Is identifying ASD culturally-dependent?

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It really, really, depends upon the nature of the "gift," and how useful it is for a particular person who is contemplating the autistic person.

Temple Grandin was fortunate enough to use her autistic gifts as the basis for creating useful farm machinery. People found a practical application for them--so they "overlooked" her autism, and smoothed the path for her towards publishing her articles and implementing her inventions.

It could be that because you have moved to a new place (Denmark) nobody knows you well enough to offer commentary on your personal quirks. The Danes actually have a higher rate of autistic diagnosis per capita than the US, according to this article: http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/coun ... utism.html

In general, to be diagnosed with any psych disorder the symptoms have to be causing you distress. If your quirks were accepted by your family and friends, and your functioning level was very high, then you might not have had any distress to report even if you had all the symptoms of autism. And as an adult who has undergone lots of social experiences and even training (as you describe in your German period) you might present as almost neurotypical at this point.

Normal people typically have no trouble deciding whether something is a "gift" or a "curse."

Typically a gift is something that is useful to others.

If one has a creative gift (such as in writing or music), and that person exhibits autistic-type behaviors, the person is frequently scorned unless this creative gift has reaped tangible benefits.

Autistic behavoir is defined by words such as atypical and unusual and that is very culture dependent.

I am an autistic that is not and has not been disruptive. My atypicality is the opposite.

This is wonderful question. I think you might be on to something. Other countries are more family oriented than the US is. We're very individualistic and focus on the person. So where in another country they might see a weakness but find you overall a good addition to the team, in America they might expect you to be the complete package, and without quirks. We all must stand alone here. That's one aspect.

I've lived in South Korea and Italy, and of course my home in America. I have for a long time questioned the culture here anyways and now it's just a fast road to hell really. But this beside the point.

I wonder if psychology is studied more here, has more research money, or is seen as more important in America. Have you found any statistics worldwide about the prevalence of ASD?

What ASpartofme said ^.

High functioning autistics/aspies are never "disruptive". Anything but.

Its ADHD'ers who are "disruptive".

Get your disorders straight! lol!

To some degree some presentations of autism might not stick out in other cultures.

Studied anthropology, and read about the ethnology of the Amerinds of the north woods of Canada. It struck me how verbal silence is a norm in their culture. But a child in White north culture who was a silent as much a normal Cree child would probably labeled as "autistic". And when folks speak they tend: speak first, and ponder what was said for a moment, and then another person speaks. They interrupt each other constantly like we do.

And even within the developed world there are probably cultures where some autistics might blend in better than others. A NT lady I meet at the local autistic/aspergers support group who was there to escort her grown PDD-NOS son , and I got into a discussion about her experiences in Japan. She said "folks succeed there who wouldnt succeed here..." because Japanese culture is more aspergian than ours. I suspect that growing up in Japan would be a dangerous double edged sword for aspies: as i understand it Japanese are far more brutal to nonconformists than are any Euro-American culture (and even westerners are brutal to those who deviate), but on the other hand: if you DO conform to what is considered normal behavior in Japanese culture -its a more aspergian/autistic kind of normal than that of American culture.

Also within our own culture things have changed over time. In the 18th Centurey most adolescents didnt go to "school". For teens education meant working as an apprentice in a trade. Or working with your own kin on the family farm. Either way you spent most of your time with elders, or with younger children, and you rarely even meet folks your own age. But from the 20th Century onward most teens get warehoused all day in big boxes with hundreds, and even thousands of other teens, in bog boxes called "middle schools", and "high schools". So any social ineptitude in you character gets magnified in a way that wouldnt be if you just hung out with elders all of the time. And that maybe part of way some kinds autism stick out more in modern times. Just my theory.

As said before, disruptive can mean different things in different cultures or even contexts. A child repeatedly flapping their hands can be seen as disruptive in a classroom, even though that's a behaviour that doesn't directly affect anyone else (thus, stimming can be seen by NTs as disruptive to the general behavioural balance of a classroom). The same way, if an autistic person is prone to having meltdowns (as opposed to shutdowns) when under stress, this can be seen as disruptive too. It'll depend on the traits (not necessarily on ADHD comborbidity) and on what is considered disruptive to the social equilibrium.

Agreed. I think the main issue comes when the distress presents itself in the form of anxiety and depression and there is no clear indication of where the root lays (other than the permanent feeling of otherness). I've struggled with both and it's gotten worse as I've grown older, because adulthood had pressures that childhood didn't in my specific case (managing executive function when balancing work and house chores, for instance, social life, sensitivity issues when working in an office, impact on self-esteem and self-worth after being constantly told how inadequate I was by my former partner, etc.). Perhaps identifying that ASD was at the core of it would have helped managing my symptoms and limitations, instead of thinking I was just a faulty person.