by Homeless Halo » Tue Oct 18, 2005 3:58 am
Perhaps I'm being too imprecise.<br><br>My "condition" is called Asperger's syndrome. That is, symptomatically I can be diagnosed with this disorder, via several behavioral effects and/or physical effects. The problem is that no one agrees on what exactly Autism is or its cause (one of the original listed symptoms was "oddness"), and this confusion extends to subsets of Autism, including Aperger's syndrome. There are no clear lines as to what is what. <br><br>In my particular case, I also have Pituitary malfunction, throwing off my entire endocrine system and is regulatory tasks which alters brain chemistry from normal, and I also have several, perhaps unrelated brain abnormalities. Which means, in my case, it is difficult to say which symptoms are caused by what, and indeed, whether "cause" is even the right word, as the feedback mechanisms mean they're all interrelated.<br><br>Testing for various autisms have used all sorts of therapies including everything from soft conditioning (behavioral therapies, like a lot of OCD people receive) to a variety of drug treatments (everything from SSRIs to Opiates to Stimulants), all of which work on some and not on others, leading to further confusion. In my own opinion, I think we're talking about an approaching infinite variety of similar disorders which won't be clearly understood until the advent of neuronal level mapping, which is, optimistically, still fifteen/twenty years out of our grasp.<br><br>Given that there are no universal "symptoms" or "treatments", I don't think this is the same thing in all cases, and cases like mine, which could include multiple problems, only tend to confuse the research further.<br><br>Some of my problems are "autism", some are "glandular hormonal shifts", some are "other". Which are which, no one can say at present.<br><br>Maybe someday.<br><br>Sorry for the muddiness, if this is still unclear, I can attempt to remedy this as best as possible, but my own knowledge is limited, as I'd have to be a MD to understand half of it completely.<br><br><br> <p></p><i></i>