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> My father in law clearly has severe undiagnosed Autism. But he was a successful engineer It's interesting how much the definition of "severe" Autism has chan
by Aurornis 11mo ago
> My father in law clearly has severe undiagnosed Autism. But he was a successful engineer
It's interesting how much the definition of "severe" Autism has changed in common language. Typically, someone with "severe Autism" would not be capable of holding down a complex job like engineering, let alone having a successful career and a family.
The families I know with severely autistic children (now young adults) are still working on basic self-sufficiency without a job or in one case basic verbalizations. So it's strange for me to see someone casually described as having "severe" autism but also having a successful engineering career and a family.
- gizmo686 11mo agoI blame the DSM for this. DSM 5 merged multiple diagnostics into a single "autism spectrum disorder", which means that the average case of autism became more mild overnight. This moved where the boundary for "severe" autism is in people's heads.
- nradov 11mo agoIf someone is able to live independently and hold a stable job without psychiatric medication then we can't reasonably claim that they have a "severe" mental health condition. This applies to autism as well as any other condition.
- Aurornis 11mo agoI disagree. I don't think average people are influenced by DSM 5 definitions as much as they are by social media or TV shows. The people I know in the medical field are becoming frustrated by how often parents bring their children in requesting an autism diagnosis when their child doesn't even begin to meet the current DSM definitions of autism. The social media version of autism has become its own separate entity. This has caused a second-order effect where the severe ends of the autism spectrum are getting erased from public perception. It's really sad to encounter parents who think their child is autistic (diagnosed or not) who run into children who are severely autistic, as often they'll reflexively try to draw dividing lines between the severely autistic child and their own. It's sadly common to see these parents try to insist that "something else is wrong" with the severely autistic child because it's entirely different than what they've come to view as autism through their TikTok and Facebook groups.
- gizmo686 11mo agoI was diagnosed with Asperger's. Nowadays, I say I'm autistic. I don't see how this wouldn't skew the perception of people who know me to think that autism is a more mild condition than it used to be.
- Aurornis 11mo agoI disagreed about the part that the DSM 5 is to blame. If you were diagnosed with one thing but decide to tell people you're diagnosed with something else, that difference doesn't appear to come from the DSM.
- gizmo686 11mo agoAsbergers is not a thing anymore. It has been folded into autism, which is now a broader diagnosis than it once was. I'm sure the powers that be had a reason to combine them; and I am no where near qualified to have an opinion on if it was good idea or not. But expanding the definition of autism to include milder forms was 100% a choice that was made. The fact that the public perception subsequently shifted to view autism as less severely disease seems to me to likely be causally related.
- 00518a143f97 11mo agoAs an autistic who used to have a career and a family, and is now back to rocking back and forth on a chair unable to speak when any stress is applied, consider the possibility that it's “strange to you” because you don't know what you're talking about.
- lostmsu 11mo agoDid you do drugs on a monthly basis at any point in life?
- lucyjojo 10mo agoi mean even what you describe pales compared to my neighbor (or some of my distant cousins), they simply cannot live by themselves. they cannot write, they cannot really speak, they cannot work or feed themselves (as middle aged adults). so i guess it depends on what you call severe.