What AS is and is not

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Sure... it is physical, and I don't think there is a AS personality (each one here is so different of another!) but there are a lot of similarity in the way we deal with the difficulties we find. Maybe this "way" is what people call our personality... (don't know what goes on others (NT) minds). And there is a great difference about DSM-IV AS diagnostic and real AS people.
Still confused

I understand that, but I also know one can choose wanting to fit in. Or wanting what one doesn't have. I never tried much to fit in, as I was unaware that there was something to fit in. But I love being social. I like to talk to everybody, I love being loved by others and I enjoy being curious about other people though I am not emotionally connected.

I suppose many see this from another perspective. I can only assume - and I have no idea other from stories - about how a person must feel if they always felt abnormal and thought the world is how it should be.

I hate the reject I get now that I'm aware and I sometimes would love to just slap a lot of people. I always thought everybody except me was insane and that I was the only normal person on this planet and that everybody should be as good and cool as me.

So... I partly agree with you. I partly disagree because I see 'AS-compatible' as a life I do not want to lead, because it would make me mentally ill. Being isolated physically, not being able to chat with people, not going to parties, being very spontaneous as some part of my personality is (how many people make themselves shut down all the time without outside influence?).



Basic personality traits are certainly possibly genetic. I inherited some and they're the opposite of what people consider 'AS personality'. While I'm perfectly certain that I have a PDD, I also have these personality traits that seem entirely untouched by the neurological part of AS. The only difference I so far discovered is in how I handle and lived with them, especially as they're severely limited and affected by the social impairment and the repetitive impairment that AS poses.

The personality is not originated in the whole brain. A simple damage to one part can change a personality drastically. Or someone's brain gets injured, but their personality is all the same though their abilities have suddenly changed a lot. Of course, it's also possible to affect both at the same time of course. That suggests the process isn't easily mapped but complex.

It is possible that if a certain variant of AS is genetic, there seem to be personality traits accompanying it as they're present in relatives - who also have AS. But until autism is entirely explained or until this aspect is inspected further, one has to remember that just because 2 things are present at the same time, they're not necessarily connected. I think there's this saying that goes 'One can have lice and flea at the same time.'

There may be forms of AS that are accompanied by personality traits, though.

I think it is way too soon to be definite about anything of this besides that autistic people all have in common a certain triad that in itself can also still be varying a lot in presence and intensity.

I talked to the autism coordinator of our state the other day.
She is so lovely and always call me 'sweetie' and she said that she attends an adult aspies group sometimes. She said some are way over the top and out there and yet others very passive.

Read it for yourself!



So he is saying it is not inherently bad, but simply another way of thinking, seeing the world, etc... And that is NOT to contradict his last statement, even if it appears that way. He makes it clear he knows something about it, because he says it IS an ASD, NOTE THE D, and he IS diagnosed!



You're right there! Who could REALLY know!?!? I mean Aspies would probably not have been so quick to follow hitler. Then again, they would not have been so quick to believe the stuff around egypt, etc... They might have created RADAR quicker. I MYSELF thought up the concept behind microwave cooking LONG before I ever heard of such a thing. OK, I thought it up around 5 or 6, and first heard the TERM about 9-10. BTW for point of reference, the first domestic microwave oven was introduced about the time I was 4. I never heard about it though, and I was in a regular middle class area where nobody was likely to have even seen one. I didn't even see one up close until I was perhaps 11 or 12. Still, even TODAY a lot of people don't understand the concept.

BTW It was DISCOVERED by ACCIDENT by the person credited with creating it. I, hearing how heat affects matter, mused that the same could happen in reverse(EM radiation could cause the molecules to vibrate generating heat). HE discovered it when a candybar melted!

Still, who knows. In Star trek, McCoy at one point saves a person that brings peace! The enterprise VANISHES and leaves the wayteam(however you say it or spell it since even THEY don't seem to know) STRANDED on a planet with an arrogant device that just created the problems. They go back in time BEFORE McCoy changes history, and find that the peace brought about a rise in NAZIsm because the US entered the war too late. That destroyed the space program, etc....

In one show I THINK it was "the butterfly effect", the human race VANISHES, and the planet changes, because a butterfly was killed. Yeah, I KNOW, it sounds crazy, but THINK about what a butterfly can do, especially with such a young planet. It could have laid eggs, creating MANY more, that could have killed off certain plants, and hindered a dinosaurs progress while being a food for yet another. Maybe it pollenated a bunch of plants that helped another. Anyway, the guy gets a women that devolved to first device to send him back to prevent the problem before she, herself, changes.



Well, I AM happy for that. Even if it was the norm, it would be stated as such.

BTW Regarding what Sora said, we all seem to have a niche. I'm willing to bet I could do my job better than almost anyone here! Having said that, in some ways, some of you could make me look ret*d, based on what I have read here. And I wouldn't fault you for not being able to do my job as well, or not being able to do it. Hopefully none of you would fault me for not being that great at math(though I AM getting better), not being able to read the latest harry potter in under an hour(though I AM working on that! ), or being able to flash count, or memorize things pixel for pixel, or being able to play music very well.

Last edited by 2ukenkerl on 20 Jul 2008, 12:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I like to see AS as a reability (a word I made up myself,) which means that there are some things we cannot do that most people can, while there are other things that we usually excel at. Examples of things we can't do, or find very hard are eye contact, correctly interpreting body language, thinking on our feet and, well, I'm sure you can think of others. Positive traits that come with AS include honesty, punctuality and dedication.

Although the DSM classifies AS as a disability and a disorder, what it is to you as the individual depends on how you deal with it. Sure, you can convince yourself that you're suffering from a disease, see the worst in every situation and never enjoy life at all. Or you can accept that, while there are some things in life you can't do, it's still possible to lead a happy and fulfilling life. I'm not saying that having AS is easy, because it's not, but it doesn't have to be a death sentence, and indeed it shouldn't.

Ive been told by a specialist that > how severly or not severly you are affected by autism or AS depends on your personality and intelligence.

The problem I am having is the doctors seem to be describing my personality by my illnesses. I was always artistic, moody, shy, suspicious, obcessive, etc... and it disturbs me so much of who I am is called a disorder or syndrome.

Now THAT is all I am saying! Thanks for saying it so well!

JOIN THE CLUB!

Awe HECK! We have been told all our lives about how so much is because we are human. AS just tweaks that a bit. Outside of MOODY MAYBE, the things you listed can be ASSETS! ENJOY!

By reading your posts, I think that you are doing very well the social part of life, and that is the most annoying part of AS (for me). I remember people saying that I am "empty", that I don't have emotions, that I can't be affectionate or attached to other people, that I only care about my computer... Under this pressure was easy to choose loneliness and give up the social life. And even being afraid to try.



Without a proper diagnostic, I couldn't guess why people could make friends so easily and so fast, when I was trying for months without results. And very often the people I liked made dangerous people as friends, and I was always so sincere and pure (maybe stupid) and kept aside. AS is, at least for me, a very handicapping thing. Albeit I know that I would not be me without AS, would be much more easier to navigate through life.

Last edited by ericksonlk on 20 Jul 2008, 1:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The best way I make friends is to say nothing and just smile

Uh, I did.

It's just a list of unsupported claims, that is counter to what Asperger's is defined as.

Disorder:


Condition:


Disease:


It's even a disease if one wishes to be pedantic.

Asperger's is a neurological disorder that is manifested by problems with reciprocal social/emotional interaction, pragmatic language difficulties, and repetitive behaviours.

I wish I did as good, but I do not.

I am doing excellent in 1-on-1 situations. I find these conversations to be very easy. But it is the opposite in group situations.

Just being on the street with other people, people are mean to me. I just walk over a yard and some kids, half my age start to taunt me and try to hit me. Or stranger make me tip or push me out of the way. In the six schools I was I was always bullied and 2 years ago I had to leave yet another school because the students wanted me gone.

It's unfair that I talk so well these days, people like what I say and how I say it. And yet being just surrounded by strangers, people immediately dislike me even if I say/do nothing but walk or stand somewhere. If I talk they call me crazy. I was told that I look 'perfectly normal'. But obviously something about me evokes meanness in other people.

I nevertheless like the social interaction very much. I'm too unemotional to get traumatised.

Being with people, if I'm not having a very autistic day, is rising my mood and makes me active. I still jump around if anybody else is already tired and wants to call it a day.