Do you ever feel like you might not have AS?

Post Reply New Topic

if we didn't have names and labels for everything we would all be walking around either with A) a giant picture book of everything thing/object we have ever seen so we can point to them while we were talking to each other or B) having conversation like stereotyicaly mob gangsters from the godfather,
"Hey you take care of that thing?"
"You mean the thing with the other thing with the guy?"
"no the other thing with 2 guys over by that thing on top of the thing"
"oh that thing! yeah I took care of it"

I have no issues at all with labels, what I do have some issues with is, the collection of labels, with no intention of receiving further help. What's the point of this? As I see it, there is none.

Especially for a diagnosis such as Aspergers, where there are ways to manage and learn how to deal with your diagnosis. This managing and controlling, can be achieved through intervention. Tony Attwood is a big big promoter of intervention. He isn't just content with labeling, then sending out his patients to the big bad world, without the proper skills to help make their life as easy as possible. INTERVENTION, management, and learning are the main things people who are seeking a diagnosis, is what should be held priority, not the label.

I HAVE NO ISSUE WITH LABLES. Please read my posts carefully, and understand what I actually write, rather than what you would like me to write, so you can post illogical and unrelated, rude posts, directed towards me.

If you want to go flame someone else, that's cool with me, as I am receiving quite a lot of hate from some posters/poseurs on this board. I may have to go to the mods, if this situation were to worsen.

My original post to you was not said in hate, or annoyance, rather, I was saying something in support of one of your symptoms, and really just saying get it checked out as it will give you a greater sense of mind. Maybe I shouldn't saying anything positive every agin if my posts are received with such hate and in return negative posts directed towards myself.






You both did not read my post very well did you?

Please everyone further develop your comprehension skills and finishing reading sentences, without jumping to conclusions. Maybe I should stick to simple sentences so your can read my posts and not get your knickers in a knot.


"Labels can be helpful."

"having a label is not too much help in itself."

"Labels can generate further help."

"Sally likes labels, but she likes help better."

***My knickers are not nor will they ever be in a knot because of something said on a message board***

This is your entire post that I was referring to including the quote that you quoted in it, all 73 of your own words of it. So yes I did read your entire post. I in no way shape or form stated that you didn't like to label things, nor did I state that you don't like labels. I have a full understanding based on this post alone about your views on labels and how YOU don't find them useful unless you use that information to gather more information, in this case "help with the issues associated with that label". Again full understanding of your views on labels and how YOU think they should be used.

daydreamer84 and I were not commenting on any of that, nor were we attacking you as you seem to think. You said "I really REALLY do no understand why people want a label for themselves,..." You have therefore stated you do not understand something. We were both simply stating why OTHER people may like the label for THEMSELVES. It is in fact human nature to want to label everything we come across, it is how our mind works. Again no one is or has been attacking you and saying you hate labels.

I think it is maybe you that need to work on your comprehension skills and stop reading personal attacks into statements that had none to begin with.

now to return to the thread topic at hand. Doubt is a very powerful thing, you are never going to be 100% certain of anything in your life 100% of the time. It is very rare that anyone can truly state that they have not questioned their own behavior or views on anything in their life. In the grand scope of things we as a human race have MUCH to learn about our brains especially the one that aren't neurotypical so to speak. But as rabbit90 has alluded to it's not really whether you accept the label of AS or not, it's how you use it towards the betterment of your own life that's really important.

No. I'm undiagnosed but from the time I first heard of AS and started learning about it I only discover more and more signs that it is what I have.

Without a label or name to call it I never would have been able to do that or find WP which has been a great help in understanding myself.

Knickers remain completely un-knotted, and I have nothing to add to what I said earlier - especially as I'd quoted exactly what I was responding to.
And BTW - you seem to be conflating 'flame' with 'disagree'.

Everytime I enter a store or forced to deal with a stranger I am remined of AS. Everytime I do not go somewhere because it is crowded I am reminded that I have AS. The list goes on and on.

Yep. Currently trying to settle myself down after just going shopping.
I limit my time in the supermarket by taking the shortest possible routes to get what I need, but every time I come out it feels like I've been dragged through a hedge backwards then shaken violently.

I am ot diagnosed, nor do I plan to get diagnosed. I don't know if I have it, and I function well enough where I really don't need help for it if I do have it.
However, I do use the symptoms to explain some of my behavior. For instance, I hate things brushing against my skin. That is probably a sensory issue. I also stim. I'm glad I have a name to call it.
Or like I'm coming back from a trip with 70 other people. I have been pretty good the whole week. There are certain people on the trip with me I trust which makes the trip not as stressful. But yesterday about lunchtime I got upset for seemingly no reason. Really, I wasn't frustrated and no one said anything mean to me. ii just god overwhelmed when we all went into the same room and it was loud. So after lunch I found a place by myself to cry for a little bit, stim more fully, and just relax for a little bit, I was fine again. But if I hadn't of realized that, I would have been upset for the rest of the night because I wouldn't have known how to fix it. I just realized how to fix it when I came here. So I hang out because the are some things I do that I don't realize other people find weird.

I don't always think I have it. But at other times I think iLve just become so good at controlling at, that I don't notice anymore. Like I am so used to adjusting things to pretend to be normal, that I almost feel normal. Like reading books on body language so I'll know how to do it and recognize it, or making sure I sit so that I don't have to brush up against anyone, wearing my hair so it doesn't bug me, knowing how to tune down my senses so I don't react to things that would upset me. The reason I feel this may be the case is that I don't even react to the things most people would consider scarey or starteling, and I think it is because I have trained my mind out of most involuntary movements because if I didn't, I would be jerking at everything and a general mess, lol.

Same. The main reason I start thinking I don't have it is because I'm alone for hours and thus it's less obvious. Then I go to a store and I remember.

All the time. I often feel like I'm not nearly smart enough in any particular area to have the "intense focus" symptom, but then someone will ask why I know such an obscene amount about something, and I just have no clue how to respond.

Sometimes I'm really good about choosing the right words with people, and I don't appear to have a problem talking with them. I still think through the conversation internally, but I think everyone does that.

The other stuff, though, like stimming, sensory overload, inability to make eye contact, taking everything literally and being excessively logical are all hallmarks of my personality. I didn't know I even did half that stuff until people pointed it out to me.

So maybe I'm just really introverted.

The only time I feel like I do not have Aspergers is when I am discussing something stop-motion animation related with someone who is actually intrested in stop-motion animation as well.

Interesting.

For me, even when I run into difficulties obviously caused by autism I don't tend to remember, "Gee I'm still autistic."

Nor does being alone make those difficulties go away or seem much less obvious.

I guess the first is because I don't think in terms of concepts like autism, and the second is because most of my autism-related difficulties are there whether I'm around people or not. (For instance, I'm not around anyone right now, and even if I was writing that last sentence to myself rather than to someone else, it took a really really long time to write it.)

When I'm alone, my difficulties don't go away. But I'm not required to interact with people, often it's quiet and dark, and there are no unusual smells. I have timers set to remind me to eat, so I am not usually hungry (although I haven't eaten today, and I'm three hours late, so I am probably hungry). I get fixated on one thing or a few related things (like reading forums and blogs on the internet) which I have trouble stopping which is a difficulty, but it feels "normal" to me, I stim alone, but I don't think about it until I notice, and I don't really see that as a difficulty.

So when I am alone, I am not thinking about my difficulties because I am doing things that don't highlight some of them and others are directly involved but just feel normal to me.

If I play a video game I'll definitely feel it within two hours or so. If I open up my chat client, I'll feel it as soon as immediately or within a few hours, especially if people who like to send multiple three-word statements at me are on and trying to chat with me.

So I feel "normal" even though "normal" still involves difficulties, and I wonder, well am I really autistic? And then things happen, usually if I go to a store or try to talk to people or forget to eat or play a video game for too long or there's a lot of noise, and then it's all in sharp relief.

Part of it is, I'm still getting used to the idea and transitioning from the feeling that how I am is just normal and there's nothing unusual to how I am is unusual and I am unlike most other people in particular ways. It's all about doubt.

Oh and of course the shutdowns remind me, and frequently happen when I'm alone.

I feel like my inability to perceive it as there (even though it's always there) is the same thing that makes me doubt, and I just have to align my idea of "my own normal" with "autistic."

Ive wondered because even for an aspie I dont relate much to other aspies. However i doubt every psychologist ive seen has been wrong. Also autistic like traits run in my family. Im actually more of a stereotype of someone with aspergers and other people dont fit the stereotype which makes me wonder why im not like them such as Im unemotional and dont have much if any empathy. I can only see things in my own point of view. I also fit other symptoms such as poor coordination, and obsessive intrests (music and philosophy). However my social skills arent that bad. I cant relate to others but I have no problem talking to people. Ive just been told I come off as strange to others. Also Im not neurotic like some people with aspergers are. Im optimistic and feel good about my life. I think some people with aspergers get depressed and anxious due to difficultys that aspergers can cause rather than depression and anxiety being part of aspergers. Im also not bothered by loud noises. It wouldn't be good if i was because i play in a metal/industrial band.

I'm reading an Attwood book at the moment in which he quotes Bill Bryson running into an middle-aged to elderly Aspie on the train. The Aspie started rattling off all these facts about trains (forgive the pun), much to Bryson's boredom and annoyance.

The thing I don't understand, is that it might have taken me just over 20 years, but I eventually realised that not many people are interested in what I have to say or that they think I'm unfashionably enthusiastic. (As a sad side-note, this realisation changed me from an optimistic and outgoing kid to a withdrawn and pessimistic adult.)

Wouldn't this be the case for most Aspies -- that eventually they'd realise that most people have no interest in their interests (or their take on those interests) and not bother?

Or on the other side of the same coin, that the person the Aspie is talking to would probably have nothing to contribute to the Aspie's expansive knowledge of a subject and so what's the point of conversation?