Time Magazine Article on Autism

ChristineR said:
aggle-rithm, everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Teachers however do not go around talking about "cluminess spectrum disorders" or "compulsive bullying syndrome." Instead, they teach coordination drills and use anti-bullying techniques.
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!!!!!

None of my teachers did that!
 
Dancing David said:
I apologise my words were poorly chosen and ill considered. I regret my statements as they pertain to you and your beleifs and have possibly caused you hurt.

I certainly read that you have a major social impairment by your standards and I will not insult you by doing an assesment. I am also very sympathetic to what you describe. And as autism is a spectrum disorder there is much to what you say.

Do you percieve social cues? In that do you know when other people are uncomfortable and change your behavior in response?

The defintion of autism is very specific as to it being a pervasive developmental disorder. And it is very specific to the onset being prior to the age of three.

The definition of Aspergers is much less specific as to the expression of the traits, which is why onset can be up to the age of nine. And some wits have described Aspergers as 'Autism-Lite'.

So I still say that autism is an overused term even as a spectrum disorder because any traits at the mild end of the spectrum are generaly better defined as Aspergers.

i certainly did not mean to twist your tail, and i apologise for any harm i might have done.

I am just very tired of doctors and clinicians slinging the word austism around without making the differential diagnosis. I have seen kids who clearly had conduct disorder because they had the volition to harm people and thiey are called 'autistic'. So i was ranting.

Sorry.
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No harm done. I was genuinely interested in knowing where the line is drawn between simple social awkwardness and autism.

To answer your question, I do pick up social cues and respond to them. However, this is a skill learned fairly late in life, and mostly as a defense mechanism (people tend to become hostile in certain situations when you don't pick up their cues!). I can remember times early in life when I failed to "read" people. I didn't understand the reactions of the people around me then, but I do now, in retrospect. These are very painful memories because I can't believe how dim-witted I was back then.

However, I recognize that EVERYONE experiences this to some degree. (I've heard a comedian comment on this: "Does this go on your whole life? When I'm 96 am I going to look back and say, 'Boy, when I was 93, I thought I knew everything...'")
 
TobiasTheCommie said:
True, some people are not capable of learning new skills. But most Asperger autist are quite capable of learning new skills, and holding a job, if they get a little help in the process.

Most autists will have problem in a truely normal work, though many will still be able to do it.
Of the 30+ asperger and infantile autists i know, only a few aren't capable of holding a job. That is, of the once expected to work(old enough).

Some of them work in jobs where special allowanses for their autism is made, some of them work in completely normal jobs. But most of them DO work.

Of the few that don't, one of them gets a depression about once every two months(or less). That is a direct problem from the autism, and without that problem, that person would be very capable of having a job.

Both me, and a shrink, is working on that depression problem right now, have for the last two months, and it is getting a bit better.

Sincerely
Tobias
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I use the Aspergers to denote the less severe forms of autism, so it is a differential for me. But maybe the autistic individuals I met were more away from the Asperger's area.

Our local shrinks say that in autism (because they use the differential of Asperger's) the treatment with antidepressants is tuely pallative in that the level of symptoms will deminish but the symptoms themselves will not resolve, but that ios anecdotal solely.
 
aggle-rithm said:
No harm done. I was genuinely interested in knowing where the line is drawn between simple social awkwardness and autism.

To answer your question, I do pick up social cues and respond to them. However, this is a skill learned fairly late in life, and mostly as a defense mechanism (people tend to become hostile in certain situations when you don't pick up their cues!). I can remember times early in life when I failed to "read" people. I didn't understand the reactions of the people around me then, but I do now, in retrospect. These are very painful memories because I can't believe how dim-witted I was back then.

However, I recognize that EVERYONE experiences this to some degree. (I've heard a comedian comment on this: "Does this go on your whole life? When I'm 96 am I going to look back and say, 'Boy, when I was 93, I thought I knew everything...'")
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I feel the same way all the time at age 48, there is always something new to learn, perhaps you have anxiety or something more mundane?

I have a very hard time reading people but have aquired the skill, I watch breathing and the eye area and the body posture.
 
Huntster said:
Mrs. Huntster is a special ed teacher, and is on the frontline of dealing with autism.

She told me the other day, and I verifed her accusation with a google search, that the incidence of autism has skyrocketed in the U.S. and U.K. over the past 20 years by thousands of percents.

Childhood inoculations are leading the field of suspicions on why this has occurred.
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Interesting. Ms. Tricky is also a special ed teacher and she says that autism has become a catch-all phrase for any number of behavioral disorders. Because special ed programs need money, it is to their benefit to show that they are dealing with a terrible plague of autism. This may sound self-serving, but in truth it is not. These kids do need help, but they aren't going to get it for some oddly-named disorder that no one has ever heard of before. If by lumping it under autism they get the resources they need to deal with the kids' problems, the end result is good.
 
*sigh* i thought i already covered the increase.

For Mrs. Tricky and Mrs. Huntster i'll do some research and make a thread at the latest on sunday about the explosion. :)

But i already wrote it in this thread as well.
 
Dancing David said:
I use the Aspergers to denote the less severe forms of autism, so it is a differential for me.
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Not the exact definition, but is aok :)

Dancing David said:
But maybe the autistic individuals I met were more away from the Asperger's area.
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Maybe.

Dancing David said:
Our local shrinks say that in autism (because they use the differential of Asperger's) the treatment with antidepressants is tuely pallative in that the level of symptoms will deminish
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The stress and depression should diminish. The pills will also, in most cases, help with the OCD that many autists have to a certain degree. During a depression the OCD will usually get a lot worse, but luckily it is the same pills.

Dancing David said:
but the symptoms themselves will not resolve, but that ios anecdotal solely.
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I assume you mean that the cause will not be resolved, and not the symptoms will not be resolved.

I would agree with that, though it can go away on its own in a some 5-10 years(depending on how hard it is and what age one is. But with a fairly decent case in the early 20's, which gets nothing but SSRI medication would probably be able to cope without medication by 30.)

What i am saying here is a vague generalization, it is not scientificly accurate in neither description of the depression nor the timeframe, but is solely used to show that things usually do improve on their own by themselfes.

Sincerely
Tobias
 
TobiasTheCommie said:
Not the exact definition, but is aok :)


Maybe.


The stress and depression should diminish. The pills will also, in most cases, help with the OCD that many autists have to a certain degree. During a depression the OCD will usually get a lot worse, but luckily it is the same pills.


I assume you mean that the cause will not be resolved, and not the symptoms will not be resolved.

I would agree with that, though it can go away on its own in a some 5-10 years(depending on how hard it is and what age one is. But with a fairly decent case in the early 20's, which gets nothing but SSRI medication would probably be able to cope without medication by 30.)

What i am saying here is a vague generalization, it is not scientificly accurate in neither description of the depression nor the timeframe, but is solely used to show that things usually do improve on their own by themselfes.

Sincerely
Tobias
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No the doctor said that the symptoms will reduce but not resolve. His feelinging is since the medications do no rewire the neuro-anatomy the symptoms will remains about constant except the medication will reduce the severity. But again he tends to use Aspergers to refer to the less severe end of autism. Most of the people he treats who have autism also have significant cognitive impairment. And he tends to use Asperger's to refer to the higher functioning end of the spectrum.
 
Dancing David said:
No the doctor said that the symptoms will reduce but not resolve. His feelinging is since the medications do no rewire the neuro-anatomy the symptoms will remains about constant except the medication will reduce the severity. But again he tends to use Aspergers to refer to the less severe end of autism. Most of the people he treats who have autism also have significant cognitive impairment. And he tends to use Asperger's to refer to the higher functioning end of the spectrum.
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I didn't intend it to sound like the pills would work. No, in most cases of autism the brain learn with age, and the impairment brought on by autism will lessen with age, completely unrelated to autism.

What i am saying is simply that the pills will make it easier to live till the point that the person in question MAY be able to cope without them(because his brain has learned to cope with the stress in the world better).

This is not an absolute, and it doesn't fit to all people with autism, but for many simply getting older helps a great deal.

But i totally agree that the pills won't actually cure the problem, just surpress it.

Is that better? :)

Sincerely
Tobias
 
ChristineR said:
Boo--you're wrong.

Tobias: I've heard of infantile autism and Asperger's autism. I have never heard them described as separate, distinct, exculsive entities. I've heard it argured that they are the same condition. I've heard autism classed by several labels, but I've never heard any one say: "there are three kinds of autism, distinct and exclusive." What I usually hear is about "autism spectrum disorders" which include several disorders, not always clearly distinguished from one another, and classed from mild to severe.
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Christine,
How is Boo wrong? I'm a caretaker of an Asperger's kid; Boo has autistic twins; Toby IS autistic...and it doesn't seems as if any of us can tell where the hell you're coming from. You have made some very incorrect statments in this thread, and have been asked for clarification. Could you please provide?
 
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