Autism & Asperger's Syndrome ... What are they?

Autism is a development disorder that affects an individual’s ability to socialize and communicate. Asperger’s Syndrome is part of the autism spectrum, but it differs because usually individuals diagnosed with Asperger’s have normal to higher IQ’s. We made this video with the goal of raising awareness on Autism as well as shed lights on some of the misconceptions! Hope you help share this video with your friends and love ones.

#whatisseries #autismawarenss #autism

Kluth, P. (2018). Supporting Students with Autism: 10 Ideas for Inclusive Classrooms. Reading Rockets. Retrieved July 31, 2018.

Intro: Surey Camacho

Project Manager: Wendy Hu
Community Manager: Priscilla Cha, Nicole Pridemore
Producer: Psych2Go

[Psychgo]

We finally released this video! Let us know what you think! Also, we have a favor needed. To help spread awareness on the topic of mental health, would some of you be opened to sharing our channel with your friends on social media? If you did, let us know! Thanks! :)

[celestia]

As someone who is autistic, I thought this video was really good. However, as mentioned by others, you used statistics from Autism Speaks, they make autism out to be this thing which steals people away from who they really are and demonise it. I recommend that you look at the National Autistic Society if you do another video on autism, which I hope you guys do because some people still don't know what it is so the more information available to people, the better.

[yasinsong]

I wish my Dad would watch this. I have a sister with autism and my Dad yells at her for "not understanding " smh

[missmonke]

I do hope that Psych2Go will try to revisit ASD at some point. It's understandable that finding reliable information on ASD is difficult, but there aren't many (good) videos on the topic other than life stories.

[kaiishere]

I'd just like to add, as a person with Asperger's; Unless we're visibly distressed or otherwise uncomfortable, please don't try to change things for us or make us more comfortable by separating us, etc, it just makes us feel alienated, different and / or unwelcome.
Also, Autism and Asperger's are all part of the Autism spectrum, and even two people with the same disorder could be vastly different; Treating someone with Asperger's like another person with Asperger's, or like someone with Autism also makes us feel misunderstood.

[coachbahman]

i work with autism and aspergers at my work, and they are most amazing, intelligent and loving people in the world. Even tho they are hurt, everyday, they have been let down and dissapointed by a world that isnt made for them. They keep giving me inspiration, to keep on.

[randallmilton]

My sister has autism and no one understands her and I’ve always got to protect her from bullies, hopefully one day this won’t be a reality ❤️❤️

[_.caitlyn.x._]

I have Autism, sometimes its not very easy cause some people make fun of it.

[levobertus]

I think teachers are especially important and not nearly mentioned enough. I have aspergers and I had a hard time in grade school because the teachers just thought of me as a troublemaker, whereas my middle and highschool teachers knew about my disorder and gave their best to include me, which greatly helped me to develop my social skills to the point where it's barely noticeable in my daily life anymore. This is something that can make or break the struggle with this disorder as a kid and I wish more teachers paid attention to kids with unusual behaviour and informed themselves about their options to deal with them.

[melissam]

One thing I'd like to point out to anyone scrolling through the comments is that everyone with autism is different. No two autistic people will have exactly the same behaviours as one another, for example some are very good at understanding social situations because they have adapted and learnt from experience over time. If you know someone with autism and want to connect in any way try to understand them, and not the generalisations we have to make when classifying a disorder :) For context: My brother has severe autism (to put things into perspective, he does not speak, wouldn't be able to use a computer to watch youtube, and has no concept of reciprocal bonds with anyone).

[Kartoffelkamm]

I was kind of worried that you would bring up Autism Speaks more often in this video, because from what I could find, they´re some kind of covert anti-autism group that tries to make autistic people look like some form of lesser beings while playing the part of our bodyguard or something.
I literally heard one guy working for them say "They can´t fit in with normal society, so we make sure they have a society they can fit into." Or something along those lines.
I love having autism, and though I can´t really read social situations, there´s lots of other stuff I can do. For example, I excel at languages. My mom told me that I never had this phase where I spoke some incoherent gibberish as a baby, but went straight to speaking normally.
I learned English practically without noticing, taught myself two fictional languages in one day and once I started seeing math as a kind of language, I became 2nd best of my class within a month, even though I was close to last before that.
I can pick up the faintest of scents and sometimes even hear conversations in my neighbor´s house, and my eyes work in almost complete darkness.
And once I´ve been somewhere, I can navigate the area flawlessly, even if I haven´t been there in 10+ years.

I just struggle with social stuff, emotions, new places and sensations, large crowds, loud places, bright lights, strong scents, and sometimes I mix up languages in my head when I think, so I end up speaking one of the four languages I know when responding to my mom, who only speaks German and a little bit English.
But hey, rainbows won´t light up the sky unless you let it rain, right?

[totallyale]

As someone who knows someone else with autism, I thought the video was very accurate and informative, from the symptoms / diagnosis to the treatment options.

The only issue I have is using Autism Speaks as a source of information. They constantly look down on people with autism and treat autism as some kind of demonic disease.

[angeldelvax]

Strictly speaking, asperger doesn't exist anymore. The DSM-V (2013) introduces ASD which replaces autism, asperger and other autism related disorders. Even so, the old names are still used to give an indication of where the disorder would be placed.
One of the reasons this is done is because there is no clear line between all the sub groups. Most hugely overlap. another reason is that it apparently is common belief that the different "forms" equate to different degrees of autism. Asperger, for example, is seen as less serious than classic autism, because in the latter case, social interaction seems to be a bigger problem than in the first case. However, in a LOT of cases, people with asperger tend to have it a lot more difficult, because it's a lot harder for "outsiders" to see they have this disability. Just because they have some social interaction, it's often thought that they "just" need to "stop being an idiot and start behaving yourself". this causes a LOT of problems in social situations, and in work related situations.

So my point: yes there is a debate whether asperger and autism should be the same thing or not, but the DSM-V already states that they ARE the same.

[WritingGeekNL]

Damn, I feel massively disappointed in asking for a video on Autism.
This is extremely discriminating to us, by just explaining the negative aspects...where are all the positive ones? Like being a hard worker, extremely good in the talents one may possess? Etc.
Sorry, but I want to be accepted for who I am, not cured. I have PDD-NOS btw, I have learned to control with my Autism to the point that barely anyone recognizes it. I know my talents, and I know my difficulties.
The best person who explained Autism is Temple Grandin in her TEDTalk. And it is a must watch for anyone who has Autism.

Oh btw, Autism Speaks made me cry for realising how awful the world can be towards people like me. My mom had a very hard time with me, but she would never want to fucking kill me, like so many other moms or dads I know.
How hard? Well, my old neighbors once called Child Protection when I had a meltdown, very normal when an Autistic person cannot control himself yet, but because it was for 'being beaten' me and my little brother(does not have Autism btw) of 4 and 1 got linked to Child Protection until we are 18, I'm 18 now and my little brother is 15. So my parents still have 2.5 years of insecurity to lose my little brother.
Just to mention, black people and women go riot when something like this would happen. But for someone with Autism this is regular shit AND NOTHING IS DONE AGAINST THIS.

Or the fact of vaccin....or the fact that some people are like 'sO YoU HavE AuTiSM?'....

I mean, the only miniority that can associate itself with the X-Men in my opinion are people with Autism.

[elle-kari]

I was suspected to have autism before I was even one year old and diagnosed when I was around three-five years old. I was not originally high functioning (I wasn't low functioning but more somewhere in the middle) but because of all the support and resources that I've been provided with, I am now, but when I become mentally drained, very stressed or very tired I become spaced out, can't articulate or formulate properly, get a lot and sometimes quiet extreme sensory overloads, can barely understand other people, move my body in very "awkward" and weird ways and act more like a young child than a 15 year old (which I am). I would describe it like it's a constant effort to act "normal" and to be able to understand others. So when I don't have enough mental energy to do so I crash. Autism itself is not an illness but more like a different operative system which often leads to (because the world is not designed for autistic people), or goes hand in hand with mental illnesses, learning disabilities and such. The autism spectrum is wide and diverse, and we're all different just like non autistic people are. Also the "tantrums" are often (for a lot of people) because of the extremely frustrating feeling of being miss understood or not understanding, which can feel very isolating. Sorry for the rant😅, I don't even really know what I'm trying to say. I'm extremely talkative and could probably go on about this stuff forever (because I know quite a bit about it). Just support does an amazing difference, high functioning/low functioning is not black and white, don't stereotype 'cause we're all very different, autism is not an illness. (Sorry for my bad English, it's not my native language and I'm very tired)

[muttofanopossum]

I was diagnosed with Aspergers, and I've been told they call it ASD now. No one (other than professionals) believes that I have it, because I am female and I supposedly don't behave like a person with autism. This is why I think they should remain a separate diagnosis. Because they get clumped together a lot, its made it harder for me throughout my school years.

[tinyshiny]

Thanks so much for making this video.
I'd like to comment on a few things:

The DSM5 criteria doesn't have a separate diagnosis for aspergers, so if you have aspergers, it is currently diagnosed as autism.
Also, thanks for mentioning that autism is often accompanied by other conditions such as ADD.The term 'ADD' is not used anymore and if you have what used to be called ADD, it is now classified as ADHD (predominantly inattentive).

Others have already meantioned already, but please do not use 'Autism Speaks' for information about autism.
Additionally, mental health professionals are starting to believe that women were considerably underdiagnosed and that there may even be a 1:1 ratio of male to female autistic individuals. This is because females present different autistic traits than males, but the old criteria was based on the male presentation.

Something important that I didn't see mentioned is that, much like neurotypicals, every autistic person is different and some are able to hide their traits from others. People should not judge an autistic person for not fitting exactly the criteria that they think is required for autism; this can result in the autistic person being forced into doing things they cannot do and so they will shutdown/meltdown.

[sarahharvey]

Statistics don’t show that it affects more boys than girls in fact it affects them both them same but girls are better at disguising it so are harder to diognose

[GiantTabby]

As an autistic person, I'm happy to see a video on autism here. However, please look into sources outside of Autism Speak. I wouldn't mind seeing more informative videos as long as we can look for something more credible.

Anyway, I'll comment on why picking up non-verbal cues is difficult for someone on my end of the spectrum. It's because no one taught me. Without being told the context for body language, you might as well hold up a sign written in gibberish. Same goes for sarcasm and unspoken rules.

But just because I'm not a mind reader, doesn't mean I can't learn. It just means I have to actively remember what those cues are that neurotypicals are fond of.

Side note, I'm not fond of the idea of a "treatment" for autism. Disorder =/= disease. We're not sick, we're just different.

[ladyveon]

I have Aspergers
I am the worst in my class in P.E.
I draw a lot in class and struggle to make friends but I fell comfortable with the friends that I've got.