Paper: Is schizophrenia on the autism spectrum?

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2010.11.031

This disorder freaks me out. I am afraid of it. I am not afraid of depression, bipolar, anxiety or anything other mental disorder. Just this one. I'm almost crying right now.

I used to look for hours and hours and hours as part of my OCD on this disorder and now, I have it.

the first question one should ask when one is faced with a possible answer is "does this answer interfere with my own self preservation". schizophrenia is regarded by most people as a destructive disease. although i hate labels unfortunately they do carry weight, unfortunately this one carries a lot of weight with it. i think it is a bad idea for autistics to portray themselves as being related to schizophrenia. i do not like to make prejudiced and judgmental statements like these but i think it is necessary for my personal well being.

If I have schizophrenia, I would like to know about it before it gets to the "KGB are after me" stage (or insert-debilitating-symptom-here for whatever non-paranoid variety we're supposed to be related to). Regardless, the fact that it may be time to revisit the possibility that the two might be related hasn't exactly got me petrified.

Doesn't schizophrenia require delusions and/or hallucinations? Isn't it possible to be autistic without these?

My cousin is schizophrenic; I have autism. There is not the slightest similarity.

As for papers & research, they could get the same results comparing brunettes with redheads. Or autism with measles. Or doctors with psychologists

My cousin sees, hears, and converses with people who are not there. I don't have any problems like that, although I do talk to myself and to my dog.

The DSM-V is a terrifying prospect, but since there's nothing I can do, I try not to think about it till it arrives. This is based on my lack of trust in doctors (now *there's* a solid reality!).

There could be a connection. Who knows, maybe a certain percentage of autistics might go on to develop schizophrenia later.
Also, the trend is diagnosing children with autism instead of childhood schizophrenia since schizophrenia, by definition, affects late teens to young adults, not young children.
Positive symptoms must be present or a diagnosis of schizophrenia is impossible.

Isn't Schizophrenia a chemical imbalance where Autism is a neurological condition?

is it possible schizophrenia is late onset autism? so that since it happens at a different time, different things are effected corresponding roughly to the time of development? I don't know.

I think they are related but really the definition of schizophrenia makes no sense to me so I can't say for certain. It's just a big category for oddballs and catatonics.

I was just going to write that I hope this doesn't result in recommendations that neuroleptics be used to 'treat' ASD's (as they seem to be standard procedure for SZ (despite evidence showing they may actually harm long-term recovery)). But then I thought that was a little too paranoid. Then, I read the abstract, and at the end it says this:

people with schizophrenia have feelings and thoughts that others are out to get them and hurt them in some way, or that when they see tow people whispering they right away assume it is about them, a real strong sense of paranoia.
I don't have AS but my little guy does(he is 6) and I have never seen him experiance any sort of paranoia, if anything the complete opposite, he honestly doesn't even notice if people are laughing directly at him even if they were blue in the face.

I don't see many similarities between autism and schizophrenia. Even if there are a few similar symptoms, the reasons behind them are not the same which means the disorders are not the same.