Criticism of the diagnostic criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder

NAS73676 said:

milder form of Autism Spectrum Disorder

there is nothing like that, and please you shouldn't be using it

each of us can be 'mild' on good days and 'low' on bad days, and  'severe' when things go really bad

www.youtube.com/watch

so we are simply autistic

I concur. Although, I would offer the comment for your reflection and consideration. I'll give you a for instance:

When I first realised I could be on the Spectrum, I recognised the sensory and repetitive stuff instantaneously, but scratched my head a while over the social and communication stuff. I am a linguist, a qualified trainer, I was good at drama a school, I have been known to enjoy at party and I have friends. How 'socially developed' does it get???...then, I remembered my first day at school, sitting in bewilderment while other kids played and I had no clue what they were doing, the play ground bullies, the social gaffes and the times I didn't know what to say to small talk. And then there are my mother's very strange tales about my early linguistic development.

At my assessment, I was in fact found to meet ALL of the criteria, albeit the word "high functioning" was used. I don't buy into that any more than "mild/sever" autism, really.

There are many people who will struggle to or cannot ever live alone, to be sure. Their support needs are clearly greater and more continuous than mine. I obviously have found a million and one work arounds and compensation strategies over the years since I was the bewildered kid with no idea what play was for or how to interact with the strange creatures that were other children, and I appear in most contexts to be socially more than competent, even if that's exhausting.

But, put me in a medical context, for instance, where the senses are bombarded or even ambushed, there is little escape, the information processing demands too high while anxiety is sky rocketing and I am stimming dramatically, with shut down or melt down imminent...then, I can go completely non-verbal. No hope I will produce any social grace or nicety then or communicate in any way that makes sence or at all. Every work around or compensation strategy I ever had will immediately collapse as the distress overtakes me...

Not too sure, I can be said to be only "mildly" autistic or very "high functioning" then. In that context, my support need shoots from zero to very significant indeed, and it isn't there for me.

However, as to your issue about the restrictiveness of the criteria...I think they are about right now for a diagnosis of autism. However, there certainly are folk who meet many criteria, although not all; who have a high number of traits and are 'of the phenotype'. For instance, you can have a sensory processing disorder without autism. I'd defend their right to understand themselves through assessment too and to further benefit from reasonable adjustment and support where they share overlap with autistic people. I do think there is a grey area surrounding the boarders of the spectrum of folk who are neither autistic nor quiet neurotypical, whose needs can also be significant in some contexts and yet are also often are unmet.

I concur. Although, I would offer the comment for your reflection and consideration. I'll give you a for instance:

When I first realised I could be on the Spectrum, I recognised the sensory and repetitive stuff instantaneously, but scratched my head a while over the social and communication stuff. I am a linguist, a qualified trainer, I was good at drama a school, I have been known to enjoy at party and I have friends. How 'socially developed' does it get???...then, I remembered my first day at school, sitting in bewilderment while other kids played and I had no clue what they were doing, the play ground bullies, the social gaffes and the times I didn't know what to say to small talk. And then there are my mother's very strange tales about my early linguistic development.

At my assessment, I was in fact found to meet ALL of the criteria, albeit the word "high functioning" was used. I don't buy into that any more than "mild/sever" autism, really.

There are many people who will struggle to or cannot ever live alone, to be sure. Their support needs are clearly greater and more continuous than mine. I obviously have found a million and one work arounds and compensation strategies over the years since I was the bewildered kid with no idea what play was for or how to interact with the strange creatures that were other children, and I appear in most contexts to be socially more than competent, even if that's exhausting.

But, put me in a medical context, for instance, where the senses are bombarded or even ambushed, there is little escape, the information processing demands too high while anxiety is sky rocketing and I am stimming dramatically, with shut down or melt down imminent...then, I can go completely non-verbal. No hope I will produce any social grace or nicety then or communicate in any way that makes sence or at all. Every work around or compensation strategy I ever had will immediately collapse as the distress overtakes me...

Not too sure, I can be said to be only "mildly" autistic or very "high functioning" then. In that context, my support need shoots from zero to very significant indeed, and it isn't there for me.

However, as to your issue about the restrictiveness of the criteria...I think they are about right now for a diagnosis of autism. However, there certainly are folk who meet many criteria, although not all; who have a high number of traits and are 'of the phenotype'. For instance, you can have a sensory processing disorder without autism. I'd defend their right to understand themselves through assessment too and to further benefit from reasonable adjustment and support where they share overlap with autistic people. I do think there is a grey area surrounding the boarders of the spectrum of folk who are neither autistic nor quiet neurotypical, whose needs can also be significant in some contexts and yet are also often are unmet.

That makes sense.