A Different Type of Autism? Help!

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Well it sounds like something is going on, just what. That professional didn't sound overly helpful in trying to figure anything out. Maybe look up info about OCD, Tourette's, and maybe ADHD. Tourette's can include "thought tics," though I don't know too much about those.

The professional was right in that there is an explicit "causes significant problems" criteria that needs to be met. Obviously, that can be subjective, but you said yourself you're not bothered by your 'symptoms.' Then again you said "...can have a pretty heavy emotional [effect on a person]," so I'm not sure if it bothers you or not. If, say, you're worried about it effecting employment, then an assessment for a dx (of whatever it is) seems a good idea.

You could maybe be sort of PDD-NOS-NOS-NOS, but again the "significant impairment" criteria is there. Honestly, I have no idea, but from what you've said it doesn't sound clearly like an ASC. Remember that Asperger's is just one of many neurological conditions that can cause people to have unusual experiences.

are you actually saying that people WANT to be autistic?
I had no idea we were so popular. . . are you sure people that tap their foot a lot are going to wanna actually think that they are autistic? I have to chuckle S_G. People aren't really attracted to being thought an autistic, not with the reputation it has in social circles.

Having been one of those 'self diagnosed' Aspies I can say it doesn't work like that. Well, not for an older person. Matter of fact, the self diagnosed usually have a period of adjustment where they have to actually contemplate their pasts and see where action after action, relationship after relationship reinterpreted in the light of this new revelation. Seeking out a professional - frankly, is no fun, sometimes it is years before the final diagnosis is put on the table.

of course anyone that wants to 'self diagnose' by how often they tap their foot I suppose that is their right, but autism is far more profound than that.

Yeah I guess I am.

Unfortunately AS has become the new fad I've heard. I heard people self diagnose over a few symptoms or over being an outcast or a nerd or a geek. I also go to Yahoo Answers and I see silly questions like "I don't like to talk alot in the car. Am I autistic?" and it was over not being able to make a conversation whenever he is in the car. Perhaps that was a troll question?

Plus there has been posts here about it. Someone here once said someone at her work says he has AS and he is going around telling everyone he has it and he doesn't even read deep into it and it's obvious he doesn't have it she says, if I remember correctly.

Sadly I hear so many young teens who think they have it just because they don't quite fit in or they don't feel comfortable around people or they are a little awkward around their peers makes people think AS is all about being an outcast and being shy, having social anxiety they think it doesn't exist. That's what I've read.

i agree with spokane girl. her description made me laugh because i identify with it.

i think that some people want to be autistic. they have no idea what autism really is, but they have a notion of it that they are attracted to.

if some people have limited success with making friends, and they are sick and tired of trying to "fit in", and then they see this website, they may feel inclined to promote themselves as AS or otherwise autistic so they can talk with a "cloak of mysterious incentives". if they claim they are autistic, and they say they not perfectly socially fluent , then all their finer social mistakes are forgiven by most people here.

it is a choice for them to keep trying to interest their social crowd, or pretend they are autistic and get accepted easily.

there is also the notion that asperger syndrome is synonymous with giftedness and aloofness, and that is a scenario that many young socially inadequate non autistics may like to adopt.

i must say that i regard with scant trust, that anyone's self diagnosis is valid.
especially if it is laced with an agenda.

i think the OP has contradicted himself in most things that he says. he is able to be socially adequate and look people in the eye and talk relaxedly, yet "ordering a hamburger is a difficult thing" he reported after being prompted to "about face" and relinquish his initial assertion that you can be autistic without social deficits.

it seems like someone who jumped from a high platform at the pool and split their belly because they did not know how to land.

Among the "self-diagnosed" I've been seeing two rather distinct groups. (I put self-diagnosed in quotes because it usually seems to be something said by people who are against self-diagnosis. WP doesn't even HAVE a "self-diagnosed" option-- just a "have asperger's-- undiagnosed" which seems quite a bit different to me, particularly since a lot of people who have had professionals tell them that they think they have it but don't feel the need to do in-depth testing use that option on their profiles.)

There are the people who have known for a long time that something was wrong, but who were never able to solidly define what that something was until they started researching autism. (And as a huge percentage of people think that "autism" means "mental retardation," plenty of people are diagnosed with a zillion different things before learning about autism.)
Then there are people without impairment, or with minimal impairment, who stumble across the diagnostic criteria one day and go "woah, I get nervous if someone confronts me directly and I crack my knuckles sometimes, I must be autistic!"
The former group frequently gets accused of being the latter group.. despite the fact that they're two completely different things.

Whoa!
I think that being one of the undiagnosed, I should address this, although it's off the track of the original post, but here it is: I've read not about autism at first, which description did not at all feel like something I would have or ever had, but about Asperger's. While Asperger's is on the autistic spectrum, it is a mild form of autism, and often can and has gone undiagnosed in people of an older geneation such as I am. (We're just shy -- right -- don't take me for dumb, just because I'm socially inept.)

When I was five and having difficulty socializing and communicating normally, but was hyper intelligent and into stuff and reading stuff way over my age level, there was no one to tell my parents that someone should look at my behavior patterns and that I might benefit from behavioral therapy from early on because it looked like I had a personality on the autistic spectrum. NO one had that sort of language or that sort of knowledge about a condition such as Asperger's or that there was a thing called a 'spectrum' that could define a wide range of individuals from severly autistic to those who had the milder condition of Asperger's.

Again, I do not identify with Autism. I've been reading the posts here and am astonished to read how posters were using Autism as a blanket description for personalities on the spectrum. Autism is a severe condition. I have a condition which is mild and fits the description of Asperger's. They are different, but related, like cousins, they could be second or third cousins. The relationship is there, but only just so. I do indeed have severe social ineptness! It sounds funny but not in the real world, where people want people to be socially smart. I have lost so many opportunities because I did not have the behavioral therapy I should have had, if I had been born ten years later even.

but the social ineptness is related to other conditions and is a result of the neurological differences that having ASperger's gives me. People don't like the way I talk or what I talk about or how I present it -- I"m brusque I'm rude, I'm selfish I interrupt, I can't communicate etc I've been told everything. I try to imitate the social ways people have but I only have gotten so far with that and it's too stressful to continue trying to learn 'the socials' by now. I'll never get it. But I never knew until lately that I would not get it because I don't see the things in other people that I am supposed too. And it's frustrating and it's not what I want out of my life. I'm really isolated and this is not a condition that I elected for myself -- that's absurd you would suggest someone would want to be like me! No one would want to be like me -- ever.

I have not told anyone actually about Asperger's, except people on this site, not even my family. What could it benefit them? So it is not like I brag that I have some condition -- that's just dumb. That is not me.

And I am definitely not telling anyone at work because I can't get along with them and have never gotten along with people at any job I have ever had and I think they would get rid of me if they knew I had some condition. They look at me like I am difficult and weird and unsociable as it is, and maybe they are right and I am sorry -- I would rather be like them but I never will, I realize that now. I did not get along wth kids in grade school or high school and when I thought college would be different I was wrong, even about grad school, where I thought I would finally fit in but did not. Now I understand it is not about fitting in because that's not possible, but I wish I'd known about ASpergers then, because it may have made things easier.

I will never have comfortable relationships and I accept my difference. but others do not. They never have. When you say it is not about social awkwardness, you're talking about the people who are shy at first but warm up. i never warm up. I am continually in the cold, since I was a kid, wondering what others could be talking about. I wanted to talk about something too, but no one wanted to talk about what I wanted to talk about. And I didn't get what was going on in the conversation.

Anybody can go on this site and say they are diagnosed and that they have this and that. I am telling you what I am like honestly, and that I fit the aspie diagnosis. It makes me sad not happy, and I never wanted to know really, never wanted this at all. I'm trying to deal with it by being here, but no one is going to tell me this is self-glorification -- this is not, this is actually not what I wanted for myself.

I don't really think, Spokane Girl that people want a diagnosis of Autism, this is not a happy thing or a desirable thing. NOr is it something that occurs because of odd habits, but because, like me, I have a lifetime of disconnect and unapproachability.

And if you think self-diagnosis is bad, diagnosis from complete strangers on a website is even worse! You guys are trying to tell this person, Mikey, what he has, and you don't even know him! At least I have talked to therapists and my physician, but not as officially tested no, I don't know what you want to see --my brain scan?

Most importantly, Mikey, you are yourself, and if you are or are not neurologically different from others, it doesn't matter except to learn to relate it to the world around you so you are not isolated all your life like me.

Mikey- I am not a doctor, but it does sound like it may be related to OCD or possibly Tourette's. I commend you for continuing to find out more about yourself. Don't give up. At least you are able to function in the world, so that is a good thing. If you know something is wrong, then keep pusing to find the answers!
God Bless you!

I believe that the heart of ASD is a neurosensory issue. Our brains are wired differently and respond to all the sensory input differently. So to me it sounds like your way of calming your brain is to stim, which would be autistic behavior. So I alone here think you might be on the spectrum.

Read: Olga Bogdashina:
http://www.autismtoday.com/articles/Dif ... iences.htm

Looks like I started something here. I didn't mean for this to happen. Maybe in the future I'll shut up about the self diagnosed. I wasn't pointing fingers at anyone here, I was just going by what I've read.

He asked for our opinion, we gave it to him. After all we are aspies so we are going to be honest here and not tell him what he wants to hear.

That's me, unfortunately. I was told by the psychologist giving me my assessment that he didn't think I was on the autistic spectrum because I had a sense of humour, only to read an article by someone later who got a positive diagnosis and who said they used jokes to break into social situations, like I did (Grinning like an idiot I joked or said nothing. My mother said I'd never speak unless I thought I had something important to say and that I was a good baby (quiet)).

Spokane Girl and jul both make valid points, and I think they are two points of view of the same issue. Spokane Girl says that there are some people who choose to self-diagnose because they need a label to explain their discomfort with the world, even if it's minor. jul on the other hand is someone who is self-diagnosed and doesn't choose the label, but finds that it best describes her.

I was self-diagnosed up until around my mid-20s. I am like jul in a lot of ways, and I finally realised that this "problem" had a name, and that name is Asperger's. I then (with a great deal of effort) got a formal diagnosis, because I personally needed confirmation about this thing. Turns out that I'm probably more HFA than AS, but the line is very blurred.

Nevertheless, this is about MikeyPikey92, not me. I think he should get a second opinion. There's definitely something different about his behaviour, but I'm not an expert.

And Spokane Girl, don't shut up. I find your posts interesting. jul, I don't think I've read much of your posts, but you are also interesting. This "robust discussion" is refreshing.

This is why the psychiatrist told me I was HFA and not AS, because I have a wicked sense of humour. But here's a secret: most of my humour is simply programmed response. I have a good memory for jokes, and store them with certain key words for immediate retrieval. My spouse can recognise these triggers and usually rolls eyes when I start .

Also, there are some jokes I tell which I don't understand, but always get a very good reaction when I tell them.

People do want to belong to something and they can belong to some group without wanting to be - both statements are true.

Do I have any doubts about me being an Aspie? At times but is that itself a sign of being one or not wanting to be associated with the condition, after all it is the latest fashionable disease to have as the vapours used to be or consumption, in Victorian days? Also until recently it didn't understand what not having a theory of mind meant but my partner pointed out I had bad breath and it never occurred to me that other people apart from her could smell it!

I haven't had a positive diagnosis so it's possible the psychologist who did my assessment was wrong because the real expert on this condition where I lived, was so swamped by requests for diagnoses, that he farmed out requests t others less qualified. Of course he might have been right and I'm hoping that with the current wave of enthusiasm in the UK for diagnosing older people who might have been missed by the system, to get a second opinion and find out for sure.

This post is ridiculous. If you do you not identify with autism you aren't autistic. Simple as that. Asperger's is being removed from the DSM and being replaced with a general "autism spectrum disorder".

yeah, I agree with this.

I got a dx of AS because my sensory issues could be attributed to PTSD. my therapist doesn't believe the sensory issues fit the pattern of PTSD, so would probably dx me as HFA if it really mattered.

seems to me that there are a number of scales to be considered in the PDD group, one is autistic/sensory, one is non-verbal communication, one is intense and focused interests. there might be more, but these are the three major ones that professionals make a big deal out of when deciding which label you get. it's possible for someone to have severe issues in one but mild in another so we end up with different diagnostic labels like PDD-NOS, aspergers, autism, and NLVD. I really don't see the need for all the different diagnoses, I'd be happy enough to with a blanket dx of PDD with the three (or more) scales as subsets.

I'm not going to tell anyone they aren't on the spectrum, either. my therapist didn't think I was (because of my eye contact skills) until we went over the diagnostic criteria, then I went on to see a psychiatrist and a neuropsychologist. apparently it can be difficult to tell ADHD, OCD and AS apart in someone who's learned to mask their symptoms and who can get by in social situations after years of study and practice.

so yeah... um... aspergers and autism aren't like apples and oranges. they're like honey crisp and granny smith. and ADHD might actually be a pear, not another orange.

I don't like the sound of this. My dx of AS has helped me get on disability because I've never been able to get a job. With that gone I'll have no money and will have to rely on my family for the rest of my life.
So I hope to God that they don't actually do that.

Sorry for the off topicness I'm just getting a bit paranoid here.