Define "mild"

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I have no idea if I'm extremely mild or not. My psychiatrist said so, but it seems like some other aspies have a better established social life, etc. The majority of my initial social contacts end in mutual boredom or just finding nothing in common. A few even go nowhere because of things I have done (in one case, being negative, and in another case, I'm not exactly sure but can guess).

On the other hand, I have not, so far, had interpersonal problems in the workplace, unlike most aspies. However, I have a variety of mannerisms and figures of speech that are not really gender appropriate that I can't control, which people do notice. This causes other problems.

I also have more trouble understanding sarcasm than many aspies my age.

So I have no idea if I am "mild" or not.

Part of a mild/moderate/severe scale.

I'm most likely mild. I went through high school just fine, I did have trouble understanding sarcasm and learning social rules but I managed to in the end to an acceptable enough level. All in all, back then and still now, I pass as eccentric, but people won't suspect a thing unless I tell them. And in general, I can function well in NT society. I haven't had a meltdown in years and shutdowns don't happen very often. And nothing else comes to mind at the moment.

I don't know about you, but I am really becoming tired of this word "mild". According to these psychologists/friends/parents, if you are even the slightest bit successful in life then you are only allowed to have an extremely mild case. But how can you use terms such as these to describe a disorder that depends so strongly upon context? Sure, I may appear to be a mild case at times, but put me in a crowded, noisy grocery store for example and I am certainly not a mild case.

But then there has to be mild and severe extrema for every spectrum, so what do I know?

Many of us who are undiagnosed Aspies are by default "mild" by the very fact we got through our lives in NT society relatively unscathed (except in my case having the introvert tag). Another way of describing "mild" is the ability not to be detected by NTs as having any odd/unusual behavior/stims/appearance/speech etc.

I understand very well what you mean TyriOn. I am also diagnosed "mild", but in some setting I am not mild at all. I think the reason why I am diagnosed as mild is because the diagnoses came after being set in a quiet room with a doctor and replaying to both written and oral questions. And I felt that those questions din`t say much about the stress situations I will most likely have a melt down in. I got the feeling that if only I can work some, can live for myself without help and can shop grosseries alone then I am a mild case.

I think that the most important is what you feel and think about the subject yourself. I think that the profesionals sometimes is very keen to put diagnoses on people, and let the person be the dignoses and treat the pasient as a diagnose, not a person.
Anyway, in what you write I got an understanding that you want some friends. Feel free to PM me if you like.

Environment (breaks, hand you're dealt) will often determine autism. I'm 'mild' in a hippie-run hammock shop but I'd be 'wild' working at WalMart.

It can also be difficult to distinguish from complicated reactions to earlier stress, bullying, scoldings, misunderstandings and so, if you are a nervous type.
I believe, that the most reliable signs must be the neurological ones, vestibular, proprieceptive things, unusual sensitivities and social confusion.
Liane Holliday Willeys autobiography is a very thorough descripton of what moderate/severe AS feels like, and I now know, that my own "things" are very mild, but they still have to be handeled.

I'm not diagnosed but people I know that think I have aspergers think I'm high functioning or mild. If you are intelligent and articulate people don't seem to realize that you might have a lot of other problems that you can't just overcome by being smart.

hanyo: True, true. And if you have AS your IQ is more likely above normale.

When I say I have AS people sometimes ask me "are you sure you haven't got HFA? You seem too low-functioning to have Asperger's".
I don't know why, but people I know seem to think that HFA is different from AS and that it is lower-functioning than AS. I think this is because of the "Asperger eccentric genius" stereotype.
But I don't think I am that low-functioning anyway.

When I was a child my AS was so severe that at the beginning it was mistaken with schizophrenia.

Nowdays, people who don't know about my AS ask me if I am a schizoid or a schizotypal, or if I have other stuff.
Sometimes people even think I am a narcissist.

People are not surprised when I tell them I have AS. They usually say things like "it was easy to tell", and similar.

My IQ was tested and it is above-avarage, but people don't believe it when they're told that. Even my language is very good but people still think I'm stupid.
Whatever...

I think that the AS+attention deficit disorder combo makes me look lower-functioning.

chlov: All of that dignoses that you describe is often wrongly given to AS`s. Maybe not so big surprise, because AS`s often have some of that symptoms without having many enough to be given that dignose. For example so is the ICD 10 diagnose criteria for schiotyp personality disorder very similar to the diagnose criteria for AS.

But the main point is not to "be" the diagnose, but being yourself.