Imagining The Spectrum?

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How do you see the spectrum in your mind?
For me it is
LFA_______________________MFA_____________________HFA__________________AS_______________DYSLEXIA_________NT

(Dyslexia is on the spectrum, bet you never knew that!)

Dyslexia aint on the autism spectrum...

Anyway, I think pretty much the same but with HFA at the same place as AS.

I try to visualize it as multidimensional, but can only go as high as 3 dimensions, with points scattered everywhere and high density peaks in places.

It is, it's just not a Spectrum DISORDER.

I'm quite sure it's not *does research*

well it's difficult to draw the spectrum out simply but I'll give it a go...


LFA............MFA...............HFA/AS.......PDDNOS.......NT
--------------------ADHD----------------------------

I put ADHD in there because, although it is a separate condition, there are so many traits that overlap with ASD that I think it should be mentioned.


EDIT: Plus I forgot to mention that even though I put NT at the top of the spectrum I don't necessarily think they are all higher functioning then AS. Some NT's I know completely lack skills that I have which I believe, are due to autism. Just the same as I lack skills that lots of NT's have.

So my thoughts and personal experiences.


Textbook presentation (I think haha):




How many professionals all over the world seem diagnose it right now:




My thoughts on reality as a multidimensional spectrum of symptoms and severity, no linear severity:

LFA..............MFA.............HFA....AS...................NT
PDD-NOS...............................PDD-NOS


PDD-NOS at the bottom and on each side because it can be severe or mild.

this is how i see the autism spectrum from my point of view though...

LFA or PDDNOS.........PDDNOS or MFA.........PDDNOS or HFA..PDDNOS or AS.........PDDNOS.........ADHD
I do consider aspergers and HFA sooo very similiar, but the reason there two different labels is because little minor differences which is why i put two dots between them. Individuals with pddnos can fit anywhere from the same as somebody with HFA, or AS, or more mild, or more severe. Thats why its the most common diagnosis among the autism spectrum. I met a couple kids whom i thought had LFA, but rather had PDDNOS, i dont know why i guess maybe because they did fit the WHOLE criteria for classic autism, but seem just as autistic or even more as them. Weird very weird haha. Anyways just my thoughts.

I imagine that is (at least) a tridimentional spectrum. Because I can't draw a cube here, i will put the 3 dimensions in is own axis:


Comunication skills:

LFA----------HFA----AS----------NT


"Inteligence":


LFA----------------HFA-NT-AS

(the diferences in inteligence of HFA, NT and AS are basically because circular definitions of the categories)

Repetitive interests:

LFA/HFA/AS----------------------NT

or perhaps

LFA---HFA-AS-------------------NT



(PDD-NOS is in the interior of the "cube")

I see the spectrum as a bit more complex, encompassing other non-empathic states of mind.

(Damn, I've got no photobucket account so I can't put up a nice diagram, so bear with me.)

Instead of just one spectrum running left to right, imagine a second one, going up and down.

In the middle is our old friend, the neurotypical.

------- Magical thinking ---------->

Extrovert: PSYCHOPATH---------------BORDERLINE


In the middle:----------- NEUROTYPICAL


Introvert: AUTIST----------------SCHIZOPHRENIC


The horizontal axis is magical thinking. Do you perceive things precisely, from the outside, or vividly, from the inside? Is someone's smile a heartwarming experience, or just the tightening and loosening of face muscles?

The vertical axis is extroversion. Are your emotions turned on mainly by people (extrovert) or by the world that surrounds people (introvert)?

Putting these together, we get four divisions.

At the top are the extroverts. Psychopaths are fascinated by people, but can't see them as magical - just as another kind of animal. And that's how they tend to treat people. Borderlines are people persons, too, but have difficulty handling the intensely magical experience that comes with personal interactions.

At the bottom are the introverts. Autists are fascinated by the predictable patterns of nature, but tend not to see them as alive in any meaningful sense. Schizophrenics, however, find the entire non-human world magical. Trees and furniture talk to them. The clouds are omens. Even their own thoughts echo magically, as the voices of gods or demons.

Note that this is a very broad-brush picture. There may be other tribes of mutants. Tribes shade into one another, with some people having traits of more than one. And there's no clear line where they shade into the general population. However, a good benchmark is empathy. Can you look at someone and feel in your bones the same emotions as they're having?

Autists and schizophrenics feel no empathy, because most of the stuff that attracts their attention has no feelings to be read. Psychopaths feel no empathy, but give a perfect imitation of it. Borderlines feel no empathy, but have enormous sensitivity. NOTE! they are not the same thing. If you drop a microwave oven on your foot, you'll feel an enormous personal reaction to the oven. That does not mean you understand how the oven works.

I like this one (Mild is HFA, and Subclinical is AS); it's old and before Asperger's was implemented:

For some reason, I see the range of autism as right to left, with the right being severe and the left as being mild.

PDD-NOS---HFAS---MFAS---LFAS---HFA---MFA---LFA

I consider Asperger's as having a range of severity just like "regular" Autism does. I often wonder if someday they'll reclassify AS as not being on the Autism Spectrum, but rather a disorder by itself.

What about someone with high extroversion, some magical thinking and psychopathic and autistic traits? Would that work in your diagram? Because people like that exist so they should fit into a model.

I notice no one has listed nonverbal learning disability, which is considered by some to be part of the spectrum.

LFA__HFA__Low functioning AS__High Functioning AS__PPD-NOS_NLD/ADD

Sora: sounds like a highly-skilled showbusiness person, or a high-rolling gambler who really studies the game intensely. Or perhaps one of the so-called "players" of the seduction scene, who combines a sociable personality with a cynical and well-rehearsed act, focusing on seeming more magical than those around him.

As I said, you can have a mixture of traits. There's quite a few autistic borderlines on Wrong Planet. Although my diagnosis is pure Asperger's, my father was something of a psychopath and I can relate, at least intellectually, to how they see the world.

I guess that, on the little zodiac I posted, the sweet spot would come between psychopath and borderline - the classic hero type, who turns their aggressive impulses towards healing the world. A good example would be the firefighter, striding from the blazing wreckage carrying a baby.