mild autistic disorder vs aspergers

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Same thing.

Everything is relative, Willard.

I hope you don't mind me being this blunt, but let's put it this way-

Would you rather have full tilt classic autism? To this day screaming if someone touched you, and totally unable to speak? Unable too handle more than retreating to a corner and rocking for a good part of the day?

You might want to spend even just a few hours observing more severely afflicted children and, yes, ADULTS on the spectrum.

Once you do that, you'll likely come to appreciate that your situation does indeed involve "mild" autism.

It could be a lot worse.

My therapist again consoled me, just today, with the fact that both he and my doctor believe I'm on the spectrum, so for the moment let me say "we"...

We're in a whole lot better shape than some people are, Willard.

Appreciate what you have. You can speak, and dude, you come across as INTELLIGENT. Executive functioning? Yeah, I have a terribly cluttered apartment right now, because I've failed to keep things in order for a good while. There are other things I don't keep orderly the way I should too, but you know what? I'd choose this level of impairment ANY DAY over things I've seen in other people's lives.

There's a series of videos on YouTube about a young man who's not verbal, is full grown, and whose family has to keep male orderlies on staff at their home most of the day (thankfully they apparently can afford it), because he can get totally out of control. Sometimes they actually have to bind his arms because he starts doing self destructive stimming. Except for his mobility, he's very much like an infant, and the situation is nearly out of control.

My heart goes out to that family, and to their autistic son.

It could have been either one of us, Willard.

Thankfully, we both are dealing with a much MILDER degree of impairment.

Smile, friend. Your life and mine could be a lot worse.

My past is not something I like to go into.
I look back at the videos of me 3 years old with not even babbling and think how far I have come in my life, it's the reason I want to help people.
The worst thing was bullys.

actualy,am a believer of all disability being caused by the social model-including mine, not just mild autism.
am not sure if have understood the wording properly...but to see any form of autism as disabled under the ancient medical model when those of us with severe or profound autism can live good quality of lives and contribute to our community-IF society adapts for us in various ways is backward thinking,but am not going to go on about this as its the wrong thread as per OPs request,though forums naturaly get derailed all the time.


if am thinking of the same guy [am on a dongle so cant go youtubing],he is a young adult and isnt like an infant,he just has a mental capacity lower than hfa or neurotypical people which means he behaves,thinks and understands different to the norm,this includes having challenging behaviors because he doesnt have the same capacity to develop the same skills as others,he has lived his life to the best of his ability and doesnt deserve to be put on the same level as an infant,at least give him that respect,am speaking as someone who is actualy just like him in all ways except higher functioning in communication.

as for the original topic on the ICD,the only difference is in the signifcant speech delay of AD,and those of us under the AD label usualy but not always have both language difficulties and learning disability...
but differences dont really matter because the next ICD [next year if remember correctly] is following the DSMs idea-if have a look at the link have posted of the ICD 11 draft.

its better that the ICD keeps up with the DSM as it coud help a lot of individuals with moderate/severe high functioning autism [whether theyre under the classic,asperger or pddnos label] get the support,benefits and legal protection they desperately need in school,college,work etc,schools are screwing over to many hf autistic kids including relatives of mine because they werent given the correct autism label.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ICD+autism

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ICD+Asperger%27s

Please be careful about any links this person provides.

They've just posted a new thread, claiming that people are trying to infect them with diseases by throwing at them test tubes with dangerous germs in them.

It's claimed these "enemies" are afraid of this poster's "magic autism powers" and this is the reason for the attacks.

PLEASE avoid getting any viruses of a different kind thru any links provided.

He can't speak, isn't toilet trained, and has been known to bite people.

This is no insult. It's a description of his limitations.

He's very much like an infant, except for the mobility...and the teeth.

Even though I am lower functioning this post kind of makes me feel uncomfortable I don't really know exactly why I guess it could have to do with the fact that I don't like people being compared the mentality of an infant so I think that even the lowest functioning person is not less than anyone else in the sense that they do have The ability to have feelings that thawed send again kind too shocked to explain this right now it's not your fault and I don't blame you and I'm not trying to say or bad or anything.

it's that I've been posting a lot of stuff and I don't really wanted to get into details but if you want to know why just look at my thread why do people consider lower functioning inferior? And again it's not you when I completely understand what you mean and I do agree about what you're saying about counting your blessings. But for some reason this post just rubbed me the wrong way.

I'll reply to you the same way I did above.

The poor guy can't speak, makes noises like a baby, wears diapers because he isn't toilet trained, and bites people.

His behaviour is that of an infant with teeth. He's badly impaired, and others with far less in the way of impairments are only mildly affected by their autism.

You say you are "low functioning", Jen, but you can speak. I've seen you. You can write. We're reading you right now.

That poor kid can't communicate at all, and if you'd seen the videos, you'd see he's fairly helpless (except that he will bite when very upset).

He IS like an infant. You and I function better than he does. Would you say your impairments are NOT "mild" compared to his?

Those are just links to "let me google that for you" which is a legitimate website that has been around for at least a few years. They automatically do a google search for the terms in question (ICD+autism and ICE+Asperger's).

Like, don't foment needless scares. It doesn't even make sense to connect something that Who Am I said about test tubes to wanting to inflict computer viruses on anyone. That's a random accusation with no foundation.

Also, you're not doing him or anyone on this forum any favors with posts like this. No one here is living lives in contrast with this man, and thus placing us in comparison to him has no relevant meaning. There are many kinds of impairments with many severities, and that someone may have really severe impairments doesn't mean that everyone else is mild. This is like a mutation of autism parents' favorite comeback, "You're nothing like my child" in which they deny the real issues that autistic people face because they're able to write or talk or what-have-you.

Your definition of severe autism is also kind of a fictional construct. When you find yourself talking about autistic children or adults sitting in a corner rocking you're not describing people, you're describing a stereotype. But even the most severely autistic people usually do not fit this. Many also are able to communicate. Shifting the goalposts so that the only autism that counts as "not mild" is the autism where the person who has it cannot communicate in any way is just a way to silence other autistic people - like jenisautistic - and not remotely a valid or logical argument.

So, please, just stop. That guy isn't here and you can't even say you know everything about him. What you do know is based on his mother posting videos of his worst moments and not an iota more than that.

I mean we're all (including the autistic man Sethno refers to) mild compared to a comatose brain dead person kept on life support, but how does that information help any of us?

I like when people share their own experiences.

Last edited by Lumi on 30 Jan 2014, 12:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

The post about someone having germs thrown at them because of "magical autism powers" was...strange.

Then, without any explaining, this same person posts links with nothing else.

Would YOU want other forum members linking to unknown material via links posted by someone who said they were being attacked by bottles of germs thrown by people who didn't like their magic powers?

I was giving a warning when something looked very, very strange.

It was the right thing to do, and I explained why I was doing it.

As for the videos...

Someone with good intelligence and communication skills said they were NOT mildly affected, but rather SEVERELY affected by their autism.

I pointed out there are others that were virtually helpless and not even able to communicate. That relatively speaking, the young man in the vids is in a far more impaired state.

I used no stereotypes, but spoke of serious impairments that do exist, showing that a person can be greatly impaired, and that a person posting on a website is far less affected.

The young man shown in in the vids is shown as he is, and his mom isn't showing his "worst moments". She's showing what it's like with him each day. Also, the fact remains he's not toilet trained, cannot speak, has a SIB problem, etc.

This is severe.

Recognizing severe impairment does not constitute disrespect.

Two people disliked the use of the term "infant", which was an appropriate term considering his limitations. I'll not bother to describe those. It's posted above.

I properly defended my use of the term "infant", and there was nothing at all wrong with my initial post mentioning the term, nor my two replies.

I'm disappointed and sadened that my attempt to encourage someone has been used as a launching pad for an attack against me by several people.

It's shameful.

Talk about people disliking other people...

here in canada we follow the DSM 5 soooooo

What I wrote in PM:

I saw that thread, but all she linked to was a website that does google searches for you. There is no way you will get a virus going to lmgtfy and searching for ICD + Autism or ICD + Asperger's. Unless someone hacks lmgtfy or the site owner decides to vandalize the internet it's a safe site. Like so:

http://bit.ly/1e9cL4H (also a link to lmgtfy)

Just because someone says something that sounds strange does not mean they're automatically a danger. If she's experiencing psychosis she is far more likely to be a danger to herself if she's a danger at all than she is to be a danger to any of us. What she said sounds like magical thinking, and not indicative of truly sinister motives.

As far as the rest, there's no point to putting everyone on a scale determined by one person, regardless of how severe he is. So what if we're all mild compared to him? That is completely irrelevant to what our day to day lives are, and not even relevant to medical classification. My impairments are mostly rated moderate to severe, with a couple described as mild, and my GAF can dip into the 30s and has an all time high of 48. This isn't mild, and others here have similar or more severe issues than I do, and what they're dealing with isn't mild. There's no point trying to calibrate all autistic people from a single autistic person, or from an autistic stereotype. It doesn't help, not like understanding what one has difficulty with.

Also, your comment about "autistic person sitting in a corner and stimming" is the most prevalent autism stereotype. Everyone brings it up. I have read it from multiple people on this forum, I have read it in news articles, heard it on news broadcasts, on documentaries. It's a stereotype, and one that is frequently used against autistic people to discredit their autism, or at least the impairments they cope with due to their autism. Here's an article that actually points it out as a stereotype:

http://www.ukessays.com/essays/psycholo ... -essay.php - the author acknowledges that some people fit it but that autistic people have a diverse range of presentations.

But mostly, if you just find yourself telling everyone they're mild because they aren't as severe as this one guy who only appears at his worst in youtube videos posted by his fairly bitter mother who would herself probably insist that you are not autistic at all because you're not like her son, then you're probably going down a road there is no point in going down.

Recognizing severe impairment does not constitute disrespect. However, going beyond that to say that because he is severely impaired, everyone else is mild, can very well constitute disrespect and invalidation. Being on a forum does not mean that one is mild. Being compared to an extremely severe person does not mean that one is mild. Severity is described in the DSM-5 in terms of support needed, not in terms of support needed relative to one man.

Also, having read the responses, I agree with KingdomOfRats about your use of "infant."

I am sorry that you feel attacked. My intention was not to attack you and I am sorry for coming across that way. I didn't see other people responding to you, but they may have come in after I did, or I missed the posts when I read the thread previously.