ASD with high intelligence

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This is nuts.

I've always been very intelligent, scoring well in both formal IQ tests (145) and in school. I've also been really great at computers. This has given me the opportunity to live a happy and fulfilled life. I waltzed into a high six figure paying job that most people dream about. I have a partner who's the love of my life. In the eyes of the world I'm a normal successful white collar professional.

I had always thought about all my weird social oddities as just a product of my higher IQ. I had never seriously considered being on the AS until a few months ago. That's when I took the AQ and a couple of other quizzes. My AQ was 41, and my aspie quiz score was 167/200 neurodiverse and 54/100 neurotypical. My RAADS-R score was 185.

Since then I've spent much of my free time reading all about the experiences of AS people at all intelligence levels, and it's quite clear to me that I share many of my character traits with many on the spectrum, including my partner who we've realized is also AS.

This is all a bit overwhelming. I'm still processing it. I'm thinking about whether to get a professional diagnosis.

Welcome and please relax. It might put your mind at rest to get a dx (dx is short for diagnosis). My IQ is round the 140 mark, but my skills are arty, and my social skills when young did not exist - I wasn't diagnosed until my 50's, and had no idea for much of my life that I was aspergeroid.

Yes, it is possible to sail through life with asperger's if you have a saleable skill, but it takes an independent outside specialist to say whether you have asperger's / HFA / PDD NOS or not. The symptoms can be caused by other things.

NB diagnosis by internet is impossible.

So, please make yourself at home, there's plenty of self diagnosed people on here.

Last edited by Alexanderplatz on 03 Sep 2016, 6:03 pm, edited 2 times in total.

There's a thread in the Members Only section on highly educated aspies -- it might be of interest.

Thanks, I'll have a look.

Well, You'll find most people on wrongplanet have higher than average IQs. Like, Me some don't Know not all Autistics have High IQs, but Low IQ/High IQ Exists on Both the Lower Functioning side, and the Higher.

I think often the problem partly comes from being highly intelligent. Over-analysing things can make it difficult to function, because there are always so many alternative explanations... I don't know. I'm still trying to work out whether I have aspergers. But being good at maths and computers is obviously a strong sign. I analyse people a lot too though. Slightly high-jacking your thread...

It all depends whatever your problems are severe enough to fit this:
"Symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of current functioning."

From what you say currently you don't have much chance to get a diagnosis (and if you get one you won't get any benefits) even if you are actually in the spectrum because you live a successful life, both socially(wife) and when it comes to work life. You also seem quite happy with your current life situation so there doesn't seem to be any problems requiring help.

You sound more gifted than in the spectrum. Not all gifted people have autism and giftness can cause autism-like symptoms, especially social impairment (not because you can't read people but because you are on different intellectual level than most of them) and strong interests. It is possible to be twice exceptional though and have both autism and giftness at the same time.

You seem gifted for sure but did you have Asperger problems growing up or was your impairment just on the gifted side? See the link: http://mumsinthewood.com/teach-them/spe ... -syndrome/

I do check off well more than half that list. I've managed to engineer my environment so that I don't have to deal with it regularly, but even slight variations from it debilitate me.

If you're coasting through life, you have order-- not disorder. A disorder, by definition, causes problems.

A question you might ask yourself is why you feel a need to put on this label. You're literally creating a problem where there isn't one.

Everyone has traits or tendencies for something because we're all humans. Disorder comes from the exaggeration of a quality to an extent that it interferes with normal functioning. It doesn't sound like you have that issue.

I find it bothersome that normally functioning people can identify with traits and label themselves. It trivializes the struggles that come with living with this disorder.

If you're coasting through life, good for you. Enjoy it.

There's a lot of disorder in my life that I haven't mentioned yet, including sexual abuse. I'm not a hypochondriac and not someone who seeks out labels to appropriate them. But a lot of things that have happened to me make sense when seen through the AS lens.

That's the thing about aspergers, it isn't a problem if you have high intelligence.
You just become a scientist/programmer/mathemetician.
You make money (which handles the women problem for those that don't know).
You have a skill that society needs and values.
You are around other people with undiagnosed aspergers, so what's awkward to NTs becomes normal socializing with your coworkers.

You have a sense of purpose and predictability in life. You are appreciated and live comfortably financially.
You work on things that are interesting to the aspergers brain.

It's only a problem for those with aspergers who do not self sort into the correct occupations (math, programming) or can't learn those things.

I want to touch on what Dr.Pepper said.
people with aspergers who are successful are really bad at helping people with aspergers who are not successful.
It has to do not being able to empathize.
There should be free education, job training, scholarships, workshops, etc being put on by mathemeticians/programmers/scientists for people with aspergers ("their people").
You should be able to get an entry level job as a programmer where you start at something low like 30k a year and get trained to program. Programmers should realize that aspergers causes a lot of problems and some people were not as lucky as they were to have the right supports. They should know that they would fail horribly as a lawyer or politician and it's their job/environment that allows them to function normally. They should feel empathy for those struggling and help. What those struggling with aspergers need is the right environment.

I.Q is not the same as intelligence. There are people here on this site (I have read their posts) that claim to have a high I.Q score but have significantly lower adaptive functioning in the real world.

Actual "high intellect" is unfortunately less common than intellectual disability when we're talking about the spectrum as a whole. I would say at least 30% of us on the spectrum are free of an intellectual disability but still might have adaptive or executive functioning problems.

Honestly, I see no point in getting a diagnosis unless you are planning to get services. You seem to be doing quite well financially and romantically, so there may not be a need to go through diagnostic testing. However, it might serve you well to read up on the literature that's available on ASD, so you can learn more about the way you think and behave. Participating in communities like this one can help as well.

I wanted to point out that not all scientists are wealthy. Those that go into education (ie. teach at college/universities) only see the big paychecks if they become head of a department after earning tenure, which may take many, many years. Those who do not get offered a tenure-route position will never qualify as being rich. Colleges and universities have started to move away with tenure processes in favor of hiring adjunct professors for much smaller salaries with little to no benefits.

Right now, there is an abundance of PhD scientists who are still looking for work in their area. I know a few of them that have to work three adjunct teaching jobs with different colleges in the same city just to make ends meet. Many of them are still attempting to pay back educational loans from their degrees. They struggle with being told that they are overqualified for any other job that they apply for. What does that say to you?

If you are talking industry, scientists can be paid well if they happen to be in a good area like analytical chemistry. However, not all jobs are the same and not all jobs are well paid or secured. It all boils down to how valuable you are to someone above you in the company. You could be doing great work for them, but if someone high up thinks that you are a liability, it is only a matter of time before you are gone. That is the order of business.

I thought I would also comment that money does not solve every problem. In fact, having too much money can create problems that one would never expect. Buying popularity only works so far. One can get to the point that they do not trust anyone around them because they become paranoid over protecting their wealth from others. It gradually happened to one of my relatives. He now is a shell of a person. That would be the last thing I would want to ever become.

What makes you want to get a professional diagnosis? Is it because of the social oddities?

I'm somewhere in the middle between you and a more "typical" case of Asperger Syndrome. I'm a 31 yr old female who was diagnosed at age 29. Like you, I did well academically, but I'm more literary than engineer-y (I started college a year early and graduated cum laude with a degree in English). My WAIS-IV IQ was 115 with fairly significant disparities in the subtests (99th percentile and 134 for the verbal portion, which is why I found English so easy, but my visual-spatial subscore on the WAIS-IV was just 98, and the working memory for math just 105 -- my Aspie logic goes more toward words).

As far as employment, I've only been able to succeed part-time due to my social incompetence (meltdowns, bad at reading social cues, being naive and taking people too literally sometimes, etc.) and executive dysfunction (bad multi-tasker, etc.). It's weird having a cum laude degree and two partial Master's degrees, and working only part-time, but that's because of the aforementioned struggles. I tried to get into teaching full-time, but I just couldn't handle student teaching with all the social and executive demands. I do much better as an aide, part-time, and substitute. I got a diagnosis because of both social oddities and employment challenges. My shrink said that, due to my intelligence, I wouldn't need a lot of services, but it was still good to get an official diagnosis to help explain to others why I have some of my "quirks." I can "get by," if not necessarily "succeed," by typical worldly standards.

So yes, perhaps you have it because of the social quirks and maybe a few other things, but you look like you are doing better than most of us here. Perhaps a diagnosis would help give explanation for your social oddities and help friends or relatives understand you better in that respect...

Let's all bow down to your superiority over the more disabled people out there that struggle with life skills. Or other comorbids not everyone is so lucky. IQ has nothing to do with potential. Screw me for being inferior. Let's bow done to Homosuperior.