AS/HFA: The difference

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"Complex autism," as a category, wouldn't be just brain damage. It would be autism where there was any sort of major condition going on that might (or might not) be linked to it and its expression. Such as people with Down's syndrome and autism, where there was no particular brain damage but there was another major condition going on at the same time.

Funny enough, I read another article about that in children with Autistic Disorder. They found that many of these children in hte study had hypoperfusion (reduced blood flow) to either one or both temporal lobes.

renaeden, do you have any symptoms of prosopagnosia? (Not recognizing peoples' faces.) I was just wondering since damage to the right temporal lobe is frequently associated with prosopagnosia, which is somewhat common in the Spectrum.



Ah, thanks for the correction. The book in which I read it was using it in such a manner that it seemed it was solely referring to those with Autism due to brain damage, because it was talking about an individual who had had encephalitis at about age 8 or so and developed his autistic symptoms (or at least the obvious ones, since the author said he might have had a more HF ASD beforehand which was something that was never verified) thereafter.

Good to get one's definitions straight. So it would also include disorders like PKU and the like... Interesting. (Although PKU is sort of brain damage due to the person's inability to process phenylalanine I guess.)

On a side note for phenylalanine... I find I am sensitive to phenyalanine (which is part of Aspartame) and it gives me a splendid headache. I wonder if some folks on the Spectrum are more sensitive to neurotoxins. If we are, it might be something to check out to see if some of these neurotoxins might not have an effect on fetal development. I'm not saying I have PKU or anything of the sort. But maybe some are more sensitive to certain substances and have greater reactions to them. If these reactions come during a time of development either before or after birth, they could potentially alter its course. There could be additives in our food or general neurotoxins in our environment which the developing potentially-autistic fetus or very young child might have a more severe reaction to and hence change the course of its development.

Yes, I believe I do have some symptoms of prosopagnosia. Looking for a certain person in a crowd makes me really uncomfortable. It takes me a very long time.
Which is why I am somewhat nervous about meeting GA at the airport next week. The more people, the worse it is.
Some have said to me, "Didn't you see me? I was waving right in your face!". It makes no difference. Usually, I find the best way to get around the problem is by sitting somewhere and reading something. This way, the other person has to do the work.

You could ask him to wear a well-defined shirt, maybe something really bright or unusual that would be easier to spot. That might help relieve some of the anxiety of spotting him in the crowd.

Hey, that's a good idea! Thanks for that, Sophist! :D

Minor problem...I don't have many bright clothes... But I think I'll be able to spot her first Red hair is distinctive

Any distinctive hats?

I have a black hat...which I recently bought. I tend not to buy clothes that standard out. I prefer darker colors, I sorta blend into the crowd..Which obviously isn't what I want to happen at the airport...Though I wouldn't want to stand out to any one except renaeden, which would rule out going there naked...

Um... you could carry around a bright neon posterboard sign...?

I'm sure I said I only wanted to stand out to renaeden

Sorry for answering this post a year late, but I have been thinking.

I'm HFA and you and I developmental profiles growing up are exactly the same, but you have problems with self care and help skills, which I do not have. Also I dunno if you taught yourself to read, I most likely around the same time I learnt to talk.

My social needs, I have a need to talk to people every so often or I become pretty lonely. However I never seem to have much of a drive in wanting to have friends (taking socialising beyond just talking to people every now and again). I also like enjoy a lot of time by myself, dealing with people too much can be a little bit overwhelming.

Overall my social needs are low by NT standards, but no different than many other people with AS. In the long term future I could choose to be living by myself and having the ocassional friend drop by every now and again and kind of liking it. My mother who has AS has almost the same identical social needs as I do.

Jman your experience exactly mirror's mine, I was diagonsed with Autism when I was 2, however depending on what doctor is doing the re evulation I would be most likely given an AS diagonsis. Ever since my teen years and maybe earlier, I have fitted the profile of someone with AS, despite I was classic autistic as a kid.

I would not be suprised if people thought I was either absent minded or an absent minded professor. I fitted that profile very nicely in High School

There is evidence of people working their way up the spectrum, say from HFA to AS. Can a slide the other way be possible?
A year ago I had control of everything. I had a reasonable job, a mortgage, my own car, friends, etc. Now, I have lost my job, had to sell my place, I can't drive due to my limited concentration span (I have had two accidents in the past), I've lost contact with most of my friends, on-line and off and a lot of my family don't talk to me either. I have been hospitalised twice, too. If it weren't for people around me I would not get out of bed except to go on the computer.
I feel I have to try so hard to do anything, it's exhausting. I'm using my ridiculous sense of humour to get through a lot of this.
Yeah, maybe I should have posted on The Haven, but this is a question about shifts either way on the autism spectrum using my experiences as an example, heh.

Isn't that just depression, though, Renaeden? It's not really an AS -> HFA slide, if such a thing happens.

Yeah, that's what I was wondering, if there is such a thing as a slide back down the spectrum.
Just before I lost my job, my co-workers were suddenly (it seemed to me) very observant of my behaviour and critical of it. I didn't know how to handle it, all their questions. I wanted to be left alone to do my work....
I do wonder if it is just depression...but then I have had intensive treatment for it, I am left feeling exactly the same as when it (the treatment) started. It's like I had reasons for being depressed before and now I don't. Heh, I'm hopeless at trying to explain this.
Just...well...the symptoms that I think are autism-related are worse. Especially the sensory issues.

I didn't read all the replies but i got the idea .
This question was on my mind too ..... i didn't know if i am HFA or AS.
anyway I have a theory : the current spectrum concept is WRONG.
The spectrum is based mostly on IQ which i think it s wrong , i believe there 's different "levels" of autism but it s not really related to IQ , i think that some autistics have a high severe autism regadless of thier IQs and other who have milder autism ( and they can have any IQ.) .
So I think HFA , LFA , AS are wrong nominations, I think there is a spectrum but not the spectrum that we know now , we can find for exampe a high-IQ person with extremly severe autism ( severe communication problems....etc)

And this theory is based on personal story ..see it in the next post.