I have a few questions.

Post Reply New Topic

I got a diagnosis of ADHD about a year ago which i felt myself fit me well. However recently i was told by my new psychiatrist which will give me ADHD medicine that one of the earlier psychologists who tried to diagnose me had suspected i have aspergers. I'm not sure what to think really but it bothers me to think my whole 4 years of testing and stuff could be wrong. If i have it i would like to know about it. I'm also afraid that i might loose my consept of I.

So i have some questions for the people here who have aspergers themselves or family members with it.

Is it normal for people with aspergers to torture and kill animals in their earlier years aswell as thievery and other unlawful stuff? Can aspergers be messy and careless when it comes to order and rutines, e.g like not caring to put your DVDs in cronological order or something? Is the "cant read facial expressions" something some aspergers dont have a problem with?

Thanks for your time.

Yeah, knowing who you are can be confusing and hard. Don't worry too much about it; you're you regardless of whether or not you know what that means.



No. I suspect it occurs, because of course it occurs in every group. I would assume Aspies engage in less idle murder and torture of animals than NTs, but the rate for vertebrates was probably vanishingly small to begin with in non-sociopaths. Thievery can occur by accident (not understanding the concept of private property), but otherwise it's the same as for NTs. "Unlawful stuff" is a nebulous concept encompassing many behaviors, some more likely, some less likely.



The short answer is yes.



The short answer is yes but it's really, really more complicated than that. And I don't know how to start explaining it; I only know that if I did, it would be at least five paragraphs, unless I ended up with a run-on giant paragraph with no breaks like I sometimes do.



My pleasure.

I don't wish to answer them.

I appreciate your reply.

Do you mean that NTs(i learn alot these days ^^) mostly just engage with bugs and that Aspies or sociopaths engage in bigger animals like cats, birds and so on? Up until now i connected my conduct disordered childhood to my ADHD diagnosis. I don't think i'm a sociopath but i dont think im aspergers either. Well, up until now when i got this message from this psychiatrist. That got me alittle unsure.

Edit; "unlawful stuff" could be stuff like firesetting, cruelty to other people, drug use and vandalism.




Hehe, its ok. I understand its a complicated thing not easily explained. Ill try to explain my thoughts though.

I always considered myself good at reading if people are sincere or if they fake their emotions aswell as knowing if a person is happy or not. Being put in this "loss of self" state makes me doubt my own ability to see things clear, as if i fail to see that i suck at it. Its a mild anxiety state i suppose.


The thing that i relate to when it comes to aspergers is some sort of social phobia. Im not confortable in some social situations. Its mostly related to my peers, as i live in a somewhat narrowminded place. I however function quite well if i meet new people i dont perceive as a threat. Ive always just considered this "social phobia" a symptom of low confidence in myself. Ive asked different people, friends and aquintances if they percieve me as shy. Everyone answer me no. This struck me as weird as i think of myself as a shy person. I suppose most of you diagnosed with aspergers can relate to this?
Another thing that got my head spinning what a test(yes i know i shouldnt trust tests online) where i got a score of 45 of 200 meaning im most likely a NT person. The test gave a question regarding problem reading clocks(not a digital one). Im slow with clocks but after some seconds i get the time right. Is this common in NTs?

Last edited by extractor on 28 Jan 2011, 7:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Would you feel more comfortable answering them in a PM?

NO. I mean that Aspies on the whole have more empathy for all nonhuman forms of life than NTs, but that most people would do whatever they want to inverts (e.g., spiders, ants, snails), but almost no one (AS or NT) who is capable of empathy at all would willingly and knowingly torture or kill vertebrates (e.g., cats, dogs, snakes) except in self-defense (e.g., against wolves). Very few NTs would hurt a cat; almost no Aspies would. The thing is, there's not a very big gap between how Aspies (in general; some are exceptions) think of animals and how we think of people, whereas for NTs there's a huge gap.



You could take some of the internet tests. Some of us might be able to give an opinion (not a definitive answer) if you give us a more detailed biography. From the little you've said you sound NT and maybe a little screwed up. I really hope you have your life under control now.



Okay, arson, maybe, I can imagine it happening but I haven't heard of it; cruelty to people depends on what kind and whether it was intentional (I don't suppose it's any more or less common than in NTs, so I suppose that means all Aspies have behaved cruelly at some point, much like all NTs); drug use seems anecdotally (and based on logical guesses) to be rather common (if you also count legal drugs like alcohol) among Aspies, but then, it's not exactly a rarity in NTs either; vandalism, it honestly depends on motivation and stuff, like, did you do it on purpose?




Some of us have impressive, almost-supernatural ability to pick up on some aspects of body language. I know that sounds weird... it is weird... most of us are actually paying attention to, wired to react to, DIFFERENT aspects of a person's appearance, behavior, etc. But not the normal ones. So those that have those cool abilities still tend to miss obvious stuff. I notice that when I'm reading my autistic friend, I'm watching her from neck to groin and listening to the ways she's phrasing things, the amount of effort I hear in her voice, as well as more typical aspects of tone-of-voice. Not face at all. I barely even glance at it. Whereas when I'm reading an NT I consciously make myself look at the face and then I consciously process what I see there, and I'm not as good at reading NTs as most NTs are. But I'm passably decent at it, and good at reading Aspies.

(We also broadcast our emotions differently. But explaining that would double the length of my explanation and I'm trying to NOT make it five paragraphs.)

How often do you accidentally offend people?
Are you a crybaby?
Do you get offended by stuff that wasn't meant badly?
Do you not notice when people are insulting you?
Do you have a flat affect?
Do you tend to look angry all the time, even when you aren't?
Do you have bad posture?
When you read someone's face, could you put into words exactly what it is you're looking at and exactly why it gives you the impression it does?

If you said no to all of these, you probably have NT body language. If you said yes to at least one, which one(s)? You might have nonstandard body language. (Might.)



Yeah. It must be what selective mutism is like. "Oh, she's just pretending to be shy." But that's not precisely what you're saying; that's people seeing and correctly reading "shy" body language and assuming I was faking. Haven't the foggiest idea why.



No clue. Was the test the Aspie Quiz or whatever it's called? It seems to be useful but not perfect.

Oh, and another thing. Can Aspergers be mistaken for ADD/ADHD and vice versa?

Yes. More likely the former than the latter, I would think. I think ADHD is some combination of executive dysfunction and hyperactivity. The former is a symptom of AS.

No, it is not normal for Aspies to torture animals as children or otherwise. In fact, I would go so far as to say that many Aspies relate much better to many non-humans, because they can communicate more easily with them, with less arbitrary social conventions.

Asperger's and Sociopathy are entirely different, and I'm tired of reading this comparison. One problem is the misinterpretation of the word "empathy." Empathy and caring are not the same thing. Empathy has to do with how well you read someone's emotions, and often this leads to "mirroring" that person's emotional response. But compassion can not be based on empathy alone, because that "reading" of emotion is by it's very nature easier with creatures who are more like us. Someone who has great natural empathy, but doesn't take into consideration how emotion can be expressed in ways very different from their own, might easily relate to people similar to them but not care about the emotions of people who don't express those emotions the same, e.g., people of different cultures, genders, or different species. At different times in history, I'm sure that Aspies have stood up in defense of those different from the majority, while herd mentality makes many NTs attack those outside of the scope of their empathy.

An aspie might not realize when they have hurt someone's feelings because they can't read the facial expressions and other paralanguage in the intuitive ways that NTs more easily develop, but when they understand how another person is feeling they may go above and beyond what the average NT would for the other person's benefit (although in the case of someone with an ASD, they may be more likely to try to take what they see as sensible means to remove the cause of another person's pain and "fix" the problem, rather than expressing commiseration with the person.)

Now a sociopath is different from either a "normal" NT or someone on the autistic spectrum. Sociopaths can read emotions on others, they just don't give a flip. The fact that they can cause an animal pain, is a source of power. Likewise, they not only can read what people feel, but they manipulate this to their advantage.
Controlling other people/creatures, is the last thing most Aspies I've talked with would want to do. Sociopaths, in the form of propagandists and cult leaders, know how to distort the empathy that comes natural to NTs: note the images of smiling children and "wholesome" people. Autistic people, on the other hand, learn to exercise compassion beyond who they instinctually relate to (since we have a harder time "naturally" relating to more people) and that form of compassion is more resistant to being manipulated socially.

So if you were someone who tortured animals as a child, although I hope that you have been able to change, those tendencies would make you very different from most here. You might not be neurotypical, per se, but you would have moral issues of a serious nature, beyond how you perceived and organized your world.

Thank you for replying ElfMusic. I appreciate it.

The word empathy and its meaning slightly confuse me. Ive always considered myself an empathic person as im able to perceive and understand a persons personal issues. I rarely feel distressed myself physically though and i don't have to care at all, which is the reason why im puzzled by the definition. Since im generally a nice person i mostly try to help them out the way i can. I also find myself more easily empatizing with movies. Especially if the plot is a sad one with a dog involved...

Well, ill admit im secretly void of morals. Though im not the "monster" i used to be i promise you that. When it came to my own empathy i would hate to see others torture animals. When it came to my own misdeeds i somewhat saw it as acceptable. It was me doing it, not someone else, which made it "different". I have no idea if it had anything to do with power or not. I were a sadist. I enjoyed other kids or animals fear and pain. Its sick... ive come to realise that.


Another thing. Some people, when hurt, try their best to pretend that they arent hurt or embarrased. Is it so strange that Aspies get confused? I often ponder if a person is hurt by my comments and just try their best to conceal it. This cause me to keep my mouth shut more often because i dont want to risk hurting peoples feelings. Do Aspies ever experience the same thing?