How Many People Here Are actually Autistic or have Aspergers

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I'm not diagnosed with Autism or Asperger's, but I do think it's a possibility. Who knows, I'll find out one day, or I won't, it depends on if I ever bring myself to go to the psychiatrist. Either way, my son is autistic, as is my mom.

There is a very Us vs Them mentality here. To be 100% honest, it can be very off putting. It sucks reading a post that has little to do with AS vs NT turn into just that. I have noticed I lurk more nowadays then when I first found WP. It seems some people here can be very intolerant of people who are different from them( "NTs"). I don't think this mentality was here when I first arrived. That and it seems the idea of someone not on the spectrum having a valid point is blasphemy to some.

That being said, I don't know if i AS or not. I have some of the symptoms ( social, interests, stims) and others aren't so prominent ( sensory issues are kinda mild, but still there). I didn't know anything about autism until i worked at a summer camp for kids with special needs, and saw a lot of my own childhood behaviors in the Autistic.

Last edited by Fayed on 08 Dec 2008, 10:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yep, that about sums me up too, but used far fewer words, much better than I managed.

Thanks!

Ok, good. I was being sarcastic too . Hard to tell in print for anyone, NT or AS alike. Thats the one downside to these forums. In general I dislike using emoticons but I know that they are the best you can do to replace actual human interaction with print

I agree that general wierdness i better than ONE single label like autism. Those of us with (high functioning) autism ought to empathize with anyone who is not 'neurotypical'.

Daniel plays the RB card

Wait. First you accuse unnamed individuals who didn't post on this thread of being frauds. Now you're saying that "a lot of faces that haven't been to [sic] visible" is proof that we're frauds. Make up your mind, please. You can't have it both ways. I'd also appreciate it if you'd stop being so cryptic. If you're going to insinuate something, stop being so vague.

BTW, there have been several previous threads like this one before. Maybe some people have (wisely) decided not to read or post to this one because this nonsense has been done to death on this board.

Or maybe not. People will choose to read and respond to threads as they choose. It doesn't prove anything, except to those who insist on reading into everything. If I were so inclined, I might attempt to un-diagnose people based on that trait. Of course, presuming the ability to diagnose or un-diagnose someone through the Internet is completely illogical and ridiculous.

I don't think that, either. However, his opening post just doesn't make sense to me:



So it's not so much that AS can spot other AS like magic, because the diagnosis is complicated. But the reverse statement, that it appears that huge numbers of people here aren't autistic or AS, is not something that I think any AS or autistic person would conclude after being here, if they had any extensive experience in the NT world.

I think your post is extremely judgmental and negative, and very insulting to AS people. It is far more negative than any negativity that you appear to claim to have been exposed to. The AS you think are empathetic are those you will accept, the rest ("idiots with no theory of mind") are so contemptible you wouldn't waste your spit on them.

If some manifestations of the disabilities of social skills impairment are so despicable to you, how can you tolerate being here? Do you have similar feelings about people who have muscular dystrophy? You like those who tend to lurch to the left but spit on those who tend to lurch to the right? Is not your own judgmental animus a form of the same kind of unempathetic intolerance that you accuse the "Us-and-Them" people of having (or worse?).



Well, if you really want to experience "unhinged", try going to a politics blogs as someone from the other party, or religious blogs as someone contradicting the beliefs, or go to any place and unload on how crummy and despicable half of the community is, and see how unhinged they get.

I never assumed that I could spot people with autism or AS, not do I care to, so I should have been more specific. I meant that it was obvious from the way some people lead into their posts, for example "I'm not AS but I suspect it".
All I wanted to know is who is and who isn't. I don't care who posts here, after all they let me post here so it isn't a closed or invitational discussion board like some are.

I'm undiagnosed but going for an assessment in 2 weeks.

I think that I do have AS, some people here have milder symptoms than me.

Non-typical brain function. Maybe that would be a better title than Autism Spectrum. My non-typical brain function is different enough from typical Asperger's that I'm hard to categorize. There's Einstein Syndrome that kind of fits (like kids labeled with "Einstein Syndrome" I was a late talker and embarrassingly wasn't toilet trained until very late). Also there's "Visual-Spatial Learner" (someone in Australia came up with this one, essentially the left brain - verbal connections don't work so well and you compensate with the right brain). And then there's "Twice-Exceptional" (having some high IQ scores but also areas of deficit that indicate non-typical brain function a.k.a Autism Spectrum Disorder).

What's the point? Whatever the label, my differently functioning brain has created some definite challenges for me. I struggled in school. At times I was a social outcast. I have difficulty sustaining relationships. I self-isolate. I have intense interests and focus on those interests but not on other things. I can get overwhelmed with too much input. I've been officially diagnosed with panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and disthymic disorder (long-term, low-grade depression), but I believe that those things are merely the results of my inner frustration in knowing that some days parts of my brain and nervous system don't cooperate with each other. What has made a difference is beginning to understand how I function which has led to some genuine acceptance of my uniqueness.

Am I an Autie or an Aspie or PDD-NOSie? I dunno. Vibrantly non-typical sounds pretty good.

Z

Look at their profiles. There is "Have Aspergers-Diagnosed" and "Have Asperegrs-Undiagnosed" and of course other "autism spectrum disorder." That should give you a hint.
It isn't always accurate but it helps.

I think there should also be:
Decline to state &
Just plain wierd

Diagnosed. I am a HFA (high-functioning) Autistic. DSM-IV TR Code 299.00 Autistic Disorder.

I have written, in my Wrong Planet profile, Asperger's Syndrome. Yes, I was later given this Dx. However, there is some overlap and high-functioning = high-functioning, but I have certain diagnostic features that are more indicative of 'Classic (high-functioning) Autism' then AS. Therefore the former is more accurate; I didn't speak until I was 3.4 - 4 years old, for example.

True, some on Wrong Planet haven't had an official diagnosis, for various reason(s) and some just suspect AS in themselves....I assume this is what OPster is referring too.

Lab Pet is HFA.

Co-morbid, from my diagnostic list, I have "Sleepwalking Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (= GAD), PTSD." I think that's it.....oh, and I have a paper cut from this morning, does that count?

High genetic predisposition to Autism, Lab Pet lacks Theory of Mind and I have no Sylvian Fissure.

I am without assumption and I do not judge another, Wrong Planet inhabitants are my friends and I treat them as such...not with judgment or 'suspicion' as to their neurology. I am not authorized to do so either (actually, no one is - their's is a personal matter not subject to judgment).

I always wondered if anybody can tell if im autistic by the way i type or what my posts are about. i have mini videos of me on the ning network, i'm prob add more soon, jsut right now haven't got a chance to take any new videos. i only put videos of me from my cell because thats the only way i know how to, if i figure out how to put other videos on, ill put some on of me signing for class also. anyways i'm diagnosed, i'm an autie, and a touretter, if you met me you'd see it both in me, depending on the situation, time, day, place, and how long you hang with me your either see me as severely or high functioning if you spend the whole day with me your see im just around moderate haha, because i can seem only high functioning for a little bit then the rest of the time its basic autism at its best lol.

Profiles are profiles. A persons post is completely different. It was a very simple question but apparantly it touched a chord for some reason. I'm very surprised at the responses and even more more surprised at the number of views from lurkers who won't post and it all was compressed into such a short time span that I'm amazed it generated so much interest compared to all the other threads out here that seem more interesting.