Head Injury or Autism?

[Mumble]

I'm having a bit of a wibble moment and could do with some reassurance (or someone just to slap me and tell me to stop wibbling! ). It came up in relation to something in another thread, but I thought it best to keep the issues separate.

 

I was diagnosed with Autism by a very respected clinical psychologist over 4 years ago. However, it's a developmental disorder which means I've always had it, right...?

 

Eight years ago I had a really severe head injury; I was in hospital in a coma and on life-support for a month and I have 3 months of my life I have no memory of. I know that this injury changed me; I 'snap' quicker than I did before, my thresholds for tolerating things - particularly sensory overload - seem lower, and it is believed to be the cause of or contributory to neurological medical issues I have. The doctors obviously think it's important as it's mentioned whenever they give an overview of my medical history.

 

I guess my wibble is this: what if all my current issues are by-products of the head-injury? What if I don't have ASD at all? If they present similarly, as has been said elsewhere, how can someone say what the issues are due to? The people who referred me for assessment only knew me after my head-injury so what if what they saw was due to that and not ASD at all? That would explain why no-one picked up on the issues in my earlier life, wouldn't it? I've felt less and less 'like' the majority of other people I've come across with ASDs recently, and I've been questionning where I fit. What if this explains why I don't fit?

[baddad]

I'm having a bit of a wibble moment and could do with some reassurance (or someone just to slap me and tell me to stop wibbling! ). It came up in relation to something in another thread, but I thought it best to keep the issues separate.

 

I was diagnosed with Autism by a very respected clinical psychologist over 4 years ago. However, it's a developmental disorder which means I've always had it, right...?

 

Eight years ago I had a really severe head injury; I was in hospital in a coma and on life-support for a month and I have 3 months of my life I have no memory of. I know that this injury changed me; I 'snap' quicker than I did before, my thresholds for tolerating things - particularly sensory overload - seem lower, and it is believed to be the cause of or contributory to neurological medical issues I have. The doctors obviously think it's important as it's mentioned whenever they give an overview of my medical history.

 

I guess my wibble is this: what if all my current issues are by-products of the head-injury? What if I don't have ASD at all? If they present similarly, as has been said elsewhere, how can someone say what the issues are due to? The people who referred me for assessment only knew me after my head-injury so what if what they saw was due to that and not ASD at all? That would explain why no-one picked up on the issues in my earlier life, wouldn't it? I've felt less and less 'like' the majority of other people I've come across with ASDs recently, and I've been questionning where I fit. What if this explains why I don't fit?

 

Hi mumble -

 

In the nicest way possible, I think it's a waste of a wibble! I'm not sure of the complexities of severe head injury/coma induced autistic behaviours as distinct from developmental ones, but assume that in terms of brain functioning/compromises the same areas are affected? I think the most important thing is how 'needs' are identified and responded to, and looked at holistically the actual 'cause' of the autistic behaviours is to some degree irrelevant(?) In terms of behavioural changes ('snapping', 'less tolerant' etc)I think all sorts of things can affect that, and those things could be complex issues like your head injury or less complex ones like getting older (I've certainly got less tolerant/more bl00dy-minded over the years, and the only way that's Autism related is that looking after Ben has made me less inclined to put up with other people's cr*p because I've got better things to do and less time to do 'em!)... Another example I'm sure many people will be able to identify with is friends/family members who have had nervous breakdowns. They may come out the other side of a breakdown relatively unscathed, but for better or worse they rarely come out of it unchanged.

Of course, I can appreciate why you might want to 'know' but when all is said and done you're still just 'you' - and autistic people are every bit as diverse in their psychologies, motivations, behaviours, feelings and responses as any other group, including NT's! That you don't sem to be 'like' other autistic people is no different to all them NT peeps who think they're not 'like' other NT's! Simple answer is they're not, But that doesn't make them 'not NT' any more than the fact that every zebra has different stipes makes them not Zebras.

 

Hope that's helpful

 

L&P

 

BD

[Lynden]

My Mum had a severe brain haemorrhage almost 15 years ago when she was only 46. She was a teacher, heavily involved in the community, spoke 4 languages etc. She was hospitalised for 6 months and was pretty much out of it for the first month - we didn't know if she would make it or not. She was completely paralysed down her right side and lost her speech. She had really intensive therapy for years and now is fairly mobile though needs a wheelchair for long distance, and can't use her right arm at all. She also has epilepsy as a result and can't drive anymore so isn't as independent.

 

She is markedly different since, and a lot of the difficulties she has now are similar to some that my son L might have. She can't take a message on the phone and write it down at the same time for example, her brain can't process the two things at once. She is definitely different in temperament - she's a lot more critical than she ever was before and can't always find the right words easily so things come out differently than she means and, because of that she, is very blunt and can offend people. She struggles with noises, can't filter noises, or many people in a group conversation for example and she uses a coloured overlay now to help her read more easily.

 

All of these are as a direct result of her brain injury. Many of these things are seen in people with ASD, however she is definitely not autistic. As BD says, the specialists should be able to differentiate between what is as a result of your brain injury and what is down to the ASD.

 

I'm sorry you are having a wibble though ((hugs)).

 

Lynne

[mark2]

Id go with the psychologisty Mumble...were all saying that?

 

Would it would be me that brought in this post-injury 'recoverable autism' idea? In which case Im SO sorry... but if so scrap it. Its a psychologist trying to roughly explain something to me...and in fact she did say this is very rough idea dont quote me (lots of shame) I forgot that and have...and if it was me...then now were in this mess! Grr!).

 

I think bd is right.

 

And there are differences between us... you were out longer than me...nine days for me... but I died and oxygen loss got to my brain. Different? I had a substantial level of short term mem injury (25% which is more than it sounds they say) and effects which you seem to have been spared thankfully...8 years on I couldnt communicate like you do....my adjustment prognosis was 18 years

 

And this (junior)psychologist...who was only doing an FSIQ test...seems to have got it wrong in thinking what she was seeing was a temporary thing. ( my injury is clearing and I can remember that as a child I was substantially the way I am now mentally) So thats a big difference. Rather different to your skilled diagnosis?

 

So everythings saying your diagnosis is probably correct it seems here.

 

And btw (side issue)...re your study thread... I had a £1.5k computer/software bought for degree course and was over impressed. Did I deserve it?... etc. But it became obsolete pdq whilst my disabilities are with me for life. So no guilt? It needs firmly seeing as just a temporary attempt to rebalance things for you.

[Tally]

Given how difficult it is for adults with autism to get a diagnosis, I think given you have one it will have been very thorough with checks as to whether something else might explain your difficulties.

 

You have mentioned on the forum about ASD-related difficulties you've had going back into childhood, long before this accident. You wouldn't be the first person to get to adulthood undiagnosed!

 

I know what you mean about feeling unlike other autistic people. I have found this too. Do you mean autistic people you have come across on the internet? Because people can come across very differently face-to-face. Also because you are female I think this makes a big difference, my experience has been that females with AS are very different to males and less like a stereotypical autistic person.

[charlotte]

do you have any living family or friends around how could tell what you were like before the head injury?

[coolblue]

'Autism' is a label for a bunch of symptoms. It is a medical 'condition' only in the sense that it is a label for similar symptoms shown by some people. It isn't a medical condition in the sense that it has clear-cut origins, pathway or outcomes.

 

Some people's autism is probably caused by the way their brain tissue has developed. Some people's autism is probably caused by the way information is processed in the brain. Some people's autism is associated with one or more of 60 medical conditions. Some people could have autism because of brain damage.

 

As baddad says, it doesn't really matter how your symptoms are caused. It would matter if anyone could do anything about either the developmental causes of your symptoms, or the ones caused by being in a coma, but as far as I am aware, they can't. If you were diagnosed by someone who knew what they were doing, they would have asked about your developmental history, because that's a factor in the diagnosis. Stop wibbling.

 

cb

[bid]

Mumbley...we are, all of us, the sum total of everything that has happened to us to date.

 

I think you should have every confidence in the professionals who diagnosed you.

 

And, lets face it, who put industrial strength sparkly nail varnish on her tootsies, eh??!!

 

Bid <'>

[GaryS]

I hope the wibble is over now!

 

I don't think so Mumble, although there may well be an effect on how your brain functions after the injury, any similarities would probably be due to the systems being affected and then presenting some of the observable effects. If we accept that there are three effects of "autism" on neurophysiology; Neurochemistry, Neuroanatomy and Neuromorphology - the interrelation of each of these providing the subtle variants we see in the spectrum. There are many other internal and external factors which can mess with the function of the system as a whole which may present as some AS like symptoms. I'd disagree with coolblue as I think more than "simple" anatomical changes are required to create an autistic individual.

 

I'm often short tempered, intolerant and hypersensory depending on my sugar level, both high and low. As BD says this may also be a simple consequence of getting older (grumpy old people). I'm aware of an individual that presents with quite severe dyspraxia a short time after epileptic seizures but otherwise has quite fine motor control.

 

So anecdotally I'd say it's unlikely and it doesn't make much logical sense to me either. Considering the number of head injuries that have occurred over the years I think there would be some form of definitive link made by now!

 

 

I know what you mean about feeling unlike other autistic people. I have found this too. Do you mean autistic people you have come across on the internet? Because people can come across very differently face-to-face. Also because you are female I think this makes a big difference, my experience has been that females with AS are very different to males and less like a stereotypical autistic person.

 

I agree that it is wrong to equate perception of an individual on the Internet with what those people are really like as they can project so many different persona's therefore impossible to judge if you're the same or not. It's also interesting that you make that distinction on sex as my own belief is that there is a large involvement with the X chromosome in Autism (but not exclusive). I think that the perceived frequency biased towards males is only due to the observability of the autistic traits governed by genes on this chromosome; females having the same changes on one will be offset by their other X. This of course also being the main cause of the incorrect association between mental retardation and autism due to Fragile X.

[mark2]

Well... thats it in words then?

[Mumble]

Thank you everyone for de-wibbling me <'> (well the chocolate helped too... ).

 

I think what you all say makes sense; I suppose the 'cause' doesn't matter as much and yes, the behaviours were definitely there throughout my life, and everything was gone through very thoroughly both when I had my dx and with the various people I had to see before I got that far.

 

I was just having one of those nagging doubts moments and it fitted my current worry (gotta have something to worry about... ) of not feeling I fit, though I think you might be right Tally in terms of the people I have come across. Maybe there's a whole flock of Mumbles somewhere, and I just have to find them. As for being a zebra, well I feel more like a zedonk!

 

And Bid, you should see the latest tootsie creation - I'm preparing for the Royal Wedding!!!