Is there a difference bwtween mild autism & HFA

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Is there a difference bwtween mild autism and 'high functioning autism'? Ifso, then what is it?

Perhaps.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mak ... categories

Yes, High functioing autism can be severe and disabling.

grrr, Not that it is wrong in the current definition, but the chart in that link makes me want to explode. Atypicality? I hate how being different is considered a disorder. You have to remember that with modern medical classifications, if a line of lemmings is walking off a cliff and one lemming is smart enough to step out of line to avoid dying that lemming would be labeled with a psychiatric disorder.

Anyhow rant over. The problem is that doctors can not agree what "functioning" is.

Like the chart in the link, some doctors define functioning as intelligence. By this definition, a very smart autistic person who is incapable of feeding himself or doing other daily activities would be high functioning.

Other doctors define functioning as being able to complete necessary daily activities without assistance. By this definition, an autistic person with a lower than normal IQ who is able to live on his own would be high functioning.

Currently it seems slightly more autism doctors are going with high functioning = high IQ. But practically all doctors for every other medical field define high functioning = ability to lead a relatively normal life. For example a high functioning alcoholic is not an alcoholic with a high IQ. A high functioning alcoholic is one who can still function normally in society, maintaining a normal life while drinking like an alcoholic. A high functioning schizophrenic is not one with a high IQ, it is a schizophrenic who can lead a relatively normal independent life in society with their disorder.

So as long as the high functioning definition is a mess, categorizing HFA will be a mess.

I really don't think IQ is the way you should measure how high functioning someone is. It's kinda stupid, because that'd indicate that people like Donna Williams who have been very sucsessful would be classified as having low functioning, while someone with a high IQ, but can't get on in likfe with no suppport & probably has just as many difficulties as some one with Downs, would be classed as high functioning. IQ's just don't work for autistic people any more than they do for Skitsephrenics or any one else.

Asperger's Syndrome can also be severe and disabling. Or I should say people diagnosed with it can be dealing with severe, disabling symptoms while people diagnosed with autism who are described as "high functioning" (since there is no such diagnosis as HFA) can also have severe, disabling symptoms.

This doesn't distinguish the two.

Considering that neither "mild" nor "HFA" have any set definition, you can't really go on and ask whether there's a difference. It's like an algebra problem asking you whether X is equal to Y, but without giving you any clues about the value of either X or Y.