Everyone's a little Autistic.

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Hi, forgive me for my terrible English.


It's impossible to confuse a comorbidity with belonging to the autism spectrum.

Impossible.

Then, if you go get diagnosed by an unsuitable doctor...

It could happen, but most of the questions in the tests are completely disambiguating.

Look. I've had the pleasure of meeting people like scientific researchers, some online, others in person.

My diagnosis, for example, was made by scientific researchers with thousands of publications and who collaborate with many US centers.

Only one of them had 1,200.

She was Italian-American.

But how is it possible to confuse a comorbidity with Asperger's or any form of the spectrum?

Explain it to me.

Detail it.

Sorry if I seemed rude: I'm tense about something else.

I'm so sorry: every post I write is written so as not to bully any of you.

By the way, your posts are often beautiful.

Let me explain: if I were here in Italy diagnosed with major depression, I could easily get 100% absolute severity.

You would receive a small pension (about 800 euros).

I had several comorbidities.

Do you know how stressed I was by the delays in my country?

After waiting years for the diagnosis and subsequent visits...

I went to my doctor asking him to call the Institute I had applied to.

So they would remove me from their lists forever.


Do you know what happened? My doctor called the central office.

Sensing that I wanted to remove myself from the evaluation and even forgo some money, he said (he was on speakerphone) that, in fact, he would be happy if I showed up there; he wanted me to do so.

I went with 6 mg of Rivotril in my system.

The dose is devastating.

I went well-dressed, I had three expert reports at the courthouse, and reports from scientific researchers (who also publish in Science).
I had three additional reports from three different provinces.

Public: in our country, non-public diagnoses aren't even taken into account.

I'll tell you something: only a major depression like mine on the Balthazar scale is worth 80%. That alone, I mean.

I was entitled to 100% severity.

They offered me an appeal.

I studied law (also), so I would have won the appeal hands down.

Free of charge.

§

I categorically refused to do it.

Because I couldn't take it anymore: it was enormous stress.



And then I absolutely don't like going around begging for money.

I'm now 346, with a 33 euro pension and a 75% severe disability, exempt from periodic check-ups.

I could do many different jobs.

It stresses me out to go there.

I could get other degrees. Even remotely via the Internet.

I don't feel like it.

Furthermore, in Italy, research on artificial intelligence and robotics is very advanced.

Soon, at least here in Italy, we'll have self-aware robots capable of replacing doctors, psychologists, and psychotherapists.

I've seen them.

They even read facial expressions and emotions.

My degree in this subject would be worthless in three years.

No!

It's impossible to confuse autism with anything else. There are tests, constant visits, and evaluations. Mine have only been diagnosed in twelve different people.

Competent.

Impossible.

I'm sorry if I wrote something rude; it wasn't my intention.

I want to respond very carefully so as not to offend any of you.

Thank you.

You're not offending anyone...



But the reality is that a lot can confuse the comorbidities with autism.

Even professionals for example, the occurrences of misdiagnosis can still happen. Not truly impossible, as much as I or anyone wish that's the case.

Although the supposed odds of that happening are lower than the attempts by laypeople.

It doesn't help that a formal assessment is not very accessible.
And it's a relatively recent development, too. Not everyone is in the know to get any access to these things and just wonder their lives why.



As for laypeople themselves, particularly in the internet, they are very much prone to it.

For example; NTs with social anxiety can thought they're autistic -- all because they relate to the social awkwardness, overthinking and effects around anxiety.
And some autistics, especially late diagnosed, thought they're just NTs who just thought they have social anxiety making themselves doubt if they're even autistic in the first place.

I can add more; and it's almost always involved overlaps.

The phenomenon around autism and ADHD for example; the comorbidity is so high, that an autistic without ADHD is less likely than not. It's predicted that half of autistics are at least.
But why? Is one's ADHD a "balancing counterpart" of one's autism? Is the ADHD a trauma response or a habit of an autistic individual?
How about the other way around; is the ADHDer allistic and just happened to have social related issues similar to autism due to their circumstances or not?


There are other things that can be mistaken for; example, intellectual disability being too associated with autism and blaming the autism of it's severity.
Why? Because of whatever they constitute as "severe autism" is not a severe form of an autism, but an intellectually disabled person who happened to be autistic couldn't handle being autistic themselves.


Even anxiety was mistakenly thought as a part of autism, all because it's too common -- when it's not a diagnostic criteria nor itself inherent in autism because it's a reaction to adversities that many autistics faced.
Yet and yet too many believed that for someone had to be autistic, they must have anxiety.


Wanna make you more confused?

Even giftedness was put into it. Because an autistic with a specific and leveraged spiky profile can keep up with particular high IQ individuals.
Along with the lack of relatedness towards the norm and all that overlap. They seem to resonate, but the underlying effects are different.

Even specific learning disabilities.
Dyspraxia for example -- like anxiety, they thought this should be a diagnostic criteria, all because clumsiness and dislike for sports is too common in autism.
Disregarding the underlying reason why the clumsiness exists, or the existence of spiky profiles exists.

Dyssemia is another example -- all because of the common overlap around cognitive empathy and the effects in socialization.


Here's another layer to think of;

Alexithymia for example, it seem more of a internal sensory and cognitive profile common in autism.
But that's not the autism itself -- yet and yet it's too tangled up with the notions around the so called 'lack of empathy' and the inability to read body language, tone and so on. Even asexuality and preferences around external processes.
The reality is that even the research gets a mixed bag of contradictions, confused until figuring themselves out that they're looking at autistics with and without alexithymia, and thought the alexithymia traits is the autism.


I could go on and on and on -- specific autistic profiles, being mistaken for either comorbidity or a diagnosable comorbidity itself from that specific autistic profile.

Or heck, an under-diagnosed autism masked by it's relatively severe comorbidities.
There's yet to have a technology or practice to actually determine which is certainly which for everyone.

I don't know the odds of who's able to know where it ends and where it begins.
Who's lucky enough to get a comprehensive assessment to be able to tell someone where it ends and begins... I'm not one of them.



Yet, for someone with strong interoception and introspection I know mine -- to a point that I deduced that my executive dysfunction is not an undiagnosed ADHD but habits of me coping with years of crap, my spiky profile is an undiagnosable language processing issue that's definitely coming from the autism so no need to seperate, that whatever dysregulation and unprocessed emotional nuisance I had was not a hidden mental illness to a point that I fixed it myself, and my main source of inconsistency is hormonal factors that my wiring is reacting to than my wiring alone.

If I wasn't diagnosed, I wouldn't able to self diagnose.
Because the common stories around autism is mostly about socialization and intolerances -- things I couldn't relate as an autistic who happened to have a form of asociality, whose focus of confusion and complaint is not around socializing and awkwardness around it.

As to why I said I'm a full blown autistic who can pass for an aspie -- because people are likely more in denial over who I'm than I ever will be.

And because why not?
The way I process things is closer to autistics that had less verbal aptitudes or even unreliable speaking autistics.

@Edna3362

(1)

You write more than me!
I'm struggling a little because I have one eye that I can't see very well out of right now.

So: can I divide your post into parts?

1, 2, and maybe 3.

You must have some references, but I can't fully answer right now, sorry!

Meanwhile: I understand what you mean; I'm not responding to you, let's be clear.
Let's try to evaluate and compare the two perspectives on the topic.

<>
I notice that your diagnoses are perhaps different from ours.

We have two types of centers.

Usually, you end up in the one that doesn't clarify anything and creates incorrect professional ideas.

For me, at the beginning it was social anxiety, social phobia, and depression.

I was treated by a CTU (Court Expert) doctor.
I received an (incorrect) diagnosis of social phobia.

I had her as my first-level specialist.

And I was undergoing CBT (CBT for you).

Plus, I had two dedicated nurses to take me around the city.

In addition to a multi-drug regimen.

1) The diagnosis was wrong.
2) The nurses reported that, unlike the others, I didn't run away from people.

3) The drug therapy was totally ineffective: I risked a gastric hemorrhage.

That these are comorbidities with autism is true; in fact, I don't believe there's a single autistic individual who doesn't have them.

After years of seeing other doctors who weren't specialized in autism, I finally managed to be evaluated by someone who was. Then I had a very long evaluation by scientific researchers.

The diagnosis is made very carefully.

Not in a few visits: for me, the researchers' visit took 8 months.

In 8 months, many professionals evaluated me,
I answered thousands of questions, and I underwent specialist evaluation visits.

That's why I wrote that only those with no specific knowledge of autism can misdiagnose.

It's true that it doesn't help that a formal assessment is difficult to access: I agree with you!

We have very good assessment training.

So, unfortunately, this is a common issue on the internet: people believe they can diagnose themselves.

*Later, I'll give some examples I asked a doctor online, and I've been waiting years for his answer because he promised to give it to me
I asked him a very difficult question to answer.

In fact...he didn't answer.

But it was for informational purposes.

"For example, NTs with social anxiety may think they are autistic, all because they identify with social awkwardness, the tendency to overthink, and the effects of anxiety."

I don't know, NT, but I understand what you mean.

In fact, as I've already written here: there are no wrong answers, just wrong questions...

An autistic person necessarily has social anxiety.
Some key brain structures appear to have increased in volume by 20%.

They also almost certainly have PSTD.

<>
Yes: many autistic people think they aren't.

I realized at 4 years old that I was different from other children, but logically, I didn't understand why.

Then I went down the wrong path: mental health centers.

They aren't qualified to evaluate autistic people.

Specific centers are.

You can't go wrong there.

Also in my case: my mother had Asperger's (autistic).
83% of autistic people have genetic causes (there are studies confirming what I'm writing).

"The phenomenon linked to autism and ADHD, for example; the comorbidity is so high that an autistic person without ADHD is less likely to not have it."

ADHD can be diagnosed alone without autism.

True.

But many autistic people have it comorbid.

There are many types of ADHD.

"At least half of autistic people are predicted to be so.
But why? Is ADHD a "balancing counterpart" of autism?"

I don't have research data on percentages here: I apologize.

*
It's not a balancing part of autism.
It's a highly dysregulating part.

"Is ADHD a response to trauma or a habit of an autistic individual?
And the other way around: is the person with ADHD allergic and simply had autism-like social problems due to their circumstances or not?"

It's not a response to trauma: I've never read research on this.
Anyway, it's interesting what you say.

What do you mean by allergic?

Because I'm allergic.

I'm not clear on this point, but I also find this part interesting, thanks.

I need to understand what you mean because if you mean they're related, I can't answer that.

I don't have data on this.

YES, it's ADHD as a condition, which is often comorbid with autism as a whole.
Autism is a spectrum condition.

"There are other things that can be confused; for example, intellectual disability is too closely associated with autism, and its severity is attributed to autism.
Why? Because whatever they call "severe autism" isn't a severe form of autism, but a person with intellectual disability who is autistic is unable to manage their condition."

In our country, intellectual disability is also defined simply as such, even in NT and subclinical conditions.

In low-functioning autism, it is a parameter considered because it increases the severity.

"Even anxiety has been mistakenly considered part of autism, and all because it is too common, when it is not a diagnostic criterion nor intrinsic to autism, because it is a reaction to the adversity that many autistic people have had to face."

In our country, it is a comorbidity criterion in the case of an autism diagnosis.

Not a specific diagnosis in itself.

Yes: indeed, amygdala volume increases in people with PSTD.

Yes.
An autistic person suffers from PSTD: me too, for example.

"And yet, too many believed that to be autistic, someone had to necessarily suffer from anxiety. "

Those who don't suffer from anxiety could fall into psychopathology.
Everyone experiences functional anxiety. Dysfunctional is a problem.

An autistic person has increased dysfunctional anxiety.

Do you want to confuse yourself even more?

"Even the gifted was included. Because an autistic person with a specific and exploited profile can keep up with individuals with a particularly high IQ.
Along with the lack of relation to the norm and everything that overlaps."
I'm Gifted.

Many autistic people have an IQ that is either normal or even much higher than that of NTs.

Many geniuses were autistic.
At least considered as such.

Mozart, Einstein, Newton, Majorana, and many others probably were...

They can keep up; I'd say they can even be too far ahead.
Then they pay for it in social interactions. Look at Alan Turing, Majorana, because you can't cope with social interaction. In the long run, it devastates you.

They seem to resonate, but the underlying effects are different. Even

specific learning disabilities.
Dyspraxia, for example, like anxiety, they thought should be a diagnostic criterion. All because clumsiness and an aversion to sports are too common in autism.
Ignoring the underlying reason why clumsiness exists, or the existence of pointed profiles.

My profile is pointed.

I'm not dyspraxic, nor dyscalculic.
I'm digraphic, and dysorthographic.

You'd never guess, would you? But unfortunately, yes...

Part 1 of the answer

Hmmm. If everyone is really on the spectrum, then why do only some of us feel like we're on the Wrong Planet?

I'm pretty sure that the people we refer to as NTs do not feel like they're on the Wrong Planet.

The day that I don't have to mask, don't have to explain myself (usually unsuccessfully), don't feel like I need to get as far away as I can from all things NT, and don't wish with that the Mother Ship would come and pick us up and take us home, that will be the day that I believe that everyone's a little autistic.

Until then, no, everyone is not a little autistic.

Some people without autism might still feel like they're on the wrong planet. My AS doesn't make me feel like I'm on the wrong planet at all, but my teetotalism does. I think it still would even if I didn't have AS.

Interesting point. I never really thought of it this way. For me, the main thing about my autism that makes me feel like I'm on the wrong planet is the awkwardness I experience when in a socializing moment. I see everyone else gabbing, and I feel like the lost child in a dark corner not wanting to come out. That has made me feel and realize I was/am different.

Maybe this is why I enjoy being an entertainer. For example, in church I am the organist. Therefore, I am not sitting down in the pews with everyone else, I am by myself on the organ bench. This past Labor Day weekend, rather than sitting in an audience listening to a big band concert, I was playing trombone on the stage -- again, not part of the crowd. So, I go to the social scenes, but I am separated from the crowd.

It's never really been like that for me. I've always liked being part of the crowd, in most situations anyway. Like at work, being an insider is very important to me. Fitting in and being included and accepted just kills my depression and anxiety, and I feel at home and in high spirits. I have to be in the herd. I hate dangling on the outside feeling lonely. It's why the autism term has never suited me, because autism is supposed to mean 'self'. But at the same time, I have some ASD-like traits, such as being hypersensitive to certain noise, being eccentric, and can get obsessions, and have panic attacks when overloaded with anxiety (which is usually caused by RSD triggers, not sensory overload). The rest of my issues seem to be more down to classic ADHD and anxiety. I'm basically just a pile of fears, emotions, expressions and nerves. Doesn't really quite fit the supposed definition of autism as such, but I was too autistic in my early teens to not be on the spectrum, as they say autism is not something you grow out of.

^^
I guess that's why there are different types of Asperger's (16 types I think -- at least I think I saw that somewhere years ago). It makes sense that some of those like you might be more socialable than others. I feel anxious and jittery when I go someplace like a ballgame because of the loud crowd. I noticed this past Friday night at a football game that when I needed to walk past the crowd to go to the restroom or get something to drink, people stared at me in a way that made me felt uncomfortable. Was it because I was acting odd and different than others who were also walking past them? Maybe at one time I wanted to be more sociable like you, but I gave up and no longer desired it when I was not successful at it.

It's good you like to be a part of the crowd. I guess as we traverse life, we learn things along the way that allow us to adapt and change. Maybe I haven't tried hard enough in that area. I talk to the people I work with, but as for doing anything with people outside of work, it's only my family and on occasion my neighbors. Come to think of it, I don't have any friends that I regularly see or do anything with. Wow, that's odd isn't it?

I can get social anxiety, moreso when I'm out in public. I become self-conscious. But it still doesn't stop me from being sociable when around people I like, and it feels natural too, not something I'm "only doing because society expects me to". I desire to do it. Even when I was a child I remember being drawn to other children. Yes I could be a bit clingy to my mother if I didn't know the other children, but that's normal in small children. Otherwise, after some encouragement, I'd be off playing with the other children without any problems. I liked playing with other children.

It's always interesting to see how varied our experiences are.

I am almost always anxious and pretty much always feel like I am on the wrong planet. There are only 2 times when I a feel completely alive and comfortable: 1) When I'm alone, and 2) When I'm with my 16 month old granddaughter who thinks that Grandpa is pretty cool just the way he is.

I can come together with people for short periods of time to conduct some sort of business, where there is a goal and a definitive beginning and end. But to socialize or just hang out with people causes me a lot of anxiety - I just don't enjoy it and wish that I could be alone instead. I have no friends that I hang out with or do things with, and I don't want any.

I still work, at 65, but my workplace is tightly controlled (I'm the boss) and predictable so that I can function quite well. My work involves a lot of brief business-like interactions, and no ongoing interactions.

I have a few old friends from my teens and twenties that I see once or twice a year, and text occasionally. I enjoy these interactions, but don't desire any more than that.

I cold happily live alone in a cabin in the woods for the rest of my life and have no human contact other than buying supplies and visiting my granddaughter.

Despite my social skills I still don't have as many friends as I should, which I do get down about.

I heard it once I think but I don't understand what they mean by everyone's a little autistic.

It basically means the same as "everyone forgets things so it means everyone has Dementia", even though that isn't true either.

But I deliberately see it in another perspective, where the autism spectrum is becoming so broad that everyone could be on it.

No, because it's not in the range from left to right and has a precise range, it's not expandable, but belongs to a specific sinusoidal representative response.

Only a certain part of this, and only that, falls within neurodiversity.

So many people even get this concept wrong, which every psychiatrist and neurologist knows perfectly well.

No one is a little autistic, but as unfortunately happens, you always find someone in real life who says it: and the person who says it is a bit of an a**hole!

A little autistic are those in the sub-clinical range because they have traits of neurodiversity and neurotypicality, a middle ground, in short.

I was thinking about it because probably some people are not only foolish in saying and thinking it, but they probably mean that there is a middle ground in which there are people with a more or less balanced mix of conditions.
And they are not neurotypical: so it can also be understood in good faith.

Of course, when said to autistic people, it is quite annoying.


--->

In the attached video, you can see it from a scientist's perspective.
First, he describes the range from minus to plus, where we autistic people precisely belong. Then, he reports it in the classic sinusoid that represents the entire human race. In the sinusoid, we are in the circle he outlines at the bottom right, between 44 seconds and 1 minute of the video.

This is his profile.

He was a classmate of a doctor friend of mine.

I would have liked to meet him in person, but we moved cities. The strange thing is that we lived very close to each other in two cities...

He headed high-level international medical organizations, then chose Miami. I think he has dual citizenship.

https://med.miami.edu/faculty/luca-pani-md

The way I view it, "Everyone's a Little Autistic" could be seen as referencing the traits and characteristics of autism. To be diagnosed with autism, one needs to meet a certain criteria associated with the traits. But may neurotypicals may experience one or two of the traits, not meet the autism criteria, but still show similarities to those of us on the spectrum. It then might be said, "a little bit autistic." But of course, that's not accurate because to be autistic one needs to meet a certain number of those traits. Maybe a better way to say, "everyone's a little autistic" is to say, "Everyone (or most everyone) exhibits a trait(s) shared with those on the autism spectrum."

And vice versa, "Everyone's a little neurotypical" because a person on the autism spectrum might have trait(s) shared with the neurotypical population. Many on the spectrum enjoying socializing and don't feel that awkward about it.