does believe it is true - like your mother using the credit card in two places at once - if you truly believed that happened - I mean, really believed it and structured your life around it - that would be psychosis . . .

I worked with homeless substance abusers one time and was just amazed at how normal psychotic people seemed until you mentioned something that conflicted with their psychotic beliefs . . . 'course, I don't think anything like a normal person so maybe it was just me!

What in the name of Dis?

Psychotic people are normal! Normality is really abnormality! A long time ago, the psychotics were lauded as the prophets. Now the deluded ones have redefined normality to an ill definition. They are President Bush and his next of kin! Psychotic people shall inherit the Earth! Theirs is the kingdom! Theirs is Providence shone from the star of the Virgin dog Canine. You should liken yourself to them who see the Mystery.

Are you not afraid, Mortal?

I think we're all a little that way. I know I would be as scared as heck of schizophrenia (did I spell that correctly?), even knowing as little about it as I do.

Neant, considering your remark about President Bush, are you trying to start a political debate?

I think that people under stress are more likely to develop psychoses. Aspies are often under stress. But stress aside, I think just in general we are more prone to psychotic episodes.

As for Aspies developing Schizophrenia, I don't quite know. I think we either develop Schizophrenia at the rates of the general population or maybe even a little more. But as yet I haven't read anything to give any idea of percentage rates. From what I've read in a couple studies, there are more Schizophrenic members and Schizoid members in the families of an autty. But I would guess more often we, ourselves, are more prone to our frequently comorbid Bipolar becoming psychotic or our Depression becoming psychotic.

But I am not of the mind that Autism and Schizophrenia cannot occur within the same person.

I think much of the similarities of symptoms which both Schizophrenics and Autties display are likely more due to the similar areas of the brain which are affected, such as the Frontal Lobes. Possibly due to similar causes.

A fairly high rate of both Autties and Schizophrenics experience problems prenatally, natally, and early postnatally.

In addition, more and more professionals are beginning to consider the Schizophrenias as a group of neurodevelopmental disorders, like the Autism Spectrum Disorders are.

There are definite similiarities. But there are also definite differences. Of course, this is all confounded by damned psychiatrists and doctors who don't always know what they're diagnosing either and just "identify" the one they're more familiar with.