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Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD): Compendium Thread

I'm having problems posting my image - but it says that I showed a `broader Autism cluster of 91 out 0f 200` and `a neurotypical score of 92 out of 200`.
So: `You have both Autism cluster and neurotypical traits`.

Kind of neither fish nor fowl, according to this particular questionnaire. (I have done others which place me more definitely on the scale).

[Edit to add]: Can I cite being crap at all things computery as being part of my Neurotypicality?
 

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I get too much time to think these days, but bear with me. I thought, having been shot down in the past for using the word 'normal', that we now accepted that it's a discriminatory concept. So why do we have a society so unaccommodating for people whose brains work differently? (not just autistic but dyslexic etc.)

This insistence on normality seems to be particularly strong in the psychology/psychiatry arena, with the insistence that you can tell how people are thinking from their brain wave patterns. Oh yeah, so what about those with various handicaps / serious injuries that cause their brain to develop differently? As I've mentioned elsewhere my very senior doctor B-I-L thinks people born with sight in only one eye get their brains wired differently as they develop.

I know when I did that autism test some time ago - I thought I posted it on here, but maybe its got lost on the way - it came out with some bizarre result that was almost completely balanced between normal and autistic. But that's normal for me, I don't want to be like everyone else :) .

Of course autistic I don't think was a concept when I was growing up.
 
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I'm having problems posting my image ...
Here's Zeke's summary plot image ...

ZekeN-Aspie.jpg
 
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Here's an interesting video by a Youtuber who is a retired Microsoft engineer. His videos are often about the history of various Microsoft efforts, but he does other stuff too. He has not made a secret of his autism, but had not spelled it out before. He says he gets no money from the channel, which is very refreshing.

I haven't done the test that people are posting, but I'm autistic. The weird thing about the video is that he says he "has autism" and this, as well as the blurred-out background that made me feel ill, made me not want to watch it: most if not all autistics I know use identity-first rather than person-first language - autism isn't something you 'have', it's a way of existing.

Anyway, an online contact of mine from the Autscape organisation has come up with a single question autism test: school would have been better without all the other kids - true or false?.
 
I'm having problems posting my image - but it says that I showed a `broader Autism cluster of 91 out 0f 200` and `a neurotypical score of 92 out of 200`.
So: `You have both Autism cluster and neurotypical traits`.

Kind of neither fish nor fowl, according to this particular questionnaire. (I have done others which place me more definitely on the scale).

[Edit to add]: Can I cite being crap at all things computery as being part of my Neurotypicality?
You cannot cite that, we aren't all good at it, especially us older ones I suspect, computery stuff often puts me close to meltdown.
 
Anyway, an online contact of mine from the Autscape organisation has come up with a single question autism test: school would have been better without all the other kids - true or false?.

I've only been to one Autscape. I'm a big fan however!
 
Anyway, an online contact of mine from the Autscape organisation has come up with a single question autism test: school would have been better without all the other kids - true or false?.
Brilliant.
 
Anyway, an online contact of mine from the Autscape organisation has come up with a single question autism test: school would have been better without all the other kids - true or false?.
True. Also, I've never been in touch with anyone I went to school with since the 1970's - and I can't think of anyone I would want to be. Spookily, they have traced me down and keep inviting me to reunions and to subscribe to the old boys mag. Ugh.

One or two of the teachers I'd have time for, but they are probably long dead.
 
The amygdala had long been suspected of involvement in ASD. Newly published research supports this notion by correlating ASD diagnoses with excessive amygdala development between 6 and 12 years of age.
This brain structure may grow too fast in babies who develop autism

A brain structure called the amygdala grows too fast in babies who are diagnosed with autism by age 2, a new study suggests.

The study researchers found that this overgrowth occurs between 6 and 12 months of age, before children are typically diagnosed with autism. The findings, published Friday (March 25) in The American Journal of Psychiatry, suggest that therapies for children at high risk of autism may have the best chance of working if they start in infancy.

"Our research suggests an optimal time to start interventions and support children who are at highest likelihood of developing autism may be during the first year of life," study senior author Dr. Joseph Piven ... said in a statement. ...

The amygdala is an almond-shaped structure deep in the brain that's involved with processing emotions, including feelings of fear, as well as interpreting facial expressions. Researchers already knew that the amygdala appears larger in school-age children with ASD compared with children without ASD, but exactly when this enlargement starts was not known. ...

In the new study, researchers scanned the brains of more than 400 infants, including 270 who were at higher risk of developing autism because they had an older sibling with the condition; 109 infants with typical development; and 29 infants with Fragile X syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes developmental and intellectual disability. The children underwent MRI scans at ages 6 months, 12 months and 24 months. By age 24 months, 58 (or about 21%) of the at-risk children had been diagnosed with ASD.

The researchers found that at age 6 months, all of the children had similar-sized amygdalae. But by 12 months, the children who would later develop autism had enlarged amygdalae compared with children who didn't develop autism and those with Fragile X syndrome. What's more, those with the fastest rate of amygdala growth had the most severe symptoms of autism. ...

The researchers hypothesized that early problems with visual and sensory information processing in infancy may put stress on the amygdala, resulting in its overgrowth.
FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/autism-amygdala-babies

PUBLISHED RESEARCH REPORT:
https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.ajp.21090896
 
I have long had suspicions I may have autistic traits. I am not diagnosed but every test I do online suggests I have, I sometimes recognise myself when I hear autistic women talk about their lives. I did this test back in March and got almost exactly the same results as below. I wasn't sure how to interpret these scores but I found this other website useful: https://embrace-autism.com/interpreting-your-aspie-quiz-scores/
aspie quiz pic.png
 
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Disagreements over terminology.

A long-smoldering debate among scientists studying autism has erupted. At issue is language—for example, whether researchers should describe autism as a “disorder,” “disability,” or “difference,” and whether its associated features should be called “symptoms” or simply “traits.”

In scientific papers and commentaries published in recent months, some have decried ableist language among their colleagues whereas others have defended traditional terminology—with both sides saying they have the best interests of autistic people in mind. The vitriol is harming the field and silencing researchers, some fear, but others see it as a long-overdue reckoning.

Since autism’s earliest descriptions in the academic literature as a condition affecting social interaction and communication, researchers and clinicians have framed it as a medical disorder, with a set of symptoms to be treated. Historically, autistic children have been institutionalized and subjected to treatments involving physical punishment, food restriction, and electric shocks. Even today, the most widely used autism therapy—applied behavior analysis—is seen by some as a harmful tool of normalization. Many autistic people and their families have instead embraced the view that their difficulties lie not with their autism, but with a society that isn’t built to support them.

But according to some autism researchers, the field still too often defaults to terms with negative connotations. For example, in addition to “symptom” and “disorder,” many scientists use the term “comorbid” rather than the more neutral “co-occurring” to describe conditions that tend to accompany autism. Similarly, some argue the oft-used phrase “people with autism,” as opposed to “autistic person,” can imply that autism is necessarily an unwanted harmful condition.

In a recent survey of 195 autism researchers, 60% of responses included views about autistic people the study authors deemed dehumanizing, objectifying, or stigmatizing. Some responses described autistic people as “shut down from the outside world” or “completely inexpressive and apparently without emotions,” according to the November 2022 Frontiers in Psychology study. “What is worse than I thought was how blatant a lot of the content was, which shows that, for [a] large proportion of participants, they did not consider the things they were saying to be problematic at all,” says lead author Monique Botha, a psychologist at the University of Stirling. ...

https://www.science.org/content/art...ism-researchers-face-over-field-s-terminology
 

Scientists ‘switch off’ autism symptoms using $3 epilepsy drug: discovery


Scientists are reporting a breakthrough discovery: A $3-per-pill epilepsy drug may be used to “switch off” autism symptoms in mice, according to a new peer-reviewed study published Tuesday in Molecular Psychiatry journal.

Autism spectrum disorder is a complex developmental condition that impacts how an estimated 5.4 million (2.2% of) adults — and one in 44 children — in the United States perceives and socializes with others. It is often accompanied by abnormalities such as epilepsy or hyperactivity.

A team of experts at Germany’s Hector Institute for Translational Brain Research found that the medication lamotrigine — an anti-seizure drug first approved for use in the US in 1994 — was able to curb behavioral and social problems linked to the disorder.

Lamotrigine, which is sold under the brand name Lamictal, among others, is a medication used to treat epilepsy and stabilize mood in those who suffer from bipolar disorder.

The drug, which typically sells for just under $3 per pill, works by reversing changes to brain cells caused by a genetic mutation.

https://nypost.com/2023/02/14/scientists-switch-off-autism-using-3-epilepsy-drug-study/

maximus otter
 

Scientists ‘switch off’ autism symptoms using $3 epilepsy drug: discovery


Scientists are reporting a breakthrough discovery: A $3-per-pill epilepsy drug may be used to “switch off” autism symptoms in mice, according to a new peer-reviewed study published Tuesday in Molecular Psychiatry journal.

Autism spectrum disorder is a complex developmental condition that impacts how an estimated 5.4 million (2.2% of) adults — and one in 44 children — in the United States perceives and socializes with others. It is often accompanied by abnormalities such as epilepsy or hyperactivity.

A team of experts at Germany’s Hector Institute for Translational Brain Research found that the medication lamotrigine — an anti-seizure drug first approved for use in the US in 1994 — was able to curb behavioral and social problems linked to the disorder.

Lamotrigine, which is sold under the brand name Lamictal, among others, is a medication used to treat epilepsy and stabilize mood in those who suffer from bipolar disorder.

The drug, which typically sells for just under $3 per pill, works by reversing changes to brain cells caused by a genetic mutation.

https://nypost.com/2023/02/14/scientists-switch-off-autism-using-3-epilepsy-drug-study/

maximus otter
Got an autist in my family. He can show extreme rage when things aren't going his way, I wonder if he can have a use for this. I read some people on the internet claim they have gotten receipts for Lactimal from their psychiatrist already.
 
Even today, the most widely used autism therapy—applied behavior analysis—is seen by some as a harmful tool of normalization.

well.... that's not why it's objected to, so much as the electric shocks ( sorry "electric skin sparkles"), degrading activities and the tendency to leave a vulnerable individual in the hands of a well meaning new trainee who is quickly at sea/. Alternatives which are known to work and which are not implicated in a growing number of PTSD diagnosies are available.

It's just that there isn't a huge nmarketing and multilevel organised provider system backing them up.
 
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I'm probably too autistic to understand what this means but it's not looking good...

Should add for full disclosure, one of my kids is officially diagnosed with atypical autism and I remember when they ran all the tests on him, secretly thinking 'Ah shit that's me too, then.'

View attachment 63488
Welcome to the club. It is more exclusive than that hoi polloi NT club. For what its worth, you are better rounded than I am.

We promise not to tell anyone. :)
 
but it's not looking good...

I'd say it was looking goddam excellent! :oldm:

Doing talks etc you quite often get asked if having an autistic parent or autistic sib means that any new child will be autistic. I always answer that the only guaranteed way of getting an autistic is to adopt a ready-made one. Otherwise you have to play the lottery and risk getting an NT child. At which point they get all flustered...
 
I'd say it was looking goddam excellent! :oldm:

Doing talks etc you quite often get asked if having an autistic parent or autistic sib means that any new child will be autistic. I always answer that the only guaranteed way of getting an autistic is to adopt a ready-made one. Otherwise you have to play the lottery and risk getting an NT child. At which point they get all flustered...
I'm a horrible person but if I ever got stopped by chuggers panhandling "for a disabled children's charity", I'd say "No thanks. I've got one already." And walk on quickly.
 
I'm a horrible person but if I ever got stopped by chuggers panhandling "for a disabled children's charity", I'd say "No thanks. I've got one already." And walk on quickly.

yeah - except that you are bound to get a human. When I worked that out in Junior School I gave up on the whole breeding thing.

Now if there had been an option to mate with humans and give birth to kittens... :cheer:
 
Has anyone seen Chris Packham's new programme about people with autism? I thought the first episode was really interesting, particularly the man who was non-verbal and how he was able to share his thoughts and inner world through the short film that the programme made.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0bbnh47

I'm impressed with it. I'm having to watch in short sections; it cuts very close to the bone.
 
Has anyone seen Chris Packham's new programme about people with autism? I thought the first episode was really interesting, particularly the man who was non-verbal and how he was able to share his thoughts and inner world through the short film that the programme made.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0bbnh47
Well, that was uncomfortable for me.

When I am out in the wilderness - my favorite thing because of no people - and taking photographs, I tend to take series of linked photos, showing the entire 360 degree landscape including the sky overhead, because that is what the outdoors is. My husband only takes unsatisfying splinter photos of one singular thing. Poor guy.

Does anyone else just hate the background music in almost all professionally made videos?
 
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