25 Apr 2011, 3:20 am
Hi all, I'm new here, and I'm wondering if I might be an aspie.
I don't have all the symptoms, but I'm affected pretty severely by the ones that I do have.
I'd appreciate it if anyone can take the time to glance through this post and give me their unprofessional opinion. 
For starters, I'm a 19 year old male.
Different than my peers - For a long time now, I've had problems with socializing to the point where my only friends have become internet people and guys I've known since before high school. I find it very difficult to meet and emotionally connect with people. It just seems like everybody I meet is so different from me in such a profound way that there's no chance of a friendship between us. There have been some exceptions to this, fortunately, but for the most part, this has always been the case with me.
Difficulty finding words - I am able to greet people warmly without putting much effort to it, but I find myself quite socially deficient going beyond that. It needs to be a good friend or someone who seems to be on my wavelength for me to be able to know what I should start a conversation about. With everyone else, a conversation goes one of three ways: 1) I ask small talk questions until the conversation dries up, 2) The other person asks me questions that I find difficult to answer, and I get nervous and just kind of smile or nod, or 3) The other person talks while I listen, and then I feel awkward and anxious not knowing how to respond to what they said.
It's always been difficult for me to find words when speaking to anyone but close friends. I get to a point in a conversation where I feel like I should give a personal experience to whatever we're talking about, but find that I have nothing, and just respond with something awkward like, "Oh, that's great..." Even giving speeches to maybe 5 people tops, I just hit a roadblock and can't finish strongly unless I have the entire thing written out verbatim on a notecard to read off of.
Social Isolation - I've always wanted more friends, but I never seem to meet the type of people I would like to befriend. As such, I've been somewhat of an aloof person. I'm the type who sits on his laptop in the corner of the college cafeteria alone all afternoon while everyone else has groups of friends to hang out with. I find myself lonely a lot, but I don't ever feel like there's anything I can do to improve my situation. I'm at a community college, and I'm not into sports....or drugs.
Lack of gestures - I find that I don't use my hands much when I speak.
Anxiousness in crowded places - This is actually something that appeared later in life. It's not so much the being by people that bothers me, but what they might be thinking of me. This has gotten progressively worse over the past couple of years. Going into a place like Wal-Mart alone is a huge anxiety attack for me. I walk through the store, and whenever I pass someone, I freeze up and just stare straight ahead or at the floor, then I figure that that person thought I was some sort of freak. I start to become depersonalized imagining I'm a security guard watching myself on the cameras and thinking that I'm going to steal something because of how tense I look.
Shut-downs from mental overload - When I'm stressed out and fatigued for a long period of time, my mind starts to slowly dull much more so than a normal person from what I've seen. I find it hard to make good decisions, become more distract-able and impulsive, and find it even more difficult to interact with people. When this happens, I just want to shut myself away in my car or bedroom alone for a long time. One time, I somehow managed to shut completely down mentally and dream while I was washing dishes at my job. I continued working for over an hour asleep somehow, then suddenly woke up later confused and wondering where I was.
Routines - I'm a creature of habit and tend to do things the same way every time unless I have a reason not to. Fortunately, I don't have the symptom of experiencing discomfort when changing a routine.
Special Interests - I'm fairly well-rounded, but I have a few topics that I specialize in more than others. I think "passionate" is quite a bit too extreme of a description though. Psychology is one of these topics - I'll feel happy if I can read a Psychology book in the library for a couple hours, but it won't faze me at all if I can't.
Stimming - I bite my nails and the inside of my mouth at times, and I start to curl my toes inside my shoe when I get restless.
Sensory - The top and bottom of my back are both pretty sensitive. I find myself shrugging my shoulders and pulling up my pants a lot when my clothes get in the wrong areas. This isn't painful, and it's easy to ignore, but it annoys me when I consciously think about it for some reason.
Other - I learned to read before preschool, which I've read can be an autism symptom. I have trust issues with my immediate family and feel like there's a completely different side to me that they haven't seen. I daydream quite excessively and get distracted a lot.
Symptoms I don't have:
- Lack of eye contact
- Inability to read facial expressions
- Difficulty reading body language
- Difficulty interpreting what is socially acceptable
- Taking things literally
- Thinking concretely and in black and white
- Preoccupation with parts of objects
- Going on and on about one thing in a conversation
- Motor difficulties
- Meltdowns
- Difficulty recognizing faces
25 Apr 2011, 3:33 am
TenPencePiece
Veteran
Joined: 11 Dec 2009
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Posts: 46,000
Location: Greater Manchester, United Kingdom
25 Apr 2011, 6:44 am
richie
Supporting Member
Joined: 9 Jan 2007
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 30,142
Location: Lake Whoop-Dee-Doo, Pennsylvania
25 Apr 2011, 2:49 pm
I don't have all the symptoms, but I'm affected pretty severely by the ones that I do have.
I'd appreciate it if anyone can take the time to glance through this post and give me their unprofessional opinion.
For starters, I'm a 19 year old male.
Different than my peers - For a long time now, I've had problems with socializing to the point where my only friends have become internet people and guys I've known since before high school. I find it very difficult to meet and emotionally connect with people. It just seems like everybody I meet is so different from me in such a profound way that there's no chance of a friendship between us. There have been some exceptions to this, fortunately, but for the most part, this has always been the case with me.
Difficulty finding words - I am able to greet people warmly without putting much effort to it, but I find myself quite socially deficient going beyond that. It needs to be a good friend or someone who seems to be on my wavelength for me to be able to know what I should start a conversation about. With everyone else, a conversation goes one of three ways: 1) I ask small talk questions until the conversation dries up, 2) The other person asks me questions that I find difficult to answer, and I get nervous and just kind of smile or nod, or 3) The other person talks while I listen, and then I feel awkward and anxious not knowing how to respond to what they said.
It's always been difficult for me to find words when speaking to anyone but close friends. I get to a point in a conversation where I feel like I should give a personal experience to whatever we're talking about, but find that I have nothing, and just respond with something awkward like, "Oh, that's great..." Even giving speeches to maybe 5 people tops, I just hit a roadblock and can't finish strongly unless I have the entire thing written out verbatim on a notecard to read off of.
Social Isolation - I've always wanted more friends, but I never seem to meet the type of people I would like to befriend. As such, I've been somewhat of an aloof person. I'm the type who sits on his laptop in the corner of the college cafeteria alone all afternoon while everyone else has groups of friends to hang out with. I find myself lonely a lot, but I don't ever feel like there's anything I can do to improve my situation. I'm at a community college, and I'm not into sports....or drugs.
Lack of gestures - I find that I don't use my hands much when I speak.
Anxiousness in crowded places - This is actually something that appeared later in life. It's not so much the being by people that bothers me, but what they might be thinking of me. This has gotten progressively worse over the past couple of years. Going into a place like Wal-Mart alone is a huge anxiety attack for me. I walk through the store, and whenever I pass someone, I freeze up and just stare straight ahead or at the floor, then I figure that that person thought I was some sort of freak. I start to become depersonalized imagining I'm a security guard watching myself on the cameras and thinking that I'm going to steal something because of how tense I look.
Shut-downs from mental overload - When I'm stressed out and fatigued for a long period of time, my mind starts to slowly dull much more so than a normal person from what I've seen. I find it hard to make good decisions, become more distract-able and impulsive, and find it even more difficult to interact with people. When this happens, I just want to shut myself away in my car or bedroom alone for a long time. One time, I somehow managed to shut completely down mentally and dream while I was washing dishes at my job. I continued working for over an hour asleep somehow, then suddenly woke up later confused and wondering where I was.
Routines - I'm a creature of habit and tend to do things the same way every time unless I have a reason not to. Fortunately, I don't have the symptom of experiencing discomfort when changing a routine.
Special Interests - I'm fairly well-rounded, but I have a few topics that I specialize in more than others. I think "passionate" is quite a bit too extreme of a description though. Psychology is one of these topics - I'll feel happy if I can read a Psychology book in the library for a couple hours, but it won't faze me at all if I can't.
Stimming - I bite my nails and the inside of my mouth at times, and I start to curl my toes inside my shoe when I get restless.
Sensory - The top and bottom of my back are both pretty sensitive. I find myself shrugging my shoulders and pulling up my pants a lot when my clothes get in the wrong areas. This isn't painful, and it's easy to ignore, but it annoys me when I consciously think about it for some reason.
Other - I learned to read before preschool, which I've read can be an autism symptom. I have trust issues with my immediate family and feel like there's a completely different side to me that they haven't seen. I daydream quite excessively and get distracted a lot.
Symptoms I don't have:
- Lack of eye contact
- Inability to read facial expressions
- Difficulty reading body language
- Difficulty interpreting what is socially acceptable
- Taking things literally
- Thinking concretely and in black and white
- Preoccupation with parts of objects
- Going on and on about one thing in a conversation
- Motor difficulties
- Meltdowns
- Difficulty recognizing faces
To WrongPlanet!! !
Not all of us are the same. Remember the human brain is the most complex mass in the universe that we know of......
This is something I posted almost four years ago:
Things that fit:
-Unusual interests, both in intensity and type
-Ability to organize and remember a great deal of information
-Tendency to be clumsy and do "dumb" stuff, despite being intelligent
-Mild prosopagnosia ("face blindness")-not bad, but enough to be embarrassing
-Uncomfortable in social situations and dislike of crowds and enclosed spaces
Things that don't fit:
-No monotone voice
-I don't think literally. I understand idioms. I couldn't have received a Master's in English without that knowledge. I also know the historical basis of common expressions. All idioms did have a literal, historical basis, so there is nothing wrong with this.
-No serious deficit in self-help skills (except for cooking and driving)
First of all, I don't have a masters degree in English, or deficiencies in cooking. My only deficiency in driving is that I end up giving myself a wide berth. Other than that, you just described ME!
MY definition of monotone might be the same as yours, and apparently is NOT the same as many doctors. THEIR definition is a lack of EMOTIONAL tone. I used to have THAT! I STILL sometimes don't show it.
I ALSO used to think more literally. To a degree, I still do.
As for self help skills..... Aren't AS people supposed to LACK any clinically significant disabilities there?
Steve
Asperger's Syndrome isn't the only form of "High Functioning" Autism.
There is Pervasive Developmental Disorder: Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS)
My speech was delayed and I have intense, almost obsessive interests.
I have excellent low speed dexterity(working with small parts, small precision tools)
Poor high speed dexterity (Typing, playing musical instruments, video games)
Excellent long term memory for facts.
Poor short term memory for names, dates, faces, and tasks.
Some self help skills I learned without difficulty(Like driving, finding employment)
I don't speak in a monotone voice, and I don't have much trouble with idiom.
Some times I do become aphasic, where I cannot connect a 'word' to 'object'.
Am I self diagnosed? Yes. AS and HFA are the only things I know that fit the
descriptions given above. There are many others who have reached the same
conclusions about themselves for the same reasons.
, didn't think of myself as shy but others did so things just didn't add up Now luckily they do, for me at least. In the workplace people are also a bit mystified, still saying I'm not a good communicator but at least I'm an effective communicator (so I still don't see what the problem is ) But anyway, the struggle to be accepted continues, it just doesn't drain me so much anymore.I was described as "ret*d", "Brain damaged", or just "different" by many people when I was growing up.
I was always acting silly or "shutting down", I had (and still have) bad motor coordination, stereotypical
motor habits, emotional and mental "meltdowns", and many sensory issues and other co-morbidities,
(ie: tactile hypersensitivity, migraines and bowel problems). Yet I learned to read before the other
students. I excelled in taking math and science exams, but slow in everything else. I was constantly
bullied by classmates. I survived, I graduated high school, learned a trade, got a job, but I was always
the Outsider looking in. I first learned about Asperger Syndrome, and "Higher Functioning" Autism
through various science journals, through WikiPedia I found out about WrongPlanet.
After forty something years I found a home.
By the way Foreignwoman, acceptance among the "normals" and "Neuro-Typicals" is overrated.
"WrongPlanet" is the "Right Address". Welcome!
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