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Autism severity can change substantially during early childhood, study suggests

health.ucdavis.edu

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Re: Autism severity can change substantially during early childhood, study suggests

#41

Post by ChuckMcM »

kstenerud wrote: post #14
scandox wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well unfortunately there are people that can perfectly conceal their true feelings and intentions. Perhaps they are the ones that you need to interview. Though I suppose by definition they won't be very forthcoming.

That's actually an interesting topic in itself. It's been observed that many sociopaths and psychopaths don't spend long on one person. I wonder if it's because they eventually give off enough tells that others start to notice...

That has been my experience with people I know who exhibit sociopathic tendencies. One of the more interesting tells is a projection onto people who can see that they are pretending.

Re: Autism severity can change substantially during early childhood, study suggests

#42

Post by terminalcommand »

MagnumPIG wrote: post #23
JacksonGariety wrote: post #18

I have high-functioning autism. Does anyone have some suggestions for making and keeping friends? When I meet a friend, things seem to go really well at first, and then my friend seems to slowly get bored of the interactions we have, and after a couple months I just don't hear from them again. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Is there a scientific way to find out?

Not sure what you mean by scientific way, as there's no real way to test this objectively, maybe you've just had crap luck On the subject of social skills, there have been many books on the subject, traditionally titled under Asperger's: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/12108.Top_social_skills_... Friendships, like all relationships, must be nurtured to survive. A lot of neurotypical people are kinda crap at nurtu…

Speaking of books: Games people play by Eric Berne was an eye-opener for me. If you want to find a logical framework to wrap your head around social interactions, it is a useful book.

For me at least, I found that watching comedy series helps a lot to figure out social transactions. As a positive byproduct you learn to make jokes, which can also help in your pursuit to become socially appropriate.

I also find that if I stay away from computing for a while, I tend to get more normal.

Putting an effort into dressing acceptably (clean, fitting clothes), getting regular haircuts, figuring out how to chit-chat, generally smiling and nodding are my current strategy to fit in.

Re: Autism severity can change substantially during early childhood, study suggests

#43

Post by juped »

kstenerud wrote: post #3

> The study also found that IQ had a significant relationship with change in symptom severity. Children with higher IQs were more likely to show a reduction in ASD symptoms. This is important information. People of higher intelligence would be more likely to learn things, such as how to mask effectively. I learned to mask so well that most people are shocked to learn that I'm autistic. It takes about 6 months of cons…

I'm something non-neurotypical (no idea what), and I'm only able to speak by brute-forcing it (I compose a script for what to say, and then say it, and ideally this happens in a reasonable time). If I thought a bit slower, I would probably just be nonverbal; in many respects, I am.

Re: Autism severity can change substantially during early childhood, study suggests

#44

Post by JacksonGariety »

surfpel wrote: post #40
JacksonGariety wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do you have anyone in your life that you could ask for feedback? Unfortunately, I don't. It's a catch-22. > It's also worth considering if there are other groups of people that you may not be coming in to contact with who might be more interested in the same things as you. I'm really interested in philosophy. Since January I've been using Bumble to try to find people who share this interests, but I haven't had any…

Bumble is only slightly less shallow than tinder. Okcupid is much better suited for this task.

Isn't OkCupid for dating? Bumble has a mode specifically for finding friends.

Re: Autism severity can change substantially during early childhood, study suggests

#45

Post by catalogia »

alexandercrohde wrote: post #22
tw000001 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Normal people are extremely sensitive to deviations from social norms. There's even a word for it, "coolness" and more modern derivatives. Human social interactions are extremely complex, both verbal and otherwise, and people will subconsciously become uncomfortable or disinterested when people deviate too far from patterns. The weird kids get bullied because they are legitimately weird. But pretending to be normal i…

I really like this idea. I agree the average person responds to unusual behavior with the same innate revulsion we fee to a physical deformity (perhaps to a lesser degree). However I think both revulsions do dissipate with time. I think what doesn't dissipate, is the distaste for when somebody doesn't follow important and healthy social codes. For example, there's a stereotype of "nerds" pedantically interrupting eve…

> For example, there's a stereotype of "nerds" pedantically interrupting everybody to correct minor or irrelevant details ("um actually..."). Now, stereotype aside, this type of behavior is genuinely offputting and counterproductive.

The silver lining is that this behavior can be consciously suppressed, if the importance of suppressing this behavior is successfully conveyed to the person doing it. I wish somebody had taught me this lesson when I was younger, it could have saved me a lot of trouble.

Bottling up this urge is difficult though, so I use the internet as an outlet for it, sparing the people in my life I actually care about.

Re: Autism severity can change substantially during early childhood, study suggests

#46

Post by scandox »

watwut wrote: post #26
scandox wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably they're creeped out because they believe your emotional responses are simulated and that your engagement in phatic discourse is inauthentic? But how they can they tell the difference? And even if they can how do they know that this isn't also true of everybody else, only that others are superior fakers? How can they even know that their own responses are authentic? I ask because I'm really not sure about t…

> Presumably they're creeped out because they believe your emotional responses are simulated and that your engagement in phatic discourse is inauthentic? Why would you assume that? While it is theoretical possibility, there are many more other possibilities in play.

Well that's why I put a question mark on the end. It was my best guess.

Re: Autism severity can change substantially during early childhood, study suggests

#47

Post by watwut »

TeaDrunk wrote: post #33
watwut wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that question is, why are girls better at masking/adapting symptoms? Regardless of whether autism is more prevalent in girls, what it is about being girl that makes you mask better.

There is significant pressure on girls to behave in a manner that an adult might (quieter, more sociable, smiling, tolerant of situations) and significant pressure not to behave in an outwardly or rowdy manner (stimming, being hyperactive, responding in upset at being overstimulated, responding to sensory displeasure by rejection, etc).

I thought that autistic cant be pressured away from symptoms?

Re: Autism severity can change substantially during early childhood, study suggests

#48

Post by bryanrasmussen »

scandox wrote: post #6
kstenerud wrote: post #3

> The study also found that IQ had a significant relationship with change in symptom severity. Children with higher IQs were more likely to show a reduction in ASD symptoms. This is important information. People of higher intelligence would be more likely to learn things, such as how to mask effectively. I learned to mask so well that most people are shocked to learn that I'm autistic. It takes about 6 months of cons…

Presumably they're creeped out because they believe your emotional responses are simulated and that your engagement in phatic discourse is inauthentic? But how they can they tell the difference? And even if they can how do they know that this isn't also true of everybody else, only that others are superior fakers? How can they even know that their own responses are authentic? I ask because I'm really not sure about t…

Although I will of course from time to time entertain such thoughts in most cases I will just assume responses are authentic, due to Ockham's razor, and I suppose most people probably assume authenticity as well, thus when they suspect inauthenticity they get creeped out.

Re: Autism severity can change substantially during early childhood, study suggests

#49

Post by zepolen »

kstenerud wrote: post #9
scandox wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably they're creeped out because they believe your emotional responses are simulated and that your engagement in phatic discourse is inauthentic? But how they can they tell the difference? And even if they can how do they know that this isn't also true of everybody else, only that others are superior fakers? How can they even know that their own responses are authentic? I ask because I'm really not sure about t…

In my attempts to discover the secret behind perfect social interaction, people I've spoken to have been unable to explain exactly how they do it. It seems reasonable to assume that the brains of social animals are specially tuned to learn social interaction quickly, as such individuals would more quickly form a cohesive group with better survival potential (historically speaking). The question of authenticity, thoug…

Just drink a couple beers and you'll discover the secret...not caring.

Re: Autism severity can change substantially during early childhood, study suggests

#50

Post by philjohn »

JacksonGariety wrote: post #18

I have high-functioning autism. Does anyone have some suggestions for making and keeping friends? When I meet a friend, things seem to go really well at first, and then my friend seems to slowly get bored of the interactions we have, and after a couple months I just don't hear from them again. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Is there a scientific way to find out?

My son is on the ASD spectrum, high functioning as well. This may not be the same with you, but he has a few passions that he will steer conversations towards if given half a change - do you think you might be doing this?
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