The Autism Characteristic and Symptomatic Picture

1. Features 2. Autistic isolation 3. Thinking and devising 4. Attention disorders 5. The quest for immutability and order 6. Social development 7. Face perception and eye contact 8. The relationship with objects 9. Communication 10. Repetitive behaviour 11. Sleep disorders 12. Verbal and non-verbal communication 14. Social interaction 15. Brief note on the concept of the social brain 16. Affectivity and sexuality 17. Imagination or repertoire of interests 18. Sensory disorders 19. Hearing 20. The view 21. The sense of smell 22. Taste 23. Touch 24. The pain 25. Other symptoms 26. The emotions of the autistic child 27. Anxiety 28. Fears 29. Sadness and joy 30. Mistrust and distrust 31. The autistic child's defences against negative emotions 32. Co-symptomatic and co-pathological conditions: Abnormal folate metabolism; Abnormal redox metabolism; Intestinal disease; Developmental coordination disorder (dyspraxia); Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder; Fragile X syndrome; Hypermobility spectrum disorder and Ehlers-Danlos syndromes; Mitochondrial diseases; Neuroinflammation and immune disorders; Reduced NMDA receptor function; Strabismus; Tinnitus; Tourette Syndrome; Tuberous sclerosis; Vitamin deficiencies; Inference of metal ions. This chapter, like Chapters 5 and 6 , introduces and attempts to summarise some descriptive clinical-medical aspects of the autism condition. For a doctor, or a professional working in a clinical setting, this chapter might be simplistic, and in many ways not very comprehensive. The purpose of this chapter is to give a common knowledge base of what are pathological symptoms, characteristics of autism and secondary and related pathologies. In this picture, it will become clear that no symptom is single or isolated but the damage concerns a circuit, a higher function, a more complex system. Once again, focusing on one aspect, one symptom and a single set of symptoms distracts from a general, overall picture. In this chapter I will discuss characteristics, referring to autistic isolation, thinking and imagination, attention disorders, the search for immutability and order, social development, relations with other people, relations with objects, communication, repetitive behaviour and sleep disorders. I will talk about symptoms by referring to verbal and non-verbal communication, social interaction, affectivity and sexuality, aggression, self-injury, imagination or repertoire of interests, the importance of order and obsessive–compulsive behaviour. I will talk about sensory disorders, referring to hearing, sight, smell, taste, touch, pain and other symptoms. Finally, I will discuss the emotional picture, referring to anxiety, fear, sadness and joy, distrust and mistrust, as well as anger and rage, and the autistic child's defences against negative emotions. Finally, I will discuss co-symptomatic conditions, a definition under which certain conditions of typical clinical pathology that are often associated and found concomitantly in persons diagnosed with autism are included. Each of these descriptive blocks must be read in parallel and integrated with the other elements. It is clear that autistic isolation (in characteristics) is related to social interaction (between symptoms) and the entire emotional picture. I have chosen not to unify them in order to also allow an articulated understanding of the characteristic, symptomatological and psychological-emotional picture. I have chosen, methodologically, to describe, as far as and when possible, all these aspects in the words of autistic persons, leaving them to tell not so much the clinical symptom described from the outside, but how that symptom is experienced and described by the person.