How is autism not a personality difference?

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I have read that autism or Asperger syndrome is not a personality difference; but if a person's personality is who they are then being on the autism spectrum is part of their personality.

What are the objections to autism/Asperger syndrome being regarded as a personality difference? People who need financial benefits or services or accomodations at work etc would still receive them on the basis of need, not because they are diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, as would children who need it receive special education.

A personality difference would imply that all people with ASDs have a similar personality, which is clearly not the case. An ASD is a profile of strengths and weaknesses, not a profile of preferences and tendencies. You can be gregarious and have ASD, or you can be quiet and have ASD.

I also think autism is a personality difference: personality is an inaccurate term covering lots of things, including the traits of autism (or lack of). this is why there is also a large overlap between personality disorders and autism: in lots of cases they are the same. It doesn't mean every AS person is the same!

I guess the word "disorder" and "difference" come out.

can we CHANGE some of our hard-wired personality traits? that's the point of Autism, by definition, it is considered a lifelong condition. Yes, you can mitigate it with behavior, but you also have to accept that a person with it is less flexible than with someone who does not have it.

But the same can be said about most personality differeces, no?

In fact, psychiatrists would be out of business if it easy to change some parts of personality, but thats what they try to do, with some sucess.. Everyone needs to control some tendencies to fit in eg. the tendency to not want to go to work some days, to shout at an annoying person, and autistic people need to do the same, with help if needed!

Which is why it's not a personality difference; people with an ASD can't control how they are, no matter how hard they try. There's no mental, cognitive and/or emotional choice involved, plus it's not caused by external emotional events.

If my autism wants to yell at people who annoy it, there's nothing my personality can do; if the same autism doesn't want to go to work, the same personality has no say.

I'm one of those who have come to disagree that autism is someone's personality.

If I like something, want something, am a certain way because I'm just born like that, but can't do all that because of my abilities, then aren't my abilities different from my personality?

Let me explain about my autism, dx AS, by talking about two of the very core features most with plain, typical AS have too:

I really like being social. I want to be social. Because I'm a person that naturally gets really energised and stimulated by interacting with people.

Autism: Not being able to read faces, having a hard time with speech, not being the least able to 'get' what others are talking about unlike all those non-autistic people and borderline aspies who say they have AS - that are all symptoms that are a core feature of ASDs.

I am normally spontaneous. I really like doing things from scratch too, being innovative.

Autism: Forces me to have annoying, sometimes ridiculous routines. I fail to keep my routines because my normal tendency is to dislike routines and regulations and stuff.
And that's not even counting in ADHD.

I'm outspoken, direct, say what I want.

Autism: It hinders me many times at speaking my mind when I want to.

Think about more traits of autism that lots of people have and that I cannot connect to their personality any more than others consider depression, a cold, red-green colour blindness, a broken leg or a sprained ankle as part of their personality:

- impaired speech
- broken sensory filters
- sensory issues
- inability to display and perceive body language
- deficient TOM
...

If what I'm like and what I like is my personality and autism is my personality too then that would mean my personality could impair my personality.

And that's just not making sense.

You know something that I think is really weird?

Some people claim that autism is your personality is because it's (considered) a neurological condition. However, they do not consider all those other neurological disorders and differences such as synaesthesia, TS, dementia, ADHD, aphasia, CJD, strokes, epilepsy, Huntington's, parkinson's, MS, muscular dystrophy, brain damage, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, CP as (integral parts of) people's personalities.

Why not, when they're all neurological too and autism, a neurological condition, absolutely must be part of your personality because 'it sits in your brain'?