Diagnosed Correctly?

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Hi,

I was diagnosed with aspergers earlier in the week and most symptoms describe me completely but there are a few things which I am not sure about.

Sarcasm- I am able to understand sarcasm with most people as all members of my family are sarcastic. I also understand when my 2 close friends are being sarcastic and a few others. It is still a struggle with some people though. I can also be sarcastic myself, I know my family and close friends understand my sarcasm but I've begun to notice people I am not friends with can become easily offended with my sarcasm so I am not sure if I am delivering my sarcasm correctly :/

I am not particularly clever. I got average grades throughout school with only 1 A*. I dropped out of 2 college courses because I couldn't cope and struggled a lot. Everywhere I read it suggests people with aspergers have higher than average intelligence which just wouldn't be true in my case.

I've also not really had a 'meltdown' If I get particularly anxious and it's built up or if too much changes I will get very upset but it's not anger it's very often just uncontrollable tears. I have only got very angry once. Also it's never really in public, I can normally control myself until I am on my own. The only two people to see me at my worst are my mum and my ex.

I am very sorry if I've got that wrong I am just trying to understand what I can since I have been diagnosed and trying to understand why I act in ways I do and atleast there is a reason for it. Do you think these things still can describe a person with aspergers or do you think it could be something else? Everything I have read apart from these few things fit me.

It seem likely that you have learned, over the course of your life, how your family and others close to you communicate and you can communicate with them, but outwith your immediate family or friends you can't pick up cues and communicate as well. This would indicate Asperger's as you struggle to be more spontaneous or effective with that type of communication, ie, sarcasm.



People with Asperger's have average to above average intelligence. Your struggles with school and college don't necessarily indicate low intelligence, and getting average grades despite being an undiagnosed (at the time) Aspie, seem to show that you are of at least average intelligence, if not higher.



As you describe it here, being very upset and having uncontrollable crying episodes could be described as a "meltdown". Being able to hold it together in public and letting it all out in a safe place or with people you're close to, is also common with people who are autistic.



Welcome to Wrong Planet. I'm sure if you keep reading here, you'll find ways in which others are similar to you, and hopefully gain more and deeper understanding of yourself.

The symptoms and behaviors listed in the DSM are for diagnosing AS in children. By the time we become adults, we generally will have developed 'Coping Mechanisms' that replace or disguise the kinds of obvious signs that may have been present when we were young. This is why it's more difficult to diagnose in adults. We hide it better, not intentionally, but because we learn to, to keep from standing out as odd (to greater or lesser degrees of success).

One also learns to recognize things that might have been more mysterious to an autistic child, like sarcasm and some nonverbal social signals.

Personally, my entire sense of humor developed around that tendency to take things too literally. Sometimes when I said just what I meant, or assumed someone else did, people laughed, thinking I was being intentionally absurd. Once I figured out why they thought that was funny, I learned to do it on purpose, to fit in socially.

Higher intelligence in High Functioning Autistics is largely an urban myth - a stereotype - I think we sometimes appear to be more brilliant than we are because we tend to be more meticulous in our use of language.

Uncontrollable tears IS a meltdown. "Meltdown" is just a catchall term for an emotional breakdown. It does not require physical acting out.

A lot of the clinical mumbo-jumbo can be confusing on first read. One that threw me was "may see lights and hear sounds that others do not." I was puzzled by that because it sounded like they were saying "hallucinations" and I had never had such an experience (other than a few sensations induced by recreational psychedelics). Later, I had an epiphany when I remembered several instances in my life in which I had, in fact, noticed specific sounds of a certain frequency range, only to have others look at me strangely when I mentioned it. One in particular was a common electronic effect, but supposedly outside the upper range of human hearing. I was so used to the sound, I thought everyone could hear it, but apparently not.