NLD, Asperger’s, and OCD

 

How is Non-Verbal Learning Disorder different from Asperger’s?

 

If people with NLD tend to “rely on routines” and people with Asperger’s tend to have “rituals” aren’t these both really similar to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?

 

These are frequent questions I hear and read about, especially when a person first gets their NLD diagnosis. It was one of the first really challenging concepts I ran into as I was trying to comprehend. Unfortunately, there is so little information that a person without massive background in learning disabilities can actually comprehend that they appear almost in-differentiable.

 

To start, I’m not an expert, but I have spent time with people with Asperger’s and NLD (to the greatest extent possible, which is mostly chatting online and over Skype in video chat) and spent hours reflecting on my own situations, digging through my past and digesting as much information in academic journals as I can stomach. And as a basic disclaimer, I am talking in broad trends and generalizations, there are always individuals that don’t fit everything  just right.

 

When it comes down to it, as far as I can tell, people with Asperger's tend to have a physical self-stimulation behavior, called “stimming” by many which at times can certainly look like OCD. They also tend to have a very specific field of expertise the jargon is “restricted interests,” which can also look kind of like OCD. People with NLD can be prone to over-learning and routines as coping mechanisms, which can SEEM like OCD but are also not.

Actually, neither really has OCD by definition. If you break it down obsessions are things you are incapable of not thinking about and compulsions are things you have no ability to NOT do.

 

*Asperger’s*

People with Asperger’s will have rituals and routines (e.g. counting (anything), touching corners, my mom pulls her rings on and off her fingers). But these are not things that are really obsessions so that they cannot do other things, actually these small activities are typically soothing or calming.

 

Nor are they compulsions, most people with Asperger's are quite capable of controlling these activities, although they are frequently not conscious of them.

They also have an obsessive-like interest, usually in only one very very specific area (e.g. trains, cars, numbers). Many times, especially in kids, it almost seems like they are cataloging lists of information. Though you can't really call it a compulsion nor does it have any sort of routine or ritual about it.

 

*NLD*

On the other hand, people with NLD tend to use over-learning and routine as relatively effective coping mechanisms. This can look like OCD because they may get easily ruffled when routines get broken, but seldom does it lead to an out-right break down/tantrum (though people with NLD will get there with enough stress).

People tend to focus on describing how people with NLD tend to approach gaining competency as over-learning. In reality it is a poor way to describe how and why people with NLD need to learn in the first place. The over-learning idea makes it look like a person with NLD will just learn all they can about something in a rote way without really understanding what they are doing.

But really, since people with NLD have difficulty with reliable “gut feelings,” putting things together on an abstract or intuitive level, and are pretty bad at prediction, they usually need to understand something from the ground up to form a solid enough knowledge base to really work with an idea with any sort of competency.

So, they may fixate and, yes, obsess about ideas or subjects that interest or confuse them. Over-learning, however, is not typically a very specific topic that will be directed at memorizing as much as possible. It tends to be focused on a interest, need or problem the person is faced with.

 

 

 

Getting away from the overlaps with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, there is a VERY distinct difference in the social functioning of people with NLD and Asperger's. 

 

*Asperger’s*

People with Asperger's tend to feel that they are almost of a different species or are aliens. My friend with Asperger's was afraid he was a sociopath before he was diagnosed because he felt like he might be the only 'real' person in existence or as if other people were just things going through odd little motions.

 

Interestingly enough, the FIRST description of Asperger's by Dr. Asperger himself, described children with this disorder as being  "Autistic Sociopaths" (I don't remember where in the description he discussed something as to their much higher level of function from most people with Autism).

What I have noticed is that people with Asperger's seem to have a decent ability to CONSCIOUSLY LEARN social norms and function in them.  It is almost as if the emotional feedback needed to learn normal non-verbal communication doesn’t connect with everything else as it should.

 

*NLD*
On the other hand, a person with NLD, in the social arena, tends to come off as "clueless" "spacey" "slow" "immature" "inattentive". They often know that they are missing something but never quite know what. They feel the need to respond, but are not able to see or interpret the social cues contained in non-verbal behavior well enough.

 

They can improve by learning specific cues and rules, but typically will always have difficulty in real-time social situations because the deficit is in seeing and interpreting the vast amount information contained in all the signals and context that happens in a typical interaction.

I hope this can help people’s understanding, and, if I am lucky, stir up some discussion.