Should there be autistic personality disorder?

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nouse
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02 Sep 2019, 3:38 am

I'm serious about this. Cluster A personality disorder to be added alongside with paranoid, schizoid and schizotypal.

If a person might act like autistic and not being very intimate with others while not having sensory overloads, actual ego syntonic routines and all that jazz.

Just look at this

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ity-severe



TimS1980
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02 Sep 2019, 3:30 pm

My first reaction was "hell no".

The article does deserve a closer look.

As an autistic with a job and family life, it's important to acknowledge that I tend to speak the experience of less-severe traits, where the social model and neurodiversity are liberating influences.

I do agree with the author that we shouldn't discount the experience of people with very strong traits, or deny they might rightly want the impact of those traits lessened by medical intervention. I'm not equipped with the requisite experience to speak for them.

I appreciated that the author is an autistic themselves.

My main concern is that, for those of us with less severe traits who present the outward appearance of success, pay an inner price that goes under-acknowledged in this article.

I've resolved never to call myself high functioning again, even as a conversational ploy for someone who might not sit still for the detail. The term invalidates some essential truths of my experience.

I think we're all in this together. Autistics as well as neurotypicals must all remember to account for experiences which are different than our own.



Mona Pereth
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02 Sep 2019, 5:28 pm

nouse wrote:


There's already another thread devoted to the above article: What is autism? How the term became too broad to have meanin.

See also the separate thread Response to some concerns about neurodiversity paradigm.

Anyhow, to answer the original question: No, I see no need to re-define even the most mildly disabling forms of autism as a personality disorder rather than a developmental disability.


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ASPartOfMe
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02 Sep 2019, 6:35 pm

nouse wrote:
I'm serious about this. Cluster A personality disorder to be added alongside with paranoid, schizoid and schizotypal.

If a person might act like autistic and not being very intimate with others while not having sensory overloads, actual ego syntonic routines and all that jazz.

Just look at this

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ity-severe

There is something similar to what you describe
Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder
Quote:
SCD is characterized by a persistent difficulty with verbal and nonverbal communication that cannot be explained by low cognitive ability. Symptoms include difficulty in the acquisition and use of spoken and written language as well as problems with inappropriate responses in conversation. The disorder limits effective communication, social relationships, academic achievement, or occupational performance. Symptoms must be present in early childhood even if they are not recognized until later when speech, language, or communication demands exceed abilities.

For example, while autism spectrum disorder (ASD) does encompass communication problems, it also includes restricted, repeti- tive patterns of behavior, interests or activities and gives equal weight to both communication issues and repetitive behaviors. ASD must be ruled out for SCD to be diagnosed.


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justkillingtime
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02 Sep 2019, 6:52 pm

There is also "Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified", in the DSM. My therapist said that can be having Asperger traits but not all the traits needed for an Asperger's diagnosis.


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Mona Pereth
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02 Sep 2019, 9:13 pm

justkillingtime wrote:
There is also "Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified", in the DSM. My therapist said that can be having Asperger traits but not all the traits needed for an Asperger's diagnosis.

PDD-NOS (like Asperger's) was in the DSM IV, but not in the DSM 5.


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HighLlama
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03 Sep 2019, 4:31 am

Isn't it personality which keeps some of us from getting diagnosed? (i.e. wrong interests) I think of autism as how you are, not who you are.



nouse
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03 Sep 2019, 2:45 pm

Personality disorders tie close with your own life philosophy. They are quite close of being "philosophical disorders" IMO.

Hence without strong physiological reason like not wanting to adapt even if you are capable then we should call out "autistic personality disorder".



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03 Sep 2019, 3:36 pm

Developmental disabilities are different from personality disorders.
Yes it's possible to have both, yet the former can mimic the latter.

Heck at my teen years, I would've easily fit so many of those personality types.
Yet as I slowly grew, with developmental issues that are really keeping up given the right circumstances and time, I no longer fit said types and losing said traits.
Then some 'traits' reemerge when, what? When I'm sick and hurt? Tired and burnt out? Grieving and depressed? Overwhelmed and stressed out? High on sugar or drugged? :lol: On a less ideal functioning state without compensating abilities to count at or dying?

I'm not fighting with the social demands because of my 'philosophy' or 'personality'.
I'm fighting with the society's demands that I've yet to be capable of giving and there is no real need to change or compromise my philosophies or personality -- which happened to be entirely plausible with enough experience and skills that denied me of in my earlier years.


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SaveFerris
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03 Sep 2019, 4:20 pm

Doesn't matter what you call it , people will still suffer , and if you don't suffer - bully for you.

If the help not's there , it's not there , it's not like high functioning people are draining resources away from low functioning people - that's BS.

HFA is not the reason LFA gets less help if that's actually whats being claimed


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nouse
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04 Sep 2019, 8:15 am

^Yeah my interest is highly scientific. Matters or not. :wink:



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04 Sep 2019, 10:02 am

A better goal for those of us at the upper end of the spectrum is not to create more labels, but to be able to describe your particular set of issues as necessary to get the help and accommodations you require.

Autism is a multifaceted disorder. There is no way you are going to get normal people to understand something so complex for so few people.



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06 Sep 2019, 5:58 pm

Seem to me the Guardian article wisely points towards the danger of imagining that autism isn't a disability at all, but it doesn't suggest a new label of autistic personality disorder. For me it's enough that we have the label ASD, the last word of which is "disorder." As long as that word is taken seriously, I don't see the point of dragging the word "personality" into it. I don't see autism as a personality thing.