Diagnosing Aspergers

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Hello everyone.

I recently watched a documentary centred around a young boy with Aspergers and i noticed that he and I shared a lot of similar traits. For example an aversion to large crowds, difficulty "connecting" with people and making friends, a literal mind, questioning nature (always wanting to know why and so forth). I have done a little bit of research and whilst there are some traits i share with "Aspies" there are some i don't. For example i'm not particularly clumsy and am, in fact, training to be a dancer. I do develop obsessions but i dont think they are particularly unhealthy (maybe thats due to my parents forcing me to not spend too long any new thing). I have a good head for facts and I will often scour the internet absorbing knowledge and finding out new and interesting things. I'm not great with numbers though and in fact mental addition is one of my weak points.

I do have above average intelligence with an I.Q of around 130 (i hear thats often synonymous with aspergers). However I dont usually have any trouble with metaphors or humour and do enjoy comedy a great deal. I enjoy absurdist comedy but also wordplay and situational as well.

I also suffer from depression (which runs in the family incidentally). I hear thats often associated with aspergers too.

I most definately have trouble socially. I have (I think) 3 close friends. My old drama teacher, my old dance teacher and my mother.

I dont have a problem with lying and have lied so often throughout my life in regards to how I am feeling or whether I am okay that now it is almost instinct.

What I suppose I am asking is for your advice, opinions or thoughts on whether you think I have aspergers or whether i'm just socially inept and depressive. I'm happy to provide more information or answer any questions you may have.

Thanks very much for any help you're able to give.

Nice to meet you, mikelland1.

To WrongPlanet!! !

Welcome aboard Wrong Planet, new-citizen mikelland1.

Welcome^^

Hello Mike. I'm new to the boards too and came to my realisation on my having AS the same way as you. I saw a documentary on AS that dropped my jaw and made me weep with that realisation. My whole life made sense in that moment. My whole life.

Weird that you mention the IQ, I'd not come across that before, but mine is in that area too. I also love wordplay and puns and get and enjoy a wide range of humour.

My understanding is, that because AS and ASD are a collection and a collage of symptoms and behaviours, not every person on the spectrum will tick every Aspie box and everyone will be affected in all those areas to a greater or lesser extent. For example, I don't stim (as far as I know), but so many of the other disparate and seemingly unrealated things that are indicative of AS fit perfectly.

What other condition links bad handwriting with senstivity to loud noises? Difficulty in social situations with an inablility to imagine what characters in a novel might look like? Hatred of strong flavours and texture of food with the need to submerge myself in numerous obsessions? None that I have come across except AS or an ASD.

It was the number and otherwise unrelatedness of these tye of things which rang so clear and true to me that clinched it.

Hello.

Welcome to WP!

Same here. It seems like half the time I can understand humor/sarcasm, but the other half is when I take literally.



Also same with me. I learned about Aspergers from a doctor I was seeing about my problems with depression when I described the problems I had socially. When I did some research and went down the list of symptoms and saw how many of them fit me, I thought, "Oh my god, this explains everything."

I'm fine with humour when I'm expecting it (like watching a comedy programme), but I do miss some real life examples. At work one day, I found a mug on the side that had been left to go mouldy. It stank and as I passed my MD (he's a jokey, nice person) on my way to wash it out, he saw it and said, "Hang about, that's mine!" So I tried to pass him the mug, leading to confusion on both our parts.

If you catch me unprepared, the aspie literalness is right there, ready to make me look like a fool

From the look of thing it seems I am indeed an Aspie. I tried to go out with a few friends and the total isolation and the feeling of being so out of place clinched it for me i geuss. I ended up walking 2 miles home. On my own. In the dark. In Leeds. Its probabaly a miracle i wasn't mugged or murdered the way they make it sound up here. Anyway it gave me time to think. Not that I really need it, all my mind does is think constantly. And i realised I couldnt understand why other people where having such a good time. I can understand talking to people. Its fun, you can joke and laugh and discuss interesting things. But the music was so loud talking was impossible, and after a while I started tuning it out. But it was so loud I couldnt hear anything else either. I think at that moment i understood what it must be like to be deaf a little better.

I think i'm going to talk to my dance teacher about it. If nothing else maybe it can help her at least attempt to understand and maybe stop her fobbing me off with patronising "Well you have to figure that out for yourself" whenever she dosn't know an answer.

Hi, welcome..

Discovering if your on the autism spectrum, if you have AS can take a while and I often feel people are there own best judges, to be honest the biggest misconceptions of people being on the autism spectrum is that we are all the same, we are not... in fact can be very diverse and different. So its not a matter of a simply check list, I wasn't diagnosed with any think until in my late 40s, I have many co morbid, associated conditions.

Autism is the center, the differently minded part, as for diagnosis.. I feel its best before thinking about being diagnosed, write down as much information as you can will really help, back to when you were a child. As we get older we learn to change and adapt, does not mean we do not still have those differences, do what your doing now research and read as much as you can and then decide, if you feel you are I always say its best to know for sure before being diagnosed, as its not about the label, its about true identity.

Some things you can do, list, criteria ands test:
AS Symtoms (Full Official Criteria) and take the AQ Test:
http://asplanet.info/index.php?option=c ... &Itemid=63

Good luck and remember your not alone on your journey

Not so. There are many NT geniuses. In fact there are more NT geniuses than Aspie geniuses because there are many more NTs than Aspies.

Aspie is NOT a synonym for bright.

ruveyn