New Here and (probably) the usual question.

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hi everyone,
I am a 26 yr old mathematician. I have been reasonably successful in my academic life. But my personal life is a disaster. I suffer from anxiety, depression and insomnia and have been going to a therapist for about 8 months now. Therapy has been helpful.
Lately I have been wondering if I have asperger's syndrome and so I talked about this to my therapist. This is what I gathered from his response.

i) I have some of the symptoms of asperger's , but I don't show/am not troubled by some of the typical symptoms
ii) I am a bit too old and my thoughts over the years have complicated my mind so much that a diagnosis might not be possible.

I was a conspicuously shy kid at school. I had somewhat traumatic childhood. My parents did not get along very well. My father has some autism like symptoms and has had a lot of problems in his social and personal life.
So I had to live most part of childhood with relatives. I have been wondering whether my problems are because of not having a good childhood. Following are some of the problems I always faced and some that I don't.

i) Eye Contact: I feel somewhat comfortable talking to people without looking at their faces. But this is not something that bothers me lot.
ii)Ability to remember faces: I think am just as good as everyone else at remembering faces.
iv)Social skills: I always had great difficulty in talking to people, including my friends and mother. Its not just reluctance to talk that I suffer from but I don't know what to talk to people. I don't know why but I cannot force myself to say even simple things like a 'How are you'. All my other difficulties start here. I have made a lot of acquaintances during my attempts at socializing, but I can't say I have a good friend I could openly talk to. Well, girl friend-never had one.
v) Extreme feeling of loneliness, depression, anxiety, sleeplessness: as I said before I am seeing a therapist.
vi)I have read that people with aspergers have difficulty understanding subtler aspects of communication like sarcasm. But I don't have much of a difficulty with understanding say any movie or a comedy show or a late night comedy show.

I do not know whether I suffer from spectrum disorder or effects of childhood trauma. I understand this is not sufficient information for a diagnosis. But I was wondering if there was anyone here who has had similar set of symptoms. Also do you think that it will be useful to get a diagnosis at my age?

Thank you for reading my posting.

Welcome to WP!

thank you Tim,
I should probably add this to my posting.
Well I have had a few obsessions,
I did not have any friend around my house where I lived as a child, I did not have a bro/sis. So I created a game similar to racquette ball but I played alone, outside, on a narrow part of the wall of my house and with my cricket bat. I used to play this everyday of my school life, for several hours. I used set and break my own records.

I listen to the same song for hours. But I kinda stop myself from doing that because of the fear of annoying others.
Other minor obsessions: Watching all the online news videos, finding nice foreign language songs on youtube etc.

Welcome symanzikzimmerman!

I largely agree with you, I have a lot of the typical asperger's symptoms, but other symptoms I do not have.

Also, I am a 22 year old without insurance or a diagnosis, and I have struggled with going in for an official diagnosis or not. Also, I more-or-less had/have PTSD from my childhood (earthquake though).

As far as eye contact, I dread making any kind of eye-contact, but I can fake it.

One thing I notice is a lot of aspergers have poor coordination. I work at being coordinated; I can play sports well, have good reflexes, and generally have good coordination--and then I'll trip over my own feet.

I also get the extreme loneliness/depression and poor social skills.

As far as understanding subtler aspects of communication: I do very well if I am familiar with the term or expression that someone uses, but if it is something new, I am lost. Sometimes I can make the connection and pick up, but usually I end up just asking what they meant.

For getting a diagnosis, I really can't say. If it will make you feel better, help you understand yourself, help you adjust, or assists you in anyway--get one. If not, I really am not sure.

I hope this helps. If you have any more questions, or if I missed any, feel free to ask!

Again, welcome to WrongPlanet!

--David

Too much water under the bridge for a diagnosis? B***s***

Sure, you've adapted but hang an eye gaze monitor on you in a social environment and the truth will out fairly quickly.

One can learn to fake normal, but not to be it; that's my experience of aspergers. I passed as normal for half a century before the diagnosis caught up with me.

Hi & welcome! Could be AS, difficult to tell!

What you describe sounds very much like Asperger syndrome, in your childhood behaviour, your father's behaviour (AS is often passed down from the father) and in your own adult life. The fact that you don't show all of the symptoms as an adult does not necessarily mean you don't have it, since people learn to cover over certain things.

Unless your therapist is specifically expert in autism, I wouldn't take what he/she says too much to heart. A specialist person will look not only at your present symptoms, but also take a history of your childhood development, normally from a parent or relative, in order to arrive at a diagnosis. I'm not a diagnostician, but the pattern of behaviour seems too closely correlated to AS to be trauma-related.

I do have AS, but I have no problem watching movies, TV, etc., and understanding sarcasm and other subtleties. However, movie & TV are an exaggerated, formulaic and polished version of reality, in which we are often able to predict motive and intention. I can understand sarcasm in real life most of the time, though it usually causes me a moment of doubt. You don't have to have every individual symptom to have AS - the definition is that you just need to have clinically significant impairment in social interaction, social communication and social imagination from early childhood.

Here are a couple of things you could check (though no doubt you've checked this kind of stuff out already): Did you ever struggle to understand the meaning of humour? Were you ever considered over-sensitive? Did you take things that were said too seriously? Do you find group situations especially difficult? Do you need time alone to relax after being around others? Do you ever find yourself "paranoid" of what other people are thinking about you?

If you haven't already done it, the online AQ test is a quick easy assessment tool: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html

There's also the longer more detailed Aspie Quiz: http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php

Hope some of this is helpful.... all the best with it. I didn't get diagnosed until I was 32, and although the first year afterwards was a fairly harsh period of intense introspection, things are looking up - and I'm able to understand a lot more about myself and my life as a result of being diagnosed.

Hello symanzikzimmerman,
Welcome to WrongPlanet!

It's hard to say whether you have Asperger's, or any other Autism Spectrum Disorder. There are also symptoms that may be related to Asperger's but may as well be related to PTSD. I think only a psychiatrist or licenced psychologist can tell.

Concerning your age: I think you are still quite young. I'm 33 and found out this year that I have Asperger's. And I think having it diagnosed can be valuable. And I think diagnosis is still possible at your age.

Good luck!

(writing with the google translation. )

Hi, I'm NEW, too.
Anxiety, insomnia are common facts of life in AS.
Will say so.
I also found "Wlong Planet" in "ASPERGER SYNDROME AND ANXIETY" the book.

I was diagnosed in the 30s. It was good for me.
Becouse I was afraid of being misdiagnosed with other mental disorders.
For example, schizophrenia. The reason is that medicine is too tight.

If you feel the need for social adaptation, I think you need a diagnosis.

You like to listen to music, do it. Because we need the fun.
How do you listen to music in headphones?

Pardon me for my english.

"Hi," symanzikzimmerman - and welcome to the Wrong Planet neighborhood.

To WrongPlanet!! !

How much does it usually cost to get a clinical diagnosis?

That depends on where you live and what your situation is.
It depends on the health care system and regulations.

I got diagnosed when I was in psychiatry ward for depression and psychosis, getting diagnosed cost me nothing (I live in the Netherlands and have health insurance; in the Netherlands if someone has health insurance they don't have to pay for GP doctor consult, and if their GP doctor sends them to a psychiatrist or psychologist, they don't have to pay anything).

Edit:
If you live in the US you should just wait a little, for your new health care legislation.
I just read some positive news about it:
Final Dem holdout to back health bill
I hope for all American people that Obama will get the legislation to pass, for a better health care system.