Not A textbook case? Not living up to a stereotype?

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Hi everyone,

Reading various forums and other online discussions, I've noticed some key themes that are mentioned.

I don't have/do or relate to X followed by does that mean my diagnosis is wrong/that I'm wrong for suspecting I have an ASD etc

I've also noticed replies such as...

Autism is a spectrum/Once you've met one aspie - you've met one aspie...

It seems that a lot of people wonder because they don't generally have the same symptoms as mentioned in the DSM or as others describe...

I thought it'd be therefore interesting to share:

1) Whether your diagnosed - and what your specific diagnosis is?

2) What Symptoms (particularly the most common too) that you don't have?

And ofcourse any other input in the thread is most welcome too...

I hope this will be an interesting discussion.

Personally, I'm not diagnosed - however, I am going to seek an assessment.

I feel that I have a fair ability to read peoples facial expressions, not great, but then again not everyone will be good at this in general - I wonder if this is something that all people with an ASD have trouble with?

Here's a contribution from someone with an official diagnosis. I've been diagnosed the proverbial century ago, although the conditions for that diagnosis were slightly unfair to me. I wasn't even halfway through primary school. I was taken to a building that was known in common language as a madhouse, as it contained a lot of people who were off-the-charts aggressive. They took me from my mother, took me to a room that looked more like a doctor's office than a normal room and talked to me for a while. Then they had me take all kinds of nonsensical cognitive tests, and they wrote a report saying I definitely had Asperger's.

The symptoms I don't recognise in myself:

* Not knowing when to stop talking about something in a real-life discussion - I catch others doing that much more often;
* Not being able to look into people's eyes - I can do that if I need to;
* Being overly obsessed with something - that hasn't properly happened for over five years. I've found 'neurotypicals' to be typically much more obsessed and less laid-back;
* Having meltdowns. At times, I'm very frustrated, but it never gets beyond periodic outbursts of anger, every six months or so. I can get very tired if I have to be socially interactive for ten hours, but sleeping cures that.
* Being socially tactless - if I need to, I can be tactful, even though I'll always appear to be a bit odd.

I was diganosed at age 37 with Asperger's Syndrome - didn't seek out the diagnosis, it was foisted on me via being referred to occupational health dept while in a job.

2) What Symptoms (particularly the most common too) that you don't have?

I wouldn't say I have obsessional special interests - I can get interested in some topics and research them a lot but I don't talk endlessly to people about them ie I know that most people won't be interested so I don't push it - I think this means I have a level of self-awareness that a lot of people with Asperger's don't have

I would say generally that is the main difference beween myself and an average aspie ie I am acutely aware of how I should be acting in order to be seen as NT - I can't or don't want to do it but I am still aware of what the necessities are. To me a lot of people with Aspergers do or say stuff that makes me cringe as I know in myself exactly how it would come across to the average NT. I do it too though but perhaps to a lesser extent as I just tend to avoid them full stop.

It's a bit like being a rubbish NT as opposed to a full aspie as I know the nature of the game, just don't seem to have the mental/neurological equipment or willingness to play it

Hence a lot of aspies seem more unaware and vulnerable than myself as if there's a lot about NT society they just don't 'get' or take notice of

Saying that I know I am not a full NT and seen as too different/sometimes vulnerable by some of them but it's all relative

I think that the criteria in the DSM are OK, but it seems like a lot of clinicians follow the stereotypes instead of the criteria when evaluating people for ASD.

1) I'm not diagnosed but I expect to be going through the process very soon.

2)
-I don't have too many sensory issues except for sounds and a little bit for lighting...I can't stand bright lights
-I can usually read peoples faces
-my social skills aren't that bad compared to a lot of people with Asperger's Syndrome, I know how to behave in most social situations
-I do have special interests but they're not as strong as a lot of people's and I have more than one but I've heard that that's common for girls
-I care a lot of what people think of me for the most part
-i'm not a super intellect like most people with AS

1. I was diagnosed a few months ago.
2. I've read in a few places that some with Asperger's have uncontrollable nonsensical movements in their hands arms or head. I don't. I do stim when I'm home and sometimes when I'm in public but I conciously try not to let anyone see.
3. I don't have texture issues like some people. Some people can't eat certain foods because of how it "feels." Some people (Dr. Spencer Reid, etc.) don't wear jewelry or metal against their skin because they don't like it. I do have a heightened sense of smell & hearing, and daylight makes my eyes water fiercely.
4. Social situations are my Achilles heel. I can't stand them. I know that some aspies do go out and socialize outside of school or work. I don't.
5. I don't throw tantrums. I do hate change. I quit my job because of it a few months ago.
6. I do have special interests on which I focus deeply but they're special interests which can get me paid. When I was younger I did have special interests which were purely to increase my knowledge of certain subjects (insects, enymology).
7. I am pretty intelligent but I'm not 100% sure this is an aspie trait as a lot of people on WP admit their intelligence is average or below.

1. I am diagnosed with AS.

2) I had friends and would go to other kids houses and ask if they could play, I would join in the games like Red Rover or Helicopter or Jump roping.

My interests would change over the years and I don't even have the same ones from my childhood

I was never a little professor

I am not good with math nor into science stuff or computers or electronics nor fixing things or inventing things

I was never a grown up talker

I did other things in my childhood and not my obsessions only

I did my school work even though I was not interested in it

I was never obsessed with objects and fixated on them

I did pretend play

I was able to talk about other things than just what I was obsessed with

I never really had restricted routines, in fact as a kid I would play what would come to my mind so every day was not the same. I did have rituals and some routines that were restricted that I had to do but maybe OCD even though I didn't have distress about it, I only did if I didn't do it and I do remember playing with my toys a certain way and I could change it if I wanted to with no problem

I am not smart like above average aspies

My obsessions were never strong enough that I would know every little detail about them an I didn't start reading about my interests until I was ten

I do not have above normal hearing, sense of smell and taste, and I was never too sensitive to touch. I still don't have very many sensory issues but I did when I was a kid. But I did sniff things and touched stuff and still do but not as often.

My motor skills and coordination was never that bad because I could tie my shoes, zip zippers, do buttons, ride a bike, I did PE and loved it because the games were fun, but yet I was still diagnosed with dyspraxia because I was clumsy and bumped into walls or people and stuff and couldn't stand on one leg long or stay on a ball when I sat on it and it was noted as being mild to moderate

I have no issues with personal space so someone can stand close to me and no problem

I opened my presents on Christmas and my birthdays as a small child, even when I was one years old and I did so on my first birthday

I cried when I got hurt and would go to my parents

I told my mom kids were mean to me like what they called me in school or telling me to go home or go away or them saying I am mean, etc

I no longer talk to people about my obsessions and I don't go on and on about it

I do eye contact now when I am feeling comfortable

I'm tact, I try to be anyway

I don't like tight hugs and I don't care for weighted blankets or anything tight or heavy and I hated tight clothes as a child so how on earth do aspies like tight hugs and anything heavy but yet they can't stand jeans or any tight clothing?

I like soft touches and don't like hard ones

1) I am diagnosed with Asperger syndrome

2) In my opinion, I don't have difficulty reading the emotions of other people. I know what is appropriate behaviour in certain situations. Of course, my parents/the assessor may disagree (I guess I will find out what she thinks once I get the full report back), since I'm pretty sure you have to have deficits in this area to qualify for a diagnosis, but I don't personally think I'm lacking in this area. I don't have any friends, and I don't like being around people, but that's because I just don't like people, not because I don't understand body language or facial expressions. One thing that I read quite a lot in books about AS is that people with AS want to have friends, but don't know how to make them. In my case, I actually don't want to have friends, but I am probably capable of making them if I wanted.

I was officially diagnosed with HFA at a young age, a second doc later on thought I had Aspergers. I think the HFA is more accurate, but there is little difference between HFA and AS anyway, so I don't really care which I am or which I am called.

Here's what my Autism doesn't have that seems out of place considering the strength of my other symptoms.

-No daily ritual
I don't really follow a daily ritual - but I do have rituals I like to call "trigger rituals", because they are triggered by certain events, like setting up/breaking down my primary music setup (synth amp and bass, normally). It always follows a ritual and it hate it when I'm rushed or something messes with the ritual. There were also rituals I do when I got up and head to work (when I still had a daily job), but I had no problems having a different ritual on days when I didn't work.

An example of all this, is I can wake up and make coffee any time I want, but if someone else makes my coffee for me, it's horribly frustrating because the coffee isn't made precisely the way I make it - it feels like I can't drink it because I know it isn't to my specifications, even though I would drink just about anyones random coffee normally - it's just that a ritual of mine was broken. Same happened when I was younger, with my shirts - I had to iron them. If someone else decided to be nice and iron them for me, I had to re-iron them because they didn't iron it good enough - didn't do it the way I do it (it takes me forever to iron... I have to make them as near to perfect as I can - and I mess up my own work frequently).

I make up for this with my repetitive behaviors, big time. On top of the OCD-like stuff, I often will, on an instrument, play the same song over and over and over again, for long stretches of time. All sorts of other repetitive behavior, repetitive motion, compusive movement.

-Not really interested in friends/relationships
I hear very often that while people with Autism have social difficulties, there is often the desire to make friends, or be in a relationship (don't know how many documentaries I've seen where a huge part of it is wasted on boring relationship-seeking stuff).
I've had several relationship partners in the past - the thing is though, I don't actively seek relationships. All of mine have just happened - a mutual interest. None of them lasted a huge time - under a year. But I don't feel, and never have felt, the want for a relationship. Same goes for friendships. I view many/most relationships and friendships as a waste of time - things which make me spend time not playing music, which means there are others out there who are playing music while I am not, getting better than me, because they're practicing while I'm not.

-can withstand LOUD noise-
The sound of someone breathing or dishes being put away or the sound of someone eating, or a long list of other sounds, will drive me crazy, but I can tolerate the extremely loud volumes of music at my band practices, at shows, and at jam sessions. I use hearing protection as often as possible, but sometimes I must go without in order to hear what others are doing.

My therapist believes that I have Asperger's, as so does every other person with a knowledge of both the condition and myself, though I've never been through an official "testing" procedure.

My Not-So-Aspie-Traits (At Least That I Am Aware Of);
*I can recognize most facial expressions; I would say that I seem to be on cue about 70% of the time.
*I am nearly indifferent to the matter of routine. I do tend to establish my small routines, though I do not become overly agitated if these routines are disrupted, and I even enjoy spontaneity in small to moderate doses.
*I do not have much of an issue making friends. Keeping them is a different story; though people tend to like me as a person and enjoy my company as an acquaintance (I think...), I am seldom invited to exterior events and lack the cohesive "closeness" that most "friends" appear to have.
*I am able to tolerate things which I have little interest in.
*The above being stated, I tend to find fascination with almost anything.
*I am very imaginative; at times, I can become more creative than rational.
*I can comprehend metaphors and similes quickly and with ease. Then again, this may be due to my relatively high linguistic intelligence.
*Although eye contact is not always my natural inclination, I am capable of it.
*My "meltdowns," if they can truly be called such, almost never last more than a few minutes and do not involve screaming (minus the occasional short burst, which lasts seconds) or head banging (I cannot stand the sensation of my head being banged, and I truly do not like my head being touched all that much; I even detest wearing headbands).
*Although I do have my "special interests," it only causes me mild discomfort to be pulled away from them.
*Said special interests tend to revolve around humanity or human forms; Baby Bop from Barney was the earliest; others include, in order of occurrence mermaids, werewolves, mental conditions/psychology, and vampires. These last two are current, with vampires being a fairly new one, though mermaids and werewolves still interest me a great bit.
*I tend to find humanity interesting in general.
*I am able to tolerate sensory issues and discomforting situations to an extent at which most people, if anybody, do not realize that I am uncomfortable.
*I have seen that many Aspies are unable to drive. I, despite having relatively poor coordination, passed my driving test on the first attempt and appear to do quite well with driving.
*I tend to see both the big picture and details simultaneously.
*I have been told that I have good "general/common" sense.
*I find numbers interesting, though I do not find them particularly fascinating.

I mentally have to restrain myself from searching every single stereotype of Asperger's and comparing myself to them...

This is a rather interesting thread. Thank you for posting.

I'm not anal about keeping my collections in order though I have spells of systemizing them

I have more than 1 special interest and they come and go, and come again

I haven't played the same song over and over since I was 13

I'm crappy at math but I pay my living expenses on time. I like geometry but not the numbers part of it

I 'get' sarcasm and irony

I eat a variety of things

I'm not chronically clumsy

I did pretend play

I can get through most social events without faux-pas'ing or monologuing

I can play loudly in a band setting

Not officially diagnosed.

Not "clumsy."

Pretend play.

Otherwise...

Did any of you not have any problems with eye contact when you were young? I had eye contact then, but not now.