You can have AS + a so called "Personality Disorder&

Post Reply New Topic

I just want to get this off my chest because its bothering me.

When I have tried on WP to discuss the possibility that AS could be combined with a Personality Disorder. Many people adamantly refuse to accept that an Aspie could EVER have, any significant lying/manipulative/unkind/uncaring traits.

They only ever argue this from only the nature of the pure Aspie traits, NOT what happens to a persons character if they are actually comorbid. Think about it, their nature would fundamentally change.

People are touchy and I get that. In any discussion on this subject, some people actually seem to only be able to hear the following:

"all Aspies are Psychopaths"

I know people can be sensitive, because they have been hurt before.

But the above is a million million miles from can AS + sociopathy be comorbid? Isn't it? AS strengths are often honesty and extreme sympathy - I do get why peoples guards go up and prickles come out. But for people to make absolutism arguments to confirm their bias - "no, not possible"- and then they stop listening because they are hurt. Well, I'd like to say its not very Aspie!

The majority of Aspies are very open minded and evidence-based in their thinking and I respect that. I'm was trained as a research scientist 20 years ago. NTs don't seek out and evaluate evidence to nearly the same degree.

I'm sorry for this visceral hurt. An NT world is already giving most people a bad time. I can understand the defenseness and the need to be on your guard. But to allow that to cloud your ability to understand complexity or see shades of grey does no-one any good. I think thats right. I'm only trying to understand and I'm not getting at anyone and I definately don't want to hurt peoples feelings who are touchy about this.

Being an aspie or being autistic isn't a free ticket to good mental health.

Of course, it's so much easier to blame everything in our lives we don't like on either other people or on unchangable traits than to actually work on ourselves as people.

It's ignorance and/or defensiveness.

The discussions I've read about personalty disorders and AS have mostly been about Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). And I find there's a lot of ignorance about BPD in those discussions. Actually, ignorance about autism/AS too. In both cases, a narrow view; in one case, based on a stereotype; in the other case, based on looking at themselves and equating that to AS and ignoring the breadth of the spectrum. The latter possible sometimes contributed to be an unwillingness to see certain things in ourselves.

I don't think that most people on WP on actually making these inferences - that AS can't be comorbid with a personality disorder or odious personality traits.

The thing that offends people is when people with little understanding of AS and autism take the traits of a personality disorder or simply odious personality traits and assign those as traits of AS and autism.

As for comorbidities, I only have AS, and I do not like it when people with AS and comorbid conditions assign the traits of those conditions, whether personality disorders or neurological conditions, to AS in general.

Transparently it's possible.

You have to understand, one of the big features of autism is feeling overwhelmed by stimuli, so a lot of energy is (mis)spent on controlling one's environment, believing a fixed set of things, etc.

Yes, autism won't stop someone from doing anything, but certain things are a lot more rare on the spectrum as there is trends.

Exactly. So if people need to identify with a community of people who are like them, well yes be proud of the trends of Aspies strengths (if that is honesty, logical thinking and compassion, thats seems broadly right IMO), but see the diversity and the stop saying Aspies cant lie, or manipulate or be successful politicians - ever. Its not true.

Aspies can lie. They can manipulate. They can also be bullies. In my last care home, there was a guy who was almost narcissistic in many ways. I don't know what his official diagnosis was other than Aspergers but he always blamed his behaviour on his Aspergers and made the staff feel sorry for him. When no staff were around he would physically and mentally abuse the other service users including myself and a guy who is very much like a child because of his autism. This guy could literally be holding me up against a wall but as soon as he heard staff, would drop me and act like nothing happened. If he DIDN'T have a personality disorder I would be shocked!

There were suspicions about BPD with me but I didn't fit enough of the criteria, plus they were all covered by my other conditions anyway. I do know another girl with AS who definitely fits BPD as well.

_________________
I have HFA, ADHD, OCD & Tourette syndrome. I love animals, especially my bunnies and hamster. I skate in a roller derby team (but I'll try not to bite )

Plenty of NTs lack TOM. Lots of NT people have trouble seeing what its like to be in others shoes, simply because they either chose to be selfish or because they lack intelligence. They don't think about stuff and care.

My experience of most Aspies is that they care and have emotional intelligence (empathy, sympathy...whatever) but perhaps don't always process it in 'real time'. Once they do, they are generally more clear thinking and sympathetic than NTs. Until the public are better informed, AS people will keep getting judged as selfish NTs. Good TV needed, I work across many university science faculties, half the staff I know are on the spectrum (turn of phrase I don't know what the ratio is). Some good educational TV about how science benefits enormously from AS minds is needed. A BBC programme for Simon Singh perhaps but he is tied up with all the LibelReform stuff in UK.

I know I can be capable of manipulation but do it in such a way people don't notice it. If I really want something to happen the way I want it to happen I will go out of my way to make it happen.
Actually it's symptomatic of Pathological Demand Avoidance syndrome which I have which is a sub-form of autism.
And I think I have mild ODD.
There's also a part of me that thinks I could become a sociopath especially since I sympathise with people who have been bullied and become that way.

Of course people on the spectrum can have personality disorders. There's so many personality disorders outt here to choose from. It's not all about being a sociopath or anti-social.