What is River's "condition"?

[Queen of Spades]

I heard Asperger's, but I just wanted some real confirmation.

[Frankenstein's Raven]

She has two conditions. One was Asperger's and the other was the one who killed her, which was a different one.

[Commisar Cuddlesworth]

she dosn't have Asperger's, she has pervasive development disorder. Whilst they are both a fourm of ASD they are diffrent in many ways but also quite similar, it can be vary easy to mix as the symptoms shown ingame coform to both. As for the diorder that killed her it's not explicitly mentioned in game (atleast to my knowlage).

[Frankenstein's Raven]

Originally posted by HMMR Colonal Cuddles (SOVIET):

she dosn't have Asperger's, she has pervasive development disorder. Whilst they are both a fourm of ASD they are diffrent in many ways but also quite similar, it can be vary easy to mix as the symptoms shown ingame coform to both. As for the diorder that killed her it's not explicitly mentioned in game (atleast to my knowlage).

She has been confirmed to have Asperger's syndrome. The writer Tony Attwood, the writer MENTIONED in the game as writing a book about her condition, writes books about Asperger's Syndrome.

[sergykid]

i'm not english, can someone actually explain what was her problem? i first thought she has autism (living into her own world) so not recognising (or caring) about the real one

[chaoticenigma]

Originally posted by sergykid:

i'm not english, can someone actually explain what was her problem? i first thought she has autism (living into her own world) so not recognising (or caring) about the real one

I could be remembering some of this wrong, but from what I've seen mentioned about it on this forum and elsewhere,

Pervasive Development Disorder, which is what the game mentions, covers most if not all Autism Spectrum Disorders.

The Tony Attwood thing is meant to hint at which specific form of the disorder, in this case Asperger Syndrome. Somewhere in the game there was something about the Animorphs question about just googling the stuff, which they probably expected you to do here as well if you weren't sure, but really most of us didn't and just looked it up in the guides section.

There's quite a bit of places in the spectrum, but the only one I could even name would be Asperger because it's probably the most well known of them. And I'm not even sure if they use that name anymore in diagnosis.

[Karabelle]

Originally posted by chaoticenigma:

Originally posted by sergykid:

i'm not english, can someone actually explain what was her problem? i first thought she has autism (living into her own world) so not recognising (or caring) about the real one

I could be remembering some of this wrong, but from what I've seen mentioned about it on this forum and elsewhere,

Pervasive Development Disorder, which is what the game mentions, covers most if not all Autism Spectrum Disorders.

The Tony Attwood thing is meant to hint at which specific form of the disorder, in this case Asperger Syndrome. Somewhere in the game there was something about the Animorphs question about just googling the stuff, which they probably expected you to do here as well if you weren't sure, but really most of us didn't and just looked it up in the guides section.

There's quite a bit of places in the spectrum, but the only one I could even name would be Asperger because it's probably the most well known of them. And I'm not even sure if they use that name anymore in diagnosis.

From what I know, PDD is basically "this kid looks like they have autism, but it's not quite autism, but they definitely aren't normal." For those curious, I refer to PDD as short for PDD-NOS and Austistic Spectrum Disorder is really PDD, Asperger's, and Autism combined as of DSM-5.

Asperger's and PDD actually both got removed DSM version 5. They were both merged with Autism to create the Autistic spectrum. So yes Asperger's is no longer used in offical diagnosis.

It's still used by some people who were diagnosed with Asperger's before it got removed, or people who fit in the same area of the spectrum the asperger's diagnosis covered. For example, it's far easier to explain to someone that you have Asperger's then to explain you have autism, stigmas and beliefs about what autism is can often lead to the, "but you're so normal" psuedo-compliment. (personal experience) Which is still entirely possible when identifying as someone with Asperger's, but it can be far easier to convince someone you aren't faking it for attention (luckily not personal experience).

Now considering Tony Attwood, and similarities between River's experience and mine, she would most likely have been diagnosed as having Asperger's, the biggest sign being, Tony Attwood is only known for his experience in Asperger's. And during the time the game takes place, the autistic spectrum was the 3 unique diagnosises, Autism, Persuasive Development Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified, and Asperger's. She most likely received the Asperger's diagnosis.

Basically Autism is complicated, and I may be wrong, but I'm 99% sure I didn't mess up anything I stated.

Finally thankyou sergykid for having no clue what Autism is, and drawing conclusions from one part of the spectrum. I'd like to have you know some of us are very successful people, and some of us care very much about the real world, and live in it like everyone else it (myself included)

[Gummi_Patch]

There were a lot of hints in the game. Neil saying how he's never met a girl with the diagnosis, the book that was given to River, etc. I'm autistic myself, so I picked up on it right away. A lot of the things she did made sense because it is similar to things I have done growing up (and things my autistic friends do and did).

I think the game did an okay job of communicating her neurological condition. Could've been better and it could've been worse. It was mostly through commentary from other people, and most of the characters wanted her to be "normal". Even her so called friend, with the same diagnosis, didn't believe she was capable of anything extraodinary. River was very passive in narrating her own experience (which I didn't really like, personally). Honestly, seeing how people treated and spoke of River was pretty relatable in a sad way. No one really understood her and only John seemed to even try--because he liked her. Besides that, everyone just said nasty things behind her back.

The game isn't about River, though. So it didn't ruin the game for me. As much as I love having some representation, she was a little underdeveloped imo. With such an important character, it felt like her personality and entire existance was just to be autistic and the love interest--little else.

Tldr : She's autistic.

[Karabelle]

Originally posted by Gummi_Patch:

There were a lot of hints in the game. Neil saying how he's never met a girl with the diagnosis, the book that was given to River, etc. I'm autistic myself, so I picked up on it right away. A lot of the things she did made sense because it is similar to things I have done growing up (and things my autistic friends do and did).

I think the game did an okay job of communicating her neurological condition. Could've been better and it could've been worse. It was mostly through commentary from other people, and most of the characters wanted her to be "normal". Even her so called friend, with the same diagnosis, didn't believe she was capable of anything extraodinary. River was very passive in narrating her own experience (which I didn't really like, personally). Honestly, seeing how people treated and spoke of River was pretty relatable in a sad way. No one really understood her and only John seemed to even try--because he liked her. Besides that, everyone just said nasty things behind her back.

The game isn't about River, though. So it didn't ruin the game for me. As much as I love having some representation, she was a little underdeveloped imo. With such an important character, it felt like her personality and entire existance was just to be autistic and the love interest--little else.

Tldr : She's autistic.

Personally I don't think River really was underdeveloped... She didn't figureout how to act neurotypical. Plus a lot of the story is from Johnney's view, (like all of it) so it makes sense that all we'd get is his perspective of someone who isn't always "there". Isabelle was in a sense her opposite, she did learn to act normal. River exists to represent those who never learned to normal. And how people responded to her was supposed to really pull that out. Isabelle is more of people like me who learned to be "normal".