RED HOT FOLDER!!!!
RED HOT FOLDER!!!!
I didn't actually say autism wasn't a spectrum. In fact the whole notion of there being a dividing line between autism and non-autism implies a spectrum. What I was arguing against was the claim that the spectrum ran from "normal" people all the way to people with severe autism. In my estimation that is similar to saying there is a schizophrenic spectrum and that "everyone" is on it. The difference between people with autism, and regular people, is so great, that there can't possibly be a spectrum running from "normal" to autistic. Any more than there is a "spectrum" of schizophrenia, which is an absurd idea.
Fair enough, but that doesn't mean most people are on it
What you all are discussing is the categorical vs dimensional approach to classifying mental disorder, which is a major topic of debate. This isn't a question that has an objective answer because we don't really know what causes mental disorder or how mental disorders work. Biologically, it is plausible that either or both can be responsible for a particular mental disorder (i.e. a on/off model for a mental disorder or a spectrum ranging from normal to completely disordered can both be explained biologically).
I'm personally of the belief that most disorders are more or less continuous from neurotypical to "fully" disordered. For example, some people find making off-colour jokes that hurt other's feelings to be okay, a trait I find indicating a mildly "autistic" form of lack of social understanding. Similarly, some otherwise neurotypical people people will have more whimsical personalities and/or believe in conspiracies, which is a mild form of delusion that I consider to be on the schizophrenia spectrum, so to speak, without being necessarily harmful to one's life.
Ultimately the only objective discussion we can have with our current understanding of mental disorder is how much the categorical vs dimensional approaches help with treatment. The idea of discrete mental disorders is ultimately a useful way of classifying symptoms into convenient boxes so that we can treat them more effectively. If you take two people with schizophrenia they can often have wildly different symptoms, the biological underpinnings of each person's disorder can be completely different, and the treatments that help both people can also be very different, but we say they both have schizophrenia. It seems that the psychology community is moving more and more towards the dimensional approach of classification.
My spirit animal: https://youtu.be/fNugZU61EXI
Last edited by Oberon; May 3rd, 2021 at 06:49 AM.
My point is that the way we classify mental disorders as distinct form eachother doesn't necessarily come from any sort of shared underlying biological causes, or even that they necessarily always present in the same way, but in ways that benefit treatment. What we call "schizophrenia" may well be a bunch of different disorders with different genetic and environmental causes that happen to look the same, we don't really know yet. That different treatments work or don't work depending on the patient seems to partially support this, anyway.
Culture and context also plays a big role. I read some literature once (can't find it right now) that suggested that the reason autism rates are so low in Africa is partially because the traits of autism aren't as much of a hindrance in the context of African society and culture, so they don't really recognize them as disordered. Schizophrenia in non-western countries is also not as much of a burden because, for whatever reason, people with schizophrenia in eastern cultures who hear voices tend to hear those voices saying positive things rather than negative things as in western cultures, which probably does good for their overall wellbeing and mental state.
The same logic applies to the use of categorical vs dimensional classification. I guess that psychology as a whole is finding that dimensional classification is more useful than categorical, leading to decisions such as collapsing autism and aspergers into the autism spectrum.
My overall point is that the classification of mental illness is quite fuzzy and nobody can definitively say anything on topics like whether everyone is on the autism spectrum or not. Clinically, Oberon is right: because these classifications are rather binary, neurotypical people are not on the autism spectrum. In the real world, and biologically, we don't really know.
That seems fair.
@Ash you need some glasses bro? You need to actually read what I say before jumping to conclusions.
Is it possible that many or even most people who have "disorders" are people who's brain would work perfectly fine in a primitive hunter-gatherer society but whose brain happens to clash with our modern complicated society? I mean, I'm not sure how hearing voices could be anywhere near as distressing if we didn't have such a sophisticated language that could say such deep shit. At worst you'd just hear negative intonations if you only had a primitive notion of language. I wonder if anyone's tried to observe isolated tribes and find the "mentally ill tribespeople".
source?? no, clearly we know everything about mental disorders. after, all, we, had, psychoology for two million years, such an old madiCOWOL field with practices set in STONE!!! (usually, i'd rather not say this so i can hear oberon speak more LOL)
SEXY
too bad. source? SOURCE?? SOURCE?!?!?
i wnted to quote soething in pnk, ignre pls. UWOWU HEWWO!!!
FUCK
Last edited by theoneceko; May 3rd, 2021 at 06:50 PM. Reason: FORMATTING CHANGES TO MAKE MY QUOTE LOOK MORE AESTETIC, UWOWU HEWWO!! THAT'S RIGHT. I MAKE ATRT AND VOTED FOR DONALD TRUMP!!!
@MartinGG99
Today I was thinking "I could totally see ISTPs being misdiagnosed as with Asperger's", so I just wanted to ask you if you know your MBTI type by any chance? Just curious, it's ok if you don't.
My spirit animal: https://youtu.be/fNugZU61EXI
What's an ISTP? Is that from the 16 personalities thing?
My spirit animal: https://youtu.be/fNugZU61EXI
I'm either INTJ, or INTP. It's been a while.
idk about you but last I checked the personalities thing you are referring to doesn't sufficiently justify why people with Asperger's/Autism (can) have behaviors that may seem very persistent or otherwise involuntary. It also wouldn't explain the (relative) lack of an ability to understand human language in the presence of significant background noise. Among other things.
Misdiagnosis *is* a thing and can happen but given the broad-yet-often-times-unique symptoms (as compared to other conditions) the Autism spectrum and Asperger's Syndrome, I have a difficult time seeing it being misdiagnosed unless the person who is diagnosing it did not fully comprehend the spectrum and etc.
Last edited by MartinGG99; May 7th, 2021 at 07:45 PM.
A.K.A "That One Idiot"
Relevant explanation for the rapid increase in autism as well as other diseases. Spot on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw16LPVnNco