Is Asperger's Syndrome worse than Schizophrenia

Post Reply New Topic

I don't want to say better or worse because so many factors can play a role, but:

It is my understanding that schizophrenia-related outcomes are generally worse than "Asperger's" related outcomes.

I don't believe Bipolar Disorder is fake, but I do believe that it's misunderstood and over-diagnosed. I know several people -- mostly high school and college-age females -- who claim to be bipolar based solely on the fact that they have an explosive temper. There is no evidence of black depression or extreme elation, no evidence of risky behaviors or brilliant creativity or thoughts of suicide. It's just "I get mad easily, therefore I must be bipolar". '

What I've heard -- and experienced through a mentally ill cousin -- is that schizophrenic patients stop taking their medications because 1) the meds do what they are supposed to do; therefore the patient feels better and thinks they don't need it anymore (I've done this myself with the meds for my panic disorder), or 2) the meds blunt their emotions and feelings so much that they feel like zombies. They think that feeling crazy is better than feeling nothing.

It's frustrating and depressing not having average social skills. But AS being worse than schizophrenia? Really? Really?

OK, one thing people with AS get stuck on is struggling to fit in and get anxiety and other co-morbid disorders over this. But they are still functional, intelligent, have rational thinking and can become fully independent.

Hallucinations, psychosis, delusions...are all far more severe than AS symptoms. I've had all three from varying degrees. There's quite a lot of paranoia that I don't think a logical thinking person could even imagine thinking. Paranoia can turn into desperate actions to protect oneself though oneself is actually in no immediate danger. This could include attacking innocent people.

You're all (some of you at least) are just thinking that the treatment outcomes are better. Well, anti-psychotic medication can come with some severe side effects. Sometimes the meds don't work and other forms of treatment don't work.

I hate my social struggles, I do, but what I fear more is losing control of my decision making. It sometimes happens with impulsiveness and short episodes of mania and I do become delusional but not to a point where it becomes a concern. Psychosis is horrible. I would take sitting in a group of people being unsure about what to say other than thinking all your teeth have disappeared or your teeth hurt so much they need to be pulled out. Or having the feeling you are covered in blood. That's psychosis, right?

It often comes with extreme anxiety, that is a bit more than 'why can't I ever say the right thing/ oh I don't think this person likes me.' It's more, 'Holy f**k! They're going to kill me! I'm going to die!'

You don't only become a risk to yourself but to other people. Your executive functioning may tend to slip as well.

How is this even a question? Don't give me that mild schizophrenia BS too. When the OP asked about schizophrenia they were thinking of what most people know as schizophrenia.

I have schizophrenia and AS.

Schizophrenia is WAY worse than AS. I have been sectioned 7 times, five of those times involved four police officers sitting on top of me and handcuffing me while I was screaming and kicking, heavily delusional (thinking that the police were Spies trying to kill me) and hallucinating continuously. Voices are evil. Seeing Spies on the streets, scanning my brain and following me is terrifying. I have had a huge amount of hospital admissions. I've been on secure units being watched constantly by two nurses, because I was so ill and such a severe risk.

Even now, while I am on two antipsychotics (and dealing with the numerous side-effects that come with them, including being exhausted for most of the day and having put on 14 kg), I have several times a day where the voices attack me, and I just want to scream "F*** OFF YOU F***ING BASTARDS!! !" but I have to stop myself. I end up listening to music all day. Paranoia is also crippling and I have been housebound for over a week or two at a time because of my fears of persecution and Spying.

If I could swap my schizophrenia for AS that is even more severe than my AS already is (my AS is classified as "severe"), I would.

I'm not sure I understand the point of this thread. All people are doing is seemingly belittling the other condition. Many of you have no idea what it's like to live with Schizophrenia, so how can you say AS is worse?

My half-brother had schizophrenia and commited suicide a fiew years ago.
You can't really compare that two and there are "mild forms" of schizophrenia, but I wouldn't like to trate or have schizophrenia.

I think that especially the combination of ASD and schizophrenia is difficult, because especially as an autistic person you're used to think highly rational and with an acute schizophrenic episode you're not able to.

Ditto on that.

There are many schizophrenics in psychiatric hospitals if not prisons. The problem is that many schizophrenics tend to fail to keep up with their meds and they often wind up institutionalized--especially paranoid schizophrenics--because of potential harm to themselves and to others.

My perception is that Aspergers/Autistics have a much lower crime and institutionalization rate. However, it is quite possible that many Aspergers patients get hospitalized due to comorbid conditions such as major depression or eating disorders.

I have a schizophrenic aunt and it wasn't easy for my mom's family and her kids and husband so he left her. I have never seen her symptoms. I was too little to take notice due to my speech delay so her telling me stories and it being obvious she has it just by her thinking process and things she is telling me about.

Now she lives in a group home and is unable to drive, take care of herself, be in social situations. She used to be higher functioning and did all these things but her illness got worse and I would say it's severe. She didn't brush her teeth back then either so they were all dark brown and rotted and had to get them pulled. She was also a smoker and underweight because she didn't eat much. Now she is overweight. Even back then she had support from her family so food was bought for her and given to her, school clothes were bought for her kids, I am not sure about bills. Pretty much my mom's family was raising her kids because she couldn't do it alone. Then when she got worse, my cousin was cutting school to stay home and take care of her and protect her and he got so far behind and had to keep repeating 8th grade, he dropped out and got a GED eventually. He was practically the head of the household taking care of his mother and sister until she was finally hospitalized by my grandfather and my aunts and my mother and uncle. They all agreed she needed to be there so he put her in there after years of trying to get her help and the system kept failing them because hospitals would keep releasing her due to a policy they had. She do something and get arrested and taken there instead of to jail due to her illness and they would hold her fr 72 hours before releasing her. There were never charges filed, just cops called, they came and got her and took her to the hospital instead. One of them was for washing her car naked because she didn't want to do laundry so she took her clothes off and washed her car and neighbors called my grandparents and one of them called the police. My cousins just stayed hidden in their apartment because they were so embarrassed.

I haven't seen her since I was eight so I have no clue what she looks like. My mom wouldn't let me see her when we were over there visiting and I was 13 then because she didn't want my aunt to hurt me if she starts throwing false accusations at me like she has to other people. Her personality has changed too I hear so she isn't the aunt we all knew and my mom considers her gone because she is this person now she doesn't know and didn't grow up with and not the sister she had when she was in her 20's and 30's.

I don't like to compare conditions saying what is worse than others peoples everyone with it is different and there are different levels of it. Someone can be a schizophrenic and still live a normal life and be stable people and act all normal and not seem to have it. I call them high functioning.

http://www.paulcooijmans.com/asperger/a ... rized.html

"Dr. Hans Asperger, the Austrian pediatrician after whom Asperger syndrome is named, published his article Die "Autistischen Psychopathen" im Kindesalter while working at the University Children's Hospital in Vienna. The essential points of Asperger's paper are summarized below in the form of questions and answers. These are intended to be an objective condensation of Asperger's observations related to the relevant questions, which in most cases are spread over the various sections of his article. The comments are by the present author (which is posh language for "I"). One may also wish to read the German original oneself, which can be found through the hyper reference at the beginning of the present paragraph."

"What does Autistischen Psychopathen mean?

Autistischen ("autistic"), a term borrowed from Eugen Bleuler, refers to the narrowing of one's relations to reality, the focus on the self. Asperger explains that autism (in Bleuler's meaning) is in its most extreme form expressed in schizophrenics, and that the condition he (Asperger) is describing is a less serious form of autism, wherein contact with reality is not completely lost. He contrasts schizophrenics with Autistischen Psychopathen by calling the first psychotisch and the latter psychopathisch - literally "mind-ill" - , a less serious qualification. The word Psychopathen therefore is used to specify that this condition is less serious than that which is seen in schizophrenics."

Different severities of the same thing basically

This is exactly why all these separate diagnostic categories are pointless - all they do is confuse everyone as I bet not many people were aware of the above, as Autism and Schizophrena aren't seen as related by most people but Asperger saw them as
different severities of what he classed as autism.

People hate the idea of being thought schizophrenic as it has far more stigma attached than Aspergers in my opinion, but they're all in the same family of conditions according to Asperger.

I'm quite happy to accept this and think I've even heard the odd voice in my head too so I think there's evident crossover

I also met a person in a home for people with schizophrenia when I worked for a mental health charity and if you hadn't told me what condition she had I'd have sworn she was an aspie - I felt right at home chatting to her.

Also, anyone can go into a psychotic rage - it's not the sole preserve of schizophrenia; it's just a sign of mental breakdown

Some prisoners in mental hospitals like Broadmoor have had their diganoses of schizophrenia re-evaluated and been found to have Aspergers as Aspergers as a condition didn't exist when they were intially diagnosed

In my opinion it helps no one when all these firm lines are drawn by diagnostic criteria, saying this person had this but not this
- it should all be based on behaviour, not diagnosis

Last edited by nessa238 on 14 May 2013, 10:13 am, edited 1 time in total.

I don't have schizophrenia so I can't say which is worse. My guess is that schizophrenia would be significantly worse.

To answer the question of whether or not I would trade I would trade one disorder for the other regardless of which one I had even though I expect schizophrenia to be worse. If I had schizophrenia and I had the choice I would trade it for AS. I have AS and if given the choice I would trade it for schizophrenia even though it would probably make things worse for me.

The appeal of knowing what it is like to experience both conditions within my lifetime overrides the fear of increased unpleasantness. I still think schizophrenia would be worse but I would still trade and put myself through hell out of pure curiosity.

I am not sure why Asperger would have considered schizophrenia similar to a severe autism in any respect. Primarily the fact that schizophrenics often have delusions and/or auditory hallucinations, and cannot seem to distinguish reality from the hallucinations their brains produce. I do not know of any autistics that have hallucinations. Heightened senses perhaps, but so do bipolars and creative/gifted people. The hallucinations and delusions are specific to schizophrenia.

Well, self-diagnoses are always risky, but especially Bipolar is hard to diagnose correctly and is both under- and overdiagnosed. I've a mood chard I've to show to my psychiatrist and my psychotherapist and my mood is messured carefully for the last months because of a bipolar suspicion and they don't want to missdiagnose me. Especially with Bipolar II this diagnoses usually can't be made in just one session like many other diagnoses.



It's "die autistischen Psychopathen", but "autistische Psychopathen".

autistisch means autistic and Psychoathen is not the same thing we mean by it today. It meant something similar like personality disorder back than in the german speaking countries, that the disorder is not caused by external influences, but by internal, so that it's more neurological and you're pretty much born with. That's why Hans Asperger chose that term and "autistisch" is borrowed from schizophrenia, but what Hans Asperger meant was that those people are more invert and that's a certain way to think and see the world, he himself didn't see them as schizophrenic. I read his reports on it in German.

Last edited by Raziel on 14 May 2013, 10:45 am, edited 1 time in total.

Well that's what Hans Asperger himself thought anyway

You wrote Hans Asperger's reports? I thought he wrote them himself

I meant I read them. English is not my nativ language, but German is.
It was a typo, I hope with this it is clear.

He said schizophrenia was a worse form of autism, implying they are the same type of condition