To think you actually *can* be a bit...

[gringlewalden]

Autistic
OCD
ADHD

and a whole load of others?

I know people will often (angrily) declare that you can't be 'a bit' autistic, OCD etc, they're very serious diagnoses, you either are or you aren't etc etc.

However

The diagnostic criteria are made up of lists of indicators. You fulfil a certain number of these, you get the diagnosis.

So if the diagnosis is based on fulfilling, say, 25 of the criteria, and you fulfil 20, would it not be fair enough to say you are 'more' autistic that someone who fulfils 5?

Is it not the nature of all spectrums, that everyone must fall somewhere on them?**

You're probably right op

Well it's a spectrum but no, not everyone is on it.

Autistic Spectrum isn't linear, so no, it's not a case of "less" or "more".

I think it pisses people off more because these "I'm a bit..." people choose the convenient parts, which then minimises the difficulties others have. They want the sympathy/attention with none of the struggle.

You can't be "a bit obsessive compulsive disorder" that doesn't make sense

Personalities are so nuanced, you're probably right Op.

I have problems with anxiety and emotional regulation- but I'm not chasing an adhd diagnosis.

Everyone has something - no one is perfect.

It's like saying sometimes I skip breakfast so I sometimes have anorexia isn't it? OCD is debilitating, so me having stress in my stomach when I see the kids mix play doh Colours or not lining the markers by rainbow isn't a big OCD. People don't say they're a bit alcoholic because they get drunk once a month. I think that's the bigger issue- that it's minimising the diagnosis.

As InTheShallow.... said whilst many people may have traits they don't have the difficulties and support needs.
I have 2 kids...one diagnosed autistic and attends specialist school. One who could be described as "a bit autistic" with his desire to learn pi to as many decimal places as possible, his photographic memory and ever changing special interests. However, kid 2 has no difficulties making friends, communicating with others and doesn't have crippling anxiety, sleep disorder and rigidity of thought.

Yes and you can say I'm a bit arthritic if your hands feel stiff or a bit ocd if you like a tidy rooms or a bit cystic fibrosis if u have a chesty cough.

It's a dick move because it simplifies the significance of suffering people go through. It normalises it which implies people with those conditions should be on with it because people without those conditions manage

YABU

OCD for example...yes most people have obsessions and compulsions and intrusive thoughts, but what makes these things a disorder (the D bit of OCD) is when these things become completely debilitating.
So whilst you may have obsessions and compulsions, you most certainly don't have OCD or 'a bit of OCD'.

Although autism and AD(H)D are often described as being on a spectrum, OCD definitely isn't. It's obsessive compulsive disorder. The subject of people's obsessive thoughts or compulsive behaviours will vary, but it is classed as an illness. The diagnosis is based on the fact that the uncontrollable compulsion (the behaviour - such as cleaning, counting things etc.) takes a significant proportion of time, and that doing it is resulting from obsessive thoughts. You either have the disorder or not. You can't be OCD, you have OCD. And you can't have a bit of a disorder.

I think it's a very complex issue. On one hand you can have traits but not meet full criteria, and there is an issue where people who fall just outside the criteria but still have some difficulties then can't access supports (i would say this is more a problem with the medical model and diagnosis based support system) but on the other hand to meet criteria you have to have impairment, and I think it's difficult for people who are impaired when people who aren't either talk about it as if they are in the same position, or fill up waiting lists for assessment/treatment just because they feel they are a bit "quirky" and want to know out of interest. I think the OCD one is particularly difficult as people really don't understand it, people who are just very clean/like cleaning think that is OCD but it's not at all, OCD is one of the most distressing and impairing disorders there is and is often not related to cleanliness at all.

You could have "well managed OCD" but no you can't be "a bit ocd"

It's not linear, it's more like a wheel. You can recognise traits but unless most of your spokes are affected so the whole wheel works differently in you'll still be driving relatively easily.

So people are just rude or bloody minded, difficult or awkward as that's what people are as a species?

Discuss....

That's the thing though, surely you actually can have a bit of a disorder?

To use the alcoholic example someone used

You can need three glasses of wine every night and get very anxious if you can't

You can also drink 2 bottles vodka a day and be completely incapable of looking after yourself

Probably both alcoholic, one probably a 'bit more alcoholic'

Which is shorthand for more 'more adversely affected by the condition'

The spectrum doesn't mean a spectrum of everyone from neuro typical to neuro diverse, it is a spectrum of autism, neuro diversity, so you are only part of the spectrum if you are ND

I think you can have some of the traits that are part of autism, OCD, ADHD etc. but having those traits doesn’t make you ‘a little bit autistic’. It means you have some traits.

I have autism and OCD and for autism, the spectrum isn’t a linear one, and I do not believe that everyone falls on to it. My parents have some similar traits to me. It doesn’t make them autistic, though, because they don’t meet the criteria for diagnosis.

Similarly, I have some traits often associated with an eating disorder, but I don’t have an eating disorder.

It annoys me much more when people say they are ‘a bit OCD’, possibly because it’s very common to say this. Lives are taken over and destroyed by OCD and the associated compulsions, intrusive thoughts, etc. You don’t have it if your only symptom is liking lines on your carpet and the kitchen to be spotless all the time. This means you are a tidy, clean person! It’s insulting to compare this to the trauma of OCD.

Me and my best friend were told we were eccentric in our 20s. She actually had a drink problem and was either schizophrenic or bipolar. But both didn’t come out for a few years.

Do most people have obsessions, compulsions and intrusive thoughts??
I have ptsd from childhood trauma so I do have obsessions and intrusive thoughts. I find it hard to believe "most" people have these things though

Am only really commenting on OCD.

The phrase 'I'm a bit OCD" doesn't really make 'proper' sense. I think the spirit in which it's used can be true though. I have traits of OCD now and definitely did as a teenager, compared with people who I know who don't have these at all. I dont feel that strongly about it but personally I wouldn't use the term as I think it trivialises how completely debilitating it can be for some people.

People misunderstand the word "spectrum" in autism to think that it is a spectrum from "less autistic" to "more autistic". It's actually a spectrum of the areas in which you are affected (sensory, motor skills, language etc).

No, i dont think you can be a little bit autistic because the spectrum in autism doesnt mean gradient of mild to severe.

It means there are a variety in the type of symptoms. But the symptoms have to be across the 'triad' of impairments and have to limit and impair daily function.

You are talking about severity, there.

Not 'a bit of a disorder'

Which is either officially assessed and diagnosed, or not.

Fuck, give me strength.

well autism is a spectrum
previously it was severe autism, or rather non verbal autism