Disorders first noticed in childhood...

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Ok so in an attempt to question my invalid self diagnoses..........I figured I would start a thread about other disorders that start in childhood that might get confused with Autism and Aspergers. So what other mental disorders starting in childhood make it obvious to others there is something 'off' or 'different' about the individual who has it. I know ADHD or ADD could be possible alternatives but having gone over the symptoms of those the AS seems to be a much better match for me. Other then that i have considered personality disorders though those do not typically show themselves in childhood.

So yeah not sure the exact point of this but i thought it could be intresting.

ADHD. Dyslexia. Dyspraxia. Semantic-Pragmatic Speech Disorder. Sensory Processing Disorder. Nonverbal Learning Disability. Central Auditory Processing Disorder. Social Anxiety. Generalized anxiety disorder. depression. Traumatic brain injury. birth injuries. mental retardation. Early onset bipolar disorder. No doubt there are more. That's off the top of my head.

I forgot to mention the profoundly gifted. They often have sensory issues and are sometimes misdiagnosed as autistic.

Hypoxia (lack of oxygen) at birth certainly can cause brain damage. It's one of many possible birth injuries.

Dyspraxia is difficulty in planning movements. In a very brief nutshell. Central Auditory Processing Disorder is a neurological disorder in which the person's physical hearing is fine but the brain doesn't process what it hears. It can cause some difficulties with language and social functioning. I have some of this. I might hear the noise when you say something but it may not jell into actual meaningful speech right away or ever. Semantic-Pragmatic Speech disorder is simply difficulty speaking and understanding social language.

There are a whole lot of things that can look like autism or are comorbid with autism. There is a book called "The Mislabeled Child" that could be helpful.

There are lots of names for varying neurological weirdnesses. Put enough of them together and you've got autism. Add some and you have a comorbidity. One diagnostician can take the exact same set of symptoms and give it one name while another equally qualified diagnostician could take those symptoms and give it another name. There's nothing precise or magical about it. I hope that diagnosis will become more precise as research uncovers the actual neurological markers.

Oppositional defiant Disorder

Body movement disorder

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Cluttering Disorder

Seizure Disorder

Hyperlexia

Giftedness

Deafness (this can cause autistic behavior depending on how young the child is when they lost their hearing or if they were born deaf)

Abuse

It depends on the specifics of your autistic traits. If you have strong traits across the criteria, then you are most likely to be autistic. If you have strong traits in one or two related criteria, e.g. social, and weak in another area, e.g. repetitive behaviors, then other disorders may explain those traits in the absence of autism. An NT child who is gifted and socially isolated as a result could be slow to develop social skills and pursue special interests instead or prefer to pursue special interests in the first place. This child would probably grow up into an adult who does understand NT ToM, however. An autistic child who appears similar may grow up into an adult who is completely clueless about NT ToM and has no idea that non-verbal cues mean anything. So many factors to consider when trying to figure out a person's lifetime development.

Many of the childhood disorders mentioned don't rule out AS or HFA, in fact having the disorder actually increases the possibility of being on the autism spectrum. Especially in the case of ad(h)d, tourette's, ocd and asperger, if you have one of the conditions, chances are really big that you at least have traits of the other three. I myself have bot AS and add.

> I am pretty sure I did not suffer any early tramatic brain injuries but I am not 100% sure and I know I had a lack of oxegen at birth but I am not sure that qualifies as a birth injury.

As for whether or not a birth injury took place, I'll leave that to the attorneys in the house. But I, too, was 'blue' (lack of oxygen at birth). I wonder if there's some kind of correlation there?

Have A Great Day!

Rob

Unfortunately it can be hard to diagnose a PDD / autism spectrum disorder when you're older if it's a mild case. The clinical symptoms are usually much more obvious in the early years, 3-6 years old, as there's a marked delay in the development of normal age-appropriate social behaviors. When someone gets older it might start appearing more like you just have an odd or quiet personality which isn't enough to meet the criteria. A genetic test would be nice but I don't see that happening any time soon. Your best bet for knowing would be based on your parent's recollection, unfortunately.

I know I wasn't self-aware enough to know what my social issues were at a young age. All I knew was that the adults saw that I had problems, put me in a special resource room for part of the school day, and had me see psychologists all the time. It wasn't until about 4th grade that I began to notice how different I was, but it seemed more that I was extremely quiet around anyone that wasn't one of my few friends, and I was picked on for not being talkative enough. Some asshat kids knew that I was easily emotionally overloaded and couldn't handle their teasing and they would intentionally push me over the edge. I also remember that I occasionally flipped out and physically attacked people. I still have issues with becoming overwhelmed with emotions and feeling violent which is an issue that seems somewhat related to autism but on the other hand it doesn't completely explain it as not everyone on the autism spectrum has this issue.