Adjustment disorder is an excessive response to life stresses that affects a person's work or social life. Symptoms can be anxiety, depression, misconduct, and social wthdrawal. Onset is typically within three months of the stressful event and fades within six months after the cause of the stress is removed. This sounds like something that people with autism have, but two of the diagnostic criteria are:
- The stress-related disturbance does not meet the criteria for another specific Axis I disorder and is not merely an exacerbation of a preexisting Axis I or Axis II disorder.
- Once the stressor (or its consequences) has terminated, the symptoms do not persist for more than an additional six months.
Nonetheless, adjustment disorder could be diagnosed in someone with autism if the pattern of symptoms after the stressful event does not fit the person's usual symptoms of autism (or an exacerbation of them).
A person with a milder case of autism or Asperger's Syndrome initially might be misdiagnosed as adjustment disorder. People with autism can have difficulty coping with change, but it is not the same as adjustment disorder, which is temporary and a response to one stressor or a chronic stressor. However, that aspect of autism and Asperger's Syndrome would be similar to having chronic adjustment disorder.
