Aspergers or high-functioning-autism traits?

Post Reply New Topic

I haven't been clinically diagnosed with aspergers nor autism, but i really do feel that i have it..

Note: my mother was taking birth control (which include teratogens like progesterone and other androgens) before i was born and i've read that teratogens seem to play a role in birth defects and aspergers syndrome?

Anyway, these are some of the traits that i have and i need some clarifications with you guys if i have aspergers.

1. Motor clumsiness or "Sensory motor dysfunction" - manifest itself in adulthood by "bumping into walls" and doors or other people without intention. This is particularly true of me..

2. an inability to predict others' reactions

3. Neglect social niceties like knocking or returning a greeting

4. overly trusting or paranoid of strangers

5. Appear dreamy at times, especially when in sensory overload. - VERY often..

6. appear not to notice non-verbal cues from others such as when others have become bored with the topic of conversation they appear oblivious and continue.

Conversational style often includes monologues about topics that bore the listener, fails to provide context for comments - Again, very often .

7. High focus - i can take quite abit of work for long hours without noticing.

8. have difficulty understanding metaphorical language - to an extent

9. unusually sensitive or insensitive to sound, light, touch, texture, taste, smell, pain, temperature. - i'm insensitive to sound and pain, but sensitive to temperate, touch and taste.

10. use less emotional content in their speech - I've been told i speak with a monotonous tone and my facial expression is as stone cold as a criminal... even when i'm just walking down the street with no ill intent or anger!

However, i have no problem with eye contact (i used to, but it became better) or self confidence as well as sleeping problems.


Anyway, the purpose of this post is to compare my traits with some of yours' so i can distinguish between behaviors brought on by aspergers and just weird behavior from myself..
Also, it would be nice if any of you notice any telltale signs of aspergers and determine whether i have it or not. =P

Thousand apologies for the long long long post!

Welcome, Jerz. Many of your listed traits are common amongst Aspies. Whether a self-diagnosis carries the same weight as a formal psychiatric assessment has been the subject of debate, here as elsewhere. Some of us were doctor-diagnosed early in life, and others of us came to self-knowledge after a lifetime of wondering why we didn't "fit in".

Here is a --> LINK <-- to a web page which lists four different sets of diagnostic criteria for Asperger Syndrome.

The criteria found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Revision, 1994, or DSM-IV, are probably the most widely-accepted standard, but they are by no means the only one.

Asperger Syndrome only started to be formally diagnosed in the 1980s. We are obviously a long way from full knowledge of the whys and wherefores of AS - whether it arises from genetic, teratogenic, or some as-yet-undiscovered cause.

Alright, I was dignosed with HFA when I was 4 years old, however in 1986 aspringers was not diagnosed much, and so I feel that I may very well have been diagnosed incorrectly. I think aspringers fits me more then my current childhood DX.

Anyways, here are my comparions/contractions to your list, if it helps:

1. Motor clumsiness or "Sensory motor dysfunction" - manifest itself in adulthood by "bumping into walls" and doors or other people without intention. This is particularly true of me..

As a child yes, as an adult no.

2. an inability to predict others' reactions

ABSOLUTLY 100%

3. Neglect social niceties like knocking or returning a greeting

As a child I was known for just walking up into peoples houses, now I am far better, I dont do that anymore.

4. overly trusting or paranoid of strangers

Ya, as a child more often then today.

5. Appear dreamy at times, especially when in sensory overload. - VERY often..

ALL the time.

6. appear not to notice non-verbal cues from others such as when others have become bored with the topic of conversation they appear oblivious and continue.

Ya, but I got slightly better.

Conversational style often includes monologues about topics that bore the listener, fails to provide context for comments - Again, very often .

yep!

7. High focus - i can take quite abit of work for long hours without noticing.

ohh ya, always and if interupted I get really pissed and have been known to flip out, I need to be alone when in hyperfocus mode.

8. have difficulty understanding metaphorical language - to an extent

Ya, usually.

9. unusually sensitive or insensitive to sound, light, touch, texture, taste, smell, pain, temperature. - i'm insensitive to sound and pain, but sensitive to temperate, touch and taste.

I am very sensitive to sound, light, touch, texture, taste, smell but not so much to pain and sometimes not so much temperature.

10. use less emotional content in their speech - I've been told i speak with a monotonous tone and my facial expression is as stone cold as a criminal... even when i'm just walking down the street with no ill intent or anger!

Ohh ya!

However, i have no problem with eye contact (i used to, but it became better) or self confidence as well as sleeping problems.

I always sucked at eye contact, but now I force myself when I talk, I have noticed since I have, the other party sometimes avoids my eye contact, now I realize that perhapse I am doing it wrong and making them uncomfortable, all well... And I have never had terrible sleeping problems, this summer only cause my mind was racing a mile a minute, I had alot going on + work 3rd shifft and it screwed me up, but it has since been resolved.

Jerz, that sounds like an almost perfect description of someone with Asperger syndrome. My son has been diagnosed with AS, and it sounds like you just described him.

It's odd how it must be determined whether the symptoms are not better accounted for by other PDDs or schizophrenia.

Does that mean that you can not have both AS and Schizophrenia? My brother supposedly has both.

Welcome to WP.

Often.



Most of the time.



I do them because I'm told to do them, but don't always see a point to them.



Definately.



Definately.



Yes. Get me discussing snakes, alternative energy, math, and other topics and I won't shut up until the other says something such as "you're beating a dead horse" or some such...



Definately. I can stay working 16 hours a day for a week on a single topic of interest whenever I'm not in a depressive state of mind.



Yes, but I'm not nearly as deficient in this area as I used to be. In high school I was placed with a therapist for speech impediments and also asked the therapist about idioms/metaphors as well so I could learn them, and later placed with another therapist who's goal was specifically to teach me these things.



Don't know about this one. I don't like light, but I don't know how sensitive others are to it compared to me. I hate people touching me on the head as it feels 'creepy' to me and I have difficulty washing my hair because my scalp is sensitive. I get cold very easily(room temperature on bare skin makes me shiver) but have no problem with heat(leather jacket in 90+ degree weather without sweating). I probably have a higher tolerance for pain induced by electricity compared to the typical person(in eighth grade the science teacher had a generator that sparked out static electricity and while the other students would jump away when sticking their finger between the spark gaps, I barely felt a thing and didn't even flinch; later students commented how 'weird' that was). My sense of smell is horribly bad, but my nose is often runny and I wonder if that's attributable to all the cigarettes my dad has smoked around me? I love certain textures and am always trying to feel different textures because they interest me.

But I can't say with certainty whether I experience these things to a particularly "unusual" degree.



People sometimes tell me how monotone and stiff I am.

Yes to all the above, except #8 - probably thanks to my literature perseveration.

hey thanks for the reply guys!

I only just recently came across aspergers while searching on wiki about autistic savants. (I have a tendency to keep clicking any links that i see interesting.. =P)

It was such an insight to see so many others like me.

And to the above post about schizophrenia, i'm pretty sure i don't have it...