Cognitively erratic-anyone else?

firemonkey

Much has been said about the spiky profiles we tend to have. I regard myself as being 'cognitively erratic'. When it comes to my ability to think I can go from near brilliance to, comparatively speaking, barely mediocre from one day to the next. I think I've always been like that. Is that typical for autistic people I wonder? It matters very little at my age, but I'm curious nonetheless.

verity

I think this is a feature of executive dysfunction, I have a diagnosis of executive dysfunction.  While I made some improvement I still struggle with it. I had to fit my life around it.

I theorise that, based on load there is a nuero-physical fatigue.

firemonkey

I've never been dxed with that, but organising and planning have always been definite areas of cognitive weakness.

verity

firemonkey said:

I've never been dxed with that, but organising and planning have always been definite areas of cognitive weakness.

It is very rare to get diagnosed with it individually. It is normally talked about in combination with soemthign else. I spent I long item trying to get answer from the medical field, for my cognitive issues and the way I think and  aphantasia which I had no idea was known about. 

I saw a neuro-psychologist at hospital in London, he did a lot of the cognitive tests you get on IQ an aptitude tests, etc.

firemonkey

I have total aphantasia. There's always been a significant adaptive functioning < IQ gap, in my case. Failure to live up to the expectations of mental health professionals, who are generally ill informed about such matters,  meant that historically I was subjected to a lot of undue criticism  and given little help and support. 

Amity

I think spikey profiles is a a good way to describe how Autists are typically different to eachother, we share an umbrella/collective diagnosis, but these differences in our experiences sit imo, alongside personality and our nurtured environment as an influence on how we are experienced as individuals.

I've wondered how a spikey profile would develop in an ideally supportive Autistic environment, Im guessing that if a child is appropriately supported at key stages of development, their profile would appear more even.

Organisation and planning are areas that I could need support with, I wonder though if I had the right type of support earlier in life would my experience of these areas be less stressful today.

firemonkey

I'd say I'm  inconsistent even  when it comes to areas of comparative cognitive strength. I saw myself as  having a spiky profile where there was a simple crystallised intelligence much > than fluid intelligence situation. It's actually more complex. I do badly at mental rotation and 3x3 matrix ,but have had some respectable scores for tests that are more pattern recognition based. Even with those I'm rather inconsistent though. These are my best fluid IQ results.

Hylian

There's days where I'm really motivated and seem to pick up on and complete things with ease. Then there's days where I can't handle doing, nor figure out how to do, really basic tasks. It's very stressful not being able to judge what I'll be able to do or not do on any given day, and what reactions I'll have to deal with from others due to it.

firemonkey

I've always had good and not so good days functioning wise. There are days when I crave mental stimulation , and days when   holding a meaningful conversation with someone is too much like hard work.

pangolin

Amity said:

I think spikey profiles is a a good way to describe how Autists are typically different to eachother, we share an umbrella/collective diagnosis, but these differences in our experiences sit imo, alongside personality and our nurtured environment as an influence on how we are experienced as individuals. (...)

I have also heard of autism described this way during my therapy sessions.