Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / Autism Spectrum Why the ‘Levels’ System Gets It All Wrong

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Autism Spectrum Why the ‘Levels’ System Gets It All Wrong · Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD

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  Hey guys, in this video me and Marla are going to be discussing
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  what's beyond the autism levels. There's a lot of information out
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  there and some of it is useless, outdated, and actually frankly,
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  some of it's missing. Hey guys, welcome back to the
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  Asky world. My name is Dan and this is
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  Marla, a service dog for autism. She's just a pup, so I thought
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  I'd welcome her to the channel so you guys can see what she's
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  like and she may just be goofing about because puppies do.
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  Now guys, what I wanted to discuss in this video is because
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  there are many different types of diagnostic criteria for
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  autism in terms of you can get autism inspection.
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  So the level 1, level 2, Level 3 Asperger's syndrome, which is
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  not really used that often anymore, but also there's ADHD,
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  OCD, there's very different bits within that and it all becomes
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  quite confusing. Now.
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  Some of the levels actually are failing is because the level
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  model of saying 1-2 or three doesn't actually fit everybody.
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  And what this means is a level 1 autistic individual could be
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  someone who was displaying things like they hold down a
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  job, they have a relationship, they don't struggle with many
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  difficulties, but they do have social interaction impairments
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  and they qualify for autism spectrum and disorder diagnosis.
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  Right. However, the diagnostic criteria
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  for autism spectrum sort of level 2 would be somebody who
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  has a bit more high support needs.
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  They're still able to converse, talk verbally, explain
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  themselves. The problem they have is that
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  they also have higher needs where they may not be able to
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  use social communication that well.
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  They may be having difficulties in, you know, they may have to
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  take medication. They may have other comorbids
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  like Co occur alongside autism, could have other issues and
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  mental health issues. And so we categorize autistic
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  individuals diagnosis into those three spots.
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  So Level 3 would be someone who, you know, verbally non
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  commutative, umm, struggles intensely with executive
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  dysfunction. You know, maybe they don't know
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  how to go to the bathroom on their own.
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  Maybe they need 24 hour support, supervision, high medication for
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  a comorbid, another Co occurring diseases or issues.
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  Now, the other thing to think about here, and This is why I
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  think these levels are kind of failing us, especially doctors.
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  What I what I think about this is that there are factions
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  between that you can have someone who, who displays traits
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  of autism spectrum solar level 1 and level 2, but doesn't really
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  fit into each of those categories.
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  So they'd be in the middle. And I have this with my stepson,
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  you know, he fits kind of in the middle.
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  And then you could have somebody who is like an autism spectrum,
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  solar level 2 diagnosis, but they also are displaying really
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  high needs, like a Level 3 autism diagnosis, even though
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  they don't have a diagnosis of Level 3.
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  So it's kind of somewhere in between the middle.
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  What I found is that these levels are oversimplification of
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  the diagnosis process. And I understand why because we
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  have to categorize people into some areas, but actually beyond
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  that, we don't look at what implications are happening to
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  that person. Like one of the biggest
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  struggles I have as AI was diagnosed with Asperger
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  syndrome, which is a level 1 diagnosis.
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  But then I had a RE evaluation and I said I had a level 2
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  autism right when I had a RE autism evaluation, which is
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  weird because then I'm somewhere between one and two guys.
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  I've been using an app to organise my life called
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  Trustworthy. And it's an amazing app.
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  Now Trustworthy is an app that you can download that you can
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  store your passwords, you can, you can upload documents to it,
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  legal documents to it, driver's licenses, have reminders,
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  birthdays, everything you need. It's kind of like the family
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  operating system. And I love it, right?
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  Because it reminds me when people's birthdays are.
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  It reminds me that I do have car insurance numbers only to buy it
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  twice because my audio HD brain goes crazy.
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  So if you're interested in checking out Trustworthy, go to
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  the link in my bio and the description down below to check
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  out Trustworthy. If I'm somewhere between 1:00
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  and 2:00, then where does that leave me?
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  I'm simple things like this. One of the biggest struggles I
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  have is OCD, but not routines and rituals.
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  Like I say, people love routines and rituals, right?
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  But the OCD part of it kicks my butt.
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  And so I know you relate to this.
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  Like if you guys have really bad OCD, let me know in the comments
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  down below and say, Ma, I have OCD.
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  That's what kind of really think you think about it.
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  You say what, what's 1 of the biggest things that impairs you?
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  OK, we all know that we all struggle with social
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  interactions. But hey, OCD also kicks my butt
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  on a crazy level, right? And so this kind of goes into
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  the other realms of the kind of like that mislabeling, this
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  misrepresentation when people don't know, like they say, I'm a
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  lot of inspections sort of level 1.
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  What does that mean? People don't even know.
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  People don't know what this means, you know, unless you're a
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  clinical psychologist, you don't know what I mean.
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  So you say I have autism. And when you say you have
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  autism, people are like, oh, well, I don't understand how you
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  like autism. When I see Level 3 autistics,
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  you know, and it's really interesting because then they
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  say, you know, people will say, oh, you're not high functioning,
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  right? What is it?
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  What is it? You know, you're just masking or
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  whatever. Now look, there are hidden costs
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  of appearing OK or normal to the outside world, right?
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  And the costs involved with this are very simple.
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  So Miles, taking a quick break, the cost involved, very, very
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  simple. If someone thinks that you're
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  normal or you're dealing OK, you get treated as if everything is
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  fine and that you don't have additional accommodations, even
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  though they don't understand what masking is.
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  So it's again above the levels. So when you have a level 1
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  autistic, level 2 autistic, and when masking or basically
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  masking is kind of pretending to be a character that we can deal
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  with in a real life situation that would normally cause such
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  distress in many other people, then the masking actually causes
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  other people to just dismiss our needs and our additional help
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  that we may need, right. And by saying this, a lot of
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  people say, well, you know, you're high functioning, but
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  what the hell does that even mean?
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  You know, there, there is no, because we are low functioning
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  in other areas, right? And those are kind of derivative
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  terms that people don't really use that much anymore.
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  But with emotional and physical tolls on an autistic person,
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  masking is kind of one of the bad guys.
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  Now. I talk about this a lot and how
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  you can help overcoming the the issues.
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  Because think about this, right? Masking.
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  If you're masking all the time and you suddenly stop masking
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  and people turn away from you, this may give you a negative
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  impact of being your true self. And we all want to be our true
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  self. Why wouldn't we want to be our
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  true self? So you could be masking and then
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  somebody says to you, oh, hey, you're different lately.
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  And you're yeah, you know, I'm stop masking or pretending to be
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  somebody. I'm not just a fit in.
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  I'm actually me. I'm who I am.
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  And then a certain friend says I'm out.
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  You know, you're not, you're not the person I thought you were.
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  What the heck is going on in this instance, in that protocol,
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  that means that those people don't know who you are.
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  And then you get to feel, Oh no, no, I shouldn't be who I am and
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  you forget who you are. This is terrible and it
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  diminishes confidence. Now, I talk about this
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  exclusively in one of my programmes, but if you want
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  access to learning more about that, specifically if you just
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  go to the link down in my bio or if you go to the link in the
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  description and download the Bulletproof Brain for Autistic
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  Individuals PDF starter Kit. There's a free download there
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  where it just helps you to kind of like really build confidence
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  in the inside out, which is why this happens, right?
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  So you can definitely go check that out.
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  And so we we think about this, right?
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  Think about it. Autism isn't basically a
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  straight line. And it also is a spectrum kind
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  of, but it's not a spectrum like a rainbow.
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  It's a spectrum like a speckles everywhere, right?
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  Small speckles, big speckles. Imagine having, you know, semi
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  circle on screen and then you get paint on a paintbrush and
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  you sprinkle it everywhere. There'll be big blobs, small
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  blobs. This is also the spectrum.
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  Sometimes it'll be big, sometimes it'll be small,
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  sometimes the user profile will be different.
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  You know, we are all individuals whilst being under the umbrella
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  of being autistic, having a neurodivergent brain type.
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  And I think this is fascinating because it covers all things
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  like, you know, fluctuating support needs.
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  Sometimes you could have someone who's hypersensitive to
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  something and hypersensitive to other things, but in the same
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  person, it's more complex. We keep simplifying autism when
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  it's actually way more complex than we typically give it credit
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  for, which is why I think that a lot of therapy and a lot of like
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  the support we have come from people who are clinical
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  psychologists or professionals or not autistic individuals
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  hunts why I coach no one alone, all right?
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  I run programs on my website. Autism has many things that come
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  with it, you know, like sensory processing differences,
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  executive dysfunction, executive function.
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  Some autistic individuals could be great with mechanics or
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  mathematics, but then terrible at making sandwiches.
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  There are so many factional different pieces within him.
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  We have to look at the autistic individual as an individual,
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  right? And the neurodiversity, the,
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  the, the levels of having neurodiversity could, could
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  range, right? And so again, like it's, it is a
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  spectrum, but it's, it's a speckled spectrum.
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  I'm going to try and paint this picture and put it on here.
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  I'm not sure how I'll do it, but I will.
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  And so if you, if you just categorize everyone to those 3
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  pains, like 1-2 and three, you'll never understand how to
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  support those people. What we should be doing is
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  looking at the person individually and saying, OK,
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  they have this diagnosis, which is your basic guideline of a
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  level 1, level 2 and then saying what are the five main support
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  categories within this diagnostic criteria?
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  That's going to change the game. Now I want to hear from you
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  guys. This is this is true.
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  I I want to know your thoughts on it.
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  What are your opinions? Level 1-2 and three are these
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  old? Are they gone?
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  What what's the difference these days?
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  I'm clueless like we need to re look at the diagnostic ideas,
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  the levels of autism and really think about it.
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  Faction those off, make them more for the person.
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  Comment down below, I want to check it.
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  Read it and I'll respond to every single comment.