How treatable, in general, is high-functioning autism spectrum disorder?

[IonClaws]

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[SeniorWrangler]

There’s no specific treatment for autism, just for related symptoms.

 

[Sikrouf]

This may over simplified but I never really grasped the concept of "high fonctioning" mental illness, is it even worth attention from a psychiatrist to begin with?

If people are well fonctionning I send them to someone else tbh, there is enough work to do with low functioning people

 

[smalltownpsych]

Psychotherapy can be helpful. I have worked with a lot of people with marked social and/or emotional difficulties. Not all therapists are good at working with this population though. I think it is helpful if the therapist understands the obsession with technical stuff or information that is so often a feature of the “high functioning autism” type of person. I would joke with some of my clients that I am an honorary member of the left brain club and that I could act like a translator for them. Put another way, some therapists just really aren’t that smart and/or don’t use logic. Someone who is more spectrumy is going to need someone who can logically explain social and emotional stuff in a very detailed fashion. Therapist that can’t will feel frustrating and annoying to the person on the spectrum and those that can will make them feel better because because connecting those dots is what they want to do.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

Someone who is more spectrumy is going to need someone who can logically explain social and emotional stuff in a very detailed fashion. Therapist that can’t will feel frustrating and annoying to the person on the spectrum and those that can will make them feel better because because connecting those dots is what they want to do.

Definitely. I wish I could find more psychotherapists that were good at this. A lot of level 1 ASD patients basically just need someone to take the time to be a social translator for them, do some social skills training/experiments, and work on a theory of mind for other people. Many can be very functional at school and work but the social stuff gets in their way because they aren't a very "likable" co-worker. Actually some speech pathologists get some decent training in this because they work with patients who have social pragmatic communication difficulties but I wish I had go to psychotherapists for this.

 

[WisNeuro]

Definitely. I wish I could find more psychotherapists that were good at this. A lot of level 1 ASD patients basically just need someone to take the time to be a social translator for them, do some social skills training/experiments, and work on a theory of mind for other people. Many can be very functional at school and work but the social stuff gets in their way because they aren't a very "likable" co-worker. Actually some speech pathologists get some decent training in this because they work with patients who have social pragmatic communication difficulties but I wish I had go to psychotherapists for this.

Third-party reimbursement in this area is an underpaid, convoluted mess. Likely keeps a lot of decent therapists out of the area.

 

[deleted1100659]

what are we treating them for exactly? this is a very broad question that needs more context