Quote from another thread "GD does correlate with autism "

Rainmaker

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ksangur said:
so what does a real diagnostic test for autism consist of ?
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Much the same, just more in depth. Generally a standardised questionnaire like DISCO is used, and it's basically a giant life history. Developmental milestones, regressions (if any), childhood behaviours, friends and social activities from being a toddler onwards, food and eating, communication, sensory difficulties, stuff like that. You need to take along an 'informant' - usually a parent - to fill in any gaps and answer questions about the pregnancy and birth, early life, a third party perspective/experience of you, and so on. It's about three hours long. Some places also do further testing such as IQ, EQ, role play (can you make up a story from xyz, can you tell what's going on in the pictures) and facial expression recognition etc.

Mine was just the DISCO (that's all that's required and for adults it's all that's usually administered, certainly on the NHS).
 

Cooler running

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Rainmaker said:
So much fail in this thread. :p
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Thanks for adding to it there friend.

Rainmaker said:
@Cooler running, download the official British English dictionary for Firefox. Right click in a text box and set the spell check/language to British English. Now you have spell check. How you can be
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You are right, but had already got there earlier.
You're wrong assuming it's somehow common knowledge, as I did search the forum before mentioning any of that.
I guess I was wrong to think people here would be helpful and polite about it all, instead of going on a tear over it.

Rainmaker said:
(1) on a nerdy forum and (2) have used Firefox enough to know it as 'Moz' but not know this is baffling.
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Come at me nerd, all the cool kids call it moz.

Rainmaker said:
Perhaps read up a little if you're actually interested.
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I did go to that site, and although I'm sure it would be helpful to people encountering it for the first time, it isn't exactly a phd thesis.
It doesn't even go much further into detail than you did in the this thread, despite you being so pedantic over the distinctions.

Rainmaker said:
not a mental illness or learning difficulty; although these can be co-morbid for some sufferers (hence, 'Spectrum'). It's not 'closer to an emotion or personality type' any more than depression or the 'flu is. Autism Spectrum Disorder (as it was recently amalgamated) is an umbrella term for a group of developmental disorders characterised by a 'triad of impairment', namely in (1) social understanding, (2) communication and (3) rigidity of thinking. Sufferers also tend to experience co-morbid sensory processing disorders to some degree, often significantly. Those with 'severe' Autism (one could argue all Autism is 'severe' just in different ways) can be non-verbal, unresponsive and unable to care for themselves at all. Those with so-called 'high functioning' Autism / Asperger's Syndrome (no longer medically recognised as distinct) can have significantly high IQs and lead multi-national technology corporations and invent cool new technologies... Hence, 'Spectrum'.
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None of this gets to the actual point of what I was saying.
My point was that Autism is just a layman's term for a number of behavioural patterns, of which it's not consistent to call an illness.
From what I've read, it's not even known specifically what causes Autism, or whether the spectrum is biologically causally related.

For example, hearing loss is a fairly well understood condition, we know that it can be caused by damage to tiny hair cells in the cochlea, the delicate inner ear bones, or by issues with the circulatory system. As such specific and actionable advice can be
given to people on how to lower the risk of developing hearing loss. We have even developed technology to remedy it in many cases once it has onset.
I'm pretty much certain that that if Autism was a biologically well understood condition then it wouldn't be spoken about in the way it is. We would be actively resolving, it not managing it.
Thankfully here in the UK there is an excellent support network for people who suffer from these kinds of conditions, but that still doesn't mean we know much about fact of the matter.
 
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Rainmaker

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Cooler running said:
despite you being so pedantic over the distinctions.
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Welcome to Autism. ;) You discuss things with an Autist that's what you get... lol.

None of this gets to the actual point of what I was saying.
My point was that Autism is just a layman's term for a number of behavioural patterns, of which it's not consistent to call an illness.
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As I said, ASD is an umbrella term for (likely) a number of closely related neuro-developmental disorders. It's certainly consistent (especially re: the triad of impairment) and it's most certainly definable as an illness (see DSM V and ICD 10). To say that it being a... well... 'spectrum' of symptoms means it can't be defined as an illness is as silly as saying 'cancer' is an umbrella term for a myriad unrelated diseases with the same progression and outcome - and so 'cancer' isn't an illness either. We don't know the cause of depression, or many 'physical' diseases, but we don't go around saying depression isn't an illness - well at least not these days we don't.

From what I've read, it's not even known specifically what causes Autism, or whether the spectrum is biologically causally related.
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That's true. Change Autism for cancer in that sentence and it still works. Modern medicine is great but we're not 'there' yet. As I said Autism is defined by its triad of impairment and it's possible or even likely that a number of closely related disorders are being pulled together under its umbrella (especially in regards to 'high' and 'low' functioning - but we don't actually know that). Are 'high' and 'low' functioning sufferers simply 'more' or 'less' affected by the same issue, or are they experiencing two different but related disorders? The symptoms are similar, just more or less pronounced between individuals. For example a 'severe' Autistic sufferer will likely be non-verbal and lack basic understanding of the world. A 'mild' sufferer may be selectively mute and be able to complete basic tasks, yet still lack the innate understanding of a neurotypical.

I'm pretty much certain that that if Autism was a biologically well understood condition then it wouldn't be spoken about in the way it is. We would be actively resolving, it not managing it.
Thankfully here in the UK there is an excellent support network for people who suffer from these kinds of conditions, but that still doesn't mean we know much about fact of the matter.
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I agree, but again that goes for a lot of conditions doesn't it? It basically applies to every condition/illness/disease for which we don't have a 'cure' - which is most of them.
 

robgmun

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Hum, quite suprised at the result, i scored 24, which while at the upper range of normal i thought i was at least little autistic due to how badly i handle parties/clubs/large social gatherings, prefer my own company and prefer being on a computer to going out. Also get a little obessed on things now and again.
 
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