Scales of AS?

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I've only been into this for a few days but I'd like to have a discussion about something, maybe everyone can contribute or maybe I'll just be told, Who knows

So far I know there are atleast a few degrees of how intense Aspergers can be, a rough explanation;

Mild - People who have a number of Aspie specific traits but can function in Social situations easier than the average aspie.

Strong - People who cannot, be part of social situations.

Strong but adapted - People who were initially unable to read signals, Understand sarcasm etc. but through years of learning have found that they can see the signs of such things, and pretend to understand even if they don't.

I'd love to hear what people think, I'm a newbie here myself and I've probably gotten something wrong I'm happy to edit in/out options
And I realize there are people who CAN read signals but don't want to, and people who can't read signals but want to, I'm talking about Ability, not desire.

Thank you

I don't think social ability is the main thing affecting how easy it is for people to socially integrate

I think it's how a person looks that is the main factor, secondly how they come across ie the manner in which they speak and
expressions on their face while speaking and thirdly what they actually say

If you look ok you can talk any amount of boring, inept crap in any way you like and people will want to know you
- believe me I've seen it enough with my own eyes!

if you don't look 'good enough'/'the part', forget it with most people

There are four sub-types of Asperger's Syndrome, although they don't form part of any diagnostic criteria. They are (working from memory here):

Aloof - avoids contact, I guess more towards the "classic" autism, sometimes called Kanner's Syndrome.

Active but Odd - actively seeks contact but isn't good at social interaction, so not always successful.

Passive - Rarely initiates, but accepts approaches and is friendly enough.

Stilted - Follows the learned rules of social interaction, manages reasonably well, sometimes called the "invisible Aspie", shades into eccentric NT style. Difficult to spot, hard to diagnose, possibly the older and more able people.


I can get sarcasm and irony etc, as long as the tone of voice reflects it. But I'm very easily fooled if someone slips a joke into a conversation in the same speech manner as their "serious" talk. It's embarrassed me quite often, I'm just slow at picking these things up.

All those things factor into social ability, I've learned how to stand when talking about a few things for example,
Or when it's funny to give unsure looks,
Or what words work best in situations, I LEARNED All of that through obsessing, it's all part of people's ability to socialize isn't it?


SteroeLake, do you think I should re-make the poll to follow those four sub-types?

Well, that would be of interest to me, but I should say, I'm probably on the NT side of any dividing line, so wouldn't be qualified to make any choice, unless you included "aSocial NT" or something like that.

The bit that I find hard to reconcile is when people including yourself say "I can deal with that social situation but that's because I learned it". Everyone learns it, don't they? So now I find myself introspecting about whether my somewhat limited social skills were "learned" or if they are "intuitive". I don’t really know how to tell the difference. If there's a way, I'd like to know, because it's a key question as to whether I am Mild AS or Neuro (Nearly) Typical. Or just Socially Phobic or even nothing more than introverted.

Anyway, I don’t want to hijack your thread, I would say, make your poll for the options that you are interested in.

How you look is nothing to do with social ability - it's completely random; how you were born

Hmm, I'm a mild Aspie but I think I'm in between both the mild and strong as how you described here. I get anxious and socially phobic in social situations (in other words, extremely shy), but I can act normal at social situations, so I can handle them enough to make me appear as a shy NT, if that makes sense. But I do tend to avoid social situations if I can, like parties.

I 've never had much of a comparison to say, but I have adapted quite a bit over time. I wish I had learned much earlier that it's okay, and even expected to join in conversations sometimes. I still feel remote from others around me, but I find people interesting to observe.

Yup. I've heard guys say exactly that about women. "I don't listen to a word she says. She's so hot to look at."

Ofcourse, but you can have a different posture, different neutral facial expressions, the way you move, simple things like whether you use gestures or not, these all count towards experience, and while you CAN be born with these, you can also change and adapt with them.

also I can't add new options once voting has started, Damn.

I think you've come up with a reasonable summery, Cadagan. It makes me glad when I see teenagers here. If only I had the kinds of resources available to you when I was your age. Some of us didn't get to where you are regarding autism awareness until we reached our 40's.

Anyways, I'd have to say for myself strong but adapted. Or maybe more like adapting. It's an ongoing process. Lots of trail and error. I was given the sink or swim method when I turned 18 and I managed to dog paddle my way into functioning on my own within society. I'm glad I was given a chance instead of just them taking the easy route for them and me, by placing me on disability.

We all learn to adapt, in whatever way, according to our own individual natures.
While I have adapted, I keep things on a very simplistic easy to manage level.

Now I'd have to say all of the above apply to me depending on circumstances and mood. A lot of it seems to go in cycles. For quite a while I was very Active but Odd, but now I'm in Aloof mode. I'm down to about zero contact right now outside of this stuff.

(I'm in the process of moving out of state, which for me is a monumental task, so I've gone into aloof mode to avoid overload. Wasn't really a choice, like throwing a switch, that's just how it's panned out... in case anyone was wondering)
.

Exactly and it works the other way round too ie if you aren't attractive or average-looking enough the average person is not interested in what you've got to say or in talking to you in the first place, seeing as you aren't seen as having sufficient social status in their eyes

This type of person has nothing of interest I want to hear anyway but that's besides the point; I am just pointing out how the world works

my ASD is "mild", but I have comorbidities, so I'm not really adapted.

The difference is how and when you learnt it.

Firstly, many social skills are learnt unconsciously by NTs, and consciously by AS people. For example, NTs don't think about how to follow someone's eye gaze to figure out what they're looking at. This is a learnt skill for them (typically acquired around 1 year old). I'm not sure if it's conscious or unconscious when it's first learnt, but certainly by the time they're old enough to talk it's an unconscious skill.

In contrast, many AS are slower to learn that skill in the first place, and once they learn it, it's often a consciously applied skill instead of an automatic one. Even as an adult, I have to consciously try to follow a human's gaze to see what they want. (Oddly enough, though, I do it automatically and easily with cats.)

Very mild, at least in everything except social skills.