From my last psych eval in 2020 to my psych eval this year, my autism degree went from 1 to 2. Is there a way to lower it back?
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These degrees are a measure of how much effort it takes for psychologists or caretakers to conform to their vision of healthy behavior. That vision is heavily biased towards conformity, unobtrusiveness, and lack of complaint. This means that it may be healthier for you to live at 2 rather than attempt to return to 1.
It is common for autistic people’s “severity” to increase when they learn to stand up for themselves and take the space they need. Eventually you may gain the experience to know how to that space in a way that doesn’t demand quite as much effort from others, but that’s a matter of continuing in the same direction of personal growth and development, not a return to your old state.
It is also common for autistic people’s “severity” to increase when they don’t learn to stand up for themselves, and the cumulative stress of trying to contort themselves to other people’s expectations takes its toll on their mind and body. If your symptoms get worse while trying to conform, trying to conform harder will only make things worse.
Some autistic people do manage to ‘solve’ their lives and have their “severity” decrease without standing up for themselves, for example by finding a partner or institution (military, religious, corporate, etc.) who can control their lives for them in a way that is stable. This typically involves systematic emotional abuse or neglect because someone else trying to manage your emotions properly would have to do a high “severity” amount of work.
And some manage to stand up for themselves in a way that doesn’t get medicalized, but that doesn’t sound like an option for you.
Those classifications don’t mean anything except to gatekeep who can get help and who has to go without. There is no “degree” or “severity” of autism. It’s all about how easy it is for the person to mask and fit into neurotypical society. It’s not a disease, it’s a disability. And it’s only a disability because a majority of society refuses to accommodate us. Just like many places still don’t have ramps on sidewalks and stairs to accommodate physically disabled people and allow them to actively participate in society.
Anyway, my point is, be yourself. You aren’t broken and you definitely aren’t more broken because of some test that’s solely designed to see how likely it is you’ll be able to to fit into society without accommodation. Surround yourself with people who are willing to accommodate your needs instead and do what needs to be done to survive. Don’t waste time on people who won’t accommodate you unless it’s for survival.
There is no “degree” or “severity” of autism. It’s all about how easy it is for the person to mask and fit into neurotypical society.
There are multiple types of autism of varying severity that are being thrown into a single bag of ASD currently but it doesn’t appear that this kind of classification will stand the test of time.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13229-026-00727-y
But it’s not some level of “severity”. There are different ways it can present, but it’s not a disease, so there isn’t a progression through the body, or an infection that expands, or any other normal measure of the “severity” of a disease. It’s not something attacking the body and it’s not a progressive genetic disease like muscular dystrophy or something. It’s just a different way of existing. Those differences can cause conflict with people who don’t have those differences. There can be not learning the same way as other people, but that doesn’t mean they can’t learn, just that our schools aren’t set up to teach them. There can be difficulty in motor control or difficult emulating certain speech patterns, but again, not because of something attacking the person either another organism or the immune system or something, they just can’t do those things the same way as the majority of people do them.
And yes, since it’s a spectrum disorder, it can manifest in many different ways, but the idea of “high-” or “low-” “functioning” is not valid either and why that’s been removed from medical texts. That was a holdover from Asperger’s research to determine which children to keep and which to murder depending on if they could do the slave labor that the Nazi’s wanted then to do.
The current classifications are based on how much support a person would need to appear normal in society. Not if they will or won’t survive like with a disease. Only, can they learn and work on capitalism like a neurotypical person and if not, how much money will it take to either help them work or hide them away somewhere.
Forgive me for chiming in, I saw this on c/all and like following peoples discussions around neurodivergence and disability even if I’m not on the spectrum specifically – most disabilities have different severities, whether are diseases or not. ADHD, the sleep disorder I have, blind-ness or deaf-ness, etc.
Disabilities can be different levels of disabling. Broadly I agree with the points you’re making in your original comment though. Its easy to for folks to end up feeling like the level of disability they experience is an indication of their level of defectiveness, and folks need to hear theyre not neccisarily defective (I try not to presume to know how all disabled folks may feel, I’m sure there are folks with disabilities who hurt over feeling broken, and I’m not here to invalidate that)
Well, there ARE levels. There is a clear difference between you and those non verbal kids at school.
It’s not a severity of a disease though. They have different disabilities, just like a person might be better at throwing a ball than another, I am better at verbal communication than they are. And most of their issues causing them to act out aren’t due to the autism, but to the meltdowns caused by how much effort it takes to communicate. I get meltdowns from other things, but it’s just easier for me to avoid those things. It’s difficult to avoid verbal communication, so they are classified as needing a higher level of support in order to participate in a capitalistic society. If they didn’t have to do a job that required communication and were accommodated for their learning styles, they could contribute to society. It’s just society has no desire to put that much effort into it so the only thing they are offered is conformance. I find it easier to conform with my issues than they will that’s all it is.
There is a remote mountain in China¹. The old master lives atop it. She is a mechanical engineer who designs trains. Study under her. Learn everything she has to teach. Only then will you achieve the third level.
¹actually Tibet, but she’s from hong Kong so, like, it doesn’t matter for these purposes.
I’m being serious.
That will only ever lead to disappointment and frustration.
Why the fuck do you care about how you’re classified by a bunch of totalitarian ass hats who love to pretend they know what the fuck they’re talking about even at the expense of real understanding?
I’m talking about the downsides, not about rhe classification. I became unable to cross roads and mantain straight conversations over the years.
Okay. That’s not your ‘autism level’. Why can’t you cross roads?
I… don’t really know. All I know is that I have often shutdowns and mental fog. So either I’m too “foggy” to be able to know when is it okay to cross roads, either I’m on a trance and almost get hit by a bus.
Is that what autism is? That doesnt sound like autism. That sounds like a bad reaction to ssri’s or a missing a couple 0’s when you dose your edible.
I don’t do drugs.
start grinding low-level mooks in the forest area, that should give you enough XP to level up
…can we be serious
I don’t know your situation, so this may not apply.
I… don’t have PTSD.
so this may not apply
Yeah, I’m explaining it doesn’t.
👍
