Do you believe there is different types of autism?

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I believe theres two main types of autism, probably others as well, but from what I've seen on the net, and in real life, this is what I think it is. I watched so many recover stories and heard some in real life, watched kids slip and disappear around 12-18months. One kid I can recall right now, who was 14months, gave great eye contact, who was a social butterfly, didn't have any weird stimming behaviors, had like 50 words, and was somewhat laid back- around 2 months later, turned into this loner kid, who never gave eye contact, lost all words except babbling and started flapping everywhere, rocking and spinning, with tantrums galore. This child was put on the gfcf diet, and on all types of vitamins/supplements, all of a sudden was giving eye contact again, participating in social activities, was speaking words again, less tantrums, more laidback, the flapping & the rocking disappeared . It made me wonder if this child really had autism, or instead had something else causing autism symptoms.


Anyways this is what I think the types of autism are...(which I only stated two, prob more but whateve hehe)

Type A... Recoverable autism... usually means you start out normal then develop autism symptoms almost like its not the actual autistic disorder, in fact something else causing autism symptoms. Where you can recover all or almost all the symptoms so that child is almost indistinquished from his/her peers

Type B... Treatable autism... usually your born with autism, usually can find a gene or have some sort of genetic component. Where sometimes you can be treated enough where your not as disabled by autism as you were, or treated enough that you can gain some skills that you never had before.


What does everybody else think? think theres different types of autism? that some of these kids recovering didn't actually have autism, instead had something causing autism symptoms? whats everybodys take about different types of autism? what types do you think their are

Well-stated, intelligent post, Age. Interesting, too.

I agree that it is very likely that "science" will eventually discern (if NT's don't blow the world up first) that AD/AS are spectral (ie varying degrees of manifestation/expression) as well as multifactorial (ie expression/manifestation in turn depend upon triggers as well as attenuators).

The degrees concept is self-explanatory, I think, and frankly already well under construction.

The multifactorial concept is just beginning to take scientific form.

I believe that the triggers will turn out to be phenotypical expressions of genotypical predispositions. In other words, if A, C, and D occur within Window PDQ and in the presence of XYZ, then MNO will manifest itself, etc etc. The degree of expression is dependent upon the precise interplay of variables...and variables can be intrinsic (eg genetic) or extrinsic (eg social factors such as childhood stress/trauma, and/or environmental factors such as food, etc).

Just about guarantee this is how the final "thinking" will end up, mainly because it's how just about all medicine/science end up...and it would also be the neatest/cleanest/most elegant explanation for all of the seeming mismatches that we see.

I think of AS/AD in a variety of ways, depending on what I'm trying to get across to people.
In the context of the present discussion, I picture it as one of those weird toys/pictures you get from cereal boxes--the ones with the ridged lines/pictures that change or appear to move when you tilt the card that they're on up/down/back/forth so that what you see depends on the angle you are viewing from, the light, etc...but it's all "still there" regardless of what you are visualizing at the moment. Maybe not the best or most complete analogy, but...

I don't believe anything, so I'll get that out of the way first.

Officially, there's these [to lump people into labels]:

Profound Autism
Kanner's Autism; atypical form too
Asperger's Disorder; atypical form too
Mixed Kanner's/Asperger's
Residual Autism
SPD
NLD
Schizoid PD
Broader Autism Phenotype

All of these are forms of autism, and whether they're explaining different variants of the same underlying disorder to different severities, or they're explaining unique but similar conditions, is yet to be determined.

I have type B...I was born with it...and there's a genetic component (my dad has Asperger's).

I've always wondered about kids that start out without any autistic symptoms only to get them 12-18 months of age. I never had that. I was always unresponsive and in my own world. I didn't make a sound as a baby except when I cried.
So yes I agree with you Age. I don't really like the labels for autism. There should just be autism: mild to severe.
But if it weren't for Asperger's Syndrome I would have never been diagnosed.

Perhaps. When I was young I didn't have many autistic symptoms at all. At least, I stood out as different and even on the internet when I was younger I was assumed to be mentally ret*d my social skills were that bad apparently. But I never had sensory issues or anything like that until teen years. Type A, perhaps?

I think there is one form of autism and it manifests itself differently in different individuals, that is why you see lots of social skills in one person and zero in another, why some are good writing poetry and some who are good with computers.

Well put.

I don't know. Something always seems off in those stories about those with "recoverable autism"/"my kid is cured/recovered from autism!". Something. Can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe it's just me. *Shrug*

As for me... was always "off", born this way. Very short period of time in childhood where I was almost "normal" was interacting "correctly" might not of had such bad sensory issues, don't know about eye contact or stimming.... but I was off from birth certainly.
Way I see it (my messed up time line of uncertainty):
Birth to around age.... I dunno, say age 7:
Off, weird, autistic, whatever. Mom confused. Doesn't know what she's "doing wrong".

Around age 7:
also start developing situational and/or clinical depression

Around ages 8 through, maybe, 10-11:
Period of almost "normal". Still have a little depression, but don't think it was as bad as it was during age 7-ish. Still a teensy bit weird, but could just pass for eccentric.

11ish through 14ish
Start getting less "normal" again. Depression also starts getting worst again.

14ish through 15/16ish:
Not normal one bit, start liking goth culture and such. Full of stimming. Fail at social interaction. Meltdowns galore. Most people at school hate me. Cry a lot. Many sensory issues. Depression at current level. No eye contact. Start developing social anxiety on top of everything else.

15/16ish:
Finally diagnosed with asperger's. Plus clinical depression and social anxiety By shrink. Dx not techinacally offical yet. Stop seeing shrink due to losing medical. Self dxed. Tired all the time.

17/18ish/current:
Lots of issues at school. Can't stand any longer, start talking to various school people (not students) about ASDs and such. School starts testing me on/for various things. School is very stupid. Lots of bullying going on. Tired all the time, not sleeping well because of weird sleep cycles and such, sleep often in class.
During the various testing, school brings in an "autism specialist" whom is likely someone they just pulled in off the street for all I know. Studies me for >half an hour. Epic fail on their part.
Testing finished. Results are very stupid and illogical. Full of mistakes and assumptions and contradictions (some even on the same page! [there were many pages]). Deneyed autism/aspergers. Agreed with depression, though seemingly not understanding the depth. Ignored/didn't mention social anxiety at all. Ignored/deneyed bullying problem, said and implied it was all in my head. Implying, and pretty bluntly saying that I'm schizophrenic. Um, yeah, no, sorry. I'm not.

Can't stand stupid school anymore, dropped out. Goodbye, so long, good riddance, idiots.
See shrink again for short period of time, dx finally official.

Symptoms of aspergers and social anxiety "stronger"/"worst" than ever. Feel little crazy. Find and read this, feel a lot better about my sanity. Depression a little better, but not much. Still sleep issues.
Pretty much disabled, can't work. Not on medical again, need to wait for mom to set it all up again. Live at home still.



And that's my messed up little time line. (Sorry for mini rants and off topic bits, but I get to rambling, and have trouble sorting out the relevant from the off topic.)

There are already (lots of) known disorders that have a late-set on (and were preceded by normal development) but also have genetic foundation or are influences by genetics.

So in a way, people like that could be born with autism too. It's just that 'time' or another cause led to activation of the disposition they were born with.

Which is totally fascinating I think.



What KarmicPyxis said.

Lots of different genetic details probably play into how the autism of a person could be like (and whether they have some form of it or not).

And once life begins, the factors that determine and have the power to change the autism are probably both partly genetic and environmental.

Yes, very relevant topic and good insight! I keep reading about parents who have kids with physical symptoms, plus autistic symtoms. This is much different than those of us who were diagnosed as adolescents or adults. We didn't have those and our parents had no reason to think we were "sick".. because we were not. You can't really confuse "sick" with just socially different, yet both types are being described as some form of autism. I think we're talking about two different things here. The experts seem to be investigating this too and talking about "autisms" rather than one autism.

i always knew i was different even from my earliest moments......i can remember things at around 2 and up very well

no problem with language but i was an extremely hyperactive and had such odd facinations with cake mixers and toilets flushing, lol

bad tempered kid also.bizzare.very shy but boisterpous

by 30 yrs old i dismissed is as addhd...when i diagnosed my own son 13 yrs later, an epiphany hit me like a ton of bricks as i wept for hours

Personally, I tend to like this (and the more comprehensive spectrum) list. The reason why, it recognizes different variations and allows for a more comprehensive understanding of manifestation leading to better diagnosis within those affected, especially when said party has co-moribund conditions.

Let me state, that when I was diagnosed over 20 years ago with both Semantic-Pragmatic Disorder and Nonverbal Learning Disorder there was not much understanding of Autism, AS, and the Autism Spectrum as there is today. Autism was often stereotyped and narrow. While I was diagnosed with the SPD and NLD, these were at the time considered learning disorders first and foremost, and newly identified ones, rather than the communication/developmental disorders they are now understood to be, and neither was fully understood. This was before the DSM-IV and the more comprehensive understanding of communication disorders that came about recently.

At the same time various educational, clinical and pediatric doctors and psychologists struggled to understand the behavioral and social deficits I had, to them it was difficult to discern because the atypical manifestation because of the lack of diagnostic categorization, clarity, guidelines or understanding. To them they were not sure if they were seeing some version of autism or childhood manifestation of schizoid PD, or something else, because they lacked clear categorized diagnostic criteria. All they knew what they had was an extremely creative, imaginative, verbose and intelligent child with social deficits and atypical emotional characteristics. The fact is they could not figure out what was happening and were at a loss for a diagnosis for several years because the understanding was lacking and did not account for various manifestations.

This is what the specific categorization really provides, a clear framework to work under. Now it would be pretty easy to understand the nature of my problems because there is a more expansive understanding and categorization out there, because it provides a variety of explanations for different manifestations. I came from a time when there was just one autism, and trust me there was alot of problems with diagnosis because of it. And I think when you get to just two types like you laid out you come back to the diagnostic problems which happened when I was a child.

Coming from an atypical perspective, without specific diagnostic terminology leads to the type of problems they had with diagnosis when I was younger, in that they have problems identifying what is going on or how to label it, especially when there is co-moribund conditions. Its overly simplistic, when there is alot of complexity with regards to communication developmental disorders and the manifestations of such.

I think there could be 2 basic types as well,Age1600

1. Autism that is mainly genetic and is present at birth,with the degree of effect being more
or less pre-determined in the genes.

2. Autism that is 'hidden' in genetic codes,which does not develop at birth but may (or may
not) be triggered at some later stage by a combination of factors. Those factors can
include
a) our reactions to society's subconscious 'indoctrination' by parents,peers and official
education/religious influences.
b) the effect of chemicals such as those used in medicines and food additives.
c) the effect of exposure to electromagnetism and radiation in the atmosphere.

I think in my case I come under 2) because I was very conscious of feeling entirely normal
until about the age of 7,then becoming aware that something in my mind had altered
my thinking process which was suddenly very inward--looking and self-conscious. As 2) is
more susceptible to outside factors,the traits may also be more inclined to 'come and go'.

I agree with this and with Age's original post, particularly the idea of autism being 'triggered', or the person being exposed to influences that cause their autistic traits to become worse than they might have been. Although there are many things which I feel are very deeply a part of me and could never be changed, I believe, for instance, that I may have had a chance to learn better social skills if, as a child, the bulk of my peer group had accepted my differences and been willing to support and include me. The fact that they did the opposite made me less inclined to even attempt to socialize, therefore gave me less opportunities to learn some of the required skills, and thus it became a vicious circle.

With regards to different types of autism, I think it's also worth considering the fact that in the case of Asperger's in particular, there is not a black-and-white physical test to determine it, in the way that one can have a blood test and be told that your results show you are diabetic. There is a collection of symptoms, and, generally, if you demonstrate symptoms A, B, C and D, then this collection of symptoms together can be named 'Asperger's Syndrome'. Although all people who show this collection of symptoms will experience much the same difficulties because of them, it's quite possible that there could be a wide range of reasons that these symptoms are occurring. For example, I've discovered that there are people who have both autism/AS and epilepsy, whose autistic symptoms seemed to only appear after they first began to have seizures. Were the two co-morbid from the beginning, and it was simply a coincidence that they happened to begin presenting as autistic around this time? Or did the seizures cause some kind of cellular damage in the brain which resulted in symptoms that mimicked autism?

I think there are several types and probably causes of autism. My brother was born autistic. He would never look at people and smile, he resisted being hugged. He only knows and understands about 20 words and says very few. He was born in 1968, so very little was known about autism then. There were no early therapies or treatments available back then. In fact, in special ed. he was the only autistic person in the school and the teachers had no training about autistic people. He is at home with my parents. After they are gone, I suppose he will go to a group home. I hope to get him in a special home for autistic people; there is only one in the whole state. The other places seem to know nothing about autism.