Self diagnosed people here don't have aspergers

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Quack,quack. Is that Aspie enough for everyone?

AMEN!


Merle

Agreed. I mean he makes himself "normal" just by reading about it? Aspies try our entire lives to emulate NT behavior in order to fit into society, believe me, it's not something your gonna learn in short fashion.

god... sound teh alarms....

i think he's might just try to be saying he can try to anticipate WHERE he might run into trouble...

i have to do this as well... teaching and talking a lot makes me have to be 2-3 steps ahead of what students are thinking...

not saying i'm that graceful at thinkng on my feet... but with the repetition that comes with teaching the same class over and over... you get a grasp on the general thought processes and inquiries of the students (in a senes, you're taking a consensus of logic in the works! cause you have 30-some-odd data points whose job it is to ask questions and point out anything confusing or weird... AND THEY DO)... in such a sense... i sound a lot smarter the second and thrid time i've taught a class as there are fewer kinks in the flow and such... it's not that i'm necessarily any smoother or better adapted to the situation... i've just had the whole gambit to run through a couple times already... and the whole array of questions is generally presented and answered already)... ie anticipation and avoidance... it's not so much OH IM GONNA FIX MYSELF INSTANTANEOUSLY

you can then start applying these behavioral circumstances to new lectures and such that you have to give... you begin to be able to anticipate where people will get hung up... and avoid that situation.

of course this is my own working example but i think it applies elsewhere and is what the person was kinda talking about...

it's one of those "coping skills" that adult aspies have to hone throughout their life... and they do, which is why it's hard to DX adults... so don't say you can't* improve.... maybe not on the issue itself, but definitely on the IMPACT that these circumstances of the issue have on you...

it is a type of associative learning, i would say...

edit: *

Knowing about AS has helped me a lot. Knowing about it hasn't made me normal, of course, but it HELPS to know. For example, I've stopped assuming that I will be particularly good at something because everyone else finds it easy, or that I will like something because everyone else likes it.

I understand now that I will never learn to like bars and malls and parties, and I can forgive myself for just wanting to go home. I will never find it easy to "read between the lines" when people are talking, but I am learning to consciously analyze conversations and statements to find hidden meanings. I will never learn to tolerate wearing lace despite its overwhelming itchiness, so I don't buy it anymore.

Knowing about AS has even helped me choose a career. Although I might learn to muddle through (because I do not believe I am incapable of pursuing any career), I will never be happy working in politics- and I'll probably never be very good at it, because I am oblivious to hidden agendas and I always say the wrong thing. However, I think I will do very well as a computer programmer; I'm very good at logic and languages, and I would rather spend my time in front of a computer screen than interacting with people in the real world.

I don't particularly want a diagnosis. I don't know what I would do with one. If knowing about AS has helped me, then what difference does it make whether or not I have been diagnosed by a doctor? For that matter, what difference does it make whether or not I am really an aspie?

I am a self-diagnosed Aspie. I would like to have an official Asperger's diagnosis at some point, because I want verify that I understand my behavior in a more exact context. As someone who is self-diagnosed, however, I always leave open the possibility that I do not have Asperger's. To not have it and have instead either social anxiety or bipolar disorder (runs in my family) or another disorder isn't an outcome I view as excessively problematic. Also, unlike with Asperger's, both those disorders can themselves be treated with medication. (I was going to say also that, unlike Asperger's, both SAD and bipolar result from a chemical imbalance--but then I remembered the recent study from UAB about serotonin, a brain chemical, being related to Asperger's.)

A criticism I would like to give to some on this site who may in fact have a Asperger's diagnosis of their own: they have a tendency to "baptize" individuals into their community without considering enough objective evidence first. I notice a lot of times on these forums, someone will drop a post in the "Getting to Know Each Other" forum giving their life story or a few paragraphs about things they've done that they consider weird, and then as if on cue there are five posts in reply each saying the same thing, "Oh, you sound like an Aspie to me." Some even take it to the extreme and assert some newcomer's Aspie-ness as a foregone conclusion: "Duh. You're an Aspie. Stop worrying about it like the rest of us. And welcome to WP!" I am not saying, here, that one must refute someone who is self-diagnosed from calling themselves an Aspie, participating in the Aspie culture, or from participating in other things that people with Asperger's do. Such people, myself included, should, however, be aware of the criteria for Asperger's (and, if not, informed of it by the AS community so they don't make an erroneous self-diagnosis) and be able to give reasonable examples from their life that fit them.

The people with diagnosed Asperger's I have chatted with online do sometimes share interests with me and most are friendly and interesting to talk to. It is like I feel comfortable for the first time. But I also must not let the "community effect" muddle my thinking when it comes to self-diagnosis.

Last edited by hyperbolic on 03 May 2007, 4:07 am, edited 2 times in total.

i dunno about the self diagnosed thing, am still wiating for my little boy to be confirmed if he has aspergers or not.

amen.... halleluhah!

teaching has helped me recognize when people aren't understanding things... cause in a class room setting... that would be where they raise their hand and/or just voice their confusion. looking at that confused face x __________ students on a daily basis...

and i'm finding that i'm able to do that conscious CONSTANT analyzation for my interactions A LOT more successfully...

and again, it's not that i'm anymore graceful speaking with people.... but i do catch on a lot faster when i'm tlaking and people aren't getting what i'm saying...

kinda helps me steer.... in a boat-like fashion.

figuring out WHY i'm not being understood is a whole other ballpark.

I just tell people to say what they mean.
Im not psychic and if i have to 'read between lines' it is just not worthwhile.
May as well try and predict what lottery ball is going to come out.

I tell them, you have to just say it. No, I will never get it. Yes, I am really am that dense. Cuts through all the crap. I don't have the time or patience for it. Amazingly, that seems to work with them and they do just say it.

The other thing I tell them is that those synapsis are either misfiring or dead.


I've said all of this long before Lorna Wing translated Asperger. You have to find a way to get along in this world. That was mine.

yes, but it won't happen overnight. There are too many quirks in our behavior, and too much practice involved, for it to be done seemingly overnight just because someone read an article about autism. It takes years to learn, not seconds or minutes.

Who'se to say what normal is? Like I've stated, we may not socialise well by NT standards but we also have an intellectual gift. It evens out, so we're not really a disability, we're just different. Differently abled if you will. This is why so many engineers and inventors are said to be Aspergian.

k didn't mean to jump at ya... i just don't like this whole NT-witchhunt attitude

i'm sure the guy was elaborating on his recent success...

i know i feel like a GD genius everytime i catch myself doing something weird... just NOTICING the precise time of my error or deviation is so much of an advancement...

give the guy a break!

People are always thinking they have aspergers and their doctor is wrong, but has anyone positively diagnosed with aspergers ever thought their doctor incorrectly diagnosed them?

Yes me. That was before i knew what aspergers was.
I thought i was i schizoid.

Sedaka,

You mentioned that you can normally catch on quite quickly when people are talking to you. I just wondered whether you often had meetings or other discussions that seemed circular - you cover the same ground over and over.

I'm never sure whether I'm the one causing this repetitive style conversation, or whether others choose to reiterate their points assuming that I haven't understood.

As regards the topic under discussion I'm self-diagnosed autism spectrum (AS? OCPD?) - although I'm not sure whether my traits are severe enough to fall into the AS category as such. I understand the difficulty with self diagnosis - particularly the lack of some sort of point of reference.

I know the difficulties I experience on a regular basis with misunderstandings though - honestly sometimes I might as well be talking a different language.

Rog