Type 1 and Type 2 autism

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We all know about Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Both conditions are called diabetes and what they have in common is similar symptoms i.e. inability of the pancreas to produce insulin. However they are distinctly different. A great variety of pharmaceutical treatments exist to treat Type 2, whereas a person with Type 1 can only try to manage their blood sugar level by injecting insulin and other measures. Also Type 2 seems to develop later in life, as a rule.

I see a similar distinction between manifestations of autism. As I was taught in undergraduate-level psychology (a course I failed by the way) diagnosis is all about observing symptoms while underlying causes should be disregarded. So one type of autism seems to be caused by a person's inability to process sensory input. Whereas the other type, perhaps best characterized as found in those who would fail the Sally-Anne Test as children, may not have any significant "sensory issues" associated with it. Never mind myself being undiagnosed. My 35-year-old son, who was diagnosed at age 3, has never shown any clear sign of sensory processing problems, in fact as a child we would put him in the autism-friendly seats at certain amusement park rides thinking he'd have problems with the regular seats, but eventually learned this wasn't an issue. And nobody who has had any contact with him doubts that he's autistic.

I don't want to digress too much except to say that I think some problems I've seen in this community can be attributed to the existence of these 2 groups and that they have very little shared experience, which prevents them from understanding each other well enough for effective communication to happen. I happen to believe that when this site was first established, it was mostly with the interest of people diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, which, at least so far as it has been portrayed in the media, is primarily seen as a manifestation of the "Sally-Anne" type of autism; with the additional consequence that people who may have it are often not formally diagnosed, and there are people who come to believe they have it but don't seek formal diagnosis. In earlier years, it seemed common for members to post scores they had gotten from online autism tests as a way (I assume) to demonstrated they belong on this site without having been formally diagnosed. That seems less common today (although I have no way to prove it). That might be a way the community has changed, for anyone who feels it's different from the "good old days".

I am not sure that I understand you correctly. But I think you have oversimplified Autism to a point that makes no sense at all. There are not two main groups of Autism as you describe them and I do not see any evidence of gross lack of shared experiences here on WP. Am I misunderstanding you?

Probably but as I sort of suggested above misunderstanding on this site seems rife to me, especially on the Love & Date subforum. Perhaps less so in GAD.

I'm not sure I understand your point, but from what I can tell you are making a rather large over-simplification. There are 3 asd levels, but they are not based on anything linear. A person can be a level 1 or a 3 and still not have any issues with sensory processing at all.

Oh, I have never been to the Love and Date subforum. I have only been on the GAD and the Haven.

I do not have sensory processing anomalies (but I am really poor in tolerating physical discomfort) and I do not have (at least more marked) issues associated with theory of mind (but I profoundly do not have "normal" social motivation and I am a mentally handicapped "oddball"). I have not thought and rather do not think about being loved by someone, I "don't know" what is the feeling of being emotionally loved or unloved by someone. Despite that, I am not asexual and aromantic I may look to be an "extreme egoist"

So I have rather new, 3rd type of autism, not mentioned in first of OP's posts. I have to be named as markedly autistic, I am definitely not "normal" mentally since childhood.

Last edited by nca14 on 11 Mar 2023, 12:04 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Yes. This is correct. In fact, sensory issues were just recently added to the diagnostic criteria and they are not required for an Autism diagnosis. But we do have to banish this ancient misconception that the Spectrum is linear. It is absolutely not.

The OP is incorrect when he says that there are only two basic types of Autism. Autism manifests in many different ways.

This is not about levels. Levels, as I understand them, correlate with degree of support needed e.g. Level 1 means little or no support vs Level 3 at the most extreme level requires round-the-clock caregiving. I happen to also think there need to be more such levels defined as there is too much variation within a given level.

My point is about personal experience, with respect to which there is a huge difference between that of people with severe sensory processing dysfunction and those with very little if any, and such people tend to talk right past each other on a site like this.

nca14 may not fit neatly into either of the two broad categories I identified but then I think many people also don't fit neatly into the 3 levels yet that system of categorization, which is strongly oriented to characterizing autism as a linear spectrum, doesn't seem to be much disputed I suppose because it was promulgated by people with PhDs.

@nca14 you may indeed fall outside the two main types I identified. I don't want to devalue your personal experience and can't say more due to lack of knowledge. Nevertheless I think my theory does account for the lion's share of my personal experience and observation.

EDIT did I say "only 2"? Sorry to have been so exclusive about this.

Oh, ok, I see what you mean now. I totally agree that levels need to be redefined. They are too simple for the variances in severity types.

I now understand what you were saying. But I think you said it incorrectly, that is why I misunderstood. What I understand now that you were talking about were the differences in Sensory Processing Disorder, not Autism as a whole. Sensory Processing Disorder is its own diagnosis and can exist outside of Autism. It was recently added to the Autism diagnostic criteria as one of the symptoms to look for in the Autism diagnosis but it does not have to be there. This is where I got confused. I think you meant to say that there are two basic camps of people as far as Sensory Processing Disorder goes.

From my poking around on the Internet I've concluded we're lumped together under one diagnosis because the medical profession doesn't understand Autism and doesn't know what else to do with us. But:

"If you've met one person with Autism you've met one person with Autism."

Which means to me that there are as many types of Autism as there are Autistics. Each Autistic is different.

I have sometimes seen confusion on WP when someone expects the others to be like them. I made that mistake, too...especially when I was new to WP. Though I could see how if you focus on one trait you might be able to separate us into groups. But I don't think the big picture is simple.

Last edited by Double Retired on 11 Mar 2023, 2:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The name of this topic is "Type 1 and Type 2 autism".

I think that there are relatively many people with the profile of pervasive developmental disorder which is present in me and that "my" kind of autism can be really debilitating, especially in adult life (I am very bad in earning money, I have never been in romantic relationship, religion is extremely difficult area for me). I would say that "my" kind of autism is not like "standard" ASD, I would say that it is even since childhood a blend of PDD and severe mental illness ("normal" ASD has not to mean that you are "crazy", mentally ill). I had diagnoses of OCD and schizotypal disorder in addition to AS many times few years ago, in 2016 I had diagnosis of schizophrenia for some time, now my psychiatrist diagnoses me with mixed episode of bipolar disorder, I had also peculiar, "strong" sexuality since childhood and I had quite many talks with sexuologists because of it. Now I get six different psychotropic drugs: sertraline (200 mg per day, it is the largest "normal" dose of it), paroxetine, lamotrigine, olanzapine, quetiapine, sulpiride.

My Autism is very unique as well. I am actually a type three, but many people think that I am a type one because of my outward appearance and my ability to communicate in a way that nts can understand.

The medical professional already divides the autism spectrum into three categories..three levels...based upon "the amount of support needed by the individual" (ie how severely autistic you are).

you're proposing splitting autistics vertically across the functioning levels. And opining that autistics come in two types:those who lack theory of mind, and those who have sensory issues.

But I am sure that there are many autistics who have both issues.

Do you mean sensory differences, such as under-sensitive and over-sensitive - like in this link?

https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-gu ... -audiences