"You're not normal" rant

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misspuff, you're right, I misspoke. It wasn't an actual written diagnosis from my shrink, we were just talking about it.

thanks y'all for your thoughts. Maybe I'll show this thread to my wife.

Anyway, when I heard about AS a year or so ago, I was so relieved to find out that there were other people who looked at life like I do and have all my 50 years. Since I was a child I was very introverted and quiet. I didn't know how to be anything else. It took me 30 years to learn how to talk to girls.. I have to be in some kind of hobby or interest always in my life, the interests change but the focus is always there. I'm an engineer - electronics and software, robotics kind of stuff.

After reading some threads here I can see that I don't have all AS symptoms or traits, but most of them to one degree or another. I think definitely there is a spectrum of AS intensity just as every person is different.

If you have a few minutes, I found a wonderful article a few days ago about why Autistic and AS types of people are more honest than others:

Incharacter.org

I don't have Aspergers, so maybe I can give you the side of your family members.


Your daughter didn't see her phone and likely thought it was sitting on the couch where you were.

So because she couldn't see it laying next to you, she thought maybe you were sitting on it.

I think that is a fairly understandable thing for her to think. Especially if it was just inches away from you and she couldn't tell.


At that point, I would have picked up the phone and said "No, I'm not sitting on your phone, it's right here."


If you simply say "I'm not sitting on it", she still doesn't know where it is. But you did know. So it seems like you would not let her continue looking all over the house when you knew the whole time it was right next to you.












Example, if you ask someone if they know where the TV remote is and they say "Yes", well that doesn't help you out too much. Most would say "Yes, it's over on the loveseat".

Even looking at it from a courtesy standpoint, you wouldn't want to keep looking all day if the person you asked knew exactly where it was.

Last edited by Erich on 28 Jul 2007, 12:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Please back that statement up with an academic reference.

Interesting article!

I tend to take things literally when directed at me. But my own thinking is rather abstract, associative and depth oriented.
When reading nonfiction, I want to be able to make complete sense of the subject...no gaps in knowledge. Of course, that almost never happens.
Most day to day comments are superficial.
People tend to interpret events in accordance to their desires. Perceptions are bent in order to justify the viewing angle.

I was quoting what my psychologist told me.

He's spent 7 years at the University of Toronto getting his BA and his masters, then went on to get a doctorate (not sure where). Upon moving to Vancouver, he worked on research projects before eventually becoming the Head of Psychology at VGH (the largest hospital in western Canada). He practiced there for about a decade before founding his own cognitive child development clinic and working with many children, teens, and adults with AS.

Asperger's is a neurological disorder. It's a distinction between neurologically typical mental framework and mental framework on the autistic spectrum disorder. As he has explained it to me, you cannot be "half-way" to a malfunction in the way your brain works. It is unlike a mood, personality, or behavioural disorder. It is possible to be "a little moody" or "a little depressed" because those ailments are a manifestation of chemical imbalances in your brain.

If you think about it logically, it makes sense.

You can't have half a broken leg nor can you be half autistic. You either have a broken leg or you don't. You either have AS or you don't. Of course, just like how a human leg can break in different places, cause different kinds of pains, and need different lengths of time to heal, AS works much in the same manner. A person with AS needs to fit into a specific diagnostic criteria in order to have AS, just as an x-ray needs to show a break in the bone in order for someone to have a broken leg.

I think perhaps the Dr meant you either have AS or you don't...I don't think any neurologist much less a credible one would say you have to have ALL of the symptoms. If anyone had every single symptom of AS that is known to run they would not be able to leave their home or function in much capacity. Actually i think it might look quite a bit like profound autism.

Just for an oversimplified example some people have sensory integration disorder...some have aversion to lights, some to sounds, some can't tell where their bodies are in space...some have all these issues...some have only a couple. They ALL have sensory integration disorder.

Okay, I wasn't specific enough.
When I say that you need to have to "fit the diagnostic criteria", what I mean is that you have to have either one or two of the symptoms from each category. For example, under the sensory stimulation category, you must at least be sensitive to light, touch, sound, taste & smell, or movement in a very bad way. Some people with AS are sensitive to all of these, some of us are only sensitive to one or two, but everyone with AS is has sensory stimulation issues. Everyone with AS has social issues. Everyone with AS has motor issues or a tic/stim. Etc, etc, etc. If you lack one of these essential things, then it's probably not Asperger's.

That's what I meant.

I think if someone informed me I wasn't normal, I'd be strongly tempted to congratulate them on their highly developed perception.

Incorrect. AS sufferers exhibit a variety of symptoms. A person with a broken leg exhibits only one - a broken bone in the leg.

Well, that ain't what you said.

Let me just add in here that they say ABNORMAL because it is unlike the greater majority of people. However who is to say the greater majority of people are not less developed therefor the worse off of the two. "Sometimes majority rules just means all the fools are on the same side." A great majority of all scientific advances and artistic revelation is owed to those who exhibit strong signs of being "abnormal" neurologically.

Amen to this

As far as misspuff's comments, you're not really correct. Since ASDs are on a spectrum there are ranges of severity. Yes, it's probably true that "you're either autistic or not", it's also true that you can be impaired at different degrees.
There are some autistic people that aren't considered disabled at all. There are a lot of factors in there. I don't believe in "high functioning", "low functioning" nor that there is a clinical difference between Asperger's and "Kanner's autism". However, there are different presentations of autism and degrees in how those traits affect us.

I don't believe you have to have tics or motor skill problems to have Asperger's. I think those are just some traits you may have.

some women find any excuse to be mad. its just them taking anger out on you. i wouldn't take it personally. no offense to the girls here, but some girls are VERY emotional.
i had a gf that i just shrugged off a lot of bs, and she ended up thinking i didnt care about her. so be careful that dont happen.

Kanner's Autism is SEVERE, it features retardation, sublevel IQs, inability to function on a daily level. Now, to make a distinction on the spectrum is fine, a spectrum implies a continuous range of traits or symptoms. High-Function/Asperger just means that as the person is of normal or even high intelligence, they can actually hold jobs, have rough sex, pay their rent on time, hang out at Starbucks without attracting too much unwanted attention, etc. Kanner's Autism are the kids at Creative Clay, the kids that even autistics like me see and think, "God, some people really are worse off." That was the point of coining the term Autism Spectrum, because we ALL exhibit some impairment in empathizing and certain other traits, but NOT all to the same degree.
I believe the point the girl made earlier was merely that to be diagnosed as autistic, you have to meet the DSM-IV criteria for an Autism Spectrum condition, if you don't meet 1 or more traits in each category, you may be PDD-NOS or just a very odd person, but NOT an autistic one. There is a tendency, regrettable in our society, that everyone seems to think that if they have some traits, yet not enough to be diagnosed, that they have some disorder or other. It's true that diagnostic criteria change, but till they do you either do or not have some condition.