Psychosis vs. Autism

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I have been diagnosed with both psychotic symptoms (not a full-blown psychotic disorder, because I experience delusions and auditory and visual hallucinations, but not to the extent of schizophrenia or something similar) and ASD. From what I understand, Kanner's autism used to (incorrectly) be considered a form of "infantile psychosis". The reason this is so is because mental health professionals saw a similarity between children with autism and children with schizophrenia and thought they were forms of the same thing. Even today, some professionals consider "autism" (in the general definition of being socially withdrawn) one of the 5 "A's" of negative symptoms in schizophrenia and schizophrenia or some other form of psychosis needs to be ruled out as an explanation for social difficulties when professionals are determining if someone's on the spectrum, though of course one can be both on the spectrum and schizophrenic/psychotic. So my question (targeted at people who know more about this than me) is, what is the diagnostic line, if there is any line, between autism and psychosis, and where do they overlap? Also, the DSM considers both schizophrenia and autism as spectrum disorders, do you think this is valid?

You can draw the line at hallucinations.... those are the line for psychosis. Not a symptom of autism.

I would add delusions

I was diagnosed with major depression with psychotic features because of hallucinations. I’m not entirely confident in that diagnosis because I don’t think I was depressed enough for that.

I also have trouble knowing if what I’m having is an illusion, hallucination, or just an overactive imagination. I’ve had some experiences that were definitely hallucinations but I was extremely sleep deprived at the time...

It’s a shame that one can’t just take a blood test and find out what the problem is.

When I take personality tests, they do say that I have a lot of traits of schizotypal personality disorder... Maybe I should get a new neuropsych evaluation.

Same here, along with ASD and PTSD. I hear voices, talk to fairies, get attacked by demons, have memory lapses, and under extreme stress I feel that I have multiple personalities, and frequently can't remember who I am.

My therapists have said it's very normal for people to not fit neatly into the established diagnostic categories - which is particularly aggravating for autistic pattern thinkers, and it's harder for us to just accept a confusing mishmash of vaguely defined symptoms. We want nice neat categories, want to understand what pigeonhole we fit into - because it's distressing to be a pigeon without a hole, and not belong anywhere.

I can really relate to what you’re saying. I also have PTSD and ASD.

My psychotic symptoms aren’t that bad, especially lately. The medications are working so I guess that should be a good enough indicator that the doctor knows what he’s talking about. I still question it sometimes, though.

I think some of the problem is that I’m not always very good at knowing how I feel. When I look back on certain times, I realize how difficult it was even though I didn’t think it was that bad at the time.

I was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia despite having no psychotic symptoms at all.
Why?
1. Shutdown. From outside psychotic shutdown and autistic shutdown look the same.
2. "I'm afraid of people staring at me in public transport" was interpreted as delusions of reference - but people really stared at me in public transport because I was shaking! And I felt anxious to mask but I found myself unable to do it.
3. "That something like pain... but it's not pain..." I knew no word for sensory overload.

...

An autistic person can have psychotic symptoms but sometimes autistic traits can also be mistaken for psychotic symptoms. They can be superficially similar to an outside observer.