Hello! I'm new here, and have questions about ASD.

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Hi,

I'm neurotypical, I think that what it's called?!? Anyways, I've recently been hearing a lot of stuff about autism on the news, and tonight on Diane Sawyer they were talking about now 1 out of 50 kids are being diagnosed on the spectrum. That seems like a lot!! ! Anyways I went online to research it and stumbled on this forum, and thought who better to ask questions about ASD then those who've been diagnosed.

First question: Obsessions?
I know plenty of people who get obsessed something they like. For example: one of my closet friends is consumed by everything Japanese. Their culture, the people, the language, etc. She is always talking about it, and has cover her room with Japanese decor. She always online everyday researching Japan. But she isn't autistic from what I can see. I myself sometimes find a topic I'm interested in and think about it all the time, and do research everyday, and over indulge a little. That wouldn't make me autistic, would it? Do neurotypicals get obsessed, too? Are there different reasons behind obsessions, like maybe boredom.

Second question: Lack of friends?
So many kids lack friends, a lot of shy people don't have many friends. I want to know why it seem that if you don't have friends you're probably on the spectrum.

Third question: Social awkwardness?
What do you think are other reasons someone may be socially awkward besides ASD?

Fourth question: Need for Routine?
What does a routine do for someone with ASD, and how is it different from just liking things to stay the same.

Fifth question: Females and indulging in fantasy worlds?
Is that something that's suppose to be a ASD thing? Because I think that's normal. It's nice escaping into an alternate reality. I do that before I go to sleep, and while listening to music. Is it normal to feel like your involved in a book, TV, or movies like your a character experiencing what they're doing, and daydream almost like you are character?

Sixth question: Online Testing?
I haven't taken any online tests yet, but how good are they? Are the results biased towards males? How do females test? I think I'm going to take them just to see where I fall.

When I was researching ASD, some of the traits I see in other people, and myself. Some of the traits seemed normal to me!

I'll answer some of your questions in the context of myself.

That survey you refer to was an informal and unscientific telephone pole. The numbers small most often cited are somewhere between one in 80 and one in 88.

I don't get obsessed, but I will become immersed in something temporarily. I'm a software engineer, so for example, if I have coding to do, I might start coding in the morning and work until midnight without realizing the time has passed. But I don't have obsessions that last over a period of days or weeks.

There are many reasons why a person may not be popular or may not make a lot of friends. In the case of autism, using myself as an example, I have what's called the direct eye gaze which makes some people uncomfortable. Also, I don't communicate using tone of voice or facial expressions, which also makes many people uncomfortable. However, I do have a lot of friends.

For the same reasons as above, combined with the fact that nonverbal communication is prevalent among normal people, I'm a bit cut off from the general population under all circumstances.

The need for routine generally stems not from autism, but from the common coincident ADHD. Of course, ADHD requires some sort of attention management technique and very often the schedule is applied to manage attention.

People who do not have a life, a solid identity, or feel cut off will tend to create fantasy identities and live in fantasy worlds. This sort of thing happens more among people who have identity issues such as borderline personality.

I'd suggest taking several online tests and taking them several times over a duration of weeks. Many people find that their scores vary depending on their mood, how much sleep they got, and other factors. For my scores, I have sort of average over time. If you believe that you have autistic characteristics and they are negatively affecting your life, consider having a professional evaluation done. A professional evaluation can give you accurate information to deal with, a plan to follow, and documentation that can be used for special accommodations at school and work.

Like a lot of things, autism is a matter of type of symptom and magnitude of the symptom, plus the totality of symptoms. So normal people may have some characteristics of autism without qualifying for the diagnostic criteria of being autistic.

Good luck!

Thanks! That was helpful!! So a person can have obsessions, social awkwardness, and other AS symptoms without having it. And I will take the tests just out of curiosity, but I have no trouble with eye contact, or reading non verbal cues or anything.

I think NT's are capable of truly obsessive behaviour, too. It could be just an obsession, or an OCD obsession, or an ASD "special interest" obsession, or possibly caused by some other neurological affliction that can include obsessive behaviour. So, the answer is who knows whether it makes her or you potentially Autistic or not. There are many ASD traits that virtually anyone could have, and many of them seem very unrelated, but if someone has a huge long list of these otherwise unrelated traits then the picture becomes clearer and clearer as the whole of the sum of these traits amounts to ASD.



They could just be shy. Or introverted. Or ADD/ADHD, or have Tourettes or OCD or ODD or ASPD or or or.. there are many reasons besides AS that can make people less likely to have friends. Maybe they have some more serious neurological problems, ie Schizophrenia or Psychosis, or maybe they're just depressed or suffering from social anxiety or any number of other things.



Could be the oblivious nature of ADD/ADHD or a number of other possibilities. Not every socially awkward person is ASD, but, many are.



Routine is more about what you're doing and when in what order etc vs. just liking things to be in the same place, although they overlap. Routines make things predictable and much easier to organize, remember & recall and do things w/o having to adapt to changes on the fly - which is especially nice when you're in a hurry, or executive brain functions aren't functioning optimally and you have difficulty finding things that are right in front of you if they're even slightly misplaced from their usual spot. Going through routines doing things the same way keeps things calm and productive vs. frustrating and chaotic. I can add or modify or change my own routines just fine, but when someone else interrupts the flow of things by moving something I always put in the same spot it pisses me off. I don't like getting pissed off about petty stuff like that, so I try to make it very clear to others not to do me any favours putting things away for me because it messes me up with not being able to access things and use them when they're not in the places I put them.[/quote]



I'm male. I don't drift off into complete fantasy worlds, but I can get deeply involved in a book or a daydream about something. Then again, I'm ASD and I know it. (even w/o an official diagnosis, Yet.)



No idea, never did any. Read a few books instead - learned everything I needed to know to know for sure that I am on the spectrum as these books describe my entire life, the development of various mental and physical things, various traits and behaviours, the ways that I think - everything.



Some of them are very normal and common and aren't necessarily ASD related. Many of the individual traits I have are things anyone could have almost, but when it's not just a couple things.. or a few things, but dozens of things - then when you're able to connect the dots and see the whole big picture.. there's only one thing they all add up to being, and that's ASD.

Many of those behaviours you describe can be symptoms of autism, as well as other, non-autistic things.

Symptoms you did not mention include sensitivity, and sensory overload. If too much is happening at once, or you are exposed to strong stimuli, then you might sort of short circuit, which could cause you to 'go a bit psycho', which might mean an angry outburst, or to 'shut down', where you so something to block out the stimuli, such as rock and hum in a quiet place. When I do this, I am not thinking about anything but the feel of the rocking, and the sound of the hum, which is often in my head.

There is also often a revulsion to social situations, because these things are, by their nature, very stimulating. Plus there is the difficulty of interacting with people because of a poor ability to read social cues, or to understand things that people say a bit simplistically. This might mean being gullible, or taking literally what is said when it might not be intended that way.

I think the need for routine might actually be more about avoiding change. Your senses work on change in stimulation, not on things that stay the same.This is why you no longer smell things that you are constantly exposed to, or you cease to register the feel of your underwear once you have worn them for long enough.
But that is just my opinion.

There are other problems which are significant for some of us, as well as a lot of minor quirks, such as a lot of us don't like to misspell words or use bad grammar.

Try the online tests, and if you get a score that you are unsure of, then I suggest you have a good read around of this site to develop a bit more of an understanding what it is all about.

I have not yet seen any reason to think you are at all autistic. But you did seek this out, so something must be on your mind - perhaps you have noticed something different about yourself.
Don't jump to conclusions though. Feel free to post your scores.

Hey thanks for your input! I know sometimes when I get stressed like with college work and stuff, I tend to avoid doing to it and escape it, and vent to friends. However, I don't feel the need to rock, hum, or hand flap. I just focus on other things because I'm frustrated, and I procrastinate. I guess it's not the same as sensory overload.

I did take some online tests. These are my scores:
AQ: 15.
BAP: 77 Aloof. 68 Rigid. 63 Pragmatic. Below the cutoff on all 3 subscales. Neurotypical.
EQ: 52. Average.
SQ: 8. Below Average.
HSP: 12. Below the cutoff.
Mind in Eyes: 31. It said I was good a reading eyes.
Aspie Quiz: 46/200 AS. 154/200 NT. Very Likely Neurotypical.

What is SQ? I don't really get what systematizing is,

I sought it out not that I thought I had it, but that I wanted to learn more about it and realized I have a few traits.

I'm going to toss in an additional factor. Many people with ASD have had very similar experiences in life that affect them in very similar ways. For instance, people are generally not born with PTSD, but due to the vulnerabilities of ASD and the way autistics are often treated, many end up with PTSD. So being autistic is a complex multi-factored development, then a practical sense, is a matter of nature, nurture, and general environment. If people continually taunt a child and degrade a child, that child will learn to stay away and thus may give the appearance of being fundamentally antisocial. Or, sadistic games played by others may give a child a sense of absolute futility and worthlessness, so that child may appear entirely disinterested, unmotivated, and unwilling to try.

Last edited by ShelbyGt500 on 21 Mar 2013, 4:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Sounds rough! People are scum sometimes!

True.

I think the primary difference between AS obsessions and NT obsessions is intensity and prevalence. What I mean by this, is that when an aspie latches on to something (in my case, Star Trek, for example) that obsession becomes completely and entirely life-consuming; it takes up every spare minute of your free time and can sometimes cause you to neglect other things such as homework. Prevalence means when and where you discuss your interest. Most NTs know who the "right" and "wrong" people to talk to about an obsession are, but aspies may not. For instance, the minute anyone, even a stranger, brings up anything about my special interest, I'll use it as an opening to start a monologue and effectively force a discussion on the topic ad nauseum. Cognitively I know people can get bored of it, but my excitement at talking about it is such that it overrides my sense of social correctness.

The lack of friends generally depends on the severity of an autistic's social skills, and their interest in interacting with others. I have friends, but every single one of them had to come to me upon introduction because I don't have the social skills, and subsequently the confidence, to go up and start a conversation with a stranger, thereby making friends. This is true for NT shy kids too, but when looking at the percentage of NTs with no friends vs the percentage of autistics with no friends, there is probably going to be an obvious difference in percentage size.

There are other neurological disorders that can make people have poor social skills, such as narcissistic personality disorder, disorders that cause low IQs such as down syndrome and william's syndrome, paranoid personality disorder, and a whole host of others. Poor social skills can also be attributed to a poor environment while being raised. If a child doesn't learn to mimic his parents', teachers' and siblings social skills at a young age, he won't know them when he gets older (case in point; Star Trek: Voyager has a character called Seven of Nine (my avatar) who was abducted by an alien race at the age of six and had all her autonomy removed. When she was rescued and "re-humanized" at the age of 24, her behaviour was classically autistic because she hadn't learned the necessary social skills to interact with other people, however, had she never been abducted and had been raised by her parents, she would show no sign of autistic behaviour).

The need for routine is more than a preference for sameness, it's a deep-rooted survival technique. The world can be generally confusing and chaotic for autistics with all the nonsensical social cues, overwhelming sensory stimulus (another trait of autism is sensitivity to lights, noise, touch, etc), and unexpected surprises (people dropping by unannounced, schedule changes, cancellations) which means that the only way to keep some semblance of control and to not fall apart completely, is to take rigid hold of the aspects of life we do have control over, i.e our daily routines, and make sure that they never change, so that while the whole world is falling into anarchy around us, we still have a grip on something we can make sense of.

I've never heard of a rich fantasy life being part of ASD's female or otherwise, though I will say I have this trait, and use it as an escape when the real world gets too annoying or I feel like a vacation.

I can't speak to the validity of the online tests, however I have taken a few, and they were fairly extensive, and thus far I have no reason to doubt their verisimilitude.

This is wrong, wrong, wrong. I am an autistic female who is very heavily immersed in a fantasy world, and I speak not only for myself but probably many others when I say that having a fantasy world does not mean not having a life or struggling with identity. I happen to have a very fulfilling life: comprised of loving family members and friends, as well as a job that I'm completely happy with. It just so happens that reality is usually either boring, stressful or depressing, so I have to escape to my fantasy world to "recharge". It's like a vacation without ever leaving your house. People don't get accused of having no life because they go on vacation, do they?

As for the identity thing, well, I guess if pretending to be someone else means you have identity issues then so does everyone who plays a video game, where the player always controls the life of a fantasy character.

Note the use of the words "tend" and "more." The statement is not absolute, thus crafted to leave room for exceptions and variants. All sorts of people, normal and abnormal, have fantasies. Many use fantasies at a retreat or shelter, which sounds like what you do. I'd call that a normal variant. A lot of readers immerse themselves in the fantasy of whatever book they read - that is normal. From what I have seen, the people who have the most impact on their lives and their relationships are those with personality disorders who loose themselves and start living their fantasy.

OP, I'll add one more thing: to be diagnosed with an ASD you're supposed to have these symptoms to the point where they cause severe impairment in atleast 2 areas of your life. So an NT girl might be really obsessed with Japanese culture but if her functioning at work and her social relationships and home life aren't negatively affected by this then it wouldn't count as a symptom of ASD according to the DSM. The same with routines. Even the repetitive motor movements like rocking and flapping arms -NT's sometimes have these or did as children - but not to the extent that they impair their functioning in life.

Lack of friends can be due to a lot of things but it's only one of the symptoms of ASD under the category of social impairment. Right now you have to have at least 2 to be diagnosed with Asperger's -in the new DSM coming out in May you'll need all 3 to be diagnosed with ASD (they're changing the names and criteria for diagnosis). The other ones are lack of social or emotional reciprocity and impairment in nonverbal communication-you either lack expression or have REALLY clumsy ,odd expressions or you can't understand other's expressions. Social awkwardness isn't really a diagnosable symptom and can be due to lots of different things but it just often comes as a result of having the symptoms of ASD. Again, you'd have to have the lack of friends "haven't developed peer relationships appropriate to developmental level" , problems with nonverbal expression (tone of voice, facial expression, body language) and lack of social reciprocity to the point where it impairs your daily life for them to be diagnosable symptoms.

Edit: The fantasy worlds are not a symptom of ASD in diagnostic criteria but they're common among girls with ASD. So, this also would mean a preoccupation with a fantasy world to an extreme , impairing extent. When I was a kid in elementary school I refused to play with anything else , would do no homework, wouldn't pay attention in school because from day to night I'd be pretending to be a character from X series. It became more important than my real life. (during school, at recess , at home at all times). I even couldn't sleep because I'd keep daydreaming at night. It was hard to punish me too because a spanking was temporary and not connected much in my mind to not doing work and taking away privileges or putting me in a room with no toys didn't bother me-I carried what was important to me in my mind.

I will try to answer your questions in the best way I can. Most people call what you call "obsessions" 'special interests'- these tend to be quite narrow areas of interest that we are especially good at. However, the difference between an obsession and a special interest is that an obsession is usually unhealthy and unwanted, whereas a special interest is wanted...Unsurprisingly, many people with an ASD channel their interest into a career in future. Also, for me personally I delve into my interests most when I'm stressed out, as they help me to stay calm.Well, a lot of people on the spectrum find it hard to make friends or bond with people in general; a lot of people- including myself- have been bullied or ridiculed by others in the past, which can contribute to our lack of friends. Also, for myself and many other people on the spectrum, friendships can be seen as "high-maintenance", in that they require reciprocal interaction (effort from both parties in the friendship i.e. regular socialising etc.) in order for friendships to be successful. It is for this reason that I have almost always only been able to handle having "one friend at a time"- for instance, in both primary and secondary school, with my time in sixth form being the only exception; I currently have mere acquaintances...I have also been known to "drop friendships" when I transition on to new environments.
Routine for myself and many others on the spectrum gives us familiarity and keeps us functioning properly; the smallest of changes to a routine can cause us to falter and meltdown. The difference between liking things the same and needing routine are that the former will not really affect a person if changed- the person will usually just adapt to the change and 'get on with it', but the latter on the other hand would usually cause some sort of distress and cause a person to meltdown. Now, I'm not completely sure why this happens, but I presume it's due to our rigid way of thinking; routines are really all we know and are sure of, so logically to a person with an ASD unpredictability/change would be a frightening prospect.The concept of delving into a fantasy world may seem normal to most people, but to me it is done for another reason completely; I have in the past used 'lucid dreaming' as a defense mechanism- as a way of me being able to deal with the stressors of life by momentarily detaching myself from the chaos in which we call the real world and placing myself inside a more ideal world that I would feel most comfortable in. Also, for many people with an ASD, they feel as if they are "aliens" or people from a foreign country where they are constantly being misunderstood by others, so it would only be natural for them to feel the need to retreat into a fantasy world.I wouldn't say the tests are completely biased towards males, but some of the questions/traits of an ASD are either more common in general to males, or that most research into ASDs has looked at males. However, in most online tests I still managed to score high enough in them to indicate me being on the spectrum- which of course, I am. Although, one should note that none of these tests claim to be valid or anything remotely like a formal diagnosis, therefore results should not really be taken that seriously.

Thanks Daydreamer 84! You have been most helpful! I understand now the difference, and that any obsessions that me or my friends have is not AS.

First question: Obsessions?
That wouldn't make me autistic, would it?
No. Having an interest or hobby does not in itself make one autistic.
Do neurotypicals get obsessed, too?
Of course they do, but probably not in the thorough way aspies do.
Are there different reasons behind obsessions, like maybe boredom.
perhaps boredom, but more or less with me it is what i consider an affinity towards the reasoning, rhythm or innate connection to a given subject/hobby/interest that keeps me absorbed with a focus interest.

Second question: Lack of friends?
it's not necessarily a matter of shyness, but can be with some. for me it is a distinct sense of not fitting in with the social "norm"...an inability to understand or relate to the societal behaviors which come naturally to neurotypicals.

Third question: Social awkwardness?
What do you think are other reasons someone may be socially awkward besides ASD?
personality quirks, moodiness, emotional instability

Fourth question: Need for Routine?
What does a routine do for someone with ASD, and how is it different from just liking things to stay the same.
it gives a matter of comfort and stability to my life. in a world where everything tends to gravitate to a natural state of random chaos, routine keeps those otherwise random happenings to a manageable level. in my experiences, i'm very easily overstimulated by sounds, lights, unexpected activity, too much happening at one time to be able to focus upon any one of them effectively, routine helps me continue on a clear mental path, so to speak.

Fifth question: Females and indulging in fantasy worlds?
i'm not so sure about that one. i've always been quite practical and realistic. even in times where i daydreamed or have fantasies, i've never been the silly romantic. it could be that my fantasy is more real to me, or is grounded in a sense of rationale, and i don't see it in ways that are to the outward onlooker might consider, but i don't see myself as fanciful.

Sixth question: Online Testing?
I haven't taken any online tests yet, but how good are they?
they're a pretty good indicator of whether or not a person could consider need for a professional assessment or if they're more "normal" than they realized.
Are the results biased towards males?
i'm a woman and don't think so
How do females test?
i tested just fine...as very strongly aspie

I think I'm going i''m to take them just to see where I fall.
there is no harm in doing so. they're interesting tests which may give you insight into yourself.

Last edited by MaKin on 23 Mar 2013, 9:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.