I have a case of mild Asperger's Syndrome (AS). Your situation seems to have some similarities with mine.
You haven't given enough data for me to be confident of whether there's good a chance you have AS or not. Although if you do, it is an extremely mild version.
Before I continue, there are some things I'd like to mention that will hopefully make you more comfortable with the idea that you might have AS. If you wish to skip this, it takes up the next three paragraphs.
Firstly, remember that, even before there was a diagnosis for AS, it was present in the population. People have gone their entire lives without being diagnosed and are perfectly happy the way things are (I've encountered a few such people who have no idea that they have it, one of them being my Uncle who is in his mid fifties.)
Another thing is, if you've felt there is something odd about you all your life, it may be nice to have a name to what you have, so that you can know what makes you different, you don't feel like your alone in having it and can look for ways to manage it yourself, whether it's due to AS or something else. Statistically, one in four people have a 'mental disorder' of one type or another. It was actually a relief for me when I was diagnosed because it was always clear that there was something different about me even before I had a diagnosis. Having one allowed me to have some word to describe myself other than 'weird' and allowed my family to better understand what they were dealing with and get help for me where it was needed (I was 11 or 12 when diagnosed, though my parents had realized there was something going on when I was as young as 4).
Also, keep in mind that people with AS have their own unique personalities, just like everyone else. Some people, like those you mentioned, will use it to get a free ride through life. Others hate the idea of having it (some of them with very good reason, as it can really suck to be lower functioning on the spectrum or have it on top of several other disorders). Others will simply accept that they have it and try to work with it so they can work with issues that come with it. There are too many types of people with AS to describe here, so I won't. If you want to see more examples, you can look around wrongplanet.net to find them.
Although some people with AS do not perform well in school, there are others who are reasonably successful. Even though my grades in high school were not quite as high as yours, my average was still in the high eighties. I also had really good relationships with my teachers. I was able to deal with classes I wasn't very interested in because I valued my high grades as well (which happened often enough in the first few semesters of college), although if I ever had the chance to tie the work into a topic of my interest, I'd be much more interested and generally perform better.
I grew up in a house where sarcasm is often used and find myself using it often enough.
Although some people with AS often offend people, it's generally not meant as a purposeful slight, they just don't know when they've crossed the line. Personally, I try for the approach of being as polite and courteous as possible until I feel like I've learned the proper boundaries in social situations. On top of this, I can also make eye contact with others. When I was younger, one of the things my parents would do was to look at them when I was talking (once I was diagnosed and they knew some of the symptoms). I've actually have had one college professor questioned whether I had AS simply because I can hold eye contact (ironically, I suspect he has a mild form, too and guess what, he's one of the most respected people within his field and he could hold eye contact just as well as I could).
I have no fear of giving large groups presentations either. If there is a crowd, I can look out over them without seeing individual faces and it becomes easy. Part of this ease may come from the fact that I was in a chorus from third grade through high school. The elementary chorus even performed at places like museums and civic centers as well as at school. By middle School and high school, I could give solo performances or presentations without major issues. For me, the problem was with small groups or important people who I knew were judging me for something that mattered to me. An example would be a judge for the NYSMA (New York State Music Association) soloist competition.
As for class participation, some of my college professors used to have to set limits for the number of questions I could ask per class because I wanted to participate too much. I've improved some since then and try to keep quiet unless no one else has a response or I feel that mine is really important.
Unlike you, I am very limited in the number of friends that I have but I also had some major social issues throughout grade school because of how I shielded myself from my classmates that I am just now starting to make some real recovery progress.
Here are some other things to consider in trying to find the likelihood that you have AS (Realize that any one of these may not apply to everyone who has AS):
Do you suffer from meltdowns? This is an extremely common trait amongst people with AS. For me, I try to hide my negative emotions when I can but if I become too stressed I will spend a few minutes crying. I can generally sense it coming and if I act quickly enough can avoid it. After a certain point, there is no avoiding the meltdown but afterward, I feel relieved and can go for a long time (weeks or months) without another meltdown. These meltdowns can be exhausting and usually need a break from my day after it has occurred, sometimes I even need to take a nap to recuperate. If you want to see other meltdown examples, you can probably look around on this site or the internet in general.
Another thing to consider is what age groups do you interact with. You mentioned that you are able to interact with your teachers and that you have several friends. How close to your age are most of these friends? I have never been really able to interact with my own age group well and will generally find it easier socialize with people who are younger or older than I am.
You mention that you can socialize with other people. How much do you like to socialize? Do you find being around other people invigorating or exhausting? Do you like to be by yourself a lot, too. The truth is, many of us want to socialize sometimes and some of us can do it fairly well. We also often find it very energy intensive and like to spend more time by ourselves than other people.
How intense are your interests? Everyone has subjects that they are most interested in, people with AS just take it further than most.
Also, how do you learn? This is something I have only recently noticed. Some people with AS, such as myself are slow to learn compared to most but can remember what they learn from long periods of time, versus many people who do what I call "data dumping" and forget what they learn almost immediately once they feel they no longer needed.
Do you have any unusually high visual, audio or tactile sensitivities? Many people with AS have some sort of sensory issue along these lines. I have to take my exams in a separate location because of sensitivity to noises.
How is your balance and coordination? It's not unusual for people with AS to have issues with this. I am well known for my own klutziness.
I hope I've been some help for you in determining the likelihood that you have AS.
14 Mar 2014, 2:24 pm
I was thinking the exact same thing. That could actually indicate lack of social awareness to a certain degree but that could be due to many other things besides autism.
