Autism: Umbrella term or single condition?

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Hello folks,

From this thread, I got an interesting question from AceOfPens. Is autism as we know it an "umbrella term" -- a group of neurological/developmental conditions with similar traits but different causes (this is what I believe personally)? Or is autism a single condition of varying severity/presentations (the spectrum hypothesis)?

I ticked "none of the above".
This is based on a paper I read which indicated that autism is the brain's response to problems with the way the synapses work.
I believe this means that:
1. There can be multiple different causes (both genetic and environmental) which can adversely affect synaptic function, and in different ways
2. The brain's response to the synaptic deficit is to develop in a different way, which has common features regardless of cause, such as impaired social/communication, emotional dysregulation (that is, "autistic wiring")
3. Autism can therefore be considered to have multiple causes but also be a single condition (though with many variables contributing to trait development)

"neither" A person can be described as Autistic if that is the largest contributor to their quirks, but there are usually associated conditions, such as PTSD from living with it and the usual range of psychological hazards that can easily make it a "minority government." I have a major attachment disorder due to being parented by an AS (cold) mother. She was, in turn, much disturbed by her AS father. My bi-polar aspect might be too minor to show up without the leeway afforded by AS eccentricities.
I describe the AS itself as a set of conditions arising from something akin to a sound mixing board in the wiring of the brain. There are dozens of sliders, and if only a few of them are set in odd positions, or they are not too far off, it is pretty easy for the brain to work around the problem. People have many ways of doing arithmetic, but they all hit the same answers. If most of the sliders are near their stops, the host is probably non-verbal. In between, there are various degrees of functionality, but depending on which are in play, there are huge variations in symptoms. Lucky combinations produce savants, with very few, but very extreme abilities.

I'm pretty sure that term autism will not be part of diagnostics in the future or it does not carry the same meaning.

It is kind of sad that people want give label that hardly really exists. Personality disorders for example have moved towards picking out traits in manifestation and scoring severity based on that which is much more sensible.

For example if a diagnostician labels problem areas it will be much more to assign help than put a person in "autism" treatment. As for present scales of severity: it does handle a condition as a monolith instead of fracturing it to causes and manifestations.

If I have to bother, I'd pick all three choices;

Neurologically speaking;
Autism is actually a single condition, has representions varying severities on each traits and mixing it with personality and upbringing. Certain severity of certain autistic traits can deem one qualified for 'comorbids' as opposed to other way around.

Behaviorally speaking;
Autism is just varying conditions, different causss same outcomes and struggles, severity dictated mainly through comorbids.


None of the above;
Because I, for one, am graduating from the label -- not from the condition itself of course, but simply from whatever idea of what autism is, except for it's just is now mostly a reference of my past lesson in life that would hopefully aid my journey in life as whole.
Because I'm already done digesting the facts and realities of the term 'autism' in varying angles; socially, intellectually, politically, medically, emotionally... There's no real 'divide' nor 'attachment' for me in terms of the label, be it good, bad, ugly -- only for as it is.

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Autism is an "umbrella term" for a variety of conditions and the traits are very different. Most of the problems are related to the processing of emotions but the only common thing is that all of them may cause you to become a loner.

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I am as I am. Life has to be an adventure!

I'm just sick of having a disability that always seems to have controversy attached. What autism is seems to be based on people's opinions or cultures or the time they were born or diagnosed. It's probably why I have such a hard time accepting it, because it keeps changing.

I do not believe that disorders which are classified as "autism" have the same causes. I think that there are many sorts of autism - not only one which differs on severity! For example, NVLD appears to be often or even mostly something autistic or at least a condition which should be labelled as a pervasive developmental disorder instead of (just) a learning disability.

For me most typical symptoms of autism are: atypical emotionality (such as limited or absent need of being loved or having close friends, more or less deficient social motivation or drive) social inadequacy or ineptitude (which may manifest for example in poor eye contact or even not thinking about it) and peculiarity (for example atypical content of thinking, special interests, stimming etc.). Generally, the symptoms are present before puberty (but may be absent or at least unnoticed to toddlerhood). Being bullied by other children and lack of close friends appear to be very common among individuals with autisms.

So maybe do not divide developmental disorders to "specific" and "pervasive"? Even if the division to "specific" and "pervasive" developmental disorders would be still present, "NVLD" or "SCD" still appear to be rather socio-emotional-behavioral conditions, not mere learning disabilities. Most of NVLDers should be labelled as having pervasive, not specific developmental disorder. The differences between mild clinical ASD and so-called NVLD are too small to consider one of the disorders pervasive and other as specific.

I think that counterpart of PDD should be about social, emotional, behavioral and thought-content disorders, it for me would ecompass not only ASD, "NVLD", "SCD", but also childhood-onset (developmental) schizo disorders (schizophrenic, schizoaffective, schizotypal, schizoid).

Speech delay, visual-spatial processing dificulties, sensory integration problems and motor clumsiness are "peripheral" symptoms of something which I called "aucorigia" (counterpart of PDD, from autocontrast and originality) and by itself are rather specific than pervasive developmental disorders - they do not make you "kooky", "odd", "weird", "nutty", "crazy", "wacko" etc. Being "bizarre", "oddball" is a hallmark of pervasive developmental disorders.

I was diagnosed with PDD (Asperger's) and schizophrenia spectrum condition (schizophrenia-type disorder, for a short time with paranoid schizophrenia (not with AS at the same time). I definitely have problems with social, emotional , behavioral, thought content areas whereas my problems with visual processing, clumsiness, sensory languages are just relatively mild if present at all. PDD and schizo are in my opinion the most "whacky" conditions in ICD-10 or DSM-IV.

But in USA or Canada they could decide that I have just "nonverbal learning disability". I think that the picture of NVLD is "contaminated" with many cases of individuals who have:
- "loner personalities",
- lowered social motivation,
- really poor eye contact,
- peculiar content of thoughts or strange emotional feelings,
- special interests,
- OCD symptoms,
- magical or bizarre beliefs,
- stereotyped behaviors,
especially if these "NVLD" individuals have good results in subscales of Wechsler tests like Coding, Block Design, Arithmetic while Similarities, Vocabulary and Information are about at the same level.

I am a good example of someone who could contaminate the picture of NVLD. I think that I do not have classic NVLD, but also I do not have typical ASD, definately. I concluded that my PDD is different from NVLD and bookish ASD at the same time. I suppose that it may belong to schizophrenic spectrum instead to one spectrum with the condition of autistic children described by Leo Kanner. But it certainly may be named as a sort of autism, I could name it "pathological nonconformism syndrome", "social motivation (or reciprocity) disorder", "aucophrenia" (from "aucorigia" and "schizophrenia"), a variant of "schizoautistic illness".

I think that someone with NVLD will have:
- intact social drive, good social motivation, need of being loved and forming close friendships other than sexual or romantic,
- significantly better eye contact in comparison to individuals like I, difficulties in social communication should be only because of impaired visual-spatial processing,
- marked difficulties in learning handwriting or riding two-wheel bike,
- no special, peculiarly atypical, impractically narrow, "obsessive" interests,
- lack of any stereotyped behaviors, even during anxiety or excitation (large happiness),
- poor results in Block Design, Coding, often also Arithmetic, especially in comparison to VCI subscales like Vocabulary, Similarities, Information,
- marked problems with searching simple embedded figures, reading maps, charts, graphs, clocks, (almost) lack of spatial orientation and sense of direction,
- disability in recognising items with closed eyes, by touching them.

I go with "umbrella term" for a variety of over-lapping and intersecting conditions.

I'm a mixed bag of autism, ADHD, and NVLD. When I got DXed, there were a few key symptoms, such as stimming, which pushed my psychologist to place me in the autism category.

Let's not start thinking that there is only one right way to classify styles of thinking. There are many lists of personality types, and they are all internally consistent, and sometimes useful, but quite different. Some languages don't distinguish between green and blue - the number and location of divisions on a spectrum are not at all universal.

Our thinking can become quite constrained by our available vocabulary without us realizing it. If you use a crude machine to translate "Batman" into German, you get "Fleidermausmensch." However, if you then translate "Fleidermausmensch" into English, you get "Flying Mouse Man," which is one reason Marvel did not arise in Berlin.

I think that the definition of autism and (or) pervasive developmental disorder should be broadened. I think that most people with NVLD could be considered autistic if they have poor eye contact, low interest in relations with peers. I think that there is much more similarity between ASD and NVLD than between NVLD and dyscalculia or even dyslexia. NVLD is definitely a pervasive developmental disability in many cases. Being "odd", "weird", "aloof" and often bullied makes a person autistic for me - I could say something like that.

I think that there is no such thing as "social (nonverbal) learning disability", in my opinion, the naming of deficit of intuitive theory of mind (which is associated with cognitive area) as "social learning disability" would be more correct than naming lack of eye contact and lack of need of being loved as "social learning disability".

Autism is for me rather something like disturbance of temperament, character, personality, instinct. Not a learning disability or other way of processing stimuli by brain. I read about many persons with more typical "aspieness" than I who were higher-functioning, not as peculiar as I, not as disabled, who deals better with work, social relationships than me, some of them have spouse or offspring.

I think that people like me are clearly autistic. Despite lack of traits characteristic for what was known as "infantile autism". I may be unable to have marriage till my death, which may be very depriving and frustrating for me. I received ruling of total incapability to work and have social pension because of that. I have never had a girlfriend (despite I crave it, maybe since more than 20 years and I am 28 now) and even close friend (although I do not think about having such a person). I am not "high-functioning".