Autism, as one of the most complex mental illnesses, has been talked about relatively recently. It would be more accurate to talk about early childhood autism or RDA, since developmental disabilities, which are expressed in the totality of autistic features and, under certain circumstances, add up to a disease, appear precisely in early childhood. There is no cure for autism, just like there is no cure for schizophrenia. In addition, the mechanism of its occurrence has not yet been studied .. This, perhaps, is where the main similarities between the two diseases end … And yet, autists are often considered schizophrenics and vice versa. Why?
It’s all in the brain
It has been proven that autistics have a completely unusual brain, and this unusualness manifests itself at the neural level. There are an order of magnitude more nerve cells in such a brain, but there are an order of magnitude fewer “long” neural connections that are responsible for generalizing information.
Just like schizophrenia, autism can be severe when a person is completely unaware of himself in society, unable to be a full-fledged unit of it. Or it can be completely different — a disease that retains intelligence and allows the carrier to independently adapt in society. In this case, it is more correct to speak of Asperger’s syndrome as a functional form of autism.
Having succumbed to cinematic images that broadcast autism as a disease similar to dementia, many do not even realize that real autists successfully live and work next to them. However, as mentioned earlier, autism has several different forms and yes, there are those in which mental abilities, on the contrary, are reduced. Unfortunately, those who suffer from a severe form of autism, as well as people with a severe degree of schizophrenia, are not able not only to receive basic knowledge, they do not even take root in society.
The hardest part is communication
In communicating with a schizophrenic, the most difficult thing is the partial or complete loss of the interlocutor from reality, the inappropriateness of his reactions, fixation on certain ideas. Autistic people experience even greater difficulties in communication:
- they do not understand the context of the conversation at all;
- it is incredibly difficult for them to correctly interpret the emotions of the interlocutor;
- autistic people do not perceive non-verbal cues or do not associate them with the situation;
- perceiving the details, they cannot see the whole that these details constitute;
- confusion and fear are constant companions of autists in society.
hypersensitivity and chaos
Like people who suffer from migraines, autistic people simply cannot stand harsh sounds and shy away from sudden touches. The pace of life and its saturation do not add up to them in a single picture, they form a chaotic flicker. In order to streamline the surrounding reality, autistics follow the rituals they have chosen with particular pedantry, for example, they try to put the dishes in a strictly defined place, eat only at a certain period of time, put food on a plate in a strictly defined order. In this, autism is somewhat similar to OCD.
The modern world is more supportive of autists, because their consistency and pedantry can become excellent working qualities. In addition, autists simply do not know how to evade and lie. But with enviable persistence, they plunge into solving complex problems, without being distracted by external stimuli. Such people can make an excellent career in IT or become the authors of a unique artistic style. Their productivity and efficiency perfectly compensate for the inability to communicate.