Question:
Are there any similarities, between Schizophrenia, and Autism? Cause sometime I think I have some traits from both.
Answer:
In brief, it goes something like this: A number of things have been referred to as schizophrenia through the
years, as it is a rather imprecise word. Autism is one of them -- it used
to be referred to as "childhood schizophrenia" (in some very backwards
circles it still is).
Some of the things that have been referred to as schizophrenia share
traits in common with autism. Here are some traits quoted from the DSM
and ICD definitions of schizophrenia that can be traits of autism as well:
* excessive motor activity (that is apparently purposeless and not
influenced by external stimuli)
* extreme negativism (an apparently motiveless resistance to all
instructions or maintenance of a rigid posture against attempts to be
moved) or mutism
* peculiarities of voluntary movement as evidenced by posturing
(voluntary assumption of inappropriate or bizarre postures)
* stereotyped movements, prominent mannerisms, or prominent grimacing
* echolalia or echopraxia
* flat or inappropriate affect
* negative symptoms, i.e., affective flattening, alogia, or avolition
* disorganized speech (e.g., frequent derailment or incoherence) [Some
characteristic speech patterns of autistic people fall under *some* of the
same possible speech characteristics that have also been attributed to
schizophrenia, especially "tangential speech"]
* negative symptoms, i.e., affective flattening, alogia, or avolition
* breaks or interpolations in the train of thought, resulting in
incoherence or irrelevant speech, or neologisms
* "negative" symptoms such as marked apathy, paucity of speech, and
blunting or incongruity of emotional responses, usually resulting in
social withdrawal and lowering of social performance; it must be clear
that these are not due to depression or to neuroleptic medication
Or, for that matter, the entire set of ICD guidelines around catatonic
schizophrenia:
(a) stupor (marked decrease in reactivity to the environment and in
spontaneous movements and activity) or mutism;
(b) excitement (apparently purposeless motor activity, not influenced by
external stimuli);
(c) posturing (voluntary assumption and maintenance of inappropriate or
bizarre postures);
(d) negativism (an apparently motiveless resistance to all instructions or
attempts to be moved, or movement in the opposite direction);
(e) rigidity (maintenance of a rigid posture against efforts to be moved);
(f) waxy flexibility (maintenance of limbs and body in externally imposed
positions); and
(g) other symptoms such as command automatism (automatic compliance with
instructions), and perseveration of words and phrases.
To make matters more confusing:
1. Because many autistic people have difficulty understanding other
people's minds, we may develop the idea that other people can read our
thoughts. We might also develop extreme suspiciousness of other people
because we have trouble reading their body language.
2. Much of the mythology around where autism came from (prior to a clear
definition of autism, people made up their own explanations) has us
characterized as not being human at all. This is a common view for
undiagnosed autistic people, or autistic people who are not told of their
diagnosis, to take -- robots, aliens, or changelings. (It also happens
among diagnosed people, but it's way more common when you don't have any
explanation for why you are how you are.)
3. Autism usually involves unusual sensory experiences. Synesthesia (one
sense bleeding into another) is still seen by some psychiatrists as
hallucinatory. Since we take a long time to process sensory information,
we often do things like lie down to bed at night only to *finally* hear
what everyone else was saying all day -- "hearing voices". We might also
interpret distorted sensory information in ways that could be seen as
hallucinatory, and some of us even develop ways of deliberately
manipulating distorted sensory information as a kind of projected
daydreaming. Odd body sensations may be seen as "tactile hallucinations"
by some psychiatrists. Plus many people who are currently diagnosed as
schizophrenic complain of sensory overload, which is common among
autistics. (When I was handed a book on schizophrenia when that was my
diagnosis, I highlighted every single section on sensory issues, and that
was what convinced me the diagnosis was correct.)
4. Autistic people often experience burnout, especially given that we
don't have the resources usually to continue coping in a world that is not
designed for us. When this happens, we may lose skills, and this may be
interpreted as a "psychotic break", especially if the form in which we
lose skills basically takes the form of developing more problems with
motor skills. (Some of the problems that are inherent to some people's
autism *already* resemble catatonia, so becoming *more* that way entails
becoming *more* catatonic, which can then be seen as adult onset of
"catatonic schizophrenia".) When I was overloaded, I always went into my
room, and that was interpreted in psych wards as "psychotic withdrawal"
and discouraged -- burnout can involve more extreme social skills issues
and social withdrawal than short-term overload does.
5. That burnout can appear (in fact may be more likely to appear) in
people who were extremely good at dealing with the world and thus might
not have been picked up as autistic in the first place. (Other people
were not picked up as autistic despite being quite obvious about it, but
in people who were really good at faking normalcy, burnout can basically
look like they went from normal-looking to autistic-looking *fast* and
people hunt around for a psychiatric term for it.)
6. Many of us are abused badly enough (autistic people are easy targets)
that we develop whole storylines in our heads that help us survive, but
if we start acting on those storylines in real life, people can assume all
kinds of things.
7. Obviously, autistic people are not immune to hallucinations or unusual
beliefs just because we are autistic.
There are rules in the diagnoses of schizophrenia that it can only be
diagnosed in an autistic person if we have "delusions" or
"hallucinations". This is because the accepted criteria for each are
pretty similar *except* for that part. (I'm sure even "disorganized
behavior" is common among autistics, especially as they give examples like
wearing a coat on a hot day, which many of us do things like.) However,
given that we can develop some pretty strange beliefs and have some pretty
strange perceptual experiences, it's not surprising that a lot of people
can't tell the "two" (I don't think the things that get called
schizophrenia are a single entity) apart.
With alzeihmers, your brain turns to shit.
Autopsies show their brains resemble dried up prunes.
VERY "real" physical deteriotation of the brain. Szes brains may seemingly turn to shit but the sz brains do not resemble
dried up prunes.
Autism simply doesn't get it.
Similar to being an air head.
Or as some describe it, having shit for brains.
Alzeihmers has dried up shriveled prunes for brains.
Sz brains may have lesions but are still present within a cogniszent
unverse.
Autism has a bunch of air heads whose brains are shit.
Thats the differences.
Which shows that you are quite ignorant about schizophrenia. I hate it when my mouth won't keep up with my brain, so I just ooze mumble when
I talk.
