Dr. Lauren Kerwin | Source | McLean Hospital

Autism, Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder might not seem similar at first. However, ASD can look different in different people, especially depending on their gender. This means that if you've ever thought your parent had NPD or BPD it's possible they could actually have ASD. In fact, statistically speaking, it's highly likely...and therefore a different approach is needed. An approach that calls for more understanding and clearer communication.

Many of the social problems of autistic adults can be ascribed to misleading others into thinking that they know more than they actually do. Several features of ASD not only mask deficits but create a false impression of age-appropriate or advanced skills. Adults on the spectrum are quite verbal. Their detail-oriented, overly formal style of expressing themselves with advanced vocabularies give the impression that they understand more than they actually do. Some adults on the spectrum are described as having nonverbal learning disabilities. Yet on standardized IQ tests, their scores are generally similar in verbal and nonverbal areas to those of their neurotypical peers. In contrast, they show relatively poor performance on verbal skills such as social judgment and understanding of social conventions. They tend to have good rote memory skills and good comprehension of factual material, leading many to think that they are quite intelligent in a broader sense. However, this can be very misleading. Higher expectations that arise from this false impression can be stressful for them.