Anyone here familiar with Predictive Index testing?

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It's all the rage at my workplace now. I took it and found out I was a high A and high D which means I am competitive, driven, perfectionist and that I like challenges and solving problems. (Or at least I was successful in giving that impression). It was pretty accurate I'd have to say.

Anyway, I "came out" to my boss and told him I strongly suspected I had Asperger's. I'll have to grant him this, he didn't freak out. His wife is a psych major so he "knows" about this stuff, and he told me he did not think I had it. Ha! Well, if he doesn't think so, then we won't go there as to why I think I fit the profile. He wanted to know if I had been diagnosed and I said no, but as a child I was told I had a "perceptual problem" that in retrospect sounds a whole lot like ASD. I told him that knowing that having this helps me to understand why I have problems dealing with certain issues and that I can't always be expected to deal with them just like everyone else because I am not like everyone else, so that I have to work out other solutions. He was pretty cool about the whole thing, it didn't faze him. He did indicate therapy "might" be in order, well, as far as I know, there isn't any therapy and there isn't any cure, this is just the way I am, but of course I am open to learning new skills and if getting a formal diagnosis helps acquire those, then I just might pursue it anyway. I am tired of living a lie anyhow.

What else makes you think you're AS? I'm not doubting you either, but the qualities you describe in regards to that indexing test could easily be applied to NTs as well.

It's really hard to describe but I have had difficulties all my life, especially in the social realm, there are a lot of things I just don't get, and it is hard for me to learn new things. I have hearing and tactile sensitivities, as a child they told me I had "perceptual disorder" which was explained to me as "the way you perceive life is not the way life really is." If you ever want to build a child's self-confidence that is a good thing to repeatedly tell them. Anyway, the more I read about Asperger's the more it just seemed to fit with what I have experienced. I don't know for sure if it is Aspergers, but what I do know is that ever since I started kindergarden I was not like the other children and they made sure that I knew that. I even had one teacher who went out of her way to encourage the other students to tease me. And even now, I shy away from making friends because all too often I have had people turn on me without explaining why. I have been called "ret*d", "weird", "freak", I have been told I "deserve" the treatment I get "because" I am the way I am, so even if I might be able to fool some people like my boss into thinking I am normal, there are plenty of NT's who seem to have radar when it comes to unmasking those who are just pretending to be like them. So I would say just because some fancy credentialed psychologist hasn't formally diagnosed me does not mean that I am not Aspy.

I had a counselor once who tried to tell me the usual garbage about how nobody is normal, and I looked him in the eye (not easy for me to do, another Aspy trait) and asked him, how is it that you with all your education cannot tell what any child in a playground can with ease, who is and who is not normal. He had no answer. I would say that I have paid many, many, many times over for the name of Aspy, and it is flattering now that people think I am normal, but I am not, never have been, and never will.

Did you take the online Aspie quiz (out of 200)? It should give you a pretty accurate idea.

I took one of the on-line quizzes, I don't remember which one, and I scored pretty high. My mother tells me that when I was a baby I would not look anyone in the face and had to be forced to, I would also spend a lot of time spinning around in circles. Both well-known signs of autism, even back in the 50's.

You also have to understand that I went through a rigorous program of behavior modification designed to eradicate any "weird" tendencies. The goal of this program was to make me normal. Apparently it was successful beyond anyone's wildest dreams, because while there are some people (like my health care provider) who can pick up on the residual traits and say yes, I kind of figured you were, there are others who insist that there is no way that I can possibly be Aspergers. So I am damned if I do and damned if I don't. All I can say is learning about Aspergers has helped me understand why I have deficiencies in some areas and what I can do about it, which is far more productive than thinking that God has cursed me somehow because I displeased Him in some unknown way. He may have indeed cursed me, I don't know, but I don't waste any more time thinking about it or Him. I just get on with my life the best I can.