> narrative from the article or in medical research that there are two kinds of autism. In my opinion, there's only one, and that one has SEVERE conditions
I'm not sure that's a narrative? In fact quite the opposite, currently anything from the 'different kind of brain wiring' you mention through to the 'SEVERE conditions' that you acknowledge as autism are all seen as varying aspects and varying degrees of the same underlying difference. Once you get more acquainted with the less dramatic forms of autism there are significant commonalities.
That said, however well-founded the reasons for merging Asperger's Syndrome with the umbrella Autism Spectrum Disorder, I do feel we've lost some nuance in the process. There definitely seems to be a qualitative difference between "person who's a bit different and struggles with some aspects of life, but may be exceptional in others" and "person who's severely impaired and will never be able to navigate life on their own (even if exceptional in others)." Having shorthand terms to identify the two independently was useful.
I fully agree. The amount of people that have “minor” autism and get upset at people looking for a cure is huge, for instance.
For them they’re just a little bit different, and they wouldn’t want to be someone else. They don’t realize there are people like my cousin that needs to live in a group home because he’s almost non-verbal.
> The amount of people that have “minor” autism and get upset at people looking for a cure is huge, for instance.
Yeah, it reminds me of that X-Men meme with Rogue talking about a cure and Storm saying there's nothing to cure because it's not a disease. "I'd take a cure" thinks the nonverbal kid with severe everything who needs 24/7 care. "Shut up, we're perf" says the girl who's the world expert on diffractometry but doesn't always pick up social cues.
I tend to liken the term ASD to saying 'lower limb impairment disorder'. Did I stub my toe? Is one leg off at the knee? Was I born with no legs at all? Who knows, it's just LLID! What are you meant to do with that information? No idea.
I really think in a lot of ways it'd help to have a couple of smaller buckets inside the giant bucket that is ASD.
> I really think in a lot of ways it'd help to have a couple of smaller buckets inside the giant bucket that is ASD.
The reason we don't is because it's not possible. Every time someone tries to make a high / medium / low-functioning distinction, some PhD gymnast running three companies and a dog shelter who can't reliably feed herself has a weeks-long non-verbal episode after she wore the wrong colours to an investor meeting, and completely ruins their categorisation system thereby.
If there's one thing all autistic people have in common, it's not being well-described by the paradigms according to which you want to bucket them.
That's not to say there aren't apparent subtypes of autism, just as there are apparent subtypes of allism. But they're hard to pin down, and they're not really useful for what you want to use them for: there are people in each of them who live happy, fulfilled lives, and who struggle to function on a daily basis – and who could be described by both of those clauses, for that matter.
I'm not sure that's a narrative? In fact quite the opposite, currently anything from the 'different kind of brain wiring' you mention through to the 'SEVERE conditions' that you acknowledge as autism are all seen as varying aspects and varying degrees of the same underlying difference. Once you get more acquainted with the less dramatic forms of autism there are significant commonalities.
That said, however well-founded the reasons for merging Asperger's Syndrome with the umbrella Autism Spectrum Disorder, I do feel we've lost some nuance in the process. There definitely seems to be a qualitative difference between "person who's a bit different and struggles with some aspects of life, but may be exceptional in others" and "person who's severely impaired and will never be able to navigate life on their own (even if exceptional in others)." Having shorthand terms to identify the two independently was useful.