This is an explanation on why I have arrived at this place.

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I was diagnosed as gifted as a child, as were my brothers. Peers called me "smart." They also called me "weird." I didn't really see why I would be weird rather than they, but I embraced the term. I had no trouble talking to people, but my friends always escaped somehow and I had to find a new one. I would blunder through social interactions with a smile on my face: it's bound to work some of the time. By high school I think I was mostly viewed as as an intelligent and eccentric character, and generally well-liked, but without the close friendship I had always desired.

A few years ago, when I began to have the close friendships I'm thrilled to have today, a friend asked me whether I had Asperger's. This was the first I'd seen mention of it. So I googled it, picked apart a list of traits, and after comparing the ones I related to with the ones I didn't relate to, concluded that that probably wasn't me. And I left it alone.

Last Spring I learned that one of my brothers had been diagnosed with Asperger's when younger. I was surprised to learn this, but thought that perhaps his traits had rubbed off on me, which is why my friend thought I might have it. After all, he had been one I looked up to as a kid as a role model, and when peers behaved differently than he, they were the odd ones to my mind.

Last autumn, I was chatting frequently with a new friend, and he declared that I had Asperger's. I was somewhat confused, as I had already looked into this, and I described some more things about me, which he confirmed to be more evidence of my having Asperger's. So I researched it. And I found descriptions of gifted-with-asperger's. And I related to both sides. And a diagnosed friend related to only the Asperger's side, and another brother related to only the gifted side, so it wasn't the Barnum effect. And I was frustrated that nobody had even suspected the possibility of my having Asperger's until I was in my 20s, when the evidence was there all through my childhood. But then I realized...I had always been called gifted-with-asperger's. Only my peers didn't know those terms. So they called me "smart" and "weird."

Since then I have had doubts (Is Asperger's real? Is everyone on the spectrum? Are neurotypicals real?) and questions (How many females are both gifted and have Asperger's? Who should I mention my conclusion to? How close is Asperger's to autism and should I admit to relating to the latter when there's nothing impairing about my situation other than interpersonal confusion?). And I know I could live my whole life without knowing about this and be fine. And yet, as I realize that most of my close friends probably have Asperger's, the knowledge could help me in finding "my people." (I still have neurotypical friends too, of course. They find me amusing and I find their amusement amusing.)

More specifically, the reason I joined today is that I was thinking I would like to poll a bunch of neurodiverse (and neurotypical as a control group) people and go over the data to learn for sure what is related to what. And I remembered coming across this place in my research and figured it would be a good platform for that. I hope I'm not wrong.
I am passionate about charts.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Welcome!!

Welcome.

Your username is pretty cool!

I like polls.

That's encouraging. I'll plan out my categories to ask of.

Thanks. It's Finnish for "desert rat."

Asperger's, or HFA or just ASD (I prefer that personally, less divisive), is definitely real! It is demonstrable in both the real world and labs and there are neurological differences between AS and NT brains which are recently being revealed. I mean right now the diagnosis part is a bit of a mess because it relies on human judgement, but it is real.

No, not everyone is "a little bit autistic" (I hate that phrase) anymore than everyone is a little bit cancerous*; we all have cells but cancer cells are fundamentally different to non-cancer cells. So yes, NTs exist too (they are the majority of course, hence why we are seen as the odd ones).

As I say, I don't separate Asperger's from autism from PDD-NOS - they're all arbitrary labels with no scientific backing - but if you feel strongly enough to ID with one you do you! You aren't sh***ing on anyone's doorstep for doing so (excuse the metaphor).

I hope to see your poll; I like to do polls xD

* I am NOT saying ASD is akin to cancer, it's just the first analogy that came to mind.

Thanks for the explanatory reply, Impreza.

Google oddly had nothing in way of assurance that NTs are real. :p

Wl
Well NTs are the "default", so they don't question their own existence

Aavikkorotta,

Are you from Finland? I have a special interest in athletes from Finland in Olympic history.

I like your username, too!

I'm not from Finland. Even my ancestors are not from Finland. But I have several friends in Finland, including those who originally suspected I may have Asperger's. Also I am trying to learn Finnish, and it may be affecting my syntax. :p

Voin sanoa että et ole sika ja että en ole hirvi mutta minun ymmärrykseni suomenkielen taidosta on valitettavasti errittäin puuttellinen.

I shall vote in your poll if you do make it, welcome to the forum!

Thanks.

I've been planning out my questions and it's turning out to be more of a lengthy multiple-choice survey than a poll. But it should be ready to post in a couple of days. And I'll ask some off-forum people for input as well. I hope to get some informative charts out of the project. So ideally, I would get 100 responses for scientific reliability. But realistically, I would be happy with 50.

Welcome!

"I can say that you're not a pig and that I'm not a moose but my understanding of the skill of Finnish language is unfortunately very insufficient."

...I can get what you were saying, but not why you said the first part. Is there an inside joke I'm missing here?

"Hirvi" was one of the first words I learned, and I was about a year into dabbling with Finnish before I learned negatives. It's not an inside joke, but a thing I like to say. Terve, ihminen. En ole hirvi, et ole hirvi, emme ole hirviä.
I also learned "malevolent" and "paranoid" before learning any colors. It's been an unregulated learning experience.

Terve! It's my first day on this website and oddly enough I find a Finnophile on here. I am a biracial Finn who grew up in the USA, so English is the language I communicate the best in. My username, Parasapu, is from a phrase "oma apu, paras apu" meaning self-help is the best help. I look forward to conversations in this forum.