How do you explain having autism?

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I've been explaining it by comparing it to left handed people.

Being left handed is completely accepted in our society, it's not a disease, or a handicap in any sense of the word, we've got special shops with tools and "left hand mode" is pretty standard for computer programs and what not.
However, imagine it wasn't accepted, and we lived in a society where left handed people were forced to use their right hand, instead.
Some lefties will be able to coop better with this than other, but all of them will have a feeling that something isn't right.
Some will never experience a problem because they won't do a job that requires precise use of their hand.
Others will appear to be knee deep in problems because their environment really asks them to use their hand.
Imagine a painter learning on age 55 that he was actually born left handed but forced to use his right. His right hand allowed him to be a painter just fine, but he'll surely ask himself "what if".
Imagine the media stating whether criminals were left handed, and the troubles they had as a kid smudging up their drawings and the frustration this must have caused.


Autistic people are left handed in some types of behaviour because everyone else decides the other kind of behaviour is "correctly right handed".
The only -real- problem arises when you force someone to use a tool not made for them, because you don't acknowledge the existence of the difference. Or worse, see it as a handicap/sickness they need to change.


I get reaaaally pissed off when I read about (mostly american) doctors claiming they will be able to cure autism. That's like finding a cure for left handed people... useless and pretty much an ideology on a level like "some people in history" thought they knew how "a human" should be like.

I read in another post that you were diagnosed PDD-NOS. What distinguishes PDD-NOS from Asperger's exactly? I think it has something to do with talking/not talking as a small child, but at you're age wouldn't it be too late to diagnose PDD-NOS. Or is that if they can't flat out call it Asperger's, it's labeled PDD-NOS?

How can I tell if I might be an aspie or might be PDD-NOS? What's the difference?

Asperger is a collection name for people within the autistic spectrum with similar complaints. PDD-NOS is the diagnosis for people who's complaints are of autistic nature, but don't match the list of aspergers.

Like, if you put 100 clowns in a row, most will be the standard red nosed, white faced clown, but some will be those art deco black tear painted below my eye clowns that don't really fit in with the clown crowd, but for everyone on the outside, sure does look like a clown.

OK, so what are the "complaints" that don't match Asperger's? What are "those art deco black tear painted below the eyes" of PDD-NOS? What are the differences? That was my question.

I don't.

Well, again, people with aspergers all have a list of similar complaints. Social interaction, their interests and behaviour, language, motor skills.
Someone with PPD-NOS may have problems with a combination of any of those, or very severely in 1 of them. Or some, or none for that matter but not all of them, or it'd be aspergers.
Of course both can have "even more" problems, but the trouble within those core "autism" functions decide the name of your diagnosis.

Take any person with asperger and remove a section of their problems and they'd have a PDD-NOS label.
Asperger but an extremely good athelete? PPD-NOS
Asperger but the most social kid on school? PDD-NOS

That being said, because this has been growing so quickly over the last years, the definitions don't really work anymore, hence why next year its going to get all renamed and reshuffled.

Oh.. PDD-NOS stands for "Pervasive Development Disorder (<-autism)- Not Otherwise Specified"... maybe that answers it better. It's the "leftovers" name.

That's why I said, from the inside PDD-NOS is sometimes much different than aspergers (and sometimes very close), but for people on the outside, you're still "in that spectrum".

I used aspergers as an example here, but could have used retts, or high/low functioning, or again any of those diagnosis that have "a list". PDD-NOS is the leftover mix.

Strange that you say that PDD:NOS describes athletic people on the Asperger's Syndrome. I know I was and have been described by others growing up that I was a really good athlete. I still kind of am today, but not in the sports sense, but running and weight lifting. Maybe I was misdiagnosed after all.

It's like being asked what it's like being a guy, or being black. What point of reference do you use? You're either a guy or not. You're either black or not. I'm a guy, and I'm not black, and I don't know how to explain what it is like not being either. I've never lived as a woman, so I don't know how a woman thinks to tell anyone the difference be tween the two. I didn't suddenly turn white, so, I might turn the question around and ask them what it is like to be "normal", because in my world I'm normal. I suppose I could get really sarcastic, and tell them I woke up one morning and found out I was different, because someone told me. Then, I could add there are almost 6 billion people in the world, and you are different than all of them, too. How does that make you feel?

Right way to miss the point.

I'll try to explain it again although I'm starting to think you're "busting my balls".

Asperger is an autism related diagnosis. A diagnosis is something which lists a set or criteria to tell people apart so research, assistance, ect can be provided for that specific type of diagnosis.
Asperger and PDD-NOS are very close diagnosis. Except that Asperger is a list with less but more strict criteria, and PDD-NOS the counter list for people that almost made it to the Aspergers list, but were different on some critical things.

That indeed may mean you've been miss diagnosed because at the time that happened, the criteria could have been different (the psychologist may only have known about asperger in terms of PDDs), or the method of establishing your diagnosis much more crude (yes-no, vs 30%-70%).

It's a real mess, hence the coming reorganisation of the whole spectrum, which will lead to a whole bunch of people with "older" diagnosis to be seen different.

A good example of this is the progression of ADHD/ADD.
"Back in the days" a busy kid was just a brat who needed a beating. Of course there where some "extreme" cases that got a "psychological" diagnosis, which at that time meant they were crazy and put away under heavy sedatives.
Then, as more research was done, they discovered the different levels of this behaviour and realized that the sedated guy in the mental ward and the busy kid who can't sit still actually "suffered" from the same cause.
Nowadays, they are also giving completely shy and always sitting still children a ADD/ADHD diagnosis, because they discovered "internal" affects from the same cause, someone doesn't have to be physically (over)active to be able to be helped by the same kind of "research, assistance, ect" I mentioned earlier. This new group will end up getting their own "name" within the ADD/ADHD spectrum, so they are tied to the same kind of help while allowing "the medical world", and possibly "everyone else" to note the distinct differences between these groups of people.

No I got your point, and no ball busting going on here, just sidetracked the whole thread a little bit. I was misdiagnosed with ADD before being diagnosed with Aspergers which might prove a point for some that I am AS. My social skills have usually been pretty good when I socialize with the exception of the fact that I sometimes miss social cues. It was only when I got depressed was when my social skills seemed to regress. I also don't remember being depressed before being misdiagnosed with ADD either (put on Ritalin, the pills caused a very dangerous side effect). The motor skills have always been relatively good and I still have good reflexes as well. I was actually thinking outside about this before logging back in that Aspergers was probably the closest thing the diagnoser could think of at that time period so you are probably right on that point. It was 1997 when that misdiagnosis and new diagnosis happened.

Maybe it might be a good thing after al that they are changing the whole labelling system for diagnosing people. I am not really certain how strict diagnosing people was like for people back in the day when I was diagnosed. I just hope that people don't believe that they can be fixed or cured, and instead just focus more on growing as a person and accepting who they are.

Me too, hence I explain it with being left handed so people can relate on some level.

I've come to the personal conclusion that, and I'm opening the depths of my mind here so bare with me, that I need to treat my autism as something "any other kind of "handicapped by "standard society""" (yes 3 "'s) person would do, in the way that someone having an apparent physical condition may take a "to get the elephant out of the room" moment when meeting groups of people. And pretty much go about my own business the rest of the day expecting people that approach me one on one to give me that "social benefit of the doubt", since they took initial interest, to a point where I can tell them in a "friends" way, if they have not picked it up by themselves socially or by seeing something autism related in my house or on my person.

I explain it thusly. Some of you might get a kick out of it.

I tell people that it's like playing pin the tail on the donkey, you're still blindfolded, but you not only have to pin the tail on him, you have to FIND the tail first in a giant square room. Also you can only use your teeth to pick up the tail and pin it on him.

Ninety-nine percent of the time, this is the route I take. Very rarely, I'll mention that I know I'm just "wired differently." Even though I'm a self-diagnosed Aspie, it still is, regardless, true - I have synesthesia and a stammer.

Damn. You were faster than me.

Anytime I am required to explain it I state the facts. I tell inquirers that one of the sections of the human brain that deals with social interaction (right frontal lobe) inside my head wasn't developed like it should have been. I still retain intellectual properties > a majority of the population but I'm a "social ret*d" in a sense.

...........Or I could just say I ate lead paint chips as a child lol

Ditto. I will never reveal my status to anyone apart from my closest one or two friends. Because by and large people out there are, on the whole, ignorant boorish clods, where one third thinks autism is "Rain Man" another third that autism is a mental illness, and the final third that it is some byproduct of bad vaccinations, that we're chemical freaks of nature.

And all the way around, we're judged (unfairly and wrongly).

Besides, too many people allow themselves to be defined by that which they cannot help. As a filmmaker, I grow tired of people who define themselves in this way...black filmmaker, feminist filmmaker, queer filmmaker. f**k that.

I want to just be a filmmaker. And a damn good one. One of the best. I define myself how I want to be defined, and will not leave it to others, or to my genes.

So again, no one will EVER know this part of me. Period.