Published on 12, July, 2020
I have Asperger’s syndrome. Why do they class Asperger’s and autism as the same now when they are so different from each other? I mean Asperger’s is a genetic condition which affects the way someone thinks and makes them slightly different and socially awkward and more anxious. Autism on the other hand in the classic sense is a debilitating condition characterised by the inability to speak and vocalise words, intellectual disability and aggression with violent outbursts. Why do people with Asperger’s dominate the perception of autism. Everybody seems to forget about these kids who cannot talk at all. People view people like us people with Asperger’s as what autism is. This is not the case classic autism as it used to be defined was basically someone who regressed around the ages 2-4 into losing all speech and ability to function. It seemed to start around the 50s to 60s. Whereas Asperger’s has been around for maybe thousands of years. There is cases documented of people who may have had Asperger’s way before the 50s. A woman in Russia in the early 1900’s at the beginning of that decade worked with under a dozen kids who would have been declared as autism highly functioning or Asperger’s syndrome nowadays. These kids were quiet and inhibited but showed great ability to work machines and understand mechanisms of things and patterns. However it appears that people who have Asperger’s are born with it and always have it. They may take a while to develop language but they never develop it and lose it forever the same way someone with classic autism does. I have known people who had one child who lost the ability to speak and function about 2-4 years old and never spoke again and had to be put in a care home. But none of the boys other siblings had this happen to them. So how do you explain this sudden regression in some people that doesn’t happen with every other kid in that same family. Something must be causing a sudden regression especially if it’s only in a specific family member and no others. Asperger’s on the other hand is genetic and if one family member has it they all are almost garuanteed to have it more or less. If anyone has any thoughts on this please do share them as I would like to make more sense of this.
Autism (both what used to be defined as ‘Asperger’s’ and ‘profound autism’) has *multiple* influences and risk factors. Genetics is just one of them, it is definitely not 100% genetic. A better understanding of other contributions to autism phenotypes may help you understand. These include:
this article is more in depth: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6420889/#CR5
Exposure to toxins and natural disasters is also linked, which may contribute to the increasing prevalence. Regression is not limited to the ‘classic case’ of a child loosing the ability to speak- there are also plenty of cases of autistic adults or older children loosing skills after experiencing high levels of stress, even those who may have been diagnosed as having aspergers before. Ultimately we still don’t know “what autism is” on a biological level or why regression happens, and the diversity of individuals on the spectrum means reductionist diagnostic criteria that overlooks other struggles (like sensory issues) is no longer suited to the clinical needs of the population.