How autistic do you think you are compared to...

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I really don't know.

-My social skills are good now except when someone asks me how to do something, I can't tell the person how to so I just do it and show rather than tell. I can carry on a conversation but if someone tries to become a long term friend it doesn't get that far. I can talk to random people who strike up a conversation where as in the past that was difficult. Someone was watching me talking to someone who was striking up a conversation with me and imitating how I was talking and I felt embarassed and got annoyed. It made me not want to talk ever again to a stranger but then I thought about it and decided who cares. If someone doesn't care for the long answer then the person probably wouldn't get along with me anyway.

-I can talk on the phone but usually compulsively call people on a small list for a few weeks as if some obsession switch flipped on and then stop talking on the phone for months.

-I can clean but I clean, clean, clean and clean and get upset if it's not clean enough. Luckily, that happens once to twice every week. The urge to clean and clean and clean the same location over and over.

-Can cook my own foods.

-Being interrupted while in the process of a task makes me jump, get upset.

-Certain sounds really agitate me.

- The sun is too bright and fluorescent lights flicker giving me migraines. Neon colors have the same effect and I get physically ill if there is flashing.

- I rub my arms and hands, sway, sometimes rock, flap my fingers on occasions and hands. When I was a kid, the hand flapping was more, now as an adult it's less and barely noticable as it only occurs for a few seconds and stops.

-If I go anywhere in public, I feel slower. More people, more sounds, more commotion. It gets too much at times.

-If I drive, avoid highways and drive as carefully as possible. Parking straight is difficult. I keep ample space in between cars at traffic lights and get really upset if someone else is driving because it looks to me that when they are stopped behind cars at traffic lights that they are right up on their bumper.

- I have many interests except I only focus on a single interest for months to years. The same for music. Repeating the same playlist for months to years or the same song.

- I am slow with most things that I start but after a while pick it up but the problem with that is, when it comes to jobs, people can be so impatient. I'm usually not allowed enough time to pick up the pace. There was a time when I was only on the job for a couple of hours and not called back as promised.

I wish that I could have better relations with people but after so much ill treatment, I find life better not being around people who have alot in common with mainstream society.

It's a hard one, because there's many variables to compare yourself to:

People who I know are diagnosed?

Middle of the road to the higher end.

The whole lot?

Well, way down the bottom.

I wish I could clean...I try to but my executive function makes it an impossible ordeal....I also spend a good deal of time trying to force myself to focus on things that I have no desire to focus on..and instead of making my thinking processes stronger, it seems to make me feel as though my brain were disintegrating.. I really think that "impulse control" is, in and of itself, a form of intelligence in which I am severely lacking..
I am "sideways" of the people I know in person who are "diagnosed" as we are all different....

Socially I'm less developed than a normal six year old, completely blind to non-verbal cues, horrifyingly bad theory of mind (even reminding myself of how it actually works, I still feel the "right" answer in the sally and jane test is that jane will look where sally hid the jellybean, rather than where she last saw it), and fall right smack in the middle of the Asperger's range regarding symptoms/traits/behaviors.

I get by fine, I guess, trouble holding jobs, got a girlfriend though, who I'm quite grateful towards for putting up with my "differences" so wonderfully.

You guys seem a lot more advanced socially than I am. Socially, I'm still in the "parallel play" stage, just starting to learn to be interactive. It's like wherever I go, there are people having relationships that I can't understand. It happens nearly as much among autistic people as it does when I'm with NTs--there are all these relationships going on behind the scenes, people having opinions about each other and about me that I can't pick up on. I've been through forum meltdowns, workplace feuds, and all-out social warfare that I literally didn't know was going on until someone told me explicitly.

But I don't think I can really compare myself to WP members except if I were to go trait by trait. When I try to judge functioning level by any scale, all the criteria seem to be scattered all over the place. For example, I am prone to hurting myself under stress, so that'd put me on the low end of the scale; but then I'm also capable of paying my own bills and doing my own shopping, which apparently puts me on the high end. I can go to school, but I can't hold a job; I can hold a conversation, but I can't keep a friend; I can interpret a poem, but I can't understand social subtext; I can plan for a tornado, but can't stop myself from crying. I still have meltdowns, but I understand exactly how they work. I can write a ten-page paper easily, but struggle with a half-page piece of fiction.

And of course all that changes when I'm overloaded, when I may lose access to skills up to and including speaking and taking care of myself. But there's another thing I'm good at: I know how to defuse overload, even when it's at ridiculous levels, so that even when things do get extreme, I can generally get back to balance in, at most, a few days.

I can't be as bad as I sometimes feel, because I have been able to work in the past, and have been able to live independently and raise a kid. Though the independent living is quite difficult at times, and housework, bills etc heap up on me.

I find it hard to be subjective.
I am pretty sure my social skills have fluctuated over the years, but I find it hard to quantify the degree...

Oh, I have the self-injury issues pretty bad... been working on it for a while cause it stresses my woman out, understandably enough. I've beaten my thighs, chest, and jaw til they were swollen with bruises at various times.

Teachers in kindergarten were concerned about bruises on my forehead, and asked my mom about them.

She asks me to say "butterfly", 'bu-bu-bu' *whomps forehead* 'butterfly!', they sent me to speech therapy, totally overlooking any signs of anything else.

I dont think it is possible to truly classify with level of functioning, only perhaps add all things up and get a general idea.

BUt I have been realising lately that I probably do deserve the diagnosis I have. I am high-functioning, but not high-functioning enough to work without a lot of problems. And I have been realising lately how shockingly behind normal folk, my social development has been, and it has not been helped by being brought up by two people who have a limited grip on social laws themselves..

It is weird, iits not like I am low functioning but there are parts missing, like God was working on me, and got bored and walked off before completing the job.

I think that I'm slightly more autistic, than most people, here.

Ya, looks like its really hard to compare myself with other members since a lot of you are older than me and has gone throught more situations like workplace environments and starting a family/having kids.

Oh well, its always best to just compare with yourself.

Lets see

Bad
I do not drive
I get lost when I take busses
Still live with parents
Get nervous sweaty and jerky in public
Forget words mid sentance
Stagger when I walk
Sometimes almost fall over while standing still
Cannot do a full nights sleep
Extremly talkative to people I know
I am slow when doing things
I needed family to give me rides to work
I stammer when talking to strangers
ADHD

Good
I will stand up for myself
I am clean
Have worked two jobs for more than 9 years each
Can somewhat cook a meal
Go shopping when I have to
Never late for anything
I know that I am strange and try to correct it
I act normal enough that most people are not afraid of me

in terms of social issues i think im more high functioning than many though i still have a few issues
but in terms of sensory issues and executive functioning skills im lower functioning than others i know

with me im not sure if my main problem is even my asperger's i think i have more problems due to co-morbid ADD

Compared to the rest of WP I feel higher functioning. On the high end of high functioning in most areas.
I seem to be the only person who's not bothered by noisy parties (I enjoy them). I don't get sensory induced meltdowns (only mild emotional ones). I have friends and sometimes don't like mentioning them here because I don't want to look like I'm bragging "oooh look at the friends I've got!" because people talk about only having acquaintances and there's me talking about the fun weekend I've had with my friend(s), I get kind of guilty for some weird reason.