I think I have HFA not Aspergers

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Hi.

I am diagnosed with Aspergers but I think I have HFA.

This is not really that important.

I am very bad at talking. To talk with someone (2 - or more) is usually very difficult for me. Can not usually come with comments before the conversation has changed topic. Its very frustraton. I imagine that people think i am "stupid" because I am not a good to speak. But I actualy have completed a bachelor's degree. I got almost top marks in all subjects.

My performance IQ is also mutch better than my verbal IQ.



I am sorry for ALL typos.
My English is terrible. I am from scandinavia

It can be a difficult distinction to make, for sure. There's been some confusion on that front for me as well diagnostically.

Is HFA not high functioning autism? Would that not be Aspergers?

This is so frustrating. Sometimes I know a lot about a topic but I can not get it out.
This happen usually if there is more than one person in the conversation. I am really depressed about this, so I often avoid social events.
What should I do about this?. Should I raise my hand ?.....

Last edited by Letta on 28 Dec 2011, 8:04 am, edited 2 times in total.

HFA and Asperger is the same i belive.

But i think i was born whit classic autism.

I dont know why i bring this up but i belive people whit AS has better conversation skills than people whit HFA (classic autism).

You're similar to me then, I was diagnosed classic Autism at first around 3, then upgraded to HFA. I still rock on chairs to this day as well as other habits I had when I was really young.

Not sure if people with AS harbour traits of classic Autism like that too, so I figure HFA is basically like saying, "Sort of AS and classic Autism mixed together" my guess.

If there would be such diagnostic category as "HFA" in the DSM they probably would have given it to me instead of that ugly and vague PDD-NOS. The psychs told me that I can't have AS because of my relatively weak language and perhaps slowness. From what I see here and read about the subject it might be very likely that people who fit in the HFA stereotype are often diagnosed with AS.

In practice, it means I have difficulties with recalling useful information from my memory real time, as the conversation flows, and have to listen carefully if I don't want to miss important details of it. I often don't know what to speak and when it is my turn, and I lag behind with noticing changes in the topic. My problems are more pronounced when there are more than two people in the conversation.

I wouldn't worry about it.

Hans Asperger had people in his group who had below average verbal skills for their age.

"Generally", it was those with a lower verbal IQ who received a diagnosis of autism in the past (whether HFA or LFA), then people got wind of Hans' paper. Enter conundrum. Most were normal verbally, but some weren't. Enter fix. Remove the latter who weren't good verbally, at least as infants/children, then move them to Autistic Disorder, then keep Hans' paper as is with that bit cut out.

Why did they do this? Probably because of the whole, "you don't have autism 'cause you could talk as a child!" Autism has always been wrapped up with speech inability in the past, before the advent of Rain Man (whilst people with AS often don't like how he's portrayed for someone "high functioning", that movie really paved the way for what we have today).

My actual diagnosis as I am now is Aspergers, but it has been said by many people that I was quite 'classic' as a young child. The only real thing that made me different from classic autism was that I did speak on time, just not as much or as well as other toddlers. I watched a video of myself as a baby (well 3 actually) and I couldn't understand about 3 quarters of what I was saying!

Dillogic: Actually I do not worry much about it (this topic), but i am very curious about this.


OJani: I have heard that people whith AS can be very slow because their focus on details.


Jellybean: Thank you for charing.

Maybe. I think it's more having ADHD traits besides ASD. I'm not very good at focusing on details and memorizing lots of factual information. I can focus on something I like for quite a while, but it's more like a habit than real hyper-focus as in AS.

One article seems to indicate that to the academic, the difference is whether there is a delay in speech development. To the clinician, the difference lies in which diagnosis will best help the patient get the assistance they need.

http://www.sacramentoasis.com/docs/8-22-03/as_&_hfa.pdf

I don't know enough to comment on the veracity of this article.

Of course there's a difference between AS and Autism!
According to Dr. Attwood article, I should meet AS criteria. My 4 yo son meets criteria for classic autism. He's learning to speak, with a lot of therapy, but he can't be compared with an AS child. He is different from an AS child, language delay is not insignificant, and self-help skills delay also (he was potty trained when he was 3.5...)

Anyway, that's a good article, it explains a lot.

From that article:

I read the beginning, and most of it just comments on early childhood development as being the deciding factor between HFA and Asperger's.

Are AS and HFA actually different?

I taught myself to read at age 2, but only chose to show certain people, and my earliest memories of having comprehensible conversations were around age 4, but most of them were with strangers. I remember when I was 5 a strange guy was at my back fence and told me that he had some candy in his car, I remember having about a 5-minute conversation with him before making the decision not to leave my backyard (this was before I had ever heard of strangers using candy to kidnap children).
I am actually worse at speaking as an adult (the main reason a lot of people don't believe I am disabled, is because I seemed "normal" at one point) then later on in life I developed a speech delay because I knew that I had to watch what I say around certain people, and that people are often remembered for the things that they say. Usually in a conversation among multiple people making hundreds of random comments, I will analyse what they are saying for while, make 2-3 good comments, and then stop talking so that I will be remembered for the last thing I said.

If there is a difference, I would say that Aspies submit more to the standards of neurotypicals.

Let me correct this for you:

Of course there is a difference between EACH INDIVIDUAL with autism.

I don't like people telling me that I am somehow 'less disabled' because I am considered 'high functioning'. I know that is not what you have done directly but I feel very angry when people say there is a difference. I live in a care home. Some of us have AS as a diagnosis, some autism. You honestly wouldn't be able to tell some of us apart. I have severe sensory problems, difficulty with communication and I don't desire friendships or companions to make me happy.

I am not trying to be angry with you I am just reminding everyone not to make statements like this because it is rude.