Bare Minimum Aspie Traits

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I don't know whether it's a term in general usage, but I use the phrase "culturally autistic" to refer to the people who identify as autistic, whether or not a diagnosis is needed.

Given this I'd probably not be diagnosed:

I do have significant impairment with keeping friends. But... I don't care. I don't believe that having more friends would make my life more fulfilling. So if this criterion doesn't apply since I don't need help.

The funny thing is that if I were someone who really needed friendships then I probably would be diagnosed, even though my brain would still operate the same way. Thus two people might be equally autistic, but not equally diagnosable!!

Here's a question: Suppose that you don't need help now, but earlier in life you could have used the help. Like suppose your Asperger's makes it hard to find a spouse and you are depressed, then you'd be diagnosed if you went to a specialist. But you don't and eventually you do manage to find a spouse and have a happy successful marriage. Since you no longer need help for your depression, does that mean you are officially no longer diagnosable with Asperger's? If so then I declare the field of psychology to be Officially Illogical!

I would argue that if you were someone who really needed friendships, then your brain would be operating in a different way.


Until you got divorced and the depression returned? Then you would "come down with" AS again? No, you don't slip in and out of it depending on your mood.

If all you complained about initially was an inability to find a spouse and the resulting depression, then you would not be diagnosed with AS. If you presented lots of other characteristics, however, you might be. (AS is not depression, obviously.)

Suppose you received a diagnosis. If you then went on to find a spouse, and that relieved your depression, the question would center on what happened to those other characteristics. If you were properly diagnosed, then most of them (and maybe some additional or different ones) would still be present. You'd just be living a happier AS life. People with AS are allowed to change. They change within AS, however -- not in and out of it.

I think the depression for aspies comes from having getting social needs go unfulfilled, not due to the Asperger's itself. And having a spouse is one of those needs for many people. So if Asperger's makes it hard to find a spouse then that meets the diagnostic criteria. I don't actually believe that one is then "cured" by getting married and fulfilling that social need. I was more poking fun of the psychiatrists who might be inclined to give a different diagnosis depending on how lucky or unlucky you are: the one aspie who was in the right place at the right time to find a woman who gets along great with aspie men vs. the one who wasn't.

I think the sequence probably looks like this:
AS --> difficulty with social interactions --> failed relationships --> loneliness --> depression


I simply think you're placing too much emphasis on one feature of a very wide landscape. The ability to have a happy, successful marriage may not help you win an AS diagnosis, but I hardly think that's the main event. In other words, I highly doubt that this would become a make or break issue for a specialist. If you truly have AS and a wife, you will be diagnosed with AS, and your wife will be diagnosed with having a husband with AS. The psychitraist "who might be inclined to give a different diagnosis" shouldn't be seeing patients with AS. Although I'm sure there are some who are.

Exactly, or more to the point, ASD becomes a big problem for me when I get stressed and put under pressure, in a stressed state I might make the diagnostic cut off, when I'm relaxed I'm back out. I'm the Aspie Hulk, don't make me stressed, you won't like me when I'm stressed.

Oh, that is most definitely the case - the whole field is extremely mushy. The science just isn't there yet. Nobody really knows what any of this stuff is (autism, depression ,etc.), let alone what causes it, much less how to "cure" it. At this point, it's all theoretical and experimental (if you subject yourself to any kind of "treatment", you should know that you're essentially a guinea pig).

I would say its true for most conditions. If its not causing you any problems in life then don't diagnose it. But then I suppose if it wasn't causing problems for someone then that someone would not be sat in a psychiatrists office. My AS was uncovered by a psychiatrist only because I went to see one about depression and stress due to problems at work. I am glad it was highlighted to me now, as it is the best explanation I have for my strange life. But I wonder if I never sufferred the stress and depression and instead allowed my anger to get the better of me then I may have ended up in a police station and now be labeled an anti-social undesireable.

I think it is very rare if someone with AS does not have significant problems with people. But I don't think all people with AS end up at a pshyciatrist.

Taking things literally is not just an autistic thing. Many other disorders have that symptom. ADHD is one.
You don't seem to have any impairments. Autism and AS are disorders. If they weren't then they would never have existed. People need to think about that next time they say autism isn't a disorder.

Also people without AS also get anxious, depressed, stressed and have mental breakdowns. They have social anxiety and are excluded by other people. It's not always AS that makes you that way. However if you had stronger symptoms in childhood, ok, you have AS.

It looks like they've combined the previous lI and II on that assessment scale. So how would you describe someone who met all of criteria I (to a clinically significant degree) and had also fulfilled criteria II, but not to a clinically significant degree? Isn't criteria I more significant to autism? It seems like criteria II could be easily explained by other things. Why wouldn't such a person at least fulfill the criteria for PDD-NOS?

I found this extremely helpful. Thanks!

NT does not stand for "non-Asperger's".

Will someone attempt to answer my question? I'm really curious about this.

Your question has no clear answer. There is no bright line of division between Asperger's and autism, nor Apserger's and neurotypical. Even the criteria as spelled out in the DSM are subject to wide interpretation and further one mental health professional can evaluate the same individual as another and give a completely different diagnosis.

It's so complicated that I had to draw a flowchart. And if I can't get something across without using flowcharts, you KNOW it's complicated.

That's a good flow chart. I think I was confused by criteria 3 and thinking it referred to stereotypical behaviors/strict routines and/or obsessive interests.