About Asperger’s Syndrome: the Highest Mental Illness on the Autism Spectrum

Autism is a mental illness that affects the ability for people to develop social skills and to be able to form relationships. It typically develops in early childhood. Just like every other mental illness, there is a spectrum ranging in how serve the mentally illness is. There are many different kinds of Autism. Asperger's Syndrome is the highest mental illness on the Autism Spectrum. The highest end of the spectrum meaning the least severe.

People may not even get diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome until later years into high school and college because generally people don’t even notice it until there is an obvious lack of social skills that should have been formed in late Elementary School and Middle School.

What Causes Autism?

There are many causes for Autism; not only is it linked to genetics but also the chances for development is increased with non genetic and environmental influences. Autism generally runs in family genetics; if a parent has the gene disorder for Autism it is more likely that their child will develop it. Just because a person has the gene disorder doesn’t mean that they will develop Autism. Surprisingly, they probably won’t. All having the gene disorder does is increases the chances for a child to develop it.

Even if the parent does not have Autism it can still get passed down to the child who will more likely develop Autism. There are certain environmental factors they also add to an increase in the illness. Just a few are birth complications, the parents are older, or if pregnancies are less than one year apart. Prenatal vitamins are very important in decreasing the chance to develop Autism. One common misconception is that vaccines will cause autism but studies show there is no effect on whether or not a child would have Autism. Autism is a mental disease that has to do with the brain's neurons and how they connect.

What is Asperger’s Syndrome?

Asperger’s Syndrome is the highest functioning form of autism. People who have this will likely thrive in the academic field but struggle with social and learning skills. They often won’t even get diagnosed until their late teens year and early adult years because they act no different than a normal person until they realize they never developed the social skills. Kids diagnosed with Asperger’s disease may have a “hyper-focus” on certain topics and objects. They will often have areas of “extraordinary ability”. This is called “savantism”; Aspergers kids who have this will have a greater chance of developing Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). OCD is very common in kids with Asperger’s.
Illness
What Do People with Aspergers Struggle With?

People with Aspergers will struggle with a lot of things but what they mainly struggle with is developing social skills. On the other hand, people with Aspergers will also encounter academic struggles as well. They will have areas of great strength academically but they also have their weaknesses. Their strengths and weaknesses will differ depending on the person. Here are the things that they may struggle with socially and academically.

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