Can one have both AS and NT traits?

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Seems pretty accurate, or at least I like to think so.

Yes, they can. I'm probably predominantly aspie, but there's some recognizable NT traits in me too. Then, I am quite a mild aspie.

I was first called AS.
I originally thought that AS = stupid, because everyone said that I was stupid.

So I thought:
"Okay, I'll learn some academic stuff so that people will respect me and I won't be stupid any more."

I became a Geek and thought: "Thank God I got rid of AS! Now people will respect me."

Then I read about the AS Geek linkage and wonder why I bothered

here are my results, i guess im full aspie...

reading this made me smile like , unlucky

Hey, I would love to be a Geek, I work in Strategy - I am bigger picture, projecting the future person and I hate how I struggle with detail and would love to programme like my sister.
Why do you see AS as bad? Or is it just the label?

I have many friends - it is silly how many friends I have - I am totally honest with them about my feelings and some of my thoughts (most of them get confused by any philosophy talk). They all have a perception of me and they hold on to it - "social butterfly", "Bubbly, chatty & warm", blah blah bah ...oh if I try challenging it..I either get laughter or they think I am joking or get worried for me and start losing sleep over it...wow what a nice reaction! (humorous sarcasm)

Don't get me wrong I love the social scene - my parents were two master networkers and very loving - I think my point is social skills are learnt behaviour - to me these have become second nature. "mirroring", " having intellect appropriate conversations", ..pretty much chameleon like behaviour .. and my safest act is "laughing, positive, bubbly person" or maybe I am naturally like that, as no effort is required for that.

However, I have a lot of empathy - I used to think it was gift (I do love interacting with people). Now I think I have too much empathy, I hate it actually as sometimes you feel you are drowning in other people's feelings - it is awful. You just want to disconnect but you can't it is as if your heart (metaphorically speaking) doesn't allow you to, and you feel compelled to help the person, be it just by listening to them. Oh, when I am saying "you" I mean "I".

Sorry, I think I have shared too much! Also, sorry if it seems incoherent!

Thanks for sharing your chart Pizzaman. Gives me perspective.

What is the social attiquete on WP, am I posting too many thanks? In real life I would never ask such a question, I feel safe enough to do so on WP.
Sorry, always had social rules all my life - which I quite enjoy breaking whenever I feel confident enough to!

I also have a mix. I’m okay with reading facial expressions / body language and other “theory of mind” type stuff. Other traits are very aspie though. Sensory integration issues were always the biggie for me. I’m also terrible at small talk, though this may be half due to my lack of skill in it and half due to my apathy towards it. I’m cursed with being an extreme introvert as well as aspie.

No rules that I'm aware of other than not being a jerk. It's nice to see an NT perspective sometimes.

I think you are correct that a lot of the social stuff is learned. I guess biggest the difficulty for me is getting into that mode. There is an emotional detachment for me when the topic seems trivial. Just being around people isn't quite enough though I don't wish to be unfriendly. With new groups of people I'm always outside and never quite ready to jump in until something strikes my interest but then at that point it feels "late". People seem awkward about the fact that the guy who's been quiet for 10 minutes of conversation suddenly has something to say. Makes me not want to participate at all.

^same

AND OMFG, I never would have thought I had NT perception... now I don't know what to think. Mabe I'm more Neurotypical than I thought. The Test is never wrong...is it?

^SEE!

Who's unlucky?

Me?

I was bullied by the teachers at an early age and made to suffer for my "stupidity".

No one ever told me that it was a "social deficit" at all, so I didn't have a clue that I had to mix with the other kids. I thought that they just meant my schoolwork.

Now I'm socially incapacitated, no one in real life will listen to me because I'm female.

This means I can't study properly for group work (because I can't chat, only analyse or joke) or persue the fields I want to study even though I excel at the details.

Oh my this is fun...*sarcasm*

I honestly have no idea why teachers think it's okay to bully. What good do they think it brings? Bullying by teachers is what lead to my communication breakdown with them and not trusting them.

I'm very sorry to hear about your experiences.
Of course this kind of treatment doesn't foster trust or mutual understanding, I completely agree with you.

Definitely a communication breakdown, definitely!

Looking back on it, I think that some of my "problem" teachers were quite harsh with the other kids too.

I'm talking about the teachers that bullied me when I had the AS label when I was still very young. They actually thought that by telling off and excluding me from activities, it was for "my own good". All I needed was my own private space to retreat to, that was all.

Once the AS label was removed no one minded so much. I couldn't be bullied for having AS, because if no one knew that I'd "had" it. I was just a quiet studious girl. Things improved after I learned academic things: I was respected more. But this didn't address the groupwork and informal chatting initiation problem...

Can I also add that most teachers I've had since the label was removed were really nice and helpful. It was just a few odd ones here and there that were a "problem".

Yes. That's being a borderline aspie if it's half and half. I consider myself borderline but yet I always scored aspie in these things. I just don't have lot of problems lot of aspies have. They have worse symptoms than I do. More sensory issues, worse social skills, worse inflexibility, etc. I had friends and was able to play with them at my house. I loved going to birthday parties.

I've taken this quiz a few times. I'm pretty sure I scored a bit lower on the aspie side than I did this time, but it always says I'm "most likely an aspie."


Some of the questions are hard to answer though, without a standard for what is "typical". Also, a lot of the questions seem to be about what other people say or think, like, "People often comment on..." There were a few questions where I thought that maybe if I spent more time hanging around with rude NT people, they would comment of certain things. As it is, I don't hang around with anyone really, so no one is commenting. KWIM?

OT, the very first thing that I noticed about your chart is that it looks like Africa. Which has nothing to do with anything, but there it is. Little bit o' trivia.

It's nice that you had good experiences with teachers. I can honestly say I didn't have any good experiences with any teacher until I was in college.
The teachers I had didn't want me in their classes. Period. They made sure I knew this, too. Their opinion was I didn't belong in their classes, I belonged in a special needs school and my mom was forcing them to deal with me. They retaliated by ignoring me. Their attitude was "we don't know what to do with this kid, her mom is making her stay in our classes so we will just ignore her because we don't have the time or the training".
At one point my mom wanted me to be held back a grade and I was absolutely terrified. I saw being held back as a sign of failure and punishment and I couldn't understand why I was the one they wanted to hold back.
From my point of view, I was a nice kid the others picked on. I put up with it and for this I did not deserve to be held back. In my mind, the reason I was failing was because the other kids picked on me a lot, this caused me anxiety and it interfered with my ability to work. Honestly, I don't know what to think now. The only thing I think would have made a difference was having a tutor and smaller class size.

No joke, that's really how it was.
I was in this grey area. I don't think I belonged anywhere.

Last edited by ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo on 05 Dec 2008, 5:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.