Difference between High Functioning Autism and Asperger

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My understanding (which could be incorrect!) is:

=>- Prior to 1994 the DSM did not list Asperger's Syndrome.
=>- From 1994 until 2013 Asperger's Syndrome was a diagnosis separate from Autism in the DSM.
=>- In 2013 the DSM moved classic Autism and Asperger's Syndrome under "Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)."
=>- ASD had three severity levels, based upon how much "support" was needed.
=>- People with Asperger's often (but not always!) only needed Level 1 support.
=>- People with ASD but not Asperger's were less likely to be Level 1 (but could be!).
=>- "High Functioning" is a colloquial term, not a medical term, for ASD-1...
=>-+-even though that "1" is about support, not functioning.
=>- So "High Functioning" often (but not always!) equated "Aspergers".

So, I guess, "High Functioning Autism" is a colloquial term which often applies to people who meet the criteria for the outdated diagnosis of "Asperger's Syndrome" but could also be appropriate for anyone at ASD-1, whether they meet the Asperger's criteria or not.

Aspergers, even in the 1994-2013 period, was considered part of the Autistic Spectrum. And people with Aspergers Syndrome were considered autistic.

I'm too new to the world of ASD to have firsthand knowledge of what people said before 2013...but it makes sense. They are now one diagnosis, presumably because they have a lot in common. And what I've been reading flags delayed language skills as being the big discriminating feature between the two but that is a characteristic that could be difficult to verify in an older patient...so it might be difficult to get the "correct" diagnosis. With respect to that dilemma, combining them under Autism Spectrum Disorder makes sense to me.

I still feel I don't have much in common with autism. The only thing I do is the sensory issues with certain noise and maybe touch (I'm hypersensitive to some pain and I don't like clothes with itchy tags, but I do have a phobia of clothing tags anyway, but that's a different topic).

Yes I had a phobia of the bell at school, but that was the only noise I was afraid of at school. I wasn't worried about the children being noisy or anything. I'd just put my hands over my ears when I knew the bell was going to ring, which was usually in noisy, hectic hallways, but to adults it looked like I was overwhelmed by the noise of all the kids - but I know I wasn't. If the bell wasn't due to ring then I didn't even think of putting my hands over my ears, but of course the adults didn't notice that.

If electric bells didn't exist in schools then I probably wouldn't have got a diagnosis at all I don't think.

Actually when my daughter was diagnosed in 2010 she was given a specific label which was used to admit her into mainstream primary school called "High functioning autism". I can't remember if it actually existed in DSM as a code (I don't think it did) but it was unofficially recognised on the internet (other parents posting videos of their hyperlexic non-verbal toddlers who could memorise and express numbers, letters, words).

It mean't something specific back then agreed between the paediatrician, psychologist and school. Non-verbal but showed hyperlexia and high cognitive ability in terms of non-verbal intelligence in the top 1% of scores on the Raven's matrices.

My daughter has this too, it's called misophonia. On it's own it doesn't give you a diagnosis of Aspergers/Autism as it's actually common among NTs.

2010 was before the DSM combined Asperger's Syndrome and Classic Autism. Perhaps they wanted to say she had Classic Autism but make it clear she had more cognitive ability than that implied?

Yes that was my point, pre-2013/post 1994 a speech delay automatically had you diagnosed with classic autism. Autism in that window period was a categorical label not a spectrum. The HFA label was an unofficial label applied to non-verbal kids who showed hyperlexic tendencies + basically normal behaviour function. I know as my wife and I went through all this labelling business when negotiating with mainstream schools who were using every trick they could to block my daughter's enrolment.

I have observed classes with “high-functioning” autistic children.

There is the tendency for these children to be verbal, yet exhibit “classic” autistic behaviors like spinning objects. And they are transitioned gently from one activity to another by teachers.

I have known about autism since about 1970. I was diagnosed with it at around age 4, in 1965.

Yes, every kid with autism is different. My daughter was also fidgety and would randomly get up and walk out of the classroom when she was bored.

So we seem to be establishing something that has been discussed in circles now for a decade. It's the 10th anniversary of the DSMV and people who were diagnosed with Aspergers still call themselves Aspies and synonymously identify as HFA.

It's kind of irrelevant what was/was not a pre-2013 label as people/communities still choose to identify as Aspies.

During my last appointment with my psychologist who diagnosed me, I asked do I have Asperger's Syndrome. She replied, "No, you have autism."

Being diagnosed with HFA has confused things for me.

This we can agree on .
Both the DSM IV diagnostic criteria for Aspergers Disorder and the DSM 5 diagnostic criteria for Autism Spectrum are overly broad.

The reason the diagnostic criteria is too broad is not enough knowledge.

We don’t know what will be proven. It might be that what we call autism is 30 different conditions or 1.

If or until that point is reached I going by what we know. The rest of this post is based on that limited knowledge.

The most frustrating thing in almost 10 years of the is Autism and Aspergers the same thing debate is the binary aspect of it. IMHO Aspergers is a subtype of Autism not a wholly separate condition. In conditions that are diagnosed, for personalities, in society in general we have subtypes. These subtypes at times are far from perfect but subtypes are generally accepted. For example with pain we a have pain caused by a paper cut and pain caused by being run over by a car. Radically different presentation, radically different treatments, no problem calling it pain. With cancer there are subtypes and subtypes within subtypes. Yet it is all cancer, you don’t have cancer patients saying other people diagnosed with cancer, have something else. With ASD no, no, can’t have that.

What I think should happen going forward is there should many more Autism subtypes and they should be based on predominant traits. That will be most helpful for those diagnosed, and for finding treatments, and possibly cures for those who desire it.

Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 28 Dec 2022, 2:38 pm, edited 2 times in total.

As mentioned by cyberdad Aspergers disorder has not been an official diagnosis for almost 10 years. In the ICD it is on its way out. Yet here on Wrong Planet in some other Autistic spaces, and in the mainstream media “Aspergers” and “Aspie” are still widely used.

I just do not see the Aspergers diagnosis coming back for these main reasons
1. The manuals come out every 15 or 20 years after a lot of debate. I doubt they are going say “Oops, we were wrong, sorry about that”.

2. As discussed above there are and will be better ways of categorizing Autism.

3. If any chances of the Aspergers diagnoses coming back existed they were killed by the revelations of Hans Aspergers Nazi complicity.

There many reasons people still want to describe themselves as Aspies. For the remainder of this post I want to concentrate on those who want to separate themselves from Autistics. For my first few years here it was a thing, then it mostly disappeared. In the last few months it has made somewhat of a comeback. I think there are three main categories.

1. Purely scientific.

2. They think they are superior to Autistics.

3 They do not personally think Autistics are inferior but others do and will categorize them as inferior.

I believe reason 3 is the predominant reason even taking into account those that will say reason 3 when they believe reason 2.

4. "Aspie" seems like a comfy way to say "ASD-1".

P.S. The psychologist that did my evaluation added a note that I also satisfied the criteria previously associated with Asperger's Syndrome.

I don't think people like me are superior to people with autism. I just feel I don't really fit autism, and now that autism is just one thing now it makes it even worse.

I do hate autism, and Asperger's. I just wish Asperger's was an abbreviation like ADHD, like being Social Communication Sensory Disorder (SCSD) or something. Autism sounds like a nerdy loner who flaps their hands a lot. Asperger's sounds like a potential school shooter. SCSD sounds more generalised. I like it.