this post was submitted on 28 May 2026
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Autism
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I believe that there should be way more than 2 conditions which are currently just called autism. You seem to have one, my son is non-verbal and physically unable to complete basic tasks like eating a bowl of cereal, others feel uncomfortable if someone touches their face, others need to constantly fidgit, some require music to feel comfortable, some are obsessed over a certain topic like boats or trains or Lego or whatever. All are currently "autism" but don't seem to be related. I wish they got rid of the "spectrum"and studied the separate types as separate conditions.
My neice is non-verbal. I'm on "the spectrum". It's not the same. Plenty of overlaps, but it's not the same. I appreciate awareness for the topic at all, but also hope it doesn't detract from treating the most serious symptoms
Exactly. They are different and should not be "autism". Technically my kid is not non-verbal but limited to one or two words, like if he wants to watch blue's clues he'll just say blue or if he's hungry he will just say yum yum.
I'm not a doctor but you and your niece have different conditions and likely have different causes and potentially different treatments. We should eliminate the word autism and separate it into like 5 or 10 different conditions and study them separately.
My sympathy and respect for your situation, and your son's.
Right?, it's not at all the same thing. Non-verbal and academically good with bad socialization are totally different in needs. There is a line through both conditions, and it could be useful in helping both, but making it seem like it's just a smeared out spectrum from bad to good does no-one any favors.
Agreed. I feel like if we separate them doctors and scientists could study causes and care more effectively. What you need is totally different from my son, why are they combined? Yes the common cold, the flu and TB all result in coughing but don't have the same treatment. They seem more related then "autism".
The difficulty of diagnosing autism shows this. If you get strep throat, take a test and it's either positive or negative. No one can say "yeah, it says I don't have strep throat but..."
I think this misunderstands illnesses in general and is low-key dismissive of mental health issues.
One of your sons care is different for the same reason ones might be different if they both had flu but were suffering different severities of it. One might just need some bed rest, while the other could end up in hospital on a ventilator if their case is more severe. That ventilator won't particularly help the one that needs bed rest, but is necessary for the other.
The difficulty in diagnosing is pretty inherent to mental health in general - where's the cut off for depression, when one person is just numb to the world and another is constantly breaking down and trying to kill themselves? What about anxiety, where one person could freeze up a bit in social situations while another starts panicking as soon as they step outside? They're still interfering with your life, just to different degrees.
I'm not dismissing mental health care. Mental health is very important and as a society we don't put enough into treating/helping/improving it.
Like your depression example, should they be in the same bucket? Now as a layman, my understanding is they are due to low levels of serotonin being absorbed before re-uptake. So they have a common cause and treating that cause will probably help both parties. If there is a different cause like insufficient serotonin creation that should be treated differently.
If we took a trial of a new treatment it may only help those with low serotonin creation but with both groups in the bucket it may be deemed ineffective since the group it helps in such a low percentage of "depression".
All of these conditions affect your life, all should be cared for, studied,treated etc. Yes they are serious.