Maybe there should be Autistic Personality Type

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so a lot of controversy has started between the Very VERY high functioning and the people who are more affected by autism...

Im on the side of the people who are more affected by autism, although still very mild it has affected my life greatly and i will probably need basic support for the rest of my life. I believe some adults on this website are a little too high functioning to the point that they dont even seem disabled but thats just from the outside looking in, im sure they do have struggles.

But there are people who seem to have the most BASIC symptoms and focussing on the traits.. like instead of lack of social skills they more just hate people or have social anxiety and instead of obsessions they have hobbies.

So what if, for the people who have the traits and symptoms but are functioning and a typical level just have a sort of Autistic Personality... you know a introverted, socially awkward type who has intrests in limited topics and is a little more sensitive...

you may be asking "well isnt that just autism?!" to that i say no! because a person with autism has those symptoms on a disabling level

Instead of just feeling uncomfortable with eye contact and having a string of hobbies an autistic person does not have the ability to maintain eye contact and have a series of obsessions.

Again... maybe this is just me being jealous that there are other people on the spectrum that have jobs, families and friends and get better benefits than me... I guess i just dont understand... i dont know... anyone agree?

AGAIN, LET ME SPECIFY: i think the Autism Personality Type should apply to those who have
A. No difficulties caused by the symptoms
B. Symptoms that are not necessarily obvious

They call that "broader autism phenotype". It basically means that a person has autistic traits but either not enough for a diagnosis, or too mild to impair daily living. It's often found in parents and family members of people with autism. Engineers, computer geeks, etc, often have this personality type.

It's not really a disorder, just a personality type. I think the theory is that these people end up having kids with ASD because the autistic traits combine and are more severe in the kids.

Edit: I should add that "broader autism phenotype" is not a diagnosis, and is not fully accepted by the medical community.

The OP should keep in mind that autistic adults may have learned how to mask their symptoms so that they seem "normal" to people. The DSM-5 itself recognizes this tendency, and makes clear that a person should not lose their diagnosis because of it. For example, it says that you can count the symptoms "currently or by history" and that the symptoms "may be masked by learned strategies in later life." Under "Diagnostic Features," it says:

That's why its called a spectrum. The severity of the autistic traits varies by the minute. Some people can learn coping mechanisms which make their traits seem less severe than others.

I would have to agree with Yingerin on this one.

Broad Autism Phenotype encompasses what the the OP described, even though the concept is still in its "theory" stage.

Why bother coming back onto the boards contrite and acknowledging it's not for you to judge others and whether or not they're autistic enough for you, and then post this???

The Original Post of this thread is, I find, very sh!t-stirring. The entire premise of the thread is based on a wobbly foundation of COMPLETE ASSUMPTION about people not even met face to face. What gives the OP the right to even make all these assumptions about anyone on this site? Who is this person to make a judgment that the interests someone mentions are not intense or obsessive, just "hobbies," when she hasn't even MET that person in real life or had an opportunity to assess them IN PERSON according to criteria as their professional clinician has?

What gives the OP the right to say someone seems to have a few traits but is not disabled by them when she hasn't even MET that person in real life or had an opportunity to assess them IN PERSON according to criteria as their professional clinician has?

After feeling very angry about another post on this site last night, I came here today planning to make my own thread about not feeling welcome or comfortable on this site due to the fact that skepticism of some members toward other members REGULARLY crops up. To my mind this shouldn't even be happening.

The world and even some professionals already don't seem to accept that it's a spectrum when newer professional opinion has decided that it is. And now we've got "more disabled" also stuck in the 1950s all but telling so-called higher functioning and the adult-diagnosed that, in not so many words, we are a crock of poop.

That's just great.

Speaking for myself, you have never seen what kind of child I was, you have never seen my struggles, my almost ten years of selective MUTISM that NOBODY addressed because it was the ignorant, benighted 1960s! You have NO idea how much I struggle and what it has take to even have the things in my life that ON PAPER make it look like there must have been no struggle at all, yet behind those typed words are an encyclopedia of struggle.

Frankly I'm SICK of this stuff coming up over and over again on WP.

A very profoundly autistic member here, perhaps even one of the most severely affected on WP, actually seemed, if I wasn't mistaken, very accepting of so-called "higher functioning" people to the extent that she considered herself to be an advocate not just for autism causes on behalf of the severely affected and disabled, but also advocating for the so-called higher functioning. She understood it was a spectrum.

And then she herself got accused by another member of maybe not being autistic simply based on her articulate and intelligent posts, that seemed "high functioning." If I recall correctly she even felt compelled to post her reports/diagnosis to prove that she was diagnosed. Then in distress she basically ceased to post here.

And this was a person on the severely affected end of the spectrum. How much less chance do the rest of us have to be accepted here as what our diagnoses SAYS we are?

I'm sick of this bigotry and yes it IS bigotry.

The problem with an "Autistic Personality Type" is that Autistics are very individual in how things present themselves.

It does strike me as redundant also because whether you are more severely impacted or not, that is not a personality type. It is a level of the condition, but not the manifestation of the personality.....

And, it seems that the basic, agreed upon personality types, already cover most of the basics. I mean there are threads about the INTJ and all of those and most seem to already identify with those types anyway.

I think a lot of people who became high functioning did it through their choices and effort instead of naturally being less affected by autism. I think two people can have similar severity of autistic traits, with one able to do what they want and one not. Intelligence, personality, education, family, school, and own decisions are other factors.

I answered yes, but I would just use the existing Broader Autism Phenotype classification. Those people who believe their own traits are not disabling, do not really fit under the DSM definition of Autism Spectrum Disorder. This label could be used to explain to other people exactly that: that they have autistic traits, but do not consider themselves disabled.

Disclaimer: I am not trying to diagnose or undiagnose anyone, here or anywhere, specifically or in general. Also, people with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Broader Autism Phenotype, other neurodiverse types, neurotypical types, officially diagnosed, self-diagnosed, misdiagnosed, undiagnosed, etc. are all welcome on wrong planet.

Last edited by Knofskia on 10 Feb 2016, 2:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yeah im seeing some posts here that are like, saying that they WERE bad but they figured out ways to cope and not theyre autism is less disabling.

But you see, that means you symptoms are STILL ON A DISABLING LEVEL.

Why are people getting mad???

Im just saying maybe, MAYBE if your not having any major problems IE: difficulty functioning as an adult, driving, getting a job, and requiring significant support. then maybe your more of an autistic personaity type rather than a full diagnoses.

This, I'd be unrecognizable on this forum in my teens. I've evolved in leaps and bounds in the last 3 years. Adulthood is an entirely different social environment than childhood. The way someone types also doesn't reflect their in person communicative abilities and they might also have a distorted idea of how they come off to others.

I think their should still be a split between Asperger's and classic Autism though. It's created more problems than solutions.

Last edited by Feyokien on 10 Feb 2016, 2:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Because i can talk about whatevers bothering me. and its still bothering me.

I think maybe a lot of people are feeling hurt because they do suffer and are feeling upset at not being taken seriously.

Especially if it's an older person who was told how bad they were their entire life, and that it was their fault, and who faced a life full of difficulties and terrible self-esteem.

People who are feeling hurt are often going to get angry as a defense. This is a really, really, painful thing for a lot of people, and it can take enormous courage even to take the first step to try to find out what's wrong.

I think we ALL agree on this. If a person isn't having difficulty functioning, then no, they're not autistic. And as others have pointed out, the 'autistic personality type' already exists, in the concept of BAP.

Yes but im not talking about those people.

If a person is truley suffering or was suffering at one point due to their autism then they probably do have autism, I beleive people with autism can adapt, just like Temple Grandin.

However there are still some people on the website who seem to think just because they have the most simple symtpoms.

- Never had a meltdown
- little to no sensory issues
- No real obsessions
- married with children

And some people will try and see doctors and when the doctors turn them away and say "i dont see signs of autism" they call the doctor a quak and self diagnose themselfs anyway.

These people (at least to me) seem like they dont actually have autism and maybe they can prove me wrong.

Again, im open to being wrong about this, I dont know a lot about autism im not a specialist.

PS. i didn't know BAP exsisted, but now knowing about it i firmly beleive in the diagnoses.