|
|
|
|
|
|
by seba_dos1
1508 days ago
|
|
|
> speechlessness, difficulties in processing verbal information I don't think these words even begin to scratch the surface of the experience I'm talking about. > I don't think similarities between how some people act on those occasions when they are overwhelmed - whether they are overwhelmed rarely or frequently – and how other people act 100% of the time, really have much significance. It's very significant. Among other things, autism is a lot about what, why and how fast makes you feel overwhelmed (and sensory issues are just tiny little part of it). Learning how to identify when you're starting to get overwhelmed and how to cope with resulting meltdown is important part of therapy. As you noted, the word "autism" describes a pretty broad phenotype, but there are common patterns that simply don't apply to non-autistic majority, and which vary in their intensity across individuals. When everyday interaction makes you overwhelmed already, the difference between "those occasions" and "100% of the time" is not very sharp. |
|
|
Conversely, there are people for whom what you say is very true, but who don't meet the diagnostic criteria for DSM-5 ASD, and hence officially don't "have autism". People with anxiety disorders, panic disorder, OCD, etc, can have very similar (if not identical) experiences, yet they don't have the right set of other symptoms to meet the DSM-5 criteria for ASD.
I get the impression you are defining "autism" anecdotally, based on your own personal experiences and those of others you know, or based on popular information sources (as opposed to the research literature). When you define it that way, you may actually be talking about a rather different construct from what the DSM-5 is talking about.