Do you ever feel like you might not have AS?

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Nope, there's no doubt about it at all.

I sometimes have doubts, because my AS symptoms are relatively mild. My other problems like depression are much more obvious. Ultimately, I think that nobody knows exactly what AS is. They know all the symptoms, but they do not know what the cause is. There is no reliable diagnostic test (yet). There is no real treatment. So, it really does not matter too much whether my self diagnosis is correct or not. I certainly seem to fit in with people with AS, and that is good enough for me.

Really the only reason that I care at all about whether I really have it or not, is that a formal diagnosis would let me talk about AS publicly, and a formal diagnosis might provide some useful input.

Very often, yes.
It's so strange, my psychiatrist never told I had it, she only told that I have some symptoms and I might have it, which drives me crazy because of the uncertainty.
Oh well, I guess I'll never know for sure.

I had doubts when I was newly diagnosed, but a few years have passed since, and now I don't really doubt it, but try to overcome its flaws and enjoy its benefits.

My case is complicated by my mental illness. I mean, even my psychiatrists see my social impairment and it's recorded extensively in my past reports, but they chalk it up to the mental illness, but that could be true. But on the other hand, I am not as socially impaired as at least one guy that I have interacted with that is on the spectrum. Also I'm female.

My greatest traits are meltdowns/shutdowns and special interests (birds and Sonic the Hedgehog). My anti-traits are eye contact and understanding facial expressions and body language.

I think that was me. I guess you're right about PDD-NOS.

It's something I struggle with. I only have mild AS (if I do - though I am diagnosed), so I don't have all the characteristics and some I do but in an attenuated way. Nevertheless, the problems I do have in dealing with people, making conversation, meltdowns, lack of eye contact (or feeling very weird about eye contact when I consciously engage in it) have had a major impact in my life. So I'm never sure. I think part of it though is just being female. Even the psychologist who diagnosed me said that females rarely present in the typical way.

Ive thought about that possibility, because I got diagnosed shortly after I came out of being selectively mute for 9.5 years. Considering that I was mute during very formative years of a childs development between age 8-17, thats where the root of my poor social abilities are. Another thing, within 4 years I was able to practically train myself socially without a whole lot of help from anyone really. Idk how many aspies who came out of being selectively mute for a huge chunk of their childhood is are able to do that? In other things:

1) I have no motor problems
2) I have almost no sensory issues
3) I dont think I ever had meltdowns when I was a kid, oddly enough I went thru a very rough pd of 1.5 yrs where I was having constant meltdowns around 18,19 yrs old, after that they leveled and now I have no meltdowns.

I have a lot of AS symptoms, but most of them are very mild. In the end, I dont know for sure. For now I seem to relate pretty well to the issues on this board and AS seems to fit me for the most part.

I doubt it sometimes......I am diagnosed AS....but I think I am on the spectrum....maybe don't have all the genes...an endophenotype perhaps?.........maybe I should have been given a PDD-NOS diagnosis....I think that is what I'd get if I were re-evaluated now.

Evidence against AS diagnosis

1) No mechanical aptitude ( I HATE computers! Well I like using them but if they break down I'm at a total loss.......I've only remember one other girl with AS who said this on WP)

2) Even as a child I had very good "social reasoning" in terms of reading comprehension of stories on my IQ test ......although they noted in my assessment notes that I could only reason in "structured, familiar situation" "was rigid in my reasoning" and "got very anxious and could not answer" when it came to reasoning in unfamiliar situations...so maybe I intellectualized it but was good at this at a very young age

3)Now although not as a child I am not literal/can make inferences etc. also I could make inferences as a child (according to my IQ test) but also have stories of me being too literal

4)some of my symptoms are sub-threshold in my opinion- i.e. special interests...although I definitely have them........

5)some of my symptoms are atypical - I have a sensory stim toy as an adult and am addicted to it.....do it all the time at home....but this is supposedly often a transitory characteristic in AS

6) Sometimes I feel like I pick up on subtle social nuances automatically (although definitely NOT as a child) ....although other times I miss really obvious ones completely and yet other times I have to intellectualize them and so take longer to listen, speak ect bcs of that and seem very slow...s...and feel very overwhelmed ....so I don't know what to make of this

Evidence for AS diagnosis

1. I have a need for sameness

2. stimming/attachment to object (for sensory reasons)

3. Intense interests but involve people/are social i.e abnormal psychology and don't always involve accumulating data or collecting....often just involve intense fantasies and often a routine of checking specific websites etc. but they dominate my thought processes for the years they are around and affect my life decisions

4. Have issues with nonverbal social cues (but then I also have NLD)

5. Had very severe social impairment as a child (despite my performance on the IQ test) I was rated by teachers and my mom as in the clinical range for "social problems" and "odd behaviours" on those child beh. checklists every year from kindergarten till the end of elementary school when they stopped doing the checklists and referred to my autism doctor by the school

6. Sensory/motor issues

7. excessive focus on detail and lack of focus on the big picture (was noted in my assessment

8. I analyze myself in numbered lists and perseverate about whether or not I have AS

i have doubts, then i start stimming or something like that and i realise that other people dont do that!

I feel a bit aspie "light" most of the time...until something happens to remind me, haha.

So I'm the third one to say this, you can add me.

I don't know if I have AS but it MUST be something from the spectrum - after all, PDD is just an umbrella term for the whole bunch of various neurological disorders and I am hiding SOMEWHERE under this umbrella. The question remains only where. It's either AS or PDD-NOS. I don't know how anyone who has an opportunity to do it, may choose not to go to the shrink to check if their suspitions are right, I completely don't get it.

count me in on that.

Im more the psychology/philosophy and artistic type

Another anti-techie checking in.

Computer expert checking in here. I didn't know that knowing computers well was considered an Aspie trait, and it doesn't seem like it is with how many here aren't.