Is it possible to be autistic only part of the time?

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I've noticed a pattern in me of spending a month or two being high energy and pretty much anti-society but also pretty social and good at picking up nonverbal cues -- and very hypersexual. Then, I spend a few months where I'm a "good guy," a conformist who is very conscientious, but I can't pick up nonverbal cues, and I'm depressed, asexual, and feel like sleeping all the time; women tend to hate me and ignore me during this time. It was during one of the latter states that I was DXed as being on the spectrum. I have since come out of it and don't feel as autistic as I did formerly but a lot more angry at the world all the time (I spent the first few months of 2012 dating a girl who normally dated abusive sociopaths; I am never ever abusive towards a girl, but I guess I had that vibe; our relationship fell apart when my personality changed back to "autistic but nice").

I wonder if it's literally possible to be autistic 50% of the time and have a personality disorder the other 50% of the time. So spend 2 months on the spectrum and 2 months as an alienated NT. Then, repeat the cycle. This is how I feel my life has been for several years.

I also tend to eat a lot, basically binge eating & gain tons of weight, and sleep fairly normally even when I'm non-aspie while, in the depressive state, I'm more likely to have disrupted sleep and eat very little -- losing tons of weight. I think these patterns rule out bipolar.

Is it possible to be a part-time aspie? lol

I'm certainly no expert but being a "part-time aspie" sounds very strange to me. It's obviously possible to have both AS and a personality disorder but I reckon you have them both "full-time". Do the cycles have anything to do with periods of stress or something? I know that when I'm stressed and/or anxious my AS traits get very intense and very noticeable. I'm guessing that's not what you mean though. Besides that, mood cycles make me think of bipolar/recurring depression.

well my symptoms are the same contantly unless i get stressed or excited, then they become more sever

No, the cycles are pretty predictable based on time. Though traumatic events can trigger a depressive episode.

Three months after being diagnosed with ASD, I was basically told by a very experienced counselor who works only with patients who have Asperger's that my social skills were fine, and he suggested I was likely misdiagnosed and couldn't get the help I need in therapy designed for Asperger's. But he didn't see me when the other doctor diagnosed me as ASD. I literally think they could both be right....Based on past cycles, I should be autistic again sometime in April...

It sounds like a mild form of bipolar, Cyclothymic disorder.

You seem to have an imbalance of chemicals in your brian/fluctuations of certain chemicals.

This makes people very happy (or some other mood) only some of the time, and when people are happy, excited, energetic ect. they are generally better at socialising (not less autistic, just better at paying attention to everything, including non-verbal cues, generally care more about fitting in, come across as friendlier ect.).


People have cycles in their body for renewing cells and all sorts of other things. Your mood could be changing with one of those cycles.

Last edited by JellyCat on 17 Mar 2013, 1:45 am, edited 1 time in total.

Maybe you're suffering from what they call a "Mixed State" of bipolar.

(Wikipedia)


Edit: I see that you've deleted your post I was responding to...oh well.

No, not really. I thought I repeated too much information, aspie style, "going on and on about the same thing." .

What you say may make sense. If this is the case, then I was in a depressed state from September through early December. In a mixed state through mid January. Then, in a pure manic state from late Jan until the third week of February, during which my aspie gf and I broke up because we suddenly had "nothing in common." Then, in a mixed state up through the beginning of last week. Now, back to pure manic, since about Wednesday.

I'm going to go back to a psychiatrist and suggest Borderline PD and, based on further self-evaluation, maybe Cyclothymia as well. I don't think they can go together, but I think they are hard to tell apart sometimes. Especially if I have bipolar and Avoidant Personality Disorder, it could look a lot like BPD some of the time as rejection complex + mood swings. Hell, it could even look like Asperger's, I imagine.

Oh, I went to an aspie group today, and several members were rocking, and I caught myself doing it too. I NEVER rock most of the time. Only when I see other aspies doing it, it feels very natural. Actually, I unconsciously pick up a lot of actions when I'm around aspies. I was going to aspie groups around the time I got DXed and also started dating an aspie girl. I wonder if my unconscious imitative behavior could have skewed the results. Being what others want you to be is actually a form of empathy and a borderline trait, not an aspie trait. I'd like to be reevaluated NOW and see if the same criteria still apply, or if borderline/bipolar, or maybe some form of borderline/DID with a part-time "aspie personality" is maybe a better fit.

Last edited by Tyri0n on 17 Mar 2013, 2:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

You hadn't .

Not to be rude, but deleting posts after a while of having posted them can cause more problems than going on and on about the same thing .

You're right. I'm sorry. It's the perfectionist/second-guessing side of me. It's actually part of the symptoms I'm talking about here. I can write several pages of stuff for school very quickly, rethink it, then delete it all, and start over. When I'm un-aspie, I tend to buy things and then second-guess myself and return them too. These are definitely not aspie traits, and they only show up during those times when I don't feel autistic.

It sounds to me like you may be studying and mimicking various disorders--this can make it very difficult to diagnose.

Sort of like answering leading questions made by a very talented lawyer--it is very easy for jurors listening to the testimony to be misled.

Last edited by BTDT on 17 Mar 2013, 8:16 am, edited 1 time in total.

It is possible to be a hypocondriac part-time.

Isn't the very definition of bipolar this cycling between being 'up' ie over-excited and manic and 'down' ie depressed and withdrawn that you have described?

If you feel depressed you don't want to socialise with others; you don't usually want to do anything - that's the depression, not autism

I notice that more of my ASD-like symptoms are more apparent when I'm under a lot of external stress.

A lot of what you are writing in this thread and in others does fall along the lines of borderline personality disorder, from my experience working in the field. However, borderline personality disorder does not rule out a mood disorder, nor does it rule out autism. Actually, all three of those things could be happening at the same time. Or, you could just have borderline pd, or just a mood disorder. The only thing that I think would not explain the total of your symptoms is autism alone or NVLD alone.

You probably need to regularly meet with one clinician throughout a complete cycle of both, so s/he can better determine what is going on.

That could easily be part of autism though. I am a perfectionist, like a lot of Aspies, and I am always going back and checking emails and messages for errors and context after I've sent them. Also, you say you are very verbose in your writing, a very Aspie trait (although that's not to say it can't also be a trait of another condition). The returning things you have bought could easily also be an Aspie trait, we suffer from problems making decisions. I've seen this behaviour in myself and my children.

You might have a mix of conditions, and perhaps if the AS is mild, when you go through cycles of the other traits from other conditions it overshadows your AS? Or, like you suggest, you could have been misdiagnosed too.