Well, I can't say that that is normal, I guess. But what I was trying to say is, does that make it a disorder? I mean, we can point to a cause for, say down syndrome, but there isn't really a know cause for autism (although there have been some guesses)
I'm really on the fence about whether autism is a collection of behaviors or a disorder, (now that I'm thinking about it more, it seems like it's most likely to be a disorder). I mean, there seems to be some evidence that is is a disorder (it's more likely to happen in older mothers, for isntance), but not really enough to totally prove anything one way or another. I just made my previous post to try to explain why some people may not think it exists.
Well, I can see how that would be hard to diminish. I've seen alot of times where it's like a child who has severe behavior problems gets misdiagnosed. That's what makes Autism hard to get a proper diagnose. It seems like it's being a worst case scenario for the cases that don't seem "fit" for one catergory. But you have to realize that just because a few people might only have autism because they have some severe case of social phobia and OCD, doesn't mean they DO have autism. Autism is only become more common because parents freak out everytime their child is acting out or having some meltdown. That's why it's become more profound. I can tell that autism isn't fake. It is real and yes, it is most definitely a disorder. It's just becoming more and more of an excuse for others that "think" they have it but probably don't. Misdiagnoses are common for every hidden disability because it's really hard to consider the possibility. Someone that might have to have everything perfect and stay the same, do things the same way and dress the same way and seem terribly paranoid to everything, would have OCD but because Autism is so common to that, they could get misdiagnosed for it. Same with Social phobia, ADHD, or whatever. I mean would you rather go throw a huge entire list of all the disabilities you have or would you want to say, "Yeah, I'm autistic because I have meltdowns, rituals, sameness etc, along with meltdowns, sensory overloads, excessive hyperactivity and impulsitivity, and overstimulation...etc, then it's clear that it's considered as a form of autism." You have to realize that there will be a few cases that can be considered below the norm and probably not really autistic but hey, everyone DOES have different autistic traits. No autistic person is alike and unless the two are tiwns, then they will almost ALWAYS have something different. Let's take person A and Person B, okay? Person A was diagnosed with having Asperger Syndrome. He is very sensitive to noise, touch, taste, and texture. He has tons of overloads and meltdowns when is rituals aren't performed in the way he remembers them. He has peculiar interests and can often talk only of these so called, "odd" interests. Now, person B has a different from autism called Autism spectrum disorder. She has overloads when out in public and panics easily with noise and being crowded with a bunch people. Sometimes talking can be difficult for her and once in a while she has outbursts and meltdowns if she doesn't seem to understand what is going on. With those examples, you can see that Person B is VERY different from Person A but in some way they do things the same, just in different ways. It depends on the severity of the autism and what is considered hard for them to deal. The most common misdiagnoses for Autism, are in fact, OCD, personality disorders, ADHD, Social Phobia and mental Retardation. This is because all of those have very similiar symptoms towards Autism. It makes it hard to really decide who does have it and who doesn't. But for those who DO have it, that are pretty profound even if they are between mild to moderate, obviously have it. Sometimes those people go into therapy and can become extremely successful. Some are so disabled from development that they end up living in group homes and having structured areas for them to keep their daily rituals and everything. Does that all make sense?
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