Confused about my mental condition

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I'm visiting home from university. A while ago I started seeing a doctor about depression, tested as severely depressed, and I am taking anti-depressants. I also have a long history of anxiety.

I told my dad about my depression. Recently he gave me his opinions on my mental condition. He says that I do not seem severely depressed, but he thinks I have issues with anxiety (probably social anxiety) in addition to maybe some kind of autism spectrum disorder.

I was kind of surprised because I have known people with Asperger syndrome and I don't think my behaviour resembles theirs. I asked my dad what aspect of my behaviour would point to autism. He recounted several occasions where I have been inexplicably very rude to people when I had thought I was being friendly. Other people have said so before as well, as well as saying other uncomplimentary things about my social conduct.

I took some of the tests in this forum's sticky. I put my results at the bottom of the post if anyone is interested, but basically it looks like I don't have autism, but I'm not entirely neurotypical either. It looks like I'm mostly just, as one test put it, "Socially Odd", but lack most of the other traits associated with the autistic spectrum.

Since professionals have generally been unhelpful and tried to give me medication but haven't received any other treatment so far, I'm wondering if anyone here could point me in the right direction in figuring out what my problem could be.

Thank you all for taking an interest.

Aspie Quiz
Your neurodiverse (Aspie) score: 120 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 87 of 200
You seem to have both neurodiverse and neurotypical traits
(imgur 3JWpcDm.png for diagram - sorry, forum won't let me link until I have more than 5 posts)

OK Cupid's Autism Phenotype Test
"Socially Odd"
You scored 103% on aloof, higher than 45% of your peers.
You scored 48% on rigid, higher than 2% of your peers.
You scored 96% on pragmatic, higher than 63% of your peers.
You scored 3% on diagnosis, higher than 27% of your peers.

Highly Sensitive Test
24/27

Emotional Intelligence Test
64/100

AQ Test
Agree: 4,5,6,7,9,12,13,16,19,20,22,23,26,33,35,45: 1 point
Disagree: 1,10,11,15,17,27,28,29,30,31,32,36,38,40,44,47,49: 1 point
Score: 33

Hey there, welcome to WP!

Looking at your test scores you could be on the Spectrum particularly with the 33 on the AQ. You might be very mild but still on it. You might consider getting tested if it is convenient and worth it to you. On the first test score you posted, my score was more towards Aspie than yours but on the AQ mine was just a bit lower, it was a 30 or 31. I would have to pull the printouts of my tests to tell you the exact scores. But it seems that you do have traits. Some people can also have some strong traits and are considered Broad Autism Phenotype. That is like you have some fairly, noticeable traits but not enough to be actually considered Aspergian or fully Autistic. But if you are able to have yourself tested it might be worth your while. BAP is sometimes checked in the parents of Autistic children.

Last edited by skibum on 18 Jul 2014, 4:01 pm, edited 2 times in total.

try this very brief test. may come out the same, but it's based on the criteria docs use.
www.iautisitc.com/test_AS.php

I clicked on your link and it did not work. I don't know if it's me or not.

i typed autistic wrong and i see no edit button, so here goes again.

www.iautistic.com/test_AS.php

Ah, Thanks for reposting it Cathylynn. It worked this time.

Mine said likely to be Autistic. I had to think back though. One or two of the criteria were not really present when I was really small but became much stronger and much more apparent when I became pre-adolescent and from what I have read often times girls tend to present their symptoms later than boys do so that would make sense. I did have some traits from when I was really small like three or four years old but some of them developed more strongly later when I was around ten or eleven.

There's a newly classified disorder called Social(Pragmatic) Communication Disorder that is in the DSM V (I should note that this is only in the U.S.). People with SCD have the social problems associated with autism but not the other traits of autism such as repetitive behaviors and narrow interests. That could be it.

Don't ya know that aspies are individuals? A narrow interest or more is not a must have. A daily routine is optional, too. Some people suffer from ignorant douchebag disorder. In the US of A there is a label for everything and psychaetrists make a decent buck or two by perscribing drugs to children.

Thanks for this resource. I had trouble knowing how to respond to all the criteria, since it seems to rely on the perception of the observer. I guess my difficulty is that from my point of view, I use an appropriate amount of body language, etc. but I get the impression that other people may not view me the same way.


Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Based on reading about it, it seems unlikely that I had this problem since I don't believe I exhibited any of the childhood characteristics, such as delayed language development. But I guess I will look further into it, and maybe ask my dad if there was anything unusual about my childhood development.


Sorry but I'm not sure what you're trying to communicate. Fortunately I live in the UK and have access to the NHS, so I don't need to worry about doctors taking advantage financially.

I'm very very sorry. I didnt mean any offense by what I wrote. I know that aspies are individuals and that traits vary and that there is no such thing as a typical aspie, as I was misdiagnosed for much of my life because I am far from what people think an aspie "should" appear like. I was just writing a quick post on the little I know about SCD, only intending to mention another possibility in answer to the OP's question. I only mentioned repetitive behaviors and narrow interests as possible examples. I'm sorry again.

(Doctor are individuals too. The majority are not in it for the money. But like every group of people, there are always the few who are dishonest etc. But most doctors put the care of their patients above anything else, and they do the best they can. I have witnessed too many examples of doctors putting money, sleep, and many other considerations aside so that they can care for their patients as far as their capabilities can go.)

Nonverbal Learning Disabilities also share a lot of social traits with ASD. Getting evaluated is always best though.

That test says "probably not autistic" if you had a speech delay, and "likely to be autistic" if you did not.

Which makes no sense.