How am I supposed to know what non-autistic people consider “normal” when basically everybody I know is autistic. How am I supposed to to know what is “abnormal social approach” when I’ve been autistic all my life and so are all my family so I don’t know any different? I don’t at all like this language in the DSM 5 autism criteria. That’s far too much to write here at once, so I’ll be writing about a blog post about each point. Intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder frequently co-occur to make comorbid diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability, social communication should be below that expected for general developmental level. These disturbances are not better explained by intellectual disability (intellectual developmental disorder) or global developmental delay. Symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of current functioning.Į. Symptoms must be present in the early developmental period (but may not become fully manifest until social demands exceed limited capacities, or may be masked by learned strategies in later life).ĭ. Hyper- or hyporeactivity to sensory input or unusual interests in sensory aspects of the environment (e.g., apparent indifference to pain/temperature, adverse response to specific sounds or textures, excessive smelling or touching of objects, visual fascination with lights or movement).Ĭ. Highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus (e.g, strong attachment to or preoccupation with unusual objects, excessively circumscribed or perseverative interest).Ĥ. Insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines, or ritualized patterns or verbal nonverbal behavior (e.g., extreme distress at small changes, difficulties with transitions, rigid thinking patterns, greeting rituals, need to take same route or eat food every day).ģ. Stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, use of objects, or speech (e.g., simple motor stereotypies, lining up toys or flipping objects, echolalia, idiosyncratic phrases).Ģ. Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities, as manifested by at least two of the following, currently or by history (examples are illustrative, not exhaustive see text):ġ. Deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships, ranging, for example, from difficulties adjusting behavior to suit various social contexts to difficulties in sharing imaginative play or in making friends to absence of interest in peers.ī. Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction, ranging, for example, from poorly integrated verbal and nonverbal communication to abnormalities in eye contact and body language or deficits in understanding and use of gestures to a total lack of facial expressions and nonverbal communication.ģ. Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, ranging, for example, from abnormal social approach and failure of normal back-and-forth conversation to reduced sharing of interests, emotions, or affect to failure to initiate or respond to social interactions.Ģ. Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts, as manifested by the following, currently or by history (examples are illustrative, not exhaustive, see text):ġ. Hopefully others who are considering getting an autism assessment, or are waiting for an assessment, will find it useful.Īutism Spectrum Disorder Diagnostic CriteriaĪ. It’s difficult to make sense of the strange-sounding psychological terminology used in the official criteria, and how it translates into traits in real people. There is little information available about how the autism DSM 5 diagnostic criteria applies to adults. I’ll be writing about a blog post about each point. I have no idea what criteria they’ll be using, so I’ve decided to use the DSM 5 autism diagnostic criteria. So I’ve spent more than 100 hours writing my autism symptoms to email them to the psychiatrist. In addition, the assessment is 3 hours long and I can’t concentrate for that long because I have ADHD. strangers, in an unfamiliar building, after getting two buses to the autism assessment centre, and changing buses in one of the noisiest, busiest, most crowded part of London. I can’t possibly communicate my symptoms verbally to two psychiatrists, i.e. After being on the NHS waiting list for an autism assessment for over 18 months, I’m finally having one in two weeks.
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