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Awkward
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15 Feb 2018, 7:48 am

I have Aspergers syndrome and social anxiety. Nobody openly told me that I'm mentally ill or psychopath. But autism is a mental illness right? So am I a psychopath? When someone commits an offense like murder, people label them as psychopath or sociopath. I doubt if this category includes autistic people. What do you think?



fluffysaurus
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15 Feb 2018, 8:06 am

I don't consider autism a mental illness and only a very small percentage of people with mental illnesses are psychopaths or sociopaths. You are extremely unlikely to be either. I'd ask whether you have a conscience but if you were a sociopath you would lie anyway :D I don't see how sociopath and Asperger could actually coexist in the same person. Both are sometimes shown on telly with OCD so some people may connect them in their minds along with anything else that's considered weird.



rowan_nichol
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15 Feb 2018, 8:34 am

Hello Awkward,
Asoergers or autism isn't mental illness.

It is a difference in the way a brain has configured itself.



EzraS
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15 Feb 2018, 8:38 am

Autism is a neurological disorder rather than a mental illness.



shortfatbalduglyman
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15 Feb 2018, 10:37 am

Awkward

The Diagnostic Statistical Manual labels autism as a developmental disability. Same category as Down Syndrome

Autism is not officially a mental illness

However, some sun of autism overlap with schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mental illness



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15 Feb 2018, 10:51 am

I can confirm what everybody else said here.

Autism is not a "mental" disorder.

You're only "mentally disordered" if, say, you do destructive things just for the heck of it.



smudgedhorizon
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15 Feb 2018, 12:49 pm

Others already answered, but I will add. If you are interested, here's a brief comparison made by unprofessional me.
1)Psychopaths are a particular type of mentally disordered people. Psychiatrists call them antisocial personality disorder, together with sociopaths. Antisocial means harming the society.
2)Autistics are not antisocial, they would rather be unsociable or unsocialized, as well as they can be very sociable but failing to socialize and finally, those who are sociable and successful due to observing people and trying very hard. Some autistics do theatre or study people's behaviour, body language, etiquette. This really helps.
3)There's a couple of guys called amygdalae in our brain. I've heard they are for fear&anxiety and empathy. Please correct me if I am wrong. There are other parts, I'm not very familiar with them, involved in the process mentioned.
Autistic people can have trouble recognizing life-threatening situations and can be run over by a car due to this. This way they seem fearless. They also have trouble recognizing emotions and feelings of other human beings. Does it mean that parts of the brain for fear and empathy are underresponsive? Let's look closer and find the right answer.
Aspies and autistics very often suffer from anxiety. The minute they wake up, they already are more stressed than an avarege NT. Some of them are afraid to leave home, meet new people and everything new due to this fact. Yes, they can be relaxed but the anxiety levels in autism are much higher than the average and it leads to meltdowns&shutdowns.
Autistics also can have strong reactions of fear, even if situations are not life-threatening. Some are afraid of cats even. Amygdalae in autism are often enlarged, very responsive--that's what I have heard from an autistic in an autism-related podcast. The thing is, I suppose, this: something goes wrong with recognizing clues, then -- processing and delivering certain messages to this part of the brain. Don't listen to those guys who claim autistics have no empathy. There's cognitive empathy that autistics can have trouble with. Cognitive empathy is for recognition of feelings of others. Affective empathy, or what we usually call empathy, compassion, is present in autistics. Some people here on WP claim they have said something horrible or rude to other people and regret it deeply. I myself learned English as a foreign language and when we were studying should-would in school, I was asked to compose a 'you should' sentence. I was supposed to advise the teacher to do sth so I could not come up with anything but 'you should lose some weight' as this one is a very common example in all textbook and I tend to use word collocations I often came across. I regret this and I find that particular teacher very nice and I upset her so much. I also saw a boy hit his head and instantly I felt as if someone hit my head. I have quite responsive mirror neurons, but I don't know if I'm on the Spectrum so enough about me.
When autistic people understand what's going on, they have very strong reactions.
Also, autistic people are usually loyal and devoted to their families, they love their close ones dearly.
So I think there's enough to debunk 'no empathy' theory.
4)Just as autistic people, psychopaths have neurological difference. They truly have very low or no empathy. Unlike autistics, they are genuinely fearless and seek adrenaline. They have no meltdowns&shutdowns. They love risk, parachuting, gambling, crime for in their lives there's little fear. Autistics are more stay-at-home&follow-the-rules guys. I have read different opinions about psychopaths loving harming people and receiving pleasure from others suffering. Maybe it's common for psychopaths to have sadism as comorbid, but not necessarily? If anyone knows the answer, feel free to answer and discuss.
5)Autism was discovered by psychiatrists, but it's a neurological condition. For decades it was considered a form of psychosis. The same is true for epilepsy.
Psychiatry is more focused on external manifestation of behaviors, whilst Neurology studies underlying causes.
6)Psychopats see people and animals as inanimate objects. The diagnostic criteria for antisocial personality disorder says that they have to have criminal record... Well, some of them just were not caught. Others don't commit crimes. Psychopats have brain that feels immense pleasure when the person is rewarded. If the person is highly intelligent, they will seek position of authority. Wanna see low-functioning, sadistic-inclined, stupid psychopaths -- pay a visit to a prison. Wanna see those who were not caught, or intelligent ones -- look among CEOs. Psychopats are usually very happy with the way they are. Autistic people are prone to depression.


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Last edited by smudgedhorizon on 15 Feb 2018, 1:15 pm, edited 2 times in total.

smudgedhorizon
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15 Feb 2018, 1:06 pm

I forgot to mention that ASD is often accompanied by ADHD and it means reckless impulse behaviour that leads to trouble. However, this doesn't mean sinister nature of those with ASD or ADHD. For example, Bart Simpson is ADHD and often is involved in something distructive. But he's a loving son and a good person.


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