Asperger's Severity: Part 1: Co-Morbids

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Moderate with co-morbidity. I need weekly counseling, and I have a roommate who helps me, not like a care taker, but with some of the functions of taking care of your own place that I have trouble with. I do not think that I could live without a roommate (or if I was married a husband). I have severe depression (currently controlled) and moderate social anxiety (but that overlaps).

Oops. I clicked on 'mild' before reading the OP's post.



Anyway, I see that I'm more moderate. I am still living at home, but I have my own bills that I pay myself. I don't eat with the family, so that means I buy my own groceries too. I really want my own place, but financially and emotionally, I don't feel like I'm ready to be on my own. I hate asking for help and prefer being a 'one-woman show', but I still need help. Asking for it makes me feel like a kid or weak.


I still need financial help from my family. I see a therapist once a week for my AS, depression and anxiety. I also go to a group twice a month. (Even though I dislike it at times.)

I went with the 'Mild, more than one co-morbid with unique difficulties.' option because I'm not completely clear on what 'assistance' is understood at. Does it mean day-to-day living with prompts, casual assistance on social or learning issues or the use of technology to help with all three major issues?

I'm mild and I have about 3 co-morbids.

1) Anxiety/Depression- My anxiety is controlled under meds, depression goes in and out.
2) OCD- mild OCD which is controlled under meds
3) Learning Disorder- I was diagnosed with a reading disorder which I suspect is auditory dyslexia but im not 100% sure. It means my hearing is fine but I brain is slower to process sounds into words so I frequently mishear people.

3 co-morbids seems like a lot but there all mild so its not bad, well im on meds.

I put down "severe". I'm able to do most things for myself, but am not capable of everything, and am very dependent on my boyfriend who I live with. I don't need any professional help for daily life, but do need someone who will make sure am fed (as I have difficulty cooking), and dealing with when I'm unable to cope with everything. I'm about at the severe/moderate borderline with the definitions you gave.

Co-morbids:
-mild social anxiety (diagnosed but questioning, overlapping)
-probably Sensory Processing Disorder (not diagnosed, expecting diagnosis soon, overlapping),
-migraines
-dyspraxia (childhood apraxia of speech)
-maybe seizures (get results from my eeg tomorrow)
-maybe Multiple Chemical Sensitivity? (people don't know if its real, don't know if I'd have it, but multiple people have told me I seem like I have it and that I'm the only person they know that seems to have it)

I put severe because I can not live on my own. I am not even really safe by myself. Right now its even hard being in public. I even have a caregiver at home. Luckily its my mom and she gets paid for it. That is great.
I have several co-morbids.
1. Schizoaffective disorder bipolar type- This is the main one that causes difficulty. Because of the voices/ visions I do some self injury and I yell at random things and outside I act bizarrely. People would stare at me. It also causes my autism to become worse because it makes the sensory overload worse. Every little sound bothers me and I have to wear earplugs wherever I go. Luckily for me with the schizoaffective, it calms down during the night around 7-8 pm. It is the worst starting when I get up and gets worse and worse and at that point I am not able to communicate coherently. At night its fine. It calms down and same with my anxiety.
2. Part of the schizoaffective is the bipolar but the one that affects me the most is the depression (its rare for me to get truly manic). It is hard to get out of bed but if we are doing things its a little better. Like the schizoaffective, it causes me to self harm. Both by cutting and banging my head against the wall that I get bumps. It causes me to feel worthless and hopeless and it causes me to not be interested in anything besides music and the Internet. I never lose interest in the Internet because I simply have to know what is going on in the world.
3. GAD- I am anxious about literally everything. The anxiety gets so bad that I have physical symptoms and panic attacks. Sometimes I can have multiple panic attacks in one day. I worry about mom's health and financial stuff. This is along with everything failing and not saving our butts. This also causes the autism to get worse by me rocking back and forth constantly making humming noises and drawing circles. I also do hand flapping. I do it mainly because of the anxiety and sensory overload.
4. When the anxiety gets so severe, I also get conversion disorder with seizures. The seizures are just pseudo but they act just like real seizures and are not intentional. Conversion disorder is not intentional. I would fall on the floor seizing. I would injure myself by falling on the floor and banging into things.

Compared to all this my autism is mild. At least compared to when I was a child. I am able to socialize somewhat. I have friends.

I'm so concerned by a poll like this, and all the diagnoses running amuck... /sigh...


Anyway....

I have yet to be diagnosed, but I believe I have mild AS. I also believe I have mild OCD (the so-called "pure-O" variety where I don't outwardly show compulsions) and some anxiety issues (panic attacks, etc...).

Mild (as far as anyone else I've seen that has "Asperger's", even if I can't work/study normally and the friends I have are online), with OCD (plus heaps of other anxiety disorders, but eh, I'll just call that anxiety), which isn't all that bad anymore.

I have several comorbids. I can't vote, however, because I don't know if I'm mild or moderate. I live on my own without assistance, but I shouldn't. If the Super of my building or anyone else got a glimpse of the condition my apartment is presently in, I'd be kicked out faster than you could say, "Condemned by the Department of Health." I live with mountains of clutter (especially bad in closet, but plenty of other clutter clusters as well), garbage, rotting food in the refrigerator, roaches , disgusting accumulations of dirt, dust, mold, mildew and cobwebs in various places. I have no smoke alarm or carbon monoxide alarm because I tore each of the wall because they were chirping and it annoyed me. I've since misplaced the smoke alarm I tore from the wall to stop the chirping, and I have no clue where it is. I have no clue how to go about replacing the battery, and I can't let anyone into my home, for obvious reasons. I can't bring myself to go about cleaning up, and so much stuff has accumulated, I wouldn't know how to start. My Mom is the only person I'll allow to see my home in its present state. I've asked for her help. She's told me she's tried to help me before, but I seem unwilling to learn (her words) that I'm an adult, and I need to learn how to keep up my own home. I've tried at times, but I can't seem to do it. Occasionally the state of my home will become marginally better for a time, when my Mom's given me a head start, but I can never keep things up for long, and every thing inevitably disintegrates after a while. In any case, my Mom has given up on helping me anyway.
Still, I live on my own, whether or not I should be allowed to do so. If anyone rings the doorbell, I just don't answer -- I just stay quiet until they go away. I do shower daily and was my clothes. I pay my bills. I have a Master's degree. I also hold down a full time job, and I make it to work every day. I never even show up late. I don't drive, as I failed my road test four times, but I am adept at navigating the subway system, and I get to where I need to go independently.
I'd vote in this poll, but I don't know how to rank my functioning.

Not sure I can vote; as I don't know where exactly I fall - somewhere between moderate and severe. I do have co-morbid disorders. One doesn't have a name yet, one no-one knows whether I still have it and a load of other stuff, including Irlens Syndrome. (which is apparently common in people with AS)

Right, I should go edit my post and mention that people think I have a co-morbid that people question whether it really exists - I seem to have Multiple Chemical Sensitivity as well.