Ok, this is kind of a 'Do I have AS' post. But not totally..

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I will be amazed if you make it to the end of this post.

Well, I know that nobody can be diagnosed over the internet. My post has two questions: First, do I appear to fit enough of the criteria to make it practical to attempt to get a DX of AS? Second, would it be worth it in my circumstances to get a DX?

I personally think I fit the criteria, but it can be hard to tell, so I'm looking for some feedback. I'll start by going through the criteria, then mention my own observations.

Criteria and my observations of the Criteria

A. Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:
(1) marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction
(2) failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
(3) a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest to other people)
(4) lack of social or emotional reciprocity
I'd guess that I have problems with (1), though I never really noticed. From what I can remember, I was always confused as to how people could judge others before they spoke. I make normal eye contact, but it means nothing to me. Though, I find the eye fascinating (Not enough to be an interest, but I find it entertaining to marvel at how they work-so compact too!). I have six close friends. One of them I've known since I was under a year old (the child of a family friend), one of them is completely awesome, and four of them (they were a group of friends before I met them) are pretty open about you being a little 'off'. I don't think I could possibly mess up my friendship with them, so I don't think they count. They're a bit disconnected with pop culture too, and they're fine with me as long as I don't judge them in return. So, mark that down as (2) and possibly (4)

B. Restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities, as manifested by at least one of the following:
(1) encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus
(2) apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals
(3) stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g., hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements)
(4) persistent preoccupation with parts of objects
Oh yes, special interests. I do get them.

C. The disturbance causes clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
More on this later

D. There is no clinically significant general delay in language (e.g., single words used by age 2 years, communicative phrases used by age 3 years).
Never heard otherwise...
E. There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or in the development of age-appropriate self-help skills, adaptive behavior (other than in social interaction), and curiosity about the environment in childhood.
I think I was a fairly normal small child.

F. Criteria are not met for another specific Pervasive Developmental Disorder or Schizophrenia.
As far as I know, AS fits best.

Other observations, for and against the DX

This won't be nearly as organized.

I'm pretty sure I'm biased for a DX, so I'm not going to post quiz results. Instead, I asked my closest friend, the one girl I feel I can be myself around.
First 'pro': Back in November, when I first told her that I suspected AS, she didn't seem surprised at all.

I never knew whether my interests were strong enough to be 'Special Interests', so I asked her last week whether she thought my interests went beyond the ordinary. She agreed very, very strongly.

I also asked about my social skills. From what I've recently guessed, and from what she hinted/said, my social skills are really horrible. I never noticed, but I'm fairly sure I was so oblivious that I didn't notice there was anything different, as according to her, there is.

However, one thing against it is that I don't get overwhelmed in large groups. It's hard to say, this might be discounted-I was born and raised in Manhattan, New York. Every so often, groups of ten to thirty will start to overwhelm me, but once it gets to be 60-100+ people, I can tune it out. Of course, I'm usually tuning everything else out at the same time.

Once, on a (long) school field trip, I got extremely overwhelmed in a group of perhaps 35 kids. It was perhaps ten days into a two week trip. I had the biggest meltdown of the year in my room, right before dinner (that disaster deserves another post-perhaps in this thread, later.) The main lesson was that I do get overwhelmed, it just takes longer since I've desensitized myself.

There are no direct relatives I know of on the spectrum. One relative I think has LFA, but he's very distantly related (mom's cousin, I think. Therefore, I don't know the DX. Then again, she had at least thirty cousins. There's therefore a one in five chance one of them will be on the spectrum. I don't know most of my dad's biological family (a combination of death, divorce, and immigration). I could probably write a whole post on his stepmom's family, but that belongs in the haven, most likely. You'll probably see one there in July, when she comes down to our place for a week.

I don't really have stims, but I'm pretty sure I have sensory issues-my mom comments on them. Mostly an attraction to soft/silky things. I can't stand the texture of grapes, blueberries, or cherries. For as long as I can remember, I've rubbed my thumb along my lips or my finger along a tag. It's ... I don't really know. I just do.

Sometimes, I can put off minor meltdowns by playing with a flour filled stress ball. It was very helpful during the first part of this year, when I had to adjust to everything. I've had a pretty major meltdown when I went two weeks without anything to squish. It ended with my curled up, crying, on the floor of the apartment, because I "need[ed] my squishies"

That's all I can think of for now, so I'll start on the other part.

Pros and Cons of getting a DX

At this point in time, I don't think a DX is completely necessary. I function. I don't have many friends, and some days are miserable (every day the sixth grader who sits next to me on the bus decides to eat candy) but on the most part, life's pretty good. Thing is, I don't know if it'll stay good, and I've heard it's easier to get DXed when you're younger.

As a bit of background info, I'm 13. I'll be 14 and in ninth grade this fall. I was born in Manhattan to two normal parents. I have a brother who's slightly "not normal" but on the other end of the scale/spectrum-he is more charismatic than most people. I went to a public school for first and second grade, but switched to a private all-girls school after that, mostly due to curriculum issues.

I switched schools again for eighth grade. My new school isn't in the US, and it has boys. I've been having a few more issues fitting in, and have been much more overwhelmed at times. I guess my major concern is that this will get worse, as I enter high school.



Anyways, that's all I have to say tonight. Any input into my situation?

My input for you is that it sounds like you have plenty of the traits. Have you explored emotional factors at all?

Benefits of a "Real" diagnosis are always possible, but think about the benefits of a deeper understanding of yourself, too.

I'd very strongly recommend "the complete guide to asperger's syndrome" by tony attwood.
I believe he also has written one about asperger's in girls. Might even be a better starting point.

Hi.

It sounds like you very well might have AS. A lot of what you mentioned sounds very familiar.

Getting a formal diagnosis is up to you. I'm 31 and self-diagnosed about 7-8 months ago. For me, getting one is unnecessary and might not even work out so well at this point. It's true that getting one at your age might be easier.

The only reason I can think of for you to get one is if you think you might need special considerations/assistance down the line (e.g., school situations). Otherwise, you sound pretty well-adjusted, so a DX would probably only serve as confirmation of something you already know.

That's my biggest concern. In the morning, I'll explainin more detail but the basic story is that I had quite a nasty experience on a field trip, when an adult told me that it was simply because I was out of my comfort zone and in essence that I should stop crying and suck it up while I was in the middle of a full blown overstimulation-triggered meltdown. She also kicked out my roommate, one of the four friends above. I'd felt one coming on, explained what would happen (in kind of vague terms, but enough that she understood that I wasn't crazy, just couldn't deal with thirty five kids and no quiet time) and asked her to explain to whoever, if she was there when I had a problem. This would have been dealt with better if I had some sort of proof to tell the adult. (not some random adult, she was one of the five councilors on the trip.)

Yep, don't you just love it when people believe an official-looking piece of paper over someone's word?

With that being said, an official diagnosis might be a good idea. At least you'd be taken seriously then.

That's mostly why I want one-I'd had no trouble at the private school, but I'm worried that I'll need one more and more as I get older.

You should go for it. I'd say you definitely have it.

ETA: Sorry if it's too long. I was on a three hour train ride today with nothing to do.

Ok, here's the long(er) version of what happened at that camp. This is mostly why I think a Dx would be helpful-to keep something like this from happening again.
See, my school sent all 121 of us on a trip to China. However, we were split up, so I was only with 40 other kids. Mind, a few got sick, etc, so there were more like 37 or so left, not counting the ones in their rooms, vomiting.
We were rooming at two hotels and a youth hostel (we rotated, the hostel was my group's last stop. The other eighty kids were at the hotels, in another part of China.)
Sometimes I get fairly minor meltdowns at summer camp, due to too much social interaction. By now, I can usually tell when I'm going to get a large meltdown. This promised to be a big one. Therefore, the night before I'd decided to try and minimize this one, as it was almost guaranteed to be in front of my classmates.
That afternoon, I'd explained to my roommate (one of the four girls I mentioned in my first post) that I sometimes have a bad reaction to too many people for a long time. I asked her to do me a favor and help me out a bit explaining what was going on to the teachers-I wasn't sick, I wasn't contagious, and that I just needed a bit of quiet time.
Just before dinner, I was finally pushed over the edge. All 36 of them (not me) were downstairs in the room below mine, playing pool or talking-generally being rowdy, hungry, teenagers. In short, I ended up crying and shaking on the bed in my room, in full meltdown mode.
My friend tried to explain to the teacher, but she told my friend that I had to come downstairs (to the room with the pool table) to talk to her.
I quietly went downstairs, and she pulled me into a corner to talk. After establishing that I didn't have a fever, my friend tried to explain. The adult pushed her away, saying that I could speak for myself.

Mind, at this time I was feeling physically ill from it-I had a headache and I felt like I was going to vomit. I'd spent ten days with more than thirty teens without a break.
The adult told me to talk, and sent my friend away. I couldn't talk for a few minutes there-that's how hard I was crying. It wasn't any sort of nonverbal thing, I was just crying so hard that nothing coherent was coming out.

The adult soon established (once I was calm enough to try to talk to her) that I was feeling overwhelmed by the noise. Instead of finding somewhere quiet, she chewed me out.
She compared feeling frustrated because we weren't listening, and she left the room to keep her temper, to my freaking out and going completely psycho/hysterical from the amount of noise being made.
One quote stuck out in my mind. (this is really what she told me) “this is pathetic”

In the end, she refused to let another adult stay behind to let me calm down in peace, she made me come out from the corner and go to dinner with them. While I was crying.


It's situations like these that make me want to get a DX, so I can make her listen to my friend and get me somewhere quiet

I HATE people like that. What would have been so difficult/wrong about letting you get away from everybody, DX or not? Oh, right, you're a minor, and therefore that makes her "God"

Definitely go for the DX. I'm sorry you had to go through all that. There are times when I'm at the grocery store and start to feel that way, but I've learned how to control it. (I'm more than twice your age, BTW--it's only happened with time and practice.)

The sooner you get the DX the better. Like I said, people will sooner listen to what some "official" piece of paper says than what you say, especially if you're still "under age." Yes, it sucks, and it's unfair. Sadly, it's part of playing life's "game." Eventually, you will get better at it--if I did, anyone can.

Take care.

I can deal with grocery stores for the most part-this was the tenth day with no quiet and nothing pertaining to my Interests. Actually, nothing interesting to anyone, AS or NT.