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Jamesy
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08 Jun 2011, 9:49 am

I have autism i think and i can do things like look after the house and walk down the road and buy food from a local shop. Yes i do find things hard and can make a lot of mistakes at times. I do things as well like go to the bar with my friends and get drunk and generally socialise. the label autism has been used for me for me a lot but so has aspergers. When i was 13 i was having behaviour problems with my nanny and my dad said to the nanny behind my back "James has autism"

When i search youtube and look at things like "Autism Awareness" month i see people affected by autism in the video who really cannot take care of themseleves or do anything and they need carrers. they also display strong symptoms of distonia.

do you think its most likely that i have high functioning autism and the people in the video have low functioning autism? I asked my dad and he said to me "Autism is a completely different thing too aspergers". I am sure i have not got aspergers because according to my mohter i had a language delay when i was a child and i think i had a learning disabiltiy/problem which would all point to autism.

When i look at the people on the video i think to myself "how can i be like them when i can do things like go out with my friends and attend a normal college/school when i was younger"



wavefreak58
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08 Jun 2011, 9:57 am

ASD = Autism Spectrum Disorder

Key word - SPECTRUM

Apply this word to your perceptions of the autistic population and your question will be answered.


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Jamesy
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08 Jun 2011, 10:01 am

sorry wavefreak i know i am being annoying repeating myself in my threads.

I should come up with something a bit more interesting in my topics lol.



Robdemanc
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08 Jun 2011, 10:02 am

There seems to be a lot of confusion over what is autism and what is aspergers. Even the medical proffession don't seem comfortable with it. For autism I think they classify people on their abilities to communicate and function. But with Aspergers I don't think they know what to do. How do you work out if someone has aspergers instead of autism. I think the rule of using delayed speech as a sign of autism is too slight and depends on parents telling the truth.

My mother says I had no delayed speech, so it seems I have aspergers. But i have to say I think I have some strong autistic traits too.

Most people on here would say that aspergers and autism are on the same spectrum and that perhaps aspergers would be like a less severe form of high functioning autism.

Hope that helps



Jamesy
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08 Jun 2011, 10:13 am

do you think sometimes people might just carelessly call aspergers - autisim?

on my old records is says i have "Semantic pragmantic lanuage impairment"



Robdemanc
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08 Jun 2011, 10:20 am

Jamesy wrote:
do you think sometimes people might just carelessly call aspergers - autisim?

on my old records is says i have "Semantic pragmantic lanuage impairment"


Yeah possibly. I often think of myself as being autstic and I think "aspergers syndrome" is a bit of a mouthful. I think it would be better if we all thought of ourselves as autistic and told people this because it would demonstrate the spectrum of severity associated with autism. It might educate NT's more. Maybe having a seperate name of aspergers is confusing.



wavefreak58
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08 Jun 2011, 10:20 am

Jamesy wrote:
do you think sometimes people might just carelessly call aspergers - autisim?


Asperger's IS autism. It is like a Valencia orange and a navel orange. They are both oranges even if there are differences.

I suppose if you want to be truly precise, they are both currently categorized as developmental disorders. Asperger's, autism, PDD-NOS - they are all related.

What difference does it make? How does changing the label change your life?


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MommyJones
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08 Jun 2011, 1:20 pm

You may just have a language disability. Pragmatic language is social language, and if you have this disability then some of the "behaviors' look like autism. At the same time, the language center of the brain is almost always affected in autism. Even those with Aspergers who had no language delay, still could have language difficulties.

There are so many labels and disorders, and there is so much overlap that for my son, who technically has been diagnosed with PDD-NOS with a Language disability, I refer to him as a very intelligent, visual learner with difficulties in expressive and pragmatic language as well as executive dysfunction.

IMO, focusing on the label can limit what you see. If you focus too much on "autism", you can totally miss difficulties that do not fit into that label that need to be addressed. Figure out what gives you trouble and work on that, and figure out where your strengths are and nurture those. Forget about autism, AS, PDD..... I only use the word autism in specific situations where I feel it is needed.



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08 Jun 2011, 1:23 pm

Robdemanc wrote:
There seems to be a lot of confusion over what is autism and what is aspergers. Even the medical proffession don't seem comfortable with it. For autism I think they classify people on their abilities to communicate and function. But with Aspergers I don't think they know what to do. How do you work out if someone has aspergers instead of autism. I think the rule of using delayed speech as a sign of autism is too slight and depends on parents telling the truth.

My mother says I had no delayed speech, so it seems I have aspergers. But i have to say I think I have some strong autistic traits too.

Most people on here would say that aspergers and autism are on the same spectrum and that perhaps aspergers would be like a less severe form of high functioning autism.

Hope that helps


I would say that Asperger's is autism, and thus on the autistic spectrum. But I wouldn't say that Asperger's is a "less severe" form of high functioning autism. I think whether you get diagnosed as AS or autistic or PDD-NOS depends on who diagnoses you, and not everyone who gets an AS diagnosis is "less severe."