Classic Autism Thread

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skibum
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16 Feb 2019, 7:46 pm

StampySquiddyFan wrote:

I understand your perspective, despite not having classic autism myself. I never really liked the Asperger's term at all, and I just refer to my diagnosis as "high-functioning autism," as I technically was diagnosed after Asperger's was removed from the DSM. The term "aspie" personally irks me, but I say that people should be free to use whatever term they want. Just don't expect other people to always refer to each autistic person by their own preferred terms unless it is something that has been discussed before. I think the community, myself included, could do a better job with trying not to get offended with the whole "politically correct" and "politically incorrect" words surrounding ASD. Everyone has their own preferences, and it may turn people away from the disabled community as a whole if they are uncertain whether they are using the correct words/terms or not. I do think there should be more awareness and resources available to those with classic autism on this website, though.

I agree. I don't care what people call themselves. I use the word Aspie just because it is verbally easier for me to say especially when I am having difficulty with verbal speech. I think we should focus more on just getting to know each other and supporting one another rather than caring so much what people choose to call themselves.

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16 Feb 2019, 7:57 pm

I find the original post very interesting because when I read posts and when I interact here, I never think of the posts I am reading coming from either HFAs or LFAs. I honestly can't tell. We have had LFAs like Ezra and Kingdom of Rats who had some of the most insightful and intelligent and fluid posts I have ever read. And I had no idea that you were a level 2 until you mentioned it. I never even think about what level of ASD someone has here. I really truly cannot tell who is who or what level someone is by the posts that they are posting. I just enjoy talking to you guys and having great and stimulating conversations and being able to support and help each other. I always figured that we had many LFAs here. I am sorry that some of you feel left out and I hope that you won't have to keep feeling that way. But I honestly believe that there are more LFAs here than we realize. And I think that it is impossible to tell just through written conversations. But if there is anything we can do to make you feel more welcomed, we are happy to do it.

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16 Feb 2019, 7:57 pm

skibum wrote:

StampySquiddyFan wrote:

Just out of curiosity, how do you describe your functioning level Skibum? Or do you not think about it?

I guess the thing that really made me start looking at myself more closely was the huge autism presence on Tumblr, both professionally and self-diagnosed, and how I felt far more connected with the nonverbal and “lower functioning” autistics than I did with the self-ascribed aspies, who often share their struggles with being so high functioning that no one takes them seriously.

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skibum
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16 Feb 2019, 8:16 pm

StarTrekker wrote:

skibum wrote:

StampySquiddyFan wrote:

Just out of curiosity, how do you describe your functioning level Skibum?

Great question. I was diagnosed in November of 2014 so my official diagnosis says ASD. Her overall score on the GARS-3 suggests that Skibum has a "high probability" of an Autism Spectrum Disorder ASD. And with a Level 3 severity, she is described as "Requiring Very Substantial Support."

Axis I Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) code 299.00
311 Depressive Disorder NOS
Rule out major depressive disorder

Axis II
No diagnosis

Axis III
Autism, cognitive, h/o muscle reconstruction

Axis IV
Serious (interpersonal, mood, cognitive)

Axis V
Current GAF: 40

I wrote that word for word. That is exactly what my diagnosis says.

As far as describing my ASD levels personally, they can be all over the place. There are times when I am super high functioning and there are times when I cannot function at all to the point where it can become dangerous. I am extremely affected by sensory overloads of many types to the point that I can actually go into shock and be completely dysfunctional for several days. I can also become completely dysfunctional from social interactions. I have an HFA friend in real life who works at a job that would easily put me in an overload coma and she recovers every day after just a couple of hours. I have never been able to successfully hold a job, I cannot work full time and when I could when I was younger, it did not last for very long periods or time. I have a lot of social communication difficulties, not only in comprehension but even in speech. Sometimes my speech is academic and fluent, sometimes it is like the speech of a toddler. Sometimes I am slurred and incomprehensible and sometimes completely nonverbal. I have very little functional social awareness, it is like that of a 6 to 8 year old, I am emotionally like a 4 year old, my practical functional intelligence is that of a 12 year old. But I can live alone in my own home and do that things I need to do to keep my home relatively in order. I pay my bills, I drive and own my own car, I do all my own self care even though there are times when I can't. If I can't I just have to wait until I can. But I cannot survive financially without help. There are times when I function very well and other times when my functioning levels are so low that I cannot do anything at all. There are times when I can't understand anything at a level higher than a toddler and other times when I can analyze everything under the sun like a doctoral professor. So I can be all over the spectrum at any given time. It just depends on what my brain has to process at any given moment.

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16 Feb 2019, 11:44 pm

skibum wrote:

livingwithautism wrote:

EzraS wrote:

kraftiekortie wrote:

I can understand your feeling.

I know of at least two people who have at least Level 2 Classic autism here:

Ezra, and Ilikemusic. There are probably quite a few more than that.

I feel I have a lot in common with Ilikemusic and livingwithautism. More so than others. Dylanperr is another member with level 2.

I also feel left out in threads that are focused on aspergers and contain material I don't relate to.

I also don’t like the way many with aspergers try to turn it into a social club, dubbing themselves “Aspies.”

I don't understand what you mean when you say this. Can you please explain so that I can understand?

I don’t like how more mildly affected people act like autism is some kind of cool social club.

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17 Feb 2019, 2:58 am

livingwithautism wrote:

skibum wrote:

livingwithautism wrote:

EzraS wrote:

kraftiekortie wrote:

I can understand your feeling.

I know of at least two people who have at least Level 2 Classic autism here:

Ezra, and Ilikemusic. There are probably quite a few more than that.

I also don’t like the way many with aspergers try to turn it into a social club, dubbing themselves “Aspies.”

I don't understand what you mean when you say this. Can you please explain so that I can understand?

I don’t like how more mildly affected people act like autism is some kind of cool social club.

I've only come across a few people on WP who describe themselves as mildly affected by autism. They don't tend

to hang around for long. I used the word Aspie when I first joined because I was so relieved to find there were

other people like me

but moved on to using the word autistic. I find the language of autism unpleasant to use.

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17 Feb 2019, 3:02 am

I myself wondered how many from this forum had personally encountered and known classic autism on regular basis -- than some past memory or some distant, passerby from a stranger/acquaintance?
Quite how and why classic autism as a topic rarely goes all around, much less so a personal account of one. As far as I know, a few are curious how was it like, even fewer who could answer.

What do I know about classic autism outside the usual contexts? More than most people. I've known many personal observations and real life accounts myself, but that's not a story for me to tell nor claim it's my story.

I'm just another onlooker at best, even if I'm autistic myself.
Because, well, what do I know about being classically autistic?? :twisted: Nothing. I never even received therapy or anything medical related. Even if I did needed them, I wouldn't receive them for an entirety different reasons.

I only have a right to tell mine, and it just happened not to fit with classic autism -- yet it still fits with autism in general.

What do I know about having autism as a curse, and not liking those who sees otherwise? Of course I sure do know and understand how would that be. Otherwise I'd consider myself no different than another denier or supremacist -- sides that I wouldn't willingly take.

livingwithautism wrote:

I don’t like how more mildly affected people act like autism is some kind of cool social club.

Fulfillments are fulfillments even if it's in a form of a social club for misunderstood people with obsessions dubbing themselves as specialists and put those who don't out of place -- like it, doubt it, or not.
I also wonder how much you also know about 'aspies' other than that.
But that's how human works unfortunately, not just the mildly affected people with autism who call themselves as aspies. :lol:

I don't like it either, but for an entirely different reasons.
I wouldn't discuss things like politically correct terms -- those are not my reasons.

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skibum
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17 Feb 2019, 4:28 am

livingwithautism wrote:

skibum wrote:

livingwithautism wrote:

EzraS wrote:

kraftiekortie wrote:

I can understand your feeling.

I know of at least two people who have at least Level 2 Classic autism here:

Ezra, and Ilikemusic. There are probably quite a few more than that.

I also don’t like the way many with aspergers try to turn it into a social club, dubbing themselves “Aspies.”

I don't understand what you mean when you say this. Can you please explain so that I can understand?

I don’t like how more mildly affected people act like autism is some kind of cool social club.

Oh. Thank you for explaining. I can understand your point. I think people might do that because they might be trying to find a way to find acceptance. But I understand what you are saying and why it is frustrating.

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17 Feb 2019, 4:51 am

Edna3362 wrote:

I also wonder how much you also know about 'aspies' other than that.

That is a very valid question. I know a lot of Autism families in real life because I belong to Autism support groups in my community. I am also in Special Olympics. I talk to a lot of parents and guardians of classically affected people as well as a lot of the Autistic people themselves, the ones who have ways of communicating with us, and I share my struggles as well as the parts of my Autism which are wonderful with them. I have found that about 90% of the time, we can very much relate to each other. I struggle very much with many of the same things that they do and some of the things I can struggle with, some of them don't struggle with at all. It all depends on the individual and on the specific thing that is or is not a challenge. Also some of them are very good at some things that I can't do at all.

Because functioning levels are so varied, we should not be so quick to think that people we assume are "mildly" affected do not have very significant struggles and that people we assume are more severely affected do not have things that they do well. I don't like that functioning labels have to be one or the the other. We all have areas in which we are very impaired and we all have areas in which we can excel no matter what our functioning labels are. If we were not impaired enough, we would not be able to get the diagnosis.

When people look at me and meet me for the first time, if I tell them I am Autistic, many don't believe me and some even argue with me about it. And then they say, "you are so high functioning." The problem is that they don't see me for most of the time. They don't see the times when I am not only low functioning but completely non functioning and they don't understand how long those times can last and how severe they can actually be. People who know me intimately see my impairments and struggles and they can all tell you how severely I am affected. And by the same token, when people see LFAs and don't get to know them intimately, they don't see the areas in which in they excel.

Some of the LFA people that I have known on this forum are much more intelligent than I am and do things that I could never do. Kingdom of Rats who was nonverbal, in a wheelchair, in nappies, needing 24/7 care in a group home, not able to form emotional bonds with people at all, and I know this because she often wrote about her experiences publicly on this site, was so brilliant that she trained therapy chickens. She also wrote some of the most insightful and intelligent posts on this site. Ezra is another one who, even as a 12 year old, was intelligent beyond understanding and both of these people are kind, considerate, wonderful extremely talented, supportive people. And I know that they are not the only LFAs on this site who are those things. But we know a little more about them because they have been very open about their lives and shared a lot with us.

It is also important to note that people's severity levels can also sometimes dramatically change as they age. Some people can seem very severely affected as children but can become less severely affected in areas as they grow or as they receive support. Other people can become more severely affected as they age depending on circumstances or events that can happen in a person's life. Severity levels can fluctuate so much depending on so many factors.

It is easy for people to misjudge each other because that is human nature. But the truth is that in a forum, we only know each other by what we post. Unless people openly share everything about their lives, it is impossible to tell how much or how little someone struggles in any given area. We should be considerate of one another and not assume that we can tell what people's lives are like or how mildly or severely they are affected in every area of their lives just by reading posts. We should not judge each other harshly in this area.

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17 Feb 2019, 11:00 am

Severity is relative. Even “mild” autism can be a serious disability. I can only go from my experience as a person with classic autism.

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17 Feb 2019, 11:10 am

I have been officially diagnosed with autism level two originally now moderate autism with intellectual impairment.

So I am Classic autistic.

I recently took a bunch of the evaluations I have moderate autism with intellectual impairment

Moderate to severe intellectual developmental disorder Language disorder dyslexia And complex comprehension ADHD combined presentation and executive dysfunction

I have a still accomplished many things they getting the regents which in my state is very difficult.

now I am looking for a program in my area for college for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities :heart:

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17 Feb 2019, 12:11 pm

livingwithautism wrote:

Severity is relative. Even “mild” autism can be a serious disability. I can only go from my experience as a person with classic autism.

I agree with you. There is a great quotation. I don't know who originally wrote it. it says, "Mild Autism does not mean that I experience my Autism mildly, it means that you experience my Autism mildly." I think that quotation expresses our situation beautifully. I wish we could come up with a similar saying for people who have classic Autism or LFA to express that just because they might not always look capable does not mean that they are always incapable.

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17 Feb 2019, 12:14 pm

jenisautistic wrote:

That is fantastic Jen. I am so proud of you. You really have done great. Please keep us posted on finding a college. Did you ever finish your book?

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17 Feb 2019, 1:18 pm

skibum wrote:

jenisautistic wrote:

That is fantastic Jen. I am so proud of you. You really have done great. Please keep us posted on finding a college. Did you ever finish your book?

Thank you

I have finished the first final draft of my book

And I will I have a tour coming up on the 25th

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17 Feb 2019, 1:28 pm

That is fantastic. I am really proud of you. When your book is published please let us know.

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21 Feb 2019, 11:50 am

I like this thread. I'm glad when other people are functioning well (or at least better than I do), but sometimes it makes me, well, sad, I suppose. Many high functioning autistics have very real problems with their jobs or their relationships. I will never have either of those, so that's two problems less! I am not jealous of high functioning people and I know they can have severe problems. It would be nice though, to share experiences with other classical autistics.

I am autistic and I receive 1 to 1 care, have challenging behaviour, do not speak most of the time and I will never have a real job or live independently. I also have many psychotic episodes. My epilepsy has mysteriously disappeared, that's a good thing.
In fact, there are many good things in my life, it's not all misery, not at all. These are just a few things that make my life different.

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