Is Asperger's Syndrome worse than Schizophrenia

Post Reply New Topic

Is it? I had a schoolmate back in highschool who had early signs of Schizophrenia. it runs in his family, both his grandparents died in the mental institution and now we're in our 20's and I heard from a friend of mine that he still hasn't finish school and has been in and out of mental institutions for more almost a decade now, but I did hear that he is drinking meds and is enjoying playing poker with our old highschool classmates in a poker club, well basically that's what he does, I don't think he works, I think he only plays poker, he said it keeps him "sane" and drinking the full dose of his meds only makes him sleep all day and he doesn't want that so he skips drinking his afternoon meds so he can play poker with his buddies, now I think in terms of quality of life, this guy with schizophrenia is far better than those with asperger's syndrome, think about it? he has friends and a social life despite his mental disease and yet those with aspergers who may not have entered the doorstep of an asylum once in their lives does not have friends or a social life like the schizo guy, so isn't it better to have schizophrenia than asperger's syndrome? would you trade aspergers with schizophrenia, afterall Joker did say that the madness makes all the pain go away, and aspies with a sane mind are in a constant state of torture.

Well, first of all, Joker's a fictional character, and fictional characters are allowed to be happy and completely psychotic at the same time. In real life, psychosis is at best annoying and at worst terrifying. Schizophrenia is not a nice experience whichever way you slice it--whether you're mentally confused and can't keep yourself on the same train of thought, or whether you're seeing and hearing things, or whether you just can't shake the thought that they're out to get you. That's not pleasant.

Second--I don't think there's any way to compare the two. They're just completely different things. Autism causes problems that schizophrenia doesn't cause; schizophrenia causes problems that autism doesn't. In both cases you'll find people who are very independent and conventionally successful, as well as people who are homeless or who need full-time care, as well as the average people who are just getting by.

There are many things we have in common, though--the experience of thinking differently, of facing stereotypes, and of being in a stigmatized minority. People with schizophrenia are individuals, just as people with autism are--by the time you get to such broad generalizations that you can actually make true statements about most people in those groups, the statements will be so broad as to be meaningless.

I think it's possible for people with schizophrenia to have decent, fulfilling lives, just as it's possible for people with autism; but I don't think it makes much sense to make comparisons, because both conditions are just so very diverse.

On average, people with AS technically should have worse outcomes due to the fact it's lifelong (from birth).

People who develop schizophrenia tend to be fine, or quite functional anyway, up until the onset of the condition, so they accumulate more "resources", like school, work and family. Plus, a good portion don't end up in the "chronic schizophrenic" state after the acute stage (said state being fairly close to Asperger's in many ways).

It'd be a wash though in reality, as both are serious disabilities that have more to do with how severe it is in each person rather than the specific condition.

I don't think so

Why not?

Outcome studies tend to point to people with AS having a poorer outcome (that's with social relations, work and schooling).

Childhood schizophrenia seems to be the closest to AS in regards to having a similarly poor outcome (due to the age of onset more than anything else).

(Severe autism has the worst outcome, but then, that's easy to see why.)

i have both. schizophrenia is definitely worse in stigma and disability and pain. it WAS the AS that ended my medical career, but schizophrenia made me not able to enjoy anything until they found the right med. some folks never find the right med.

I have aspergers and I think of it as being like having a club foot.

Szhizophrenia, according to one guy I know who has it, is "worse than cancer".

I just cant see how you can say that a club foot could be 'worse than cancer'.

Full blown low functioning autism -thats something else though.

Last edited by naturalplastic on 25 Oct 2012, 2:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Looking at the statistics Schizophrenia is a lot more severe than Aspergers( for example, I've seen statistics saying that the suicide rate of AS is around 0.5% while it's around 5% for schizophrenia, and seeing claims that the only conditions more disabling than schizophrenia are blindness and being quadriplegic), Aspergers is fairly mild as disorders go, Schizophrenia is about as severe as you can get with mental disorders.

Also, I disagree with the statement that schizophrenia is less severe because it isn't life long. That should make it more severe as one would have to adjust to the change. It's better to be born blind than blinded later in life as if you are born blind your brain will rewire itself to adapt. The only thing AS has over schizophrenia is that medication exists for schizophrenia.

Asperger's isn't "mild as disorders go"... It's severe. It's only called "mild" when it's being compared to severe, stereotypical cases of autism. It seems to me that AS would have more potential to be disabling over the long term. It's more what i think of when i think of a "disability,"(not to say that schizophrenia isn't one) because a person with it has a lifelong impairment in certain areas. Schizophrenia is also disabling, and i'm not an expert in this area, but it seems like it's not a constant sort of thing the way that AS is. Schizophrenics have abilities (social abilities and whatnot) that they just aren't able to use all of the time for whatever reason, but some of the symptoms that come are very severe and have potential to cause a lot of problems in a short amount of time. There are also meds now geared specifically toward schizophrenic symptoms, so that's another factor... So, yeah, totally different things... I think of schizophrenia as more of a mental illness(even though both are classified as such) and Aspeger's more as a disability(even though both are classified as such), if that makes any sense at all.

If you're telling me I could have a wonderful social life in exchange for hearing imaginary voices and potentially ending up dying in an asylum, then NO, I don't think schizophrenia is worth the trade.

Most people with schizophrenia aren't permanently institutionalized. At most, they'll be in group homes; many are living with family or by themselves. They do risk homelessness and umemployment at roughly the same rates as those with ASDs, though.

Honestly, I think we have a lot in common with them. There's the issue of stigma--we're supposed to be soulless or incapable of compassion; they're supposed to be dangerous and violent. There's the problem of difficulty with advocating for yourself. Both groups are socially isolated, both by prejudice and by the increased difficulty of socializing with their respective conditions. Sure, schizophrenia is a mental illness and autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder, but we're facing many of the same issues, and there are an awful lot of both groups of people (1% of the population for each). That's enough people to make quite a lot of difference, especially if we decide to advocate for each other too, in the form of generalized disability advocacy in addition to the specific issues faced by those with each particular diagnosis.

I have AS and friends, a husband and kids, a life, a home of my own, etc. Why in the world would I want to hear voices and be sedated except when playing poker for a few hours instead of that?

I wasn't always like I am now. I was pretty bad when I was young, and back then there was no idea of of AS and I was just "wierd". I had to learn all the social skills and cues, etc and I had to learn them from a few girls my age at the time (early teens) who became my friends for some reason I can't fathom. I still talk to three of them. One of them is dead. There was also a guy friend in our group who I still talk to and am still good friends with although we rarely see each other.

AS has degrees of severity you know. It's not all one exact way for everyone. I also believe that it's very possible to overcome a lot of it if you have enough information about what to do and a strong enough will to do it. Thats only because I did it, and I really can't imagine it being another way for others, although I'm sure it is, even though my imagination doesn't grasp it.

I think you can't draw a universal conclusion. It would depend on the two individuals you were comparing. My neighbor has paranoid schizophrenia and I have either mild AS or am BAP and would take my problems over hers any day of the week. I can maintain a few friendships and have learned how to function well enough in most environments by this point in life. She is on and off her meds and when she is off, she thinks every single outside action is something to do with her and the world plotting against her. She has lost all of her friends and most of the neighborhood runs and hides when she walks by. My life is not that bad.

Wow, that doesn't sound pleasant at all. Has she considered talking to her doctor about those long-acting meds that you can get injected and will slowly release themselves over a few months? That way she wouldn't end up going off her meds so easily, because it wouldn't be so likely that she'd forget a couple of days' worth and then not be thinking straight enough to remember them; she'd just have to go to the doctor every month or thereabouts, and they could call her up and check if she didn't come in.

But I don't know if you're good enough friends with your neighbor to suggest that; nor whether she can even afford that sort of thing--I know medication is often cheapest in the "take one pill a day or more" variety. I don't even know whether remembering to take them is really her problem; it's more of an assumption because that's my biggest problem with it.

Anyways, at least she's not completely alone--she's got at least one neighbor who's not going to think badly of her for having schizophrenia.

I would say schizophrenia is much worse than A/S. With A/S, I live a relatively normal life, except for the social interaction. Schizophrenics, on the other hand, are totally debilitated and a lot of them wind up homeless, and in terrible health. They are also far more ostracized in this society, because of their behaviors.

I have known her and her husband for around 12 years now and know to look out for her if she seems "off". As for the meds, the problem is she is stubborn and doesn't like taking them. She seems better now, but at one point she wrecked 5 cars in 6-8 months because she would drive around all night looking at things, fearing that if she stayed at home someone would kill her. She'd get paranoid and stop in the middle of the road unexpectedly and get hit by other drivers. I caught her several times with her car parked half in and half out of someone's driveway because she was looking at something and had lost all awareness of her surroundings. One of the cars she wrecked was a 1966 VW Beetle that her husband and I had done a body off restoration on for her. Her husband eventually succeeded in getting her declared mentally incompetent and had her driver's license taken away by the court. After that, she would walk around the neighborhood with a cart full of her belongings at all odd hours of the day looking and asking odd questions.