are there levels to aspergerdness?

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well i was diagnosed as autistic at 3 months old, and at 11 years of age when i was in a unit for "hard to control" children, i was studied by a psychologist/psychiatrist and she decided i was AS. i could not be officially diagnosed at that time because it was not in the DSM. she was researching autism and compiling data for her essays and presentations etc to argue for the eventual proposal for acceptance of AS into the DSM.

i was diagnosed officially in 1996 after 3 drink driving charges that happened in quick succession.
my lawyer who had my historic records at his disposal decided i should go and be assessed and get the official diagnosis (as it was now firmly in the DSM).
i did and it took 4 weeks.
my family was interviewed and my school reports were all scrutinized and i had many sensory tests.



i do not really understand this paragraph.
i was not diagnosed AS until i was 24.
during my childhood i was diagnosed with HFA.
when i was going through school, i did not feel inclined to make "adjustments", because i felt my way of action was fine. i also was diagnosed with ODD, and most teachers did not try to cause a scene with me.
i am not "shielded" from anything.
i am not in an a world where i have to watch for "dangerous" things.
other peoples appraisals of me are faint little neuro-transmissions that circulate through their minds. they will forget almost as fast as i will about any eccentric encounter they have with me.
as long as i am within the law i am free to do as i want.


no. i am sorry if you did, but i wrote my post based on my own experience.



do you mean "stimming"?. no. my stims are always things like drumming out beats on a table i am sitting at with my fingers. or i may curl my hair around my finger and play with a tugging sensation on my scalp etc. nobody really notices.

yes i get what you are saying i believe . i was embraced my the medical system from 3 months old and i always had acceptance because they knew what they were dealing with.

if i was living in a situation where no one picked up on my differences, i can not imagine what would have happened.



ok then.
i do not tend to look in the direction that a finger points.
i tend more to look at the finger tip that is pointing.
you can not show me anything because i can not look at what you are pointing at from the perspective you see it from. (my problem so keep dancing).

i know everyone is different. if they were not they would all be me.

I find the empathy question very interesting... I too have noticed that some feel overwhelmed by their empathy, but on continuing to read their posts I'm not convinced what they are experiencing is empathy, at least as NTs experience it. I say this because of the lack of ability to understand or express compassion for those who are hurt other than themselves... as posted here. (I appreciate that Aspies may have a hard time physically/verbally expressing sympathy or compassion) There seems a remarkable inability to "walk in another's shoes" which would be consistent with lack of theory of mind or lack of empathy.

In the past as a 20-something I have even described myself as extremely empathetic, but now I do wonder about myself... I'm certainly not now. I can be very sensitive to tone of voice... is that the cue I'm responding to? Am I mistaking my own high emotional states in being in proximity with other people as their emotions rather than my own, in other words am I projecting my mental states onto others and making the mistake of thinking it's theirs?

Or the other possibility that presents itself is that I'm very sensitive to energies... high, low, dull. This happened the other day in visiting a couple of high-energy people. I was relating some information and one began to rapidly query me, interrupting and firing off questions. I distantly experienced (know what I mean... it's waaaay in the back of the mind...) this as aggressive, but didn't react to it, just finished what I was trying to say. Later I spoke about the incident with the third person, who said the questioner was fascinated and excited about the info and really appreciated what I had said. Wow! Totally different from what I almost felt... but in relating the incident to my friend I had described it in energy terms and she said that was totally right on. We've noticed before I am aware of other's energy... clean, crossed, high, frazzled, gentle... but I have no clue as to other's emotional states.

Thoughts?

I don't know if I have it in the clinical sense refered to with theory of mind but I know I can feel what another person is feeling not necessarily by looking at them probably more like you say some kind of energy. Maybe I don't really feel the actual emotion they do rather I feel something and then attribute whatever the likely emotion could be much like you suggest. Hmmmn, interesting.

I think instead of overwhelmed by empathy i should have said overwhelmed by emotion. I've always been told I'm too sensitive and I overreact etc. It's strange since I was told once I lack emotion, maybe just problems expressing it.

Yeah, I can feel if someone's "down", but I can't tell if they're just tired or actually depressed. I kinda make a stab at it based on what they say or do, but that's definitely on the cognitive level.




Look up alexithymia... you might find it familiar on several counts, I did. Not being able to discern various my own emotional states easily, sometimes difficulty conveying them to others. Knowing that my emotions existed in a sort of undifferentiated soup, I've worked to "get in touch with myself" (Ugh I hate jingo-ism) and it's given me a one-up on some of the meltdowns. I've become somewhat less reactive as I'm more attuned to when my own stew of feelings starts heating up.

I'm also beginning to think the "too sensitive" for us is related to our highly sensitive senses as well... more neurons dedicated to that function, fewer to organizing and filtering and categorizing (ie "executive function deficit").

Last edited by DonkeyBuster on 12 Sep 2009, 3:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

this might also be of interest;

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt89774.html

'Has anyone attempted to divide Aspergers into subtypes?'

discussion of over empathy is very interesting, as its something i do, but which is rarely mentioned in standard stuff on a.s.. i am also very disorganised, and untidy. perhaps some useless corrolation- tidy and lacking emapthy v disorganised and over empathic groups.

In true Aspie fashion, I will totally mess up your categories... very non-neat and also as stated not very empathic.

The third state...

So do you think you are picking up emotions or "energetic states" (for lack of a better term) and cognitively extrapolating based on obvious signals (voice tones, conversational topics)?

When you walk into a crowded room are you overwhelmed by your emotions, their emotions, their energies or just all the visual/auditory stimulus?

Not only do I think yes, there are degrees of AS, but it can vary within an individual.

I feel like I'm kind of on the cusp between AS and NT. When I take the rdos aspie quiz, which I have done quite a few times, my aspie score ranges from about 118 to 142. That's always in the "You are most likely an aspie" range. At the moment, I'm going through a period where I don't feel very AS, and if I were to seek a diagnosis today, I'd probably be laughed out of the doctor's office. During my more AS phases, I do more pacing and hand-flapping, and find it difficult to go into supermarkets, and do a lot more staring at patterns of light and things like that. During my more AS phases, I have trouble doing the things I ought to be able to do as a mother/household manager. At the moment, I'm able to make important phone calls and things like that, and generally not feeling very AS.


Even at my most NT, though, I have never been able to do well at "jobs", because I am baffled by the social environments and end up getting myself in trouble by attempting to do what my peers seem to be doing. I have never had a "circle of friends," or anyone who I could call and ask for a favor, and don't quite understand how people make that happen. BUT, I think I generally come across as a nice, normal person, albeit sometimes a bit shy. Lately, in my not-so-AS phase, I notice that people smile at me more.

When I come to WP, I generally feel like I'm among my own kind, because people who are completely NT don't really seem to relate to the ways that I experience the world. I mean like, I can come here and talk about how I spent an hour noticing the fractal patterns in the soap bubbles in my bath water, and people here will understand the beauty and value in that experience. Some NTs will, too, I'm sure, but I think they will typically be more guarded about talking about such things. It's got a certain level of weirdness which seems to be unacceptable.

Yeah, I've always wondered about that... it'd sure be useful for the big projects, but I can't seem to make it happen either. Bafflement abounds.


[quote="elderwanda'] I can come here and talk about how I spent an hour noticing the fractal patterns in the soap bubbles in my bath water, and people here will understand the beauty and value in that experience. [/quote]

The way plastic bags drift in the breeze...

I'm just like you!! Seriously. except for the eye conact one, that seems to be more apparent for moi.