New. Do I have Asperger's? Does it matter?

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Hi,

I have always been different from most of my peers - extremely quiet, unable to engage in any sort of small talk, somewhat obsessive, intelligent, and somewhat unable to make friends. Many of these qualities I attributed to the fact that I grew up in a house in the middle of nowhere, with no immediate neighbors, and the way that may parents were rather different than most people in the town that I lived near. (White trash town - my father is a doctor, my mother from France, and not used to many American customs) I was always considered talented and gifted in school, but I struggled socially (many people felt I was mute), and I have never been in a real relationship in my life despite my above average physical attractiveness. I am now 28 years old and recently moved from the United States to an island in the Caribbean.

I suppose what I am trying to do here, is determine whether or not I have AS. I have many of the attributes typically attributed to AS:

* Social awkwardness/lack of intuitive understanding of social situations: I have never felt comfortable with small talk, or making friends. It's not that I don't want do, I definitely do. I just find myself pushing people away frequently because I'm generally clueless regarding friendships - and, probably more importantly, I seem very averse to initiating or continuing normal social interaction with people that I have just met.

* Excessively logical rather than emotional thought processes. I'm not the person one would want to come crying to for comfort. My brain just doesn't work that way. I seem to always look at things from a logical rather than emotional perspective. (I have emotions, they just seem more warped and diluted than those of most other people.)

* Above average intelligence. In many (most?) areas of intelligence I am substantially more intelligent than my peers. When it comes to long term memory, or understanding systems, or writing, or most academic subjects I am just a lot better than most of my peers. (I have always done exceptionally well on standardized tests, etc.)

* Lack of organization/attention span. In classes or lectures I have never been able to take notes - not even a single page. For some reason, the whole idea of writing things down repulses me. When I am paying attention, I just try to process what is being said rather than writing anything down. Also, I frequently find myself staring out the window or at a wall with my mind wandering around some subject or idea totally unrelated to the class or lecture. These factors undoubtedly hurt my academic performance. I tried to correct them to some extent, but my success was very limited. Also, I virtually never clean my room or even use a garbage can - as a result most of my rooms/apartments are not very pleasant places in which to hang out.

* At points in my life, I have been rather lazy about my hygiene as well. Just not shaving or wearing the same clothes frequently because I become bored with the process of picking out different clothes to wear. (This has not always been the case, there have been stretches in my life where I have been rather hygienic.

* Obsessive interests: Generally I am either very interested in a subject, or not interested in it at all. This has resulted in quite varied performance in school and work. Also, I suppose, when I was a child, I would have very specific interests that I would obsess over at the expense of everything else (such as dinosaurs or geography). I have generally grown out of that pattern, however, the all or nothing interest that I have in subjects largely remains.

However, i do not have some of the common AS attributes: (at least I'm not aware of having these)

* Panic attacks: I can't even comprehend what it feel like to have one.

* Lack of coordination: I'm not especially coordinated, but nor am I especially uncoordinated.

* Stimming: I may have this, I'm not sure, I certainly don't do the over the top full body convulsion type of thing, but I do fidget a fair amount, and I almost always bounce one of my legs up and down when sitting.


Also, my line of work doesn't seem typical for someone with AS. I am a professional poker player and a key part of that is thinking from the perspective of one's opponents. However, in the setting of poker, this can be done in a very logical and systematic manner, so maybe it isn't that hard for someone with AS.

I have a variety of mental issues: depression, extreme shyness, and some shades of OCD.

So, do you think I have AS? (I took the online test, it said I was very likely an aspie.) If I am, what difference does it make? AS isn't a disease, right?. It does not have a known cause, or 'cure' for that matter. As a syndrome, is it just a group of attributes which seem to be rather correlated? I dislike some of my attributes, such as the social awkwardness. Does the idea that these things may be part of a greater syndrome make it easier to deal with? I don't know yet. I guess one good thing is that I now know that there are others that have the same peculiarities as me.

Welcome to WP!

Tim

welcome. i'm the same way about obsessions.

Well you do look like you have AS, but no-one can tell you from the things you said. To do that you have to go to specialist.
Some of your traits really remind me. I also have basically the same problems - social situations (obviously), emotional coldness, attention to subject problems, which really make a big problem in university. But you haven't mentioned one very important aspect of autism spectrum disorders - eye contact. You see, you can have those problems and not be autistic. It is not just a bunch of symptoms - there has to be a connection between them. AS should be a connection, but not necessarily. I mean all your problems may relate to other reasons, not necessarily AS. So eye contact is one of the core principles of autism. Another is unusual thinking method - like noticing patterns in situations where most people don't, or paying attention to things that seam unimportant to others. That is the essence of autism, not the lack of ability to make friends. So autism spectrum is not just a number of symptoms, there is a reason for all of them. I've spent some time reeding all kind of scientific articles about autism, and there are many theories about it, but no-one can say the exact reason what causes it. Nobody have yet found autism gene, but it is definite that it is heritable.

So welcome to WP, stick around. There are many people here who have same problems.

Welcome to the unending battlefield of Outer Planet.

I'm the unofficial host of the slaughter, Liquid Ocelot.

Animals are just about love, no complicated emotions or feelings. Body language is easier to read too. I share my home with twelve.

I did the test to and it said I was likely to be an aspie.

But strangely enough I think I have ADHD without hyperactivity.

Also I didn't know that ADHD gives you extreme focus. I think very logically and focus on things too.

Another symton of AS is talking in a monotone voice.

Burocrat great advice

But being diagnosed is not easy and your in the right place to start, read, read and read more, books and as your doing now web sites and start to list the things you feel are reasons why you may be on the autism spectrum, back to when you were very young, as even us aspies learn to adapt and change to a point.

In general my opinion is that accurate diagnosis is a good thing, for several reasons. Firstly, if you don't have Aspergers Syndrome, but something else, it affects what you can do to help yourself (although there is a big overlap between AS and several other disorders/ learning problems etc). Also, it is helpful for family and friends if they are interested about finding out things for themselves.

But remember if on the spectrum or not you are still the same person, our symptoms are a part of who we are - what ever they are.

To view AS Symtoms (Full Official Criteria):
http://asplanet.info/index.php?option=c ... &Itemid=63

With a condition like Asperger it is exceptionally hard because no 2 people are the same. We may have some of the same traits, but we are all individuals in our selves, different personalities, different circumstances and each effected differently. So generalizing about people with Aspergers is difficult, as if you know one person on the autism spectrum disorder, you just know one! We are unique individuals and share traits which has been behind some of the greatest human achievements to date.




But remember

Nice to meet you, hans_rp.

All of you who posted today obviously saw Dateline last night and are posting like you didn't. Especially JerryHatake who said "nice to meet you, hans_rp". What's up with that??

One person resurrected it and the others post unknowingly and anyone else could easily unless someone says that its thought that the creator of this topic is probably the same Hans Peterson guy wanted for murder.

Link back to the topic I heard about this on http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt60122.html

(Belated) Welcome hans_rp!

Try phychopath if you ever read this.