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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

#61

> 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…

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31215791/

> The Misnomer of 'High Functioning Autism': Intelligence Is an Imprecise Predictor of Functional Abilities at Diagnosis

It has been found previously to not be correlative. Can someone give insight into this discrepency?

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

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I experience this in a sense when I meditate deeply (= a 10 day retreat, 10 hours per day). What I see in my field of vision, I then feel in my body. It's a whole new information channel that I'm able to tap into, and it's lightning quick. It tapered down a bit since I'm not meditating anymore, but it didn't fully go away (this was 8 years ago). What I think that happens: my insula attached to the default mode networ…

Care to plug the retreat? Or a similar option?

Hmm... Yes, I guess?

The issue is: the practice that I got was amazing, but the theory is... not worth listening to. Fortunately, it was cheap, so 10 hours of practice and 1 hour of entertainment (is what I called it) was fine.

http://dhamma.org/

Though, if others have other Vipassana retreats, then don't consider this one as better.

Also: I wouldn't go in expecting that you'll experience my description above. However, you can go in with the idea that you're training your emotional intelligence, somehow. It's up to you to discover how it happened. For me the effect was screamingly obvious. But I can't guarantee that it will be for you and if it isn't then it's tough to distinguish it from placebo. With all those disclaimers in place, the above website is where I did a retreat (3 times now).

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

#63
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I have become close to several extremely social people and discussed this quite a bit. I realized that they approach socializing the same way I approach engineering and the like. At a party they clearly see the subtle or not so subtle effects of their actions and gauge the situation on a meta level without even really realizing that they’re doing it. It’s almost as though some of my neural circuitry originally intend…

> I realized that they approach socializing the same way I approach engineering and the like.

That sounds like a dishonest way of treating people, and might be a reason why some people prefer to be more introvert.

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

#64

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?

Hmm... this is just a suspicion. But one possible reason could be that you're too serious and not playful enough. I could totally miss the mark here, but that is what I've seen in my own life. I make a friend am too serious, couple of months later I am all by myself again. So I decided to become more playful, and that really worked! If you are noticing that you might be too serious yourself and might need some playfu…

This is super helpful! I really think you're onto something. Thanks. :)

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

#65

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?

The closest I've found to making and keeping friends has been the FBI interrogation manual, which explains how police officers who would normally scare a suspect can get them to disclose intimate details of crimes.

https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/hig-report-august-2016.p...

https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/hig-report-interrogation...

Obviously you're not entering an interrogation, and you also want to level the playing field by sharing information yourself.

I think it's an evidence-based guide to how first impressions are formed, and what people often get out of social interactions.

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

#66
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…

I would advice to get a hold on the book "The inner game of tennis", which is, exactly like it sounds, a book on tennis training.

Except when it's not.

It hold advices that can be generalized to improve your ability to learn without using analysis and develop natural actions in a given field.

Apply it to social interactions. Those are much better for everyone involved when you mostly instinctively react, yet subtly adjust using logic, not the opposite.

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

#68

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?

Some random things that might or might not apply to you in no particular order of importance:

Don't use "friend-finder" sites so much; you talk about using one elsewhere in this thread, but that's not where it's at. They contain the worst of in-person friend-making and the worst of online friend-making, with few of the benefits. Hanging out at events happening near you with people of similar interests & just throwing an anime avatar on yourself and talking on microblogging websites will both do you far better: Get yourself to where the conversation's happening, don't get yourself to where people are looking for conversation.

Make sure to contact others first, too, at least sometimes. Many times it becomes one-sided (X person is always calling Y person but Y person never calls X person) and that's enough to make just about anyone feel bad & alone.

Make sure to keep things varied; talking about the same thing in a loop kills a lot of the enjoyment that comes with knowing people. Everyone has a lot of things they're interested in; try and scope out who you're talking to, and occasionally just throw in things you're interested in that you think align with their interests. This gradually expands the things you can talk about, and keeps things interesting for everyone in the long-term.

Talk at least as much as you listen. "Being a good listener" is great! At least on paper. In reality if you just act as a soundboard, people find you dull. Contributing to the conversation is important!

Don't let every conversation feel like it's the most important thing in the world. If every conversation feels important, most people (there's an exception with a certain academic type who live and die by this experience but they're few and far in-between if you're not intentionally seeking them out) will interpret it as stressful, and that'll eventually be enough to get them to back away.

Make sure to maintain more than a handful of friendships at one time; almost no people will be able or willing to throw energy at you for the twenty hours you're awake in a day, but five, ten or twenty people allows you to fill your day with it while also not depending on any given person an unrealistic amount.

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

#69

> 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…

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31215791/ > The Misnomer of 'High Functioning Autism': Intelligence Is an Imprecise Predictor of Functional Abilities at Diagnosis It has been found previously to not be correlative. Can someone give insight into this discrepency?

Presumably "requires further study", but one thing that comes to mind is that the linked study looks at early childhood (ages 3-6) whereas the study you linked considers a wider range of ages (1-18).

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

#70
post #63
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have become close to several extremely social people and discussed this quite a bit. I realized that they approach socializing the same way I approach engineering and the like. At a party they clearly see the subtle or not so subtle effects of their actions and gauge the situation on a meta level without even really realizing that they’re doing it. It’s almost as though some of my neural circuitry originally intend…

> I realized that they approach socializing the same way I approach engineering and the like. That sounds like a dishonest way of treating people, and might be a reason why some people prefer to be more introvert.

I don't see it that way. They're not 'social engineering', they just have a greater understanding as to where interactions will go and the confidence to carry out said interactions. The only alternative for them is being willfully blind to social interaction which isn't a real option in my view.
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