And sure, I’ll fancy myself Lord Alfred Tennyson instead of Lord Alfred Henry. Maybe it’s time for me to write some poetry. So does King Laurentious, or whoever you fancy yourself to be, have any requests?

I don’t believe in either separating or combining autism and schizophrenia.

Because everything I read shows the label of schizophrenia to be as outdated, based on erroneous assumptions, heterogenous, and meaningless, as labels like “nervous breakdown,” “feeblemindedness,” and “neurasthenia.”

Just because, for instance, multiple sclerosis exists, and has obvious physical signs, doesn’t mean that neurasthenia (which at times encompassed some forms of MS) is a valid category. Just because epilepsy exists doesn’t mean feeblemindedness (which at times encompassed some forms of epilepsy) is a valid category. And just because hallucinations and delusions (and things that seem like them) exist doesn’t mean schizophrenia is a valid category.

I find it difficult to see how anyone could research the history of schizophrenia, including getting into the early case studies it was based on, and believe it’s a meaningful word.

So, I won’t say what being autistic is in relation to schizophrenia, because schizophrenia seems like a desperately held onto mythology that once encompassed autism and only doesn’t now because of historical and political factors, rather than because there’s a thing called “schizophrenia” that was neatly separated off from being autistic at some point in time.

I think the point Larry (and a few others, and me) was making, though, was that so-called inappropriate laughter is only considered a “symptom” when it occurs in a non-standard person. In a standard person, it’s considered a reaction to extreme stress. In a non-standard person, it’s considered pathology or monstrousness. No matter what label that non-standard person wears.

The fact that autism and schizophrenia are not the same thing doesn’t mean they have nothing in common.
And the fact that autistics have been harmed by being misdiagnosed as schizophrenic doesn’t mean we should ignore the similarities.
I once read a book written by a woman who was clearly childhood schizophrenic (as clearly as anyone can be). She was definately not autistic. But reading her story I found that she described traits that are also present in autistics, such as being very sensitive to certain kinds of real stimulation, such as crowds or certain colors or textures.
Both autism and schizophrenia are associated with altered nonverbal signals, taking the form of ‘flat’ and/or ‘innaproriate’ nonverbal signals. Laughing at upsetting things, in our society, would fit that criteria, as well as having one facial expression most of the time, and so on.
There are also some differences, such as the lack of hallucinations and being very logical in autistics as opposed to hallucinations and delusions in schizophrenics.

In both of these scenarios, the actual emotion I’m feeling when laughing is often something much closer to anger– sometimes very intense anger. I’ve had teachers who thought I laughed in an angry and defiant way, although they thought I was doing it just to piss them off. Actually, if I had any conscious motivation for the laughter, it was along the lines of “look, I’m not afraid.” (Which is more what it’s supposed to convey among animals, isn’t it?) The kind of laughter that comes out of me in those situations doesn’t sound a thing like the way I laugh when I actually think something is funny; according to some people who’ve heard it, it sounds like a rather harsh snort or a nervous “heh.”

…although, admittedly, nor am I totally in agreement with the idea that laughter in specific situations constitutes some sort of autie litmus test or crucial autistic/NT difference. (This remark isn’t targeted at anyone in particular, but I had noticed similar sentiments reflected in several of the comments.) I don’t, for instance, laugh when someone is injured or in danger (my first instinct, for some reason, in those situations is to run away, which in other ways is also counterproductive in terms of the potential consequences). Or in various other instances where other auties have described being moved to “inappropriate” laughter. I’m not altogether sure it’s a simple binary matter of following natural instincts versus socially conditioned ones in every case, either (though on the subject of that, I do, yes, have what I know are socially conditioned instincts, so that seems to be another one of the autie litmus tests that I flunk). There’s always a sort of complex interaction between nature and nurture going on, IMO– I can’t always sort out the reflex component of my laughing in certain situations from the conditioning from actual experiences in which it was made clear to me that showing fear would have negative consequences, which probably serves to exaggerate, or add some conscious component to, that initial instinct.

I have strong reactions to seeing animals hurt, but if the animal is a cat, my reaction is so strong and so primal that I’d hate to be in the way of it. There was a group of kids at one group home who figured this out for some reason and pretended to have killed the cat just to see me totally lose it. (They even burned some of their own hair or something to simulate the smell of burned fur.)

I think I could hold a dying hamster now, but when I was younger, no way in hell could I do something like that. I would not even go near an orange washcloth (which is what she died wrapped in) for years, I think I would have still done that except the washcloths eventually got replaced.

I think I’m better about things like that now. At least, when I worked at Wildlife Rescue, I handled sick, injured, dying, and dead birds all the time.

When my neon tetras all got ick and died (they actually came, from the petstore, with ick) I was able to force myself to dispose of the bodies, but I was horrified watching them die. I did watch them die though. And when my betta fish starved himself to death… I couldn’t go near the spot where he’d been for months without freaking out.

Come to think of it, the betta fish died during a time in my life that was very stressful (I was forced out of the building and very briefly onto the street at the same time, and actually wonder if the concrete dust that forced me out of the building was also making him sick), and I bet under stress I’m less able to control my reactions.

I think when my cat and dog die I will be able to hold them though, if they want to be held at the time. I don’t look forward to it, at all, though.

Certainly suffering (anyone’s) has a fairly intense effect on me though. I’ve always been considered “overly sensitive” because of that. (Which might come as news to people who think I’m a heartless bitch, but there you are.)

*sigh* Most NT people seem to be unable to override their social assumptions, or seem to be able to do so only with a great deal of difficulty. Why is this the better state?