Is PDD-NOS more common than we think?

Post Reply New Topic

I have met so many people in my life who have a lot of Aspie traits but aren't enough to need a diagnosis. I don't know if it's related to the fact that everybody's different and that neurology is a very subtle thing, but it is very interesting.

I've known a few children at school who seemed a little different from their peers, and is unrelated to their upbringing (since a lot of people tend to blame odd behaviours in children on their upbringing which is annoying). I can remember about 3 children in my class who were quite odd or different in ways I can't quite describe, but neither of them needed a diagnosis like I did. When I was 8 I had to be observed by a proffessional in the classroom to see what I had wrong and to see if they can form a diagnosis, but these other 3 children needn't. They were just classed as the general population in the school, where as I was Aspie enough to be singled out.

One of them was a boy with learning difficulties. He had a lot of developmental delays and needed extra help with his work, but at the same time he was very clever in his own way, and could focus on a project for hours. But he was socially accepted, a lot more than I ever was. And there are some other children that I knew through school who seemed very Aspie-like, but from what I know of them now, they are all out clubbing or married or whatever. I'm not saying Aspies can't go out clubbing or get married, but I just think ''if they can go out clubbing with their peers and/or get married before age 22, then why haven't/can't I?''

Do you think PDD-NOS is more common than we think?

I think this just leads to more and more ambiguity. We need clearly defined lines with regards to what is a mental disorder/illness/developmental and what is simply a personality trait or causative effect from ones upbringing. In a perfect world we would be able to just physically test for autism instead of having to resort to inherently imprecise psychoanalysis.

PDD-NOS to me means "We have to call it something, but not Aspergers/Autism", which is pretty much exactly what it is.

If a full large-scale dianogstic was run on a large adult population, without regard for mental health referral, you'd come up with a high "possible" count. Because several traits, particularly the ones relating to special interests, are exactly what you'd expect in some fields.

I don't see the connection between PDD-NOS and what you describe in the OP. I really need further clarification. For what I know, PDD-NOS is not a mild form of autism, it can be at any level of functioning/severity. Maybe you are thinking of BAP (Broader Autism Phenotype).

I supposedly have PDD-NOS, which, as mentioned, is a doctors way of sounding smart when they aren't. It's like calling a dog "mixed". I think most people with PDD-NOS never got diagnosed.

My son has PDD-NOS and I have AS. There is not a whole lot of difference between the two, as far as I can tell. PDD NOS just means there is something that doesn't fit with either Autism or Asperger's, but there are enough criteria met to be significant to functioning. For instance, someone who meets all criteria for Asperger's, but who didn't talk until they were 4, would be PDD-NOS because one of the criteria for Asperger's is no language delay. In my son's case, the things they thought were atypical of autism were the facts that he easily makes eye contact, has a lot of expression in his voice, and has normal interests for a child his age. Everything else fit Asperger's, but there was enough that didn't fit to merit a PDD diagnosis. It can also work the same way for Autism, so people who are lower functioning can also have that diagnosis, if there is something that doesn't fit with Kanner-type autism. To answer the original poster, I think there are a lot of people walking around who are on the spectrum and don't know it. I didn't realize I had it until I went through the diagnosis process with my son

I get what you're saying completely. I knew plenty of kids when I was younger who seemed to have the same level of OCD or developmental delays I did- this is because I was put in institutional care for adolescents with various problems in my teens; so loads there, but also at school too- but now, I facebook them, and I swear, they all have lives I couldn't even dream of.

It's only about three or four (that I know of) from the institutional care that still suffer from the same level of problems that I do well into adulthood. So I would say that those with severe developmental problems are less common than those with mild ones, basically.

It makes me feel like such a freak, loser and terribly despondent. I guess I got a big dose of autism, they just had some developmental delays.

So. Yes, I would say, to your question.

I have often wondered what the difference was, and was thinking about it a lot recently; so, thank you for raising it!

PDD-NOS is also used to diagnose those who meet all the criteria of autism/AS but there is no evidence of their childhood development available.

@ cuckooflower: I was merely suggesting you not feel so down on yourself. I get down on myself, too. I wish I didn't have to struggle so hard for everything I've got, and constantly be within a hair's width of losing everything, and depend on others for so much, it's not fair...et.c. You may not have a partner, but I just got divorced after nine months of marriage, and you may be under or unemployed, or not have the education that you wanted, but I have a negative net worth of $125 K with little hope of ever getting out of debt (student loans, no bankruptcy allowed). My only point is people naturally perceive others' lives as better than their own...I do it, too...maybe realizing that others' lives suck, too, makes one feel a little bit better. Or at the very least, realizing that comparison is not going to help anything and will never be very accurate because you can only base your assessment on superficial appearances(whether on FB or in person), not what's going on in that person's head. Yes, it's possible that those people are doing better...or maybe they are just filling the void with Facebook, going out to bars, et.c and have lots of casual acquaintances, but few real friends. There are 49 million people in the US on psychiatric drugs, so you are not alone in being unhappy. You are NOT a freak or a loser.

I doubt that proper PDD-NOS is more common than we think, or much more common. However, I wouldn't be surprised if there are quite a few people on the broad autistic phenotype and/or had some kind of difficulties with learning social skills, and/or problems with developing behavioral flexibility, and/or sensorimotor problems. Some of those kids who "seemed like Aspies" that you knew may have been kids like me, basically dyslexic in social skills and common sense like an Aspie, but without the sensorimotor problems or repetitive behaviors of true autism. In a couple years from now they would be diagnosed as having social communication disorder. Surely I couldn't have been the only such pseudo-Aspie kid. And for what it's worth, I can't say my life got happy until I turned 30, and I know a lot of NTs who are miserable.