Never on the autism spectrum
According to my new psychiatrist, who was my psychiatrist as a teenager, that looking over my history longitudinally, I was never on the autism spectrum. Instead, I am on the schizophrenia spectrum, which got started early. Some evidence for this, he says, is that though I had a speech delay I did try to compensate for it with body language and other methods of communication, I never really had that much of a problem with body language (except for getting too close to people as a kid), I had a major psychotic episode at age 14, I show signs at times of disorganized speech and unusual thoughts*, and my condition continues to fluctuate in severity.
*Problems with thinking were reported as early as age 5 1/2, while cognitive disorganization and perceptual distortions were commented on as early as age 8.
_________________
"You have a responsibility to consider all sides of a problem and a responsibility to make a judgment and a responsibility to care for all involved." --Ian Danskin
btbnnyr
Veteran
![User avatar](./download/file.php?avatar=50415.jpg)
Joined: 18 May 2011
Gender: Female
Posts: 7,359
Location: Lost Angleles Carmen Santiago
It makes sense, given some of your behaviors that you posted about on wp.
It is true that speech-delayed autistic children generally don't compensate with non-verbal cues.
One of the DSM-IV criterion specifically says delay in speech without compensation through gesture or mime.
_________________
Drain and plane and grain and blain your brain, and then again,
Propane and butane out of the gas main, your blain shall sustain!
I haven't noticed any "ideas of reference" in your posts nor delusionary thinking, so I am a bit dubious about this latest diagnosis.
How many different things have you been diagnosed with to date? And who by in each case (eg psychologists, psychiatrists, psychotherapists etc). The rate of misdiagnosis of people on the spectrum as schizophrenic or schizoid seemed to be high in the past, and perhaps still is, despite (hopefully) better understanding.
An episode of psychosis doesn't automatically equate with schizophrenia; psychotic episodes can arise simply from being so extremely overwhelmed that coping mechanisms break down temporarily. This can manifest as "psychotic behaviour" but this can arise from a whole lot of overload thoughts and experiences flooding into consciousness at the same time, like a damn bursting when the pressure of flow gets too great.
Does that make any sense to you B?
B19,
I was diagnosed with schizotypal PD by the same psychiatrist who was the first to diagnose me with Asperger's syndrome, at age 13.
In the lead up to the psychotic episode, I had stressors, but I started going to a special school again where it was easier and things were more structured. It still didn't prevent it. In retrospect, it appears that I had little mental control prior to age 14, but after the episode I learned to control my mind much much better, leading to major improvement.
In the past year, however, due to a major disappointment, I have begun to lose mental control again and have had to go on disability.
Nevertheless, I do have unusual thinking still, like that strange desire to blind myself in my right eye around New Year's. Thankfully, I no longer have that, perhaps due to the psychiatrist putting me on a max dose of Seroquel. On the Seroquel, I feel in control of my mind.
When I am off Seroquel, I notice that I feel much less steady. My awareness starts to get overrun by all sorts of things that people typically don't notice, like a couple weeks ago when I kept feeling, passively, the blood pumping where my right supraorbital ridge connects to my nose. I wasn't annoyed or anything, only curious why it was happening. I become much more combative online--I was actually banned from a forum a couple weeks ago--and offline.
My condition has fluctuated in severity a lot throughout my life, which points away from the autism spectrum and toward the schizophrenia spectrum, says my psychiatrist. Basically, by adulthood, how you are on the autism spectrum stays that way, whereas on the schizophrenia spectrum you can always move around it and there's always that threat of having a major mental breakdown and loss of control that leads to full-blown schizophrenia.
_________________
"You have a responsibility to consider all sides of a problem and a responsibility to make a judgment and a responsibility to care for all involved." --Ian Danskin
Last edited by beneficii on 06 Mar 2015, 4:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
I've only had one episode and there were stressors then, but not immediately before it. It seems from that one case, the stressor (being put in a regular school nearly a year before the episode) started a sort of breakdown process which took months to work itself out and produce psychosis. Immediately prior to the onset of psychosis, and even during the time I was psychotic--when I was "double bookkeeping"*, knowing not to talk about my delusions (because I believed that everyone else was too stupid to understand that I had special insight into the universe and would mistake me for a "schizo") and trying to go to a normal school--I seemed to be doing better. When the real world and my delusional world collided, however, which was probably inevitable, I engaged in seriously dangerous behavior that led to a 6-month hospitalization. Because of my silence about my delusions--was still thinking that these people were too stupid to understand my special insight--, they weren't sure if I was psychotic. When I tell them what I was thinking now, however, the full story, they're like, "Yeah, you were psychotic."
* This article goes into the subject. I was amazed by how similar this description is to my experience:
http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjour ... bt087.full
There's also the self-disorders, which I heavily identify with (from the same article):
Immediately prior to the onset of psychosis, things seemed different, changed, strange in some way. It felt like I was in a video game where the plot was just about to start. Everyone else was just NPCs (non-player characters) while I was the main character. I then saw a sign and my delusions came into being and solidified, and were unchanging. As I said before, I was silent on the delusions because I thought everyone else was too stupid to understand the truth like I had.
_________________
"You have a responsibility to consider all sides of a problem and a responsibility to make a judgment and a responsibility to care for all involved." --Ian Danskin
"Immediately prior to the onset of psychosis, things seemed different, changed, strange in some way. It felt like I was in a video game where the plot was just about to start".
That sounds rather like dissociation in the form called "derealization". One of the precursors to that experience of things not seeming real is PTSD in the past (before the onset of the derealization experiences).
That sounds rather like dissociation in the form called "derealization". One of the precursors to that experience of things not seeming real is PTSD in the past (before the onset of the derealization experiences).
I do not have and have never met the criteria for PTSD.
Derealization is also common in so-called delusional atmosphere, from which delusions generate. If you look at the sentence following, however, ("Everyone else was just NPCs (non-player characters) while I was the main character,") you will see that there is something different from normal derealization: a sense of centrality (i.e. I was the player character, the real human being with insight, which everyone else, being non-player characters, lacked). (EDIT: A sense of centrality is also a part of delusional atmosphere.)
I remember from my reading that the additional presence of a sense of centrality distinguishes the schizophrenia spectrum from "normal" dissociation. This article goes into comparing depersonalization and schizophrenia, but this analysis would likely be similar for derealization, and the quote here does mention a "sense that things are unreal," and depersonalization disorder is now called in the DSM-5 depersonalization-derealization disorder:
https://www.sussex.ac.uk/webteam/gatewa ... df&site=42
The schizophrenia spectrum has, but not depersonalization disorder, "a dislocation of first-person perspective such that self and other or self and world may seem to be non-distinguishable, or in which the individual self or field of consciousness takes on an inordinate significance in relation to the objective or intersubjective world."
_________________
"You have a responsibility to consider all sides of a problem and a responsibility to make a judgment and a responsibility to care for all involved." --Ian Danskin
Last edited by beneficii on 06 Mar 2015, 5:01 am, edited 2 times in total.
Also, in this article, the presence of derealization in an at-risk mental state (for psychosis) is found to be associated with psychosis:
http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjour ... 5/1/5.full
Look at Table 1 ("Cognitive and Perceptual Basic Symptoms Associated With Psychosis and Prototypic Self-observations by Patients"):
http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjour ... nsion.html
_________________
"You have a responsibility to consider all sides of a problem and a responsibility to make a judgment and a responsibility to care for all involved." --Ian Danskin
Interesting.
There is another overlap condition (which you may know of) called Multiple Complex Developmental Disorder:
http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/12629541
If you are interested, google will bring up links.
Interesting. There is a certain amount of overlap between the autism spectrum and the schizophrenia spectrum. Essentially, pretty much all of the 'negative' symptoms of schizophrenia are also seen in autism. But it sounds like you have positive symptoms as well, so that makes sense with what your psych says.
I have a close long-time friend and she's dx'd schizophrenic. Beyond the DSM gobbledigook we're really quite similar. I encourage you not to sweat the small stuff...
_________________
"Standing on a well-chilled cinder, we see the fading of the suns, and try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds."
-Georges Lemaitre
"I fly through hyperspace, in my green computer interface"
-Gem Tos
![Mr. Green :mrgreen:](./images/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif)
There is another overlap condition (which you may know of) called Multiple Complex Developmental Disorder:
http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/12629541
If you are interested, google will bring up links.
I've heard of that and it's actually quite interesting. MCDD may more accurately have described my childhood behavior than simple autism spectrum or simple schizophrenia spectrum. I looked at the criteria and compared it to my childhood notes and it seemed to fit. The problems socializing; the problems with anxious, confused, and disruptive behavior (repeatedly noted); the difficulties of organizing my thoughts at times in a coherent manner (i.e. cognitive disorganization, which was specifically mentioned in a psychological report at age
![Cool 8)](./images/smilies/icon_cool.gif)
Thank you for sharing that link.
Also, I have heard about a study that the majority of people with MCDD develop a psychotic episode by age 18.
_________________
"You have a responsibility to consider all sides of a problem and a responsibility to make a judgment and a responsibility to care for all involved." --Ian Danskin
Similar Topics | |
---|---|
What is Autism? |
04 May 2024, 10:07 am |
Having Autism |
14 May 2024, 5:32 pm |
Autism |
13 Mar 2024, 7:44 am |
Autism at Disney? |
18 May 2024, 8:02 pm |