Such thing as a half aspergers syndrome?

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I 100% do not agree with this statement. The disorder part of autism comes from the interaction with the rest of the world, if someone with autism lived all on their own somewhere in the forest they wouldn't be "disordered" from having a "normal" life like someone with a "real" disorder who just isn't able to take care of himself/sees things that aren't there/something like that.

Yes autism can eventually lead to someone getting for example depressed and not able to take care of themselves because they stay in bed all day, but that's again a result of the interaction with everyone else and any NT can fall into this trap too, so being NT is a disorder too because it can lead to having certain problems?? Being poor must be a disorder too then.

Someone who needs glasses has an eye-disorder, someone with no limbs has a pretty big problem too. But does someone who's left handed got a disorder? Autism is like being left handed 99% of the time; having a perfectly fine working way of doing something that's only "weird" because all the other people all do it in a similar different way.
That sounds more like a personality/choice problem than a real disorder.

I mean, If I explain something to someone and my explanation takes an hour and they lose interest after 20 minutes, am I the guy with the "explaining disorder" or are they the ones with the "concentration disorder". Likewise if they explain something to me in 20 minutes and that leaves me with 40 minutes of questions they aren't willing to answer, who's got the disorder?

Clearly it's the majority that decides what's wrong or not and that sounds like a personality struggle more than either of them supposedly having any kinds of disorders.
Yes the majority can be mean and call the minority a "disorder"/"disease" and try do their best to find a "cure" or slowly strip them from their rights every time someone who just happens to have that label does something wrong even though -every single day- people without labels do the same but that's not really fair and sounds like Nazi Germany to me but hey I think I made my point already.

Have you ever actually met a moderately to severely autistic person who struggles to initiate movement and keep on track even for the most basic self help skills, who is so overwhelmed by sensory impressions they are unable to navigate their surroundings safely? Of course not everyone with more severe autism has these issues, but a lot of people do and putting them in a forest to fend for themselves would pretty much be a death sentence for many.

I agree that SOME of the issues experienced - at all levels of autism - stem from lack of accommodation and tolerance etc, but by far not everything.

And it isn't just more severely autistic people who may struggle to "live happily by themselves in the forest".

Even a mildly affected Aspie is in real danger of not being able to feed and clothe themselves (for lack of money etc) when special interests become so intense they neglect to go to work, eat etc, and executive dysfunction can make life extremely hard to handle independently even for otherwise very intelligent, independent people.

You can disagree all you like, but it's still a disorder.

All I'm going to say is I'm officially tired of how some people are trying to hijack the terminology for what is a very real and serious DISORDER, and turn it into some silly "personality type. If all you are is a "quirky person," and you are not/have not ever been impaired in any way, then you DO NOT have Asperger's Disorder (which is what the condition is actually called). There's nothing hip, cool, or "edgy" about having autism, nor is a way to express your "uniqueness."

Quirky and eccentric =/= "autism."

Beyond that, I've had this debate three times in the past month, and I'm not getting into it again.

Good day.



Exactly.

Thank you.

Yes I have and together with many of the (professional) people I talked to over the years come to the conclusion that in reality the severity in those matters and pretty much the wideness of autism makes those people (with all due respect) be dumped under the "autism" label.
I mean the diagnostic tools used to determine autism "normally" can't even be used by people with such severe problems and likewise the tools that should be used to diagnose their problems aren't applicable to most people with autism. But hey, since autism is about social/personality things, and someone who can't talk technically has a social problem too, let's label it autism till we decide to look into it more. And I've never heard of anyone with autism starving to death before because "he spend 3 days and nights reading papers and watching documentaries on ants".
So yes in theory once they rewrite 1994's DSM-IV names may change and "autism" may become the name for a "severe" variant, but the knowledge is already there that there's big enough differences between those to set them apart in the (near) future.


Edit: Furthermore I see everyone who "good days" his way out of discussion he started by reacting to someone else's opinion as having -the final- opinion as someone who weasels his way out of a defeat.

That's basically where I was told I fit. Never mind the fact I meet all the other DSM IV criteria to a T. Since I work full time (though chronically underemployed) and have an apartment, I'm not "significantly impaired" enough to be considered. Still scratch my head how Engineers with a wife, kids and house can be diagnosed but not me, where if I lose my current job I'm completely f***ed due to my inability to even know where or how to look for work and my terrible executive functioning skills. That's not mentioning having zero friends for about 20 years and only now getting a girlfriend who if not Autistic I'll eat my hat.

By that logic, almost nobody with Aspergers should have been diagnosed in the first place and WP should not exist.


That's not what the 'expert' I spoke with said. He said there is a distinction between "aspergers personality" and a "clinical aspergers" and both are recognized. I definitely have one but not the other since I'm not disordered as mentioned above. Not trying to argue but that's what I was told right or wrong.

"Asperger personality" sounds like broad autism phenotype. "Clinical AS" probably requires having impairments for which specific accommodations can be made. I think that making a list of specific impairments at work or school and what accommodation would help those impairments is useful for diagnosing a person who needs to be diagnosed and distinguish from someone who has autistic traits but is not impaired.

you could have very mild asperger syndrome, or maybe the syndrome effects you in some ways, and in some ways not. like not all aspies suffer from noise anxiety, although many do, or not all of us have lousy motor skills.
type "are you an aspie" in the search engine and take the test.

I am a diagnosed Aspie that can instinctively read body language and understand social cues and read and even feel emotions of other people, et cetera, I wouldn't say perfectly because it's not something what takes an NT to be brilliant at it, but it's something that I have got there in my natural instinct just like the general NT population. But I find it hard to express those social cues myself, like in a social situation I'm usually quiet and timid, and I lack confidence severely. Sometimes I know when's the right time to say something relavent to the current conversation, like when I first started my new job I sat with 2 girls who were young like me, and I didn't recognise them but they both said they went to my school. One said she was 21 (a year younger than me) and the other said she was 25 (the same age as my brother), and I nearly said ''did you know my brother, [his name]?'' But for some reason I suddenly had a mini panic attack before I opened my mouth, and I suddenly inwardly backed away and stayed quiet. I do that a lot.

autism is on a spectrum. Aspergers, even the most severe cases are by default on the mild end of the spectrum. This nis because a diagnosis of aspergers by definition, constitutes a more mild and higher functioning form of autism that other more classic autism.

Within the asperger's diagnosis there is still that spectrum. Yes you can be half as autistic as someone else and yes your symptomology may be completely different, but you both are autistics. Autism varies greatly from person to person

i really need to take my damn gre's im too smart not to

Half Asperger's? mild Asperger's? might as well not even investigate it...I mean Asperger's is already mild autism so you have milder form of mild autism?

I think that it is possible. I understand what you are talking about. I think that being like that stems from your past and what you have encountered, endured and experienced growing up. I grew up in a world of violence. My mother was married 4 different times. I can remember hearing and seeing so much abuse. I wouldn't be able to focus at school, at all, wondering if my mom was gonna be alive when I got home. This went on until I was 14/15ish. Finally she left the last guy alone, finally. I had 3 older sisters and 2 younger brothers. I hardly talked. I watched and observed ALL the time. I could tell you who liked who at school. I could sense when something wasn't right with someone. I can feel other's pain, literally. I see so much when I am just watching. I am not aware of my facial expressions at all though. However, if I am in my little safe world, I am oblivious to everything. All I know is that I can read body language and social cues. But I can not walk up to someone I don't know (in a, I wanna meet you and maybe hang out type of situation) and start a conversation and sound anywhere near sane. Words, communicating with FREAKIN words is where it lies with me...that and understanding if someone else's words. I misinterpret a lot sometimes.

Sorry if this doesn't make sense.
Some people with autism become "more autistic" under stress. This could be because they're normally making an effort to "appear normal" (whether they know it or not). When they're under stress, they can't handle the pretending and stress at the same time, so the pretending gives in, because they can't just become less stressed *clicks fingers* like that.

Or you could just be having a meltdown of some sort.

I have PDD-NOS--I suppose, for me, it's "atypical symptomatology".

And I, too, think you are talking about Broad Autism Phenotype when you are talking about the fact that autism isn't always a disability. It isn't always a disability, but most people who are officially diagnosed have very significant disabilities, even if that disability is mostly societal-imposed. It's insulting to not acknowledge that.

I am not sure what it was, but before Christmas I had a test in maths. It was set up so I could get an oral mark (because I missed too much due to an illness to be able to be rated properly). I prepared for the test the best I could which is not really a problem here as I understand maths fairly well (even if the book we use in school is just a big catastrophy! I need information in a compact list explaining everything).
I prepared for a written test since it was supposed to be one.
Then, the day I had the test, my maths teacher came to me and said "I hope you don't mind that the test will be an oral test as preparation for the finals so you get an idea how an oral test looks like".
For some reason I just said "no, I'm fine with that" before even realizing I did say that she said "okay, then see you in room this and that" - in retrospect I wish I would have never said that...

It was unnerving to even know the plans changed all of the sudden and to have two more teachers as observers in that room and being questioned by them!
When I was doing the test I even caught myself stimming because of the stress (moving my leg up and down very quickly, I was nervous and occasionally I rocked slightly forth and back standing there in front of them, played with my fingers and the paper I had).

I failed miserably.
I was just able to write down two formulas on the blackboard, could barely say anything, stuttered a lot and couldn't even talk in proper sentences. It felt like I just shut down. This gave me a bad mark in maths on the half-year certificate the first time in my entire life... The rest of the day I was just down and took a nap directly after school.

I'm not sure what exactly it was but I never ever felt so unable to do anything - and just as an information:
I'm very good at preparing and making a speech because I get to plan that and know what to say. A teacher once even told me that I'm the best speaker she has seen during her career as I talked freely (completely without looking into my notes) and without any stuttering and long breaks. Talking in front of people is no problem for me, same goes for answering questions (which is basically an oral test and I have had one in Latin before which for which I got a good mark).
I don't know what exactly the reason for this is, but this speeches-thing is one of the few things that doesn't seem aspie-like about me.