Who in the world can diagnose AS?

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06 Nov 2006, 2:42 am

The thing about adult dx of aspergers is the experts have to ask about your childhood
which usually means they have to talk to parents or teacher etc. If a present dx depends
so much on things 30 years ago (I'm 36) make me think its utter pointless for adult to get dx. Unless you live in some socialist state that will give you a monthly check for life.

Realistically there is no treatment . My opinion only time helps. A person with social
cogntive problems is going to be many years behide those that dont. I'm sure I will
be married about age 50

SteveK
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06 Nov 2006, 7:38 am

themachine1 might be right, but with ME, a lot was hidden. MY GOD, I tried a technique yesterday. I used to do it all the time but stopped when I was 15 or 17. I have NO idea why! But rediscovered it in a book"the einstein factor". I practically had my life pass before my eyes. Different schools, different teachers, etc... Homes.... Friends.... Problems... Etc.... MY GOD, some of the things that came up(VERY early on though) DID look a lot like autism. I guess it was just SO infrequent, and SO relatively mild, and I DID change schools a lot(My mother was a single mother that got LITTLE for alimony or xhild support).

They used to just call m a shy knowitall. Know It All was said as an insult. Adults didn't like a little kid telling them they did things wrong. HECK, even the difficulty in avoiding the volume of ones voice is a problem I have. Same with poor eye contact.

Anyway, everyone may have forgotten about you, or not pieced enough together, so the absence of any finding wouldn't prove anything.

As for me? I haven't been tested yet. There is currently no point.

Steve

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06 Nov 2006, 9:17 pm

From Tony Attwood's site:

Quote:

The profile of abilities includes the following characteristics:

*A qualitative impairment in social interaction:

* Failure to develop friendships that are appropriate to the child’s developmental level.
* Impaired use of non-verbal behaviour such as eye gaze, facial expression and body language to regulate a social interaction.
* Lack of social and emotional reciprocity and empathy.
* Impaired ability to identify social cues and conventions.

*A qualitative impairment in subtle communication skills:

* Fluent speech but difficulties with conversation skills and a tendency to be pedantic, have an unusual prosody and to make a literal interpretation.

*Restrictive Interests:

* The development of special interests that is unusual in their intensity and focus.
* Preference for routine and consistency.

Yep, that's me, all right...

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NorahW
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06 Nov 2006, 9:27 pm

Xenon wrote:

From Tony Attwood's site:

Quote:

The problem with me is, I can't tell if I have these or not. I don't think I have the last part, exept for my obsession about whether or not I have AS, that's more of an OCD-type obsession, not an enjoyable Aspie interest. the first part, I have only the first item for sure; I sometimes think I have the 4th one, but other times that I don't. I don't even think I have the middle one, though I may have been slightly off with my prosody as a kid. And now I do have trouble keeping my voice down when Im anxious.

But then I think, am I in denial when I think this?

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06 Nov 2006, 9:31 pm

I guess I want to know that. If once you think you might have AS, or AS somehow is thought of around you, are you in denial if you don't really think you have AS? Do you have to go on thinking it if you once thought it even if you were wrong in thinking it? couldn't someone have a false view of themselves and be in denial of NOT having AS, as well as people who are in denial of their AS? It just seems like, if someone thinks they might have AS and then they think they don't, that anyone with AS will believe they're in denial and a bad person.

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06 Nov 2006, 10:03 pm

TheMachine1 wrote:

What TheMachine1 said is pretty much why I'm not worried about getting an "official" diagnosis. What would it solve if I did find someone to make or confirm the diagnosis? Nothing would change.

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NorahW
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06 Nov 2006, 10:43 pm

Xenon wrote:

TheMachine1 wrote:

What TheMachine1 said is pretty much why I'm not worried about getting an "official" diagnosis. What would it solve if I did find someone to make or confirm the diagnosis? Nothing would change.

In my case though ***I don't really know how I am****

I'm afraid to think I might be OK with facial expressions and eye contact and understanding things socially, because I believed for so long that I must have AS or something similar (even before I learned about AS). I don't know if I'm really the way I think I am, or if it's just due to anxiety.

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07 Nov 2006, 12:21 am

Norah, do you have sensory issues?

Do you have OCDish tendencies?

Anxieties?

Are you very logical and/or creative?

Do you feel socially "fluent"?

What are/were your family members like? Any "eccentrics"? Describe your family.

Do you seem to have a great deal of difference between your abilities and your deficits?

Are you a good multitasker?

How's your attention span?

Do you ever stumble and bumble over words?

Do you ever find it difficult to discriminate what people are saying if you're in a crowded room with extraneous conversations going on or if someone uses a word like "ball" and you can't tell other than by pure context whether it was that or, say, "fall"? If so, how often does this happen?

If you have talents, what specifically are they?

What are your weakest points?

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NorahW
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07 Nov 2006, 11:31 am

Sophist wrote:

Norah, do you have sensory issues? No

Do you have OCDish tendencies? Yes

Anxieties? Yes

Are you very logical and/or creative? Not especially

Do you feel socially "fluent"? No

What are/were your family members like? Any "eccentrics"? Describe your family. My dad had OCD and depression (he committed suicide), but not AS. One aunt was schizophrenic, but not AS. My mom was mildly socially anxious but definitely not AS. There were several people with alcoholism on my mom's side. I haven't kept up so don't know if any autism has been diagnosed among the younger family members. One great-aunt was odd, possibly AS. I'm not sure about my alcoholic uncles, but doubt they were AS, though they could have had social anxiety or other problems that led to the alcholism. One uncle was married a lot of times in a time when that didn't happen much. One aunt probably had social anxiety disorder but not AS.

Do you seem to have a great deal of difference between your abilities and your deficits?
In some things...I've been diagnosed with a v"isual perception problem which may be related to uncorrected strabismus." I'm not good at sports or anything physical, and am terrified to even try anything mechanical, especially when anyone's looking. I have so much anxiety I can't tell if my social ability is good, bad or in the middle.

Are you a good multitasker?
Sometimes, if it isn't in a situation where I'm also anxious.

How's your attention span?
Good.

Do you ever stumble and bumble over words?
Occasionally, but then so does President Bush and I don't think anyone would say he's an Aspie!

Do you ever find it difficult to discriminate what people are saying if you're in a crowded room with extraneous conversations going on or if someone uses a word like "ball" and you can't tell other than by pure context whether it was that or, say, "fall"? If so, how often does this happen?
Occasionally...because of my social anxiety I'm rarely out anywhere like this where I"m talking to people. I do go places alone sometimes.

If you have talents, what specifically are they?
I'm not sure. Reading comprehension, probably. Though I'm supposedly intelligent, nothing particularly stands out...I don't have any "savant" skills, unfortunately.

What are your weakest points?
Anything social, whether I'm good at it or not. Low self-confidence. Procrastination. Laziness. Wishy-washyness (is that a word?) Afraid to speak up for myself even when it would be appropriate to. Self-doubt.

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07 Nov 2006, 11:50 pm

Are you a picky eater? Picky about the fit of clothes?

Also, please list any abilities you have which seem to be above the norm, even if only slightly. Modesty and lack of confidence aside, just list some even if it's like pulling teeth.

When dealing with language, do you tend to feel more comfortable with concrete descriptions or with metaphoric ones?

When you stumble and bumble on occasion over sentences, is this almost always when you're nervous? Does this ever happen when you're not nervous?

Do you change your attention easily from one thing to the other or is it harder to orient yourself when having to do this?

Have you ever had seizures or has anyone in your family had seizures (not due to head trauma)?

Do you feel most of your social problems stem directly from anxiety?

Describe where your areas of intelligence lie.

How's your memory? Visual? Auditory? etc.

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DrowningMedusa
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08 Nov 2006, 10:30 pm

Sophist, this is interesting... are these questions that they ask when trying to see if someone might have AS? Just for fun, here are my answers...

Quote:

do you have sensory issues?
Yes. Textures distract me, and I can't run my hand over anything textured without it feelling like it takes over my thought processes... It's very unpleasant, and makes me shudder... even gives me chills at times, and, in extreme cases, nausea.

Do you have OCDish tendencies?
Err... such as?

Anxieties?
Yes. Mostly in social situations...

Are you very logical and/or creative?
Yes. I consider myself very logical, but in a more "step by step" way than most people... Take away a "step" and I'm confused. I'm supposed to be very creative because I have an exceptional talent for drawing and can reproduce reality and then twist it to "create" my own images, but I'm too rigid in my thinking to be truly creative, I think.

Do you feel socially "fluent"?
No, but I seem to be able to learn the rules... I'm way better than i was as a child.

What are/were your family members like? Any "eccentrics"? Describe your family.
My father is alot like me. I always thought he had OCD because he's very compulsive about things being done a certain way and always needs to be fiddling with something in his hands. He would get upset over small details and has a great need for sticking to routine; it creates a lot of tension and anxiety in him if something unexpected comes up. Mom is very "normal"... and my younger sister is kind of like me, to a lesser extent.

Do you seem to have a great deal of difference between your abilities and your deficits?
Yes... I have an exceptional talent for memorizing words, spelling and spaces. My visual memory is geared for details. I often fail to understand the context, however. One of my good friends always tells me, "You're the smartest dumbest person I know" - that pretty much sums it up.

Are you a good multitasker?
Not at all. If I focus on too many things at once (talking while performing routine tasks at work [on the computer], for example) I always end up stopping one or the other without noticing, really.

How's your attention span?
It's excellent when I'm absorbed by something - a task, a book, a movie, music - but very poor when disinterested insomething. I've been told I'm very distractable. I was actually put on Ritalin for a while as a teenager.

Do you ever stumble and bumble over words?
Yes, but never when writing or discussing something I've memorized. Only when speaking in a friendly conversation that's "going nowhere".

Do you ever find it difficult to discriminate what people are saying if you're in a crowded room with extraneous conversations going on or if someone uses a word like "ball" and you can't tell other than by pure context whether it was that or, say, "fall"? If so, how often does this happen?
This happens anywhere from a few times a day to a few times a week - it depends...

If you have talents, what specifically are they?
Language, and measuring distance / proportion and transposing them to another place / format.

What are your weakest points?
I'm generally clumsy, nervous, and sometimes have difficulty grasping "what's going on". I can also be quite stubborn, I guess. I'm also too nice (over-compensating for a bad social life as a child, I think... Once I figured out that all I had to do for people to be more accepting of me was to be generally servile and self-deprecating [to a certain extent], that was it - I'd found my trick)

Are you a picky eater? Picky about the fit of clothes?
I used to be much pickier, but now I can eat pretty much anything... Clothes I'm VERY picky about. I have only a few outfits and find it very difficult to find things that fit "just right" - again, I was much worse as a cild / teenager.

Also, please list any abilities you have which seem to be above the norm, even if only slightly. Modesty and lack of confidence aside, just list some even if it's like pulling teeth.
Definately have artistic (reproduction - not creative) talents above the norm. Also, my spelling and vocabulary are above the norm - these have been with me since about the age of 3.

When dealing with language, do you tend to feel more comfortable with concrete descriptions or with metaphoric ones?
Mostly more comfortable with concrete descriptions.

When you stumble and bumble on occasion over sentences, is this almost always when you're nervous? Does this ever happen when you're not nervous?
Always when I'm nervous, but also when I'm not nervous - just distracted.

Do you change your attention easily from one thing to the other or is it harder to orient yourself when having to do this?
It's very difficult for me to "shift gears" - I find if I must do so (at work) I have to force myself to stop what I'm doing, try to clear any thoughts of the previous task, maybe get up, stretch, have some water, then sit and plan the next task before I can move on.

Have you ever had seizures or has anyone in your family had seizures (not due to head trauma)?
I don't think so - not to my knowledge, but it's possible.

Do you feel most of your social problems stem directly from anxiety?
Not really... more like my social problems CAUSE anxiety in me. I just feel very "different" from most people.

Describe where your areas of intelligence lie.
Definately verbal / spacial

How's your memory? Visual? Auditory? etc.
Very visual, but not in an imaginative way... I can't picture my own mother's face with any certainty in my mind, either. But I can easily remember a room I've only visited once, layouts of houses / buildings...
My auditory memory is mostly good with words, if what I'm hearing is interesting to me, I can rattle it off word for word. I can do this with song lyrics, as I love music but have difficulty remembering melodies.

That was kind of fun... will you tell me what you think?

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08 Nov 2006, 11:37 pm

DrowningMedusa, are you diagnosed or undiagnosed AS? Everything you say seems to fit in very nicely into an Aspie profile.

I was just trying to get an idea of the areas of Norah's brain which have been affected. I look for some basics:

-talent areas (largely right hemispheric)
-language disruption (left hemisphere: temporal and frontal)
-coordination (parietal and cerebellum)
-anxieties (brain-wide, GABA-related)
-ability (or inability) to multitask and "switch gears" (brain-wide, GABA-related)
-sensory issues (parietal and cerebellum)
-social fluency (frontal)

I look at these to see how much of the brain is affected. If it's a large area (like Norah's and your's suggest) then it's likely developmental because something which wasn't wouldn't have as widespread effects on the communications of the brain. Meaning it had to do with the earliest stages of cortical development to have had such an effect.

For Norah, it's difficult to differentiate between the developmental anxiety (anxiety disorders usually are developmental, too) and other developmental profiles under them because the anxiety's so extreme and if she does have an ASD brain profile, it's probably in the border regions to be so well covered by her social anxiety. That was the reason I was asking all those questions, to get more detail about how her brain works. (Hopefully she'll answer the second set of questions because atm there's still not enough info to have a clearer idea between what's under the anxiety.) Her language is disrupted, her coordination, and social fluency. Right now I want to find out truly what her "gear-shifting" and "multitasking" abilities are like and see if there are any unrecognized sensory issues. I also want to find out more where her specific talent areas lie (she is intelligent, so they have to be there).

For you, Medusa, you definitely fit all the cortical markers of an Aspergers brain (imo) and/or the Broader Autistic Phenotype basis. Given your "aspieness" is more obvious, I'd say you are definitely ASD and not BAP.

Are you diagnosed?

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SteveK
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09 Nov 2006, 8:42 am

HEY, I thought I would be intruding, but:

Quote:

do you have sensory issues?
Yes. The idea of touch does bring back memories about when that was worse. Now it is mainly vision, sound, smell.

Do you have OCDish tendencies?

Well, I can have a one track mind, and study things a lot. I used to start at a program, and keepgoing for a long time. I also do things like tapping, etc... Reminiscent of an OCD suffererer but it isn't as important to me. I don't think ANYONE could consider me OCD other than the idea that I am always working on something often in a single area.

Anxieties?
Yes. Mostly in social situations... I just don't understand enough social cues, etc....

Are you very logical and/or creative?
Yep, and it has been pointed out also.

Do you feel socially "fluent"?
Far from it. I HAVE learned a bit, etc....

What are/were your family members like? Any "eccentrics"? Describe your family.

My father may have some similar symptoms, but I doubt he has aspergers. He also never understood be. He always thinks I am as I am by choice.

Do you seem to have a great deal of difference between your abilities and your deficits?

Luckily, my deficits are really only important for social concourse. and I have learned enough that I at least don't act like an idiot. People HAVE told me I am the smartest person they know.

Are you a good multitasker?

I used to be a lot better, being able to tune some things out. Today I am not so good at tuning things out. I can do a lot of things at once as long as they are different skill areas, if you know what I mean.

How's your attention span?

If it is something I like, I can do REALLY well! If it is something I don't like, and see no point in, I can't.

Do you ever stumble and bumble over words?

I do if I get flustered in a social conversation, or something that is going nowhere.

Do you ever find it difficult to discriminate what people are saying if you're in a crowded room with extraneous conversations going on or if someone uses a word like "ball" and you can't tell other than by pure context whether it was that or, say, "fall"? If so, how often does this happen?

This pretty much HAS to happen today. I was once laughed at for not knowing who dennis was! I should have been laughing at THEM, because HER name was denise!

If you have talents, what specifically are they?
1. Language.
2. Association
3. I used to be VERY good with statistics.
4. Programming/electronics.

What are your weakest points?

I hide my clumsiness. I USED to be more stubborn and nice. Frankly, I LIKE self deprecating people. It's a pitty we aren't ALL that way. And I am, even if some don't notice it.

Are you a picky eater? Picky about the fit of clothes?

I AM a picky eater, and used to be MORE so!
I used to be more picky about clothes. I like conservative clothes. and they are getting less conservative.

Also, please list any abilities you have which seem to be above the norm, even if only slightly.

Logical, language

When dealing with language, do you tend to feel more comfortable with concrete descriptions or with metaphoric ones?

Concrete descriptions, although I do refer to similar circumstances, books, movies to provide some examples.

When you stumble and bumble on occasion over sentences, is this almost always when you're nervous? Does this ever happen when you're not nervous?

When I'm nervous, or distracted.

Do you change your attention easily from one thing to the other or is it harder to orient yourself when having to do this?

This is getting a bit easier, but I like working on one thing until completed.

Have you ever had seizures or has anyone in your family had seizures (not due to head trauma)?

I would from time to time have like a mild shiver, but it was hardly noticable, and I didn't mind.

Do you feel most of your social problems stem directly from anxiety?

NOPE!

Describe where your areas of intelligence lie.

Definately verbal / logical.

How's your memory? Visual? Auditory? etc.

Mostly Visual or almost sensing, if you know what I mean. I used to be excellent with precisely repeating words. Today, that isn't as good. That is probably mainly due to others not speaking as clearly, and I am not hearing as clearly.

Steve

mcewen
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09 Nov 2006, 11:03 am

You might want to look into echolalia.

DrowningMedusa
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09 Nov 2006, 11:26 am

Sophist:

I have never been diagnosed with AS. I was seeing a phychiatrist for a while as a teenager (15 - 17 yrs old) and he was the one who suggested I might have ADHD and put me on Ritalin. I got the impression that he just couldn't find anything that fit... I had some of the ADHD tendancies (constantly moving a part of my body, short attention span for some things) but some characteristics that were diametrically opposed to ADHD (such as being able to concentrate for long periods of time on things that I was interested in, and no true behavioral problems).

I was sent to him because I had had a "freakout" at school one day - one of the bullies was yelling at me, taunting me, and throwing bits of food at me while I was quietly drawing at a table in the cafeteria. To this day, I still remember the "snap", the total loss of control - I got up, walked over to him and began trying to stab him with my pen. I know that sounds horrible, but I didn't hurt him. he was much stronger than me and several people held me down. And as bad as it sounds, I have injured myself worse in other instances... five stitches where my forehead repeatedly met the side of a counter last spring during a fight with my boyfriend. I'm going to be 28 in 3 weeks; I wish I could just "grow out of it" but this tendancy to self injure in times of stress / overload seems stronger than my own will; I just "lose it" at times.

I was put on anti-depressants in my late teens but quit them a year or so later. I started feeling very depressed 2 years ago, with very compulsive negative thoughts and a lot of social (and existential) anxiety and so went to see my family doctor who put me on Effexor. This is where I stand today... she seems to think I may be bi-polar (because at low doses they make me slightly hypomanic) but to me, that just doesn't sound right.

I'm in the process of reducing my dose so that I can stop the pills altogether as the benefits (feeling more comfortable in social situations and reducing the compulsive negative thoughts) don't outweigh the shortfalls (reduced libido, withdrawal symptoms when I forget to take them, slight hypomania).

Thank you for taking the time to talk to me and analyze my answers, Sophist; you would make an excellent psychologist!

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09 Nov 2006, 3:54 pm

DrowningMedusa, it sounds like you're not paying attention to your stress load. It helps if you can identify those things that bother you, and take some quiet time to defuse the build-up. I'm the same way, I don't pay attention to how stressed I am, and POW!! I'm ready for hand-tohand combat ! ! It's important to take quiet time, with lots of space and not keep adding to the stress.

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