What Autism is not?
Autism is not Mental Retardation or a Lack of Intelligence
Autism is not Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
People with autism's ritual preoccupations and behaviors are similar to the obsessions and compulsions characteristic of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and with the need for order and perfection characteristic of Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD).
Obsessions are intrusive thoughts that reoccur constantly and which cannot be suppressed or escaped. Though they may not be worries in-of-themselves, their very incessant and unrelenting quality causes affected people to become anxious and to behave in ways that will reduce that anxiety. However, if this were to be the case, both disease processes would be occurring simultaneously. One diagnosis does not reduce to the other. People with autism vary in intelligence more or less as normal people do, only their language and social problems can make that intelligence harder to discover. It should be kept in mind that there are multiple kinds of intelligence and not all of them involve language.
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