omid wrote:
I was reading a rather academic book on schizophrenia and it said something interesting:
It said, ANY given person, can develop transient (or permanent, don't know) picture book "schizophrenia", if they are "stressed" enough. So basically it said psychosis can occur as a normal reaction to very very severe stress (trauma, torture etc.) in ANYONE. It also said that schizophrenic people "just" have less resources than the normal population and the daily life stress is "enough" for them to go psychotic. So basically they are really prone to stress.
I was wondering whether that could apply to autism or Asperger's. Like a rather non-aspie who have been put through so much stress that he develops Asperger's for the duration of the stress (and maybe beyond that point).
I was just wondering about myself. I clearly WAS diagnosed with Asperger's and had all the symptoms, but I also had very VERY though life. Particularly as a kid and adolescent and young adult. And after the stress was (physically) gone I stayed stressed by always living according to what I had been thought about life as a kid and young adult.
I sort of tried to change my point of view and went through a massive transformation and now as a side effect I got rid of my Asperger's. (I was diagnosed with schizophrenia too but I don't believe it and the doc who diagnosed me with asperger doesn't believe it either. never had a single hallucination and delusions once for 2 hours. that's NOT schizophrenia)
for example, now if someone is rude to me, I actually feel he is rude and all. With all the nuances and aspects. This is absolutely new to me, but at the same time it feels Extremely natural to me. like a long lost gift...
What do you think about all this?
Uh no... that's not how schizophrenia is. Brain imaging scans have shown that there are neurobiological differences found in schizophrenic people - specifically dealing with ventricle size and gray matter loss. They're not just prone to stress. There's a genetic component to schizophrenia as well, though the heritability estimate is less than 50%. (Look up Irving Gottesman for more information. There's a graph describing the heritability estimates.) That's where the diathesis-stress hypothesis comes in.
The same goes for autism, though much less is known about its neurological basis. You cannot develop autism - you either have it or you don't. In fact, it's part of the diagnostic criteria: "Symptoms must be present in the early developmental period (but may not become fully manifest until social demands exceed limited capacities, or may be masked by learned strategies in later life)." If you feel like it's something that doesn't affect you, then it just sounds like perhaps you were misdiagnosed.
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Diagnosed with ADHD combined type (02/09/16) and ASD Level 1 (04/28/16).
04 Jan 2015, 4:16 pm
