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We're all on the Spectrum

TheCatWoman

It seems logical that if theres a spectrum, then as well as being somewhere in the middle you can be at either ends too, we probably know more about people at the extreme end of ND, but what of NT? 

I was thinking about the HoL reports on autism and the need to hear from ND people, but what if the people compliling the report are at the extreme end of NT? How would this effect the outcome of the report and the support it will suggest offer?

Is being very NT a problem in wider society and how does it manifest?

Parents

  • I was listening to a podcast and they were saying it's confusing as there is kind of two different terms that get a bit mixed up.

    • The spectrum of the actual ASD condition which is like the colour wheel (you can't be a little bit on this, your either have a wheel or you don't)
    • and the range leading up to having it (if you don't quite qualify for diagnosis, you might still have the broader autistic phenotype. (BAP) Siblings of autistics might have this, as they share genes.

    I've been thinking of it like a pic n mix at a sweet shop. Lots of different sweets, lots of different conditions. If you have over a certain number of sweets from the autism collection and it gives you stomach ache, you have it. But the selection you've picked can be different from someone else's. Some people have lots of sweets in their bag and have worse stomach ache, others don't have too many.

    The main thing is people think they can be called a little autistic if they have a few sweets, but this won't give them stomach ache, so they don't really know what it's like to be autistic. 

    I don't know if this makes sense to anyone else though!

  • in reply to Cinnabar_wing

    I really like your explanation as I think that you have explained it really well especially with the "sweets. (You are making me hungry now. Lol. Could I ask what podcast you listened to?xx

  • in reply to AutisticBeaut2025
    AutisticBeaut2025 said:
    I really like your explanation as I think that you have explained it really well especially with the "sweets

    Thanks so much, I don't know if I'm always making sense. Joy

    Certainly, it was Divergent Conversations, episode 132 'is everyone a little autistic?' (episode 133 is -'is everyone a little adhd?')

  • in reply to AutisticBeaut2025

    I think you sound like you've got yourself really tied up in knots!

    The short answer is no, we aren't all on the spectrum. This is because it's a real difference in how brains are wired. They can tell on brainscans, but obviously you can't go doing really expensive tests on everyone, it's not affordable. So they look at the behaviour instead for signs on how your brain works to daignose autism.

    But the signs are tricky, cause they can be confused with signs everyone can have (that's maybe what you are thinking). But the main reason everyone isn't on the spectrum is the cause. 

    Example: You get warm from the sun. You get warm from a radiator. They both heat you up, but your radiator doesn't work the same way as the sun. To tell it's the sun, you check all the facts: does it give warmth, is it up in the sky, goes away at night? If it's yes, yes, yes, then your warm thing is the sun. If it's yes, no no, then it's not the sun.  Some signs are harder to judge -if it's cold out, it might be harder to tell if it's warm or not. It can be tricky to tell.

    This is like the test for autism. You don't say, everyone has a bit of the sun in their house, just cause everyone has a warm radiator (hopefully). You have to look at all the signs, and if you do, well maybe you are one of the stars. 

    EDIT:(That was rather a rubbish attempt an explaining, but it was an attempt!)

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  • in reply to AutisticBeaut2025

    I think you sound like you've got yourself really tied up in knots!

    The short answer is no, we aren't all on the spectrum. This is because it's a real difference in how brains are wired. They can tell on brainscans, but obviously you can't go doing really expensive tests on everyone, it's not affordable. So they look at the behaviour instead for signs on how your brain works to daignose autism.

    But the signs are tricky, cause they can be confused with signs everyone can have (that's maybe what you are thinking). But the main reason everyone isn't on the spectrum is the cause. 

    Example: You get warm from the sun. You get warm from a radiator. They both heat you up, but your radiator doesn't work the same way as the sun. To tell it's the sun, you check all the facts: does it give warmth, is it up in the sky, goes away at night? If it's yes, yes, yes, then your warm thing is the sun. If it's yes, no no, then it's not the sun.  Some signs are harder to judge -if it's cold out, it might be harder to tell if it's warm or not. It can be tricky to tell.

    This is like the test for autism. You don't say, everyone has a bit of the sun in their house, just cause everyone has a warm radiator (hopefully). You have to look at all the signs, and if you do, well maybe you are one of the stars. 

    EDIT:(That was rather a rubbish attempt an explaining, but it was an attempt!)

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