Over-intelligent = Aspergers?

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So Today my mom shows me a website about over-intelligent people. The description is EXTREMELY fitting, but also very much(No different really) like aspergers.

It puts me in a strange situation. Either im an aspie(Which means i can get help) or in over-intelligent(Cant get help), or its the same diagnosis.

I would love to think im over-intelligent, but it doesnt justify the fact i have problems.

Anyone else who had this same dilemma?

Thomas Edison and Einstein were believed to have Asperger's Syndrome...and we would all be sitting in the dark if they hadn't
made their greatest, intellectual discoveries to the world.

According to my IQ...I'm a genius...but that never really showed in my life... Everyone said I was super smart...that I was eccentric. Then I found out about AS.

Now I believe that I have AS. It doesn't make me less smart. It just explains why I am like I am. I think that there are alot of extremely intelligent people I know that must have AS. Get help for AS? There is no cure. We just know what we are. Yes it explains us, it helps us understand...I take certain meds to help with the anxiety and certain other issues...but these are meds that they had by happenstance prescribed for me before the discovery of AS and just overlap.

I find that knowing I"m not alone helps. Finding others who feel like I feel, makes me feel less isolated. I know I'm not insane. Or maybe I am, and there are others who are too, just like me. That makes it okay. And that's okay.

I'm happy I"m here.

When I first found out about AS, I thought, "So, are all geniuses aspies?" I think not. I think that many (perhaps most) aspies are very very intelligent, but that some of us may not have a way to harness or focus ourselves. From my interactions with professors and various physicians though, I don't think that all extremely intelligent people are ND. For someone to be truly brilliant, I feel that not only must the knowledge base and innovative thinking be there, but that individual must also be able to express his/her wonderful new ideas to the world.

Look up Asperger syndrome on Wikipedia or get ahold of a serious psych textbook. Do you fit the diagnostic criteria? Are you super smart? Congrats...you may be both. heh

Asperger's occurs in people of all levels of intelligence other than mental retardation; even then, the DSM-IV-TR states that it's possible to have mild mental retardation and have AS; Gillberg's AS criteria mentions no IQ threshold.

Asperger had individuals with mental retardation, and they still had his "autistic psychopathy".

What the hell is 'over intelligent'? Is it possible too be TOO smart? Why would you want to cure that? I'm no genius, but my IQ tests at well above the NT average and I wouldn't trade that (or my AS for that matter) for anything the NT world could offer. Puny humans.

Ahahaha!

How about creating an Aspie party and run for President?

I am supposedly of above average intelligence, but one would not know it from interracting with me. I am definitely not a genius, but I do have my creative moments...

"Over intelligent" does not sound like a very technical term...I guess it would be "overly intelligent"...but it is not as though intelligence is undesirable beyond a certain point....it is like physical health or money....

You must be experiencing other symptoms that go along with your intelligence...for it to possibly be AS

Last edited by poopylungstuffing on 02 Apr 2008, 12:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

To be precise, characteristics of gifted people and of those diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome overlap - one with superior intelligence may show many traits associated with ASD not being on the spectrum. I read about many children with high intelligence quotient who were suspected of it but finally they were being diagnosed only as the gifted ones.

Anyway the higher intelligence, the more difficult is to have common ground with others - the number of people equal to you in terms of being capable of noticing some aspects of reality and perceiving the world from such a point of view that is different than this commonly accepted decreases the higher IQ you are characterized by. Hence social problems that may be mistaken for symptoms of AS.

Thomas Jefferson was very likely an aspie.

Where is this site on being over-intelligent?

There are websites/forums for exceptionally gifted people out there that you can check out to compare. Cerebrals has a public forum anyone can join - if you're not sure of the relationship between Aspergers and giftedness you can just read a bit. The tone is very different there.

Cerebrals

There is also the classic article The Outsiders (but it should be noted that William James Sidis was actually better adjusted than the media knew about).

When you have intelligence below average, mental retardation others feel sorry for you while when you're more intelligent than your peers you're regarded almost with fear.

I would tend to think the majority of aspies are of above intelligence, there maybe a few in the 140 to 150 IQ range, but they are not all geniuses, or intellectuals, because its what you do with your intelligence. At the risk of getting flamed, I would say claims of being a genius are in some cases are exaggerated, as doing an IQ test online, is not a true test of intelligence, it is human nature to inflate claims. Now I would say on average, aspies show some higher levels of thought compared to the general population of NT's, people with AS seem to be capable of more creative thought, then NT's.

Last edited by spudnik on 02 Apr 2008, 12:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

But theoreticly, with enough skill, you can disguise your excess intelligence, or present it in a way that does not intimidate people. It is kinda hard to do that with retardation.

Some gifted youths have talked about that they seemed to have found similarities between giftedness and AS. So it's definitely there somehow. They appear similar to the outside/at a first glance.

However, the cause for these similar symptoms and behaviour is different.

Like for example, social issues in AS derive from not being able to read non-verbal cues for one. That's a symptoms of autism. Gifted people can read body language just fine. They don't have that symptom - then they don't have Asperger's.

Just as AS might be confused with giftedness, ADHD often can be confused with giftedness too at a first glance.

Why hide one's higher intellect? It's humiliating, such trying to to hide one's light under a bushel as if it was a shameful thing like syphilis or bedwetting Anyway, if people surrounding you are much dumber than you you simply don't have too much common ground with them, even if you make every effort to sound like they. You can be nice to them but you won't have too much common points.

Last edited by Irulan on 02 Apr 2008, 1:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.