Weight Of Memory wrote:
MatchboxVagabond wrote:
If we're going to have an actual spectrum, it would be the previous autism types, probably excluding Rett Syndrome and including ADHD, SPCD and ScPD. That would be an actual, legitimate spectrum. Otherwise, they shouldn't have included spectrum as it's not a spectrum, it was a spectrum but they nixed all the diagnoses that made it so.
The same cannot be said about ASD where the only reason to refer to it as a spectrum is in a cynical effort to ignore the groups that were being left out. Somehow neither ScPD nor SPCD are on the spectrum, even though it's more or less impossible to tell the difference between ScPD without an extensive amount of records from early childhood and an austic person that's not actively stimming is more less identical to SPCD as well.
ADHD and Social Pragmatic Communication Disorder, yes, because they not only share symptoms but are also developmental disorders.
Schizotypal and Schizoid Personality Disorders, no. They may look like ASD on the surface, but the causes and what's going on in the brain are very different with personality disorders vs. developmental disorders.
Schizoid Personality Disorder is on the same spectrum as the other ones that you're accepting. The portion of the diagnosis where you might have a point has mostly been ceded to Schizotypal and Avoidant Personality disorders already. As a result, the disorder is pretty much inactive and likely to be removed at a future time. At which point, you then have a problem of what to do with the people who have, or qualify, for the diagnosis that don't qualify for the two diagnostic options.
The whole entire line of reasoning as to why ScPD isn't included is purely because of the dates on it. But, unlike most other personality disorders, there's no requirement of clinically significant suffering. There's also no requirement that the patient be an adult to be diagnosed. And just like most late diagnosed autistic people, there's little reason to even get evaluated until something pushes us over the edge. Even the late diagnosed autistic folks often wouldn't have been diagnosed at all if not for work or home life issues bringing it up. Or, are those women that only got diagnosed because their children were diagnosed, not real autistic people either? Because there's not any reason to believe that it's any different.
It's ultimately incredibly unfortunate that there's so little interest in researching the condition, as without research it will never be appropriately classified or treated when appropriate. But, there's far too much correlation between it and other recognized autism spectrum disorders to believe that it's not a proper member of the family. And it leaves those that couldn't be identified early enough without even that recognition.
22 Aug 2023, 4:41 pm
