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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

#81

Post by nicoburns »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #74
globular-toast wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty autistic, but the funny thing is I don't keep friendships because I get bored, not them. I was a complete recluse during most of my time at university. I decided I wanted to mate with women when I was about 25 so started to make myself more "marketable". The first stage is being able to make friends. First thing is the way you look. People like you more if you're good looking. First step is to make sure yo…

>You might think this sounds silly // Not wanting to offend but "sociopathic" is the word that comes to mind for me. Like "I'll do this to manipulate people and induce this response". I'm not going to say you won't be successful, just that your approach sounds very clinical and lacking in warmth and personality. You do you, I guess.

I don't think it's manipulative unless done with malicious intent. If someone is doing nice things for you in order to encourage you to like them, then... good.

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

#82

Post by Jare »

bondarchuk wrote: post #31
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.

I've always wondered about this one: symptoms of autism are closer to the expected behaviour of girls than that of boys.

I touched on this in a nearby comment, but: I think that works, but only for the somewhat milder symptoms.

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

#83

Post by nicoburns »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #75
wozer wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that is true, it must happen very early. Some two year olds are already extremely non-autistic.

Parents in the UK will some times describe a child as "flirty", it has nothing to do with sexuality - to head that one off. They have learnt, by only a few months old, to attract attention of adults by using facial expressions, coos, and such. They certainly seem to be the other end of the spectrum wrt commanding social interaction. But I'd suspect it's more that most children have the capacity but a few just happen…

Myers-Briggs type theory suggests that there are 8 modes of cognition, and that we all develop one first and only later begin to develop the others. Even if you don't like the Myers-Briggs stuff, I think the idea that children all develop a specific way of thinking first, but that the one that develops first isn't the same for all children is insightful.

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

#84

Post by leetcrew »

globular-toast wrote: post #56
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?

I'm pretty autistic, but the funny thing is I don't keep friendships because I get bored, not them. I was a complete recluse during most of my time at university. I decided I wanted to mate with women when I was about 25 so started to make myself more "marketable". The first stage is being able to make friends. First thing is the way you look. People like you more if you're good looking. First step is to make sure yo…

some of the wording you used was kind of blunt, but I mostly agree with what you said, especially as a "socializing 101" type explanation.

> The number one rule you need to keep in mind is to be positive. Do NOT tell people they are doing something wrong. Do NOT tell people you don't like something. Always continue a conversation in a positive way. If they mention a band you don't like, mention a band you do like. If they mention a technique that is suboptimal, mention a technique you have found works for you (not "is better").

I want to push back on this a little bit. it's important not to turn every conversation into a debate, but you can go too far with the positivity as well. it's okay to disagree with someone and say so from time to time. if you never disagree with someone, they will probably find you pretty boring.

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

#85

Post by selimthegrim »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #41
kstenerud wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What do you mean? That they call them psychopaths?

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

#86

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#87

Post by nicoburns »

Jare wrote: post #79
SubiculumCode wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The gender disparity in autism prevalence is one of the big mysteries of autism since genes associated with autism risk are not generally located on the XY sex chromosome. There are a number of hypotheses out there for the disparity of prevalence. One hypothesis is that the disparity is more apparent than real: That girls are better at masking/adapting to their symptoms, and thus more frequently escape diagnosis. The…

It would seem to me that masking works to a point (towards the "highly functioning" side of the spectrum), and once you get to the ways in which autism blocks ability to perform certain common behaviours and activities (e.g. non-verbal), the gender percentages should get closer again, because there's no masking to hide them or social expectations that they match. Is this the case?

I've seen research that suggests that estrogen could mitigate symptoms of autism, which could also explain a gender difference:

- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5193073/

- https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/estrogen-reverses-autism-l...

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

#88

Post by _0w8t »

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…

In many cases it is pointless to ask a person why they are good at a particular skill. At best on get a honest answer that a person does not know. At worst one hears an elaborated story that at first sounds plausible, but then a realization comes that it was just a construct that the person believed themselves but that had no value at training the skill.

It is much more productive to simply watch the videos how people are doing it.

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

#89

Post by _y5hn »

mettamage wrote: post #62
sethammons wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. Howeve…

Imagine going to the gym for years. It takes years of endurance, even your best efforts and intentions however imperfect. The results stay for life. Your mind-body is a complete vehicle, and others are even sharing the ride. Nobody can answer your life for you, though perspectives are broadened.

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

#90

Post by hanniabu »

TrinaryWorksToo wrote: post #65
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?

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 th…

Maybe it's just me, but I'm really not seeing how to apply this
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