How did you know you are an Aspie?

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I discovered AS in an unusual manner. A mod at GameBoy Advance/Nintendo DS development forums replied once that he had Asperger's syndrome when someone told him that his sense of humor was too dry. I got curious and searched the web for it.

Do we need to have official diagnosis for people to believe in us though?

Oooo, I want to be a mod in English forums...been mod in many Chinese forums, never been one in English forums... (off topic )

I sometimes do not respond to people when they are talking to me or even notice they are there but I associated that with auditory processing issues. It is usually when I am concentrating and especially if I am trying to listen to something like a news story on TV. My husband insists that I ignore him deliberately and we have had more than a few disagreements about it. I told him he must get some sort of confirmation from me that I've heard what he said not just talk at me. He gets mad and I understand that because he will stand right next to me so he doesn't get that I can't at least notice he is there. Not a big boost for his self esteem I guess (lol).

My son was diagnosed with HFA and after researching that is seemed a better fit than the labels I had collected. Not officially diagnosed with AS however.

Thank you. George Orwell has been an Aspie obsession of mine since I first read "Nineteen Eighty-Four" at the age of 15. I think Orwell was an Aspie too.

I've never been to Dr Attwood, probably because there's no way I can afford to see him, so I was formally diagnosed last year by some registrar at Queensland Health. I had to bludgeon the diagnosis out of him though, because he didn't know jack about AS! But at least I've now got the dx

Cheers,
Brad

No. I wish I had though. I'm curious...



Spilling my life history to a shrink LOL No. Seriously...I spoke to my doctor about it and he referred me to a specialist who reviewed me, spoke independantly to me and to my mother on seperate occasions and from those long and detailed chats diagnosed me as Aspie. Apparently I was doing things from a day old which fit the profile - obviously those things I don't remember!



Heh. You know, asking if you can do an online diagnosis test is almost a sign that you could have it in it's own right, you know. Avoidance issues with the waiting room and speaking face to face to doctorish types?
With you all the way ^_^. Though honestly I think it is better to meet with someone. Then they can assess your body language and your eye contact and stuff you're not necessarily aware of.



Me neither - I'm in the UK. I don't know where you are, but I think the easiest option is speak to your doctor first. Ask if it's possible to be referred to someone to be reviewed for AS. Hopefully he or she will know someone to put you in touch with.



So do I. Except if it's my full name *lol*. I don't meet all the criteria either. Remember, some of the online criteria is generalising, and others are the perceptions of NTs of how we think rather than how we actually think - so there is some diversity. For example, people say we lack intelligence but everyone I know tells me that's crazy where I'm concerned, because I've always written and made stuff and all of that. And another source said you should speak slowly to someone with AS - do that with me and I've lost interest by the time the sentence finally finishes. So even if you don't meet everything, you could still be Aspie. Or you could just have Aspie traits without being full blown Aspie. What most people don't realise is most of the world is on the spectrum somewhere...just we're on the higher end of it, that's all

Apple

I'm a big fan of Andy Kaufman, and one day somebody in a forum said that he was likely to have had AS -although he died in 1984 and was never diagnosed. At the time I did not know what AS was, but when I read his bio the similarities between his childhood and mine were so *incredible* that I started wondering whether I had AS too. I searched for info and when I read a list of characteristics I started laughing. I had never been described so accurately!
Few months after the "discovery" I had an official diagnosis.

Online aspie tests

In the members only section there is an aspie quiz thread...
http://www.wrongplanet.net/asperger.html?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=5906&start=375
Links to the actual Quiz questions are on page 1 and page 24

I did the wired geek test and came out aspie. Years later I did the test again and I did some other tests, got aspie results on all of them and mentioned it to my psychologist who said "no way". I didn't worry about it or do much research at that time - because it didn't seem important. I've always known I think differently to most people (outside my family) and I'm drawn to other geeky people.

A few weeks later my psychologist saw me not-relating to the receptionist and decided to agree with me. It's very hard to diagnose an intelligent aspie adult who has learned a lot of the social tricks and is sitting in a relaxed and unstressed environment with someone they feel comfortable with and has a lot of aspie traits too. At this point - I decided to do lots of research.

I still don't see any point in getting a formal diagnosis from an expert in the field. For starters, in my town there are no experts in diagnosing adult aspies and even if I did get diagnosed - there are no services or benefits from the diagnosis anyway. I get additional self knowledge and management strategies with the informal diagnosis - so thats enough for now.

Thank you for the fulfuilling reply!
Nice to meet you!

Re Shelob:
I used to be a Pokemon freak, now I am a marine animal freak, that's how my EFL teacher picked it up...