Do you ever feel like you might not have AS?

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No.

Could you expand?

Glad I could help

I use to forget my sunglasses all the time, now I leave them, my wallet, and my keys stacked together on the counter, it has really cut down on me forgetting them.

Wow..........I actually feel a lot better reading this! There are more of us non-computer AS people. I think of computers and people as similar. I talk to my computer quite often. In truth I enjoy the "company” of both and could do without neither but I don't understand people nor computers. You think you're going to "input" info into either and get an expected ":output" or a response but sometimes you get a completely unexpected "output". I don't know what kind of processing went on to come up with this surprising response, I don't know how to respond to it and it's maddening! I suppose if I learned how computers operate I would not feel this way. The only difference is with computers I haven't had much interest in trying to learn how they operate, with people I have tried and failed. There is no pattern, no logic , no sense! Statistics and facts I like, they change, and aren't always what you expect but I'm able to figure out why or if there are contradictions figure out patterns and reason about why they exist etc. With people and with computers I just get stuck at a certain point.

Btw ocdgirl123 I can relate to a lot of your posts. PDD-NOS can mean that your symptoms are sub-threshold but I think there is a good chance you're on the spectrum. Also if you were diagnosed when you were 5 you probably had some intervention since then (a social skills group maybe) which has improved your social skills and it probably began at a relatively young age( compared to what some people here received. I'm a lot older than you and I got my AS diagnosis only a few years after it was added to the DSM. I was diagnosed when I was 13. Still.....my "social problems" and "odd behaviours" were noted since kindergarten and I was put in social skills groups starting at 5 1/2. I do think my symptoms now would be more severe if it wasn't for that.

OP sounds like you don't have it, If I were you I wouldn't even bother paying to see if it's a yay or nay, purely coz it sounds like a waste of time for you and the psychologist.

Unless of course your 'symptoms' are in fact impeding you in anyway, but it sounds like you're just a maybe a teenager who is not good at sports and normal in having a few interests.

Maybe your 'meltdowns' are just in fact plain ol' teenage mood swings, and not autistic in nature.

I remember why I stopped coming here....

When I first heard about Aspergers from my mother as she thought I had it, she told me the symptoms/signs etc and I was like "yep that's me," although I don't ever really think of myself as having Aspergers, it's just me and I don't let a name/title/diagnosis get in the way of how I live my life. It has helped as I've been able to address and deal with certain issues.

Don't self diagnose, just please, don't.

I really REALLY do not understand why people want a label for themselves, it's not fun, it's not cool, and not useful unless your getting help with issues associated with that label.

My twin sister is THE most empathetic person I know, and she is more Aspergic than myself. So no. Alot of people that have Aspergers are empathetic, it just comes out in a different way.

No, it does not mean you don't have Asperger's Syndrome. Mostly what you read about with regards to empathy and AS means:

* Being unable to read nonverbal cues and understand that it is appropriate to make a sympathetic gesture.
* Knowing what kind of gesture to make

There are other issues that come into play as well, but sympathizing with a movie character's plight doesn't rule anything out.

Also, I don't think the above two points are universally true of everyone with AS.



Having already self-diagnosed, and with no plans to change my mind:

I didn't want a label, I wanted to understand things I kept seeing in myself. I didn't do this for fun or to be cool, and frankly I have idea where you would get the idea that anyone would self-diagnose for fun or coolness.

Getting help with issues associated with the AS label includes coming to this forum for support and information.

So: I don't understand your objections.

To be fair, I think I am entitled to investigate why I feel a persistent anxiety throughout most of the day, among other issues. Sure, I could see a doctor, but from my experience the standard response is that I'm worrying about nothing. And even if they do diagnose something, they could be wrong. After all, it's not like looking at a broken arm.

PS. Thanks Verd. I was thinking something along those lines. After all, there must be a difference between an AS's so-called apathy deficiencies and the apathy deficiencies of, say, a sociopath, to give a crude example.

Yeah sometimes I wonder when I stare blankly at the sky and chat non stop to someone who isn't listening while I keep bumping into people.
Autistic? Nah.

On the other side of the coin, I feel that I have HFA other than AS, not that there's anything wrong with that. A lot of people with HFA are successful and they're not all helpless like Rain Man.

If I was tested today, I wonder if I'd be given the AS label, or the HFA label.

Meh, the label just came free with the diagnosis. Maybe I missed a special offer where I would have been given a toffee instead?

What's with this issue about labels?
I know that those brown vertical things with leaves attached are labelled "trees", and when I say "tree" to someone they know what I mean.
I know those feathered tweeting things are labelled "birds", so "bird song" means something to someone else.
I know my particular flavour of Autism is labelled "Asperger's", so "Asperger's" summarises a particular set of difficulties.
What's the problem with any of this?

You never said you suffered from anxiety in the original post....

Sure everyone is entitled to do whatever they damn well please, you're lucky you can live in a country which facilities such normal desires.

If your experience with trained health professionals is 'don't worry,' maybe you should do what they suggest. If you are concerned that they will diagnose you with something and 'they could be wrong' why worry about getting a label placed on you in the first place if you have in your head 'they may be wrong.' You are not a trained professional with knowledge and experience with diagnosing things of this nature. You don't have the diagnostic criteria, or have a deep knowledge of such things, so don't worry about the outcome. You are taking steps to assess issues and help you live a more fulfilling life.

From your list, it sounds like maybe you just have a generalised anxiety disorder, but hey I'm not saying what you do or do not have, I am not a trained professional in this area.

Go to a Dr and a specialist and stop ooing or ahhing, and get whatever you have that is bothering you enough to post on this forum sorted.

As I'm functional enough to hold a job, I question if I really have AS/HFA.

I can see lots of ways I do have it, but at times I seem perfectly "normal."

I do see where you are coming from. Keep in mind, though, I have not listed all the symptoms here (they are in another thread called Self-diagnosis, under my old name el_salvador, if you are interested). I do plan on raising it with my GP next time I see him, but I don't see the problem in researching (including posting on a forum like this) before I do. In fact, if I hadn't been researching I would never have known that the anxiety could potentially be connected with other things that weren't quite right in my life (and neither would a GP, I would think). This seems to be the case for many adults who are eventually diagnosed AS.

So I'm sorry for annoying you, but I do feel there is a point to my posts than general hand-wringing and "oohing and aahing".

+1 it's human nature to want to/try to categorize information , objects and people in our word. I can provide you with many studies that confirm this with empirical evidence (from my cognitive psych course) if anyone wants.