why autism isn’t considered a personality disorder?

Question

i’ve been reading about personality disorders and I feel like a lot of the symptoms fit autism as well. both have a rigid and “unhealthy” patterns of thinking, functioning and behaving, troubles perceiving and relating to situations and people, the early age of onset, both are pernament

In: 1195

Answer 1

Short version:

For people with autism spectrum disorder, negative symptoms and issues come from differences in brain chemistry and development, which COULD totally impact your personality, as a sort of downstream effect, but don’t have to. For people with personality disorders, their distinct, inflexible personalities ARE the root cause of the problems.

Long version:

People with ASD absolutely can be irritable, rigid in their unique thought patterns, and have difficulty relating to others. But this is likely due to the way they sense and process the world around them, and how that is more taxing and stressful than it is for non-autistic people. They may also have a long history of poor treatment from others, which has impacted their outlook on the world. If you were to teach this person coping skills, educate their family about the nature of the disorder, and make sure they have appropriate accommodations for work/school, you might see an improvement in their mood and increased interpersonal effectiveness. Essentially, their personality was never the real problem.

Personality disorders are a complicated and occasionally controversial subject in psychology, and they are harder to explain and understand than other disorders. In our case, let’s imagine a similar situation to above: taking a person with a diagnosed personality disorder, doing specialized therapy, educating family members, and getting accommodations. In this case, you would NOT generally expect improved mood and increased interpersonal effectiveness, at least not without years of work. This is because the personality is the source of the negative symptoms. You can change their surroundings all you like, but at the end of they day they will always approach new situations and relationships in the same problematic ways.

Think about your own life. Could you will yourself to be extroverted? Pessimistic? Trusting? Charming? Do you think a therapist would help much, if at all? Is this even something that would occur to a person to do, or is it something that you have to be told? All tough questions, and that’s what makes personality disorders different from other kinds, ASD included.