Levels of severity?

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Is it a good thing or not that the ICD doesn't include levels like the DSM 5 does ?

I think I prefer the DSM. The ICD still gives Asperger’s its own diagnosis, but I think it should just be grouped with autism. Differentiating the levels is somewhat murky and subjective, especially when people have borderline behaviors.

It’s tricky to categorize anything that’s part of a spectrum.

I thought this was interesting.

I prefer going with the level 1, level 2, level 3 criteria thing. Autism is too big a spectrum to just have one blanket description. I read somewhere that people with Asperger's are more naturally social. But that is not me saying that, it's just what I've read in books. Maybe that is an outdated description, I don't know.

Tony Attwood, himself, stated that people with Asperger's WANT to be social---but they are awkward at expressing this.

Tony Attwood is considered to be one of the people who are at the vanguard of the concept of Asperger's Syndrome.

The website that was linked seems like it would be a good complement to WrongPlanet. It seems more "formalized" in a sense. The content is probably more strictly moderated. It's probably a "safer" place for relatively more sensitive people than WrongPlanet is.

IMO the situation becomes complicated when you throw in the presence of one or more comorbidities . That having an impact on functioning even when the Asperger's /ASD symptoms themselves may be relatively mild.

Well, to be more accurate, what I read once was that people with Asperger's aren't socially clueless, just socially awkward. Social anxiety can be more common too.
I say I do have some natural social skills wired into my brain because as a baby I was a very smiley baby, always babbling and making eye contact, and I wasn't behind on any milestones. I said my first word at 14 months, but before that I babbled a lot, like I was trying to talk, and I used to point to objects and people, and I loved being played with. I even got separation anxiety when my mum or dad left the room or left my sight in public places, like when I was 1 or 2 I'd cry, "Mummy!" in a store if I couldn't see her, then I stopped as soon as I knew she was there. That is what I've been told, and I have evidence that I was a social baby in photos and home videos, etc. I had an expressive face too in many photos.

So that shows that I had some social skills to begin with, and I didn't lose any of those social skills as I got older.

Out of curiosity, does the ICD-11 still lack levels for autism impact like the ICD-10 did? It's my understanding that the ICD-11 has only been released this month and won't be officially used for diagnosis until 2022, but the preliminary stuff I'm reading suggests that it's followed the DSM in folding Aspergers into autism. Has it also established levels?

I was hoping they would keep Asperger's.

I feel like Asperger's is a real entity.

^ I haven't seen any reference to "levels" in any ICD-11 reports that I've read (the full manual was behind a paywall last time I checked, IIRC). However, it does distinguish categories depending upon the presence of intellectual disabilities and/or language delays. So, in effect, ASD without either of those would be roughly equivalent to the old Asperger's Syndrome diagnosis. It also more clearly separates ASD from AD(H)D. Under ICD-10, they were considered mutually exclusive diagnoses, but under ICD-11, it is suggested to diagnose AD(H)D traits separately.

The ICD 11 does, at the least, distinguish between autism "with" and "without" intellectual disability.

I have not been able to determine whether there is a "level 1, 2, 3, etc" within the ICD-11.

You HAVE to subdivide autism into levels. And at the same time you have to acknowledge the subjectivity and limitation of any system of level subdivision you come up with.


In the current DSM there is a category called "level one autism with no delay in acquiring speech" ( ie you are a high functioning autistic who learned to talk at the normal time babies learn to talk). That category amounts to the exact same thing that was formerly called "aspergers". So...why not just keep on calling it "aspergers"? It's shorter.

I am in the category:

"Level One, with speech delay, and no intellectual disability."

I wouldn't have been diagnosed with Asperger's under the DSM-IV.