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I know it's a rather silly question but I was wondering.... before someone gets diagnosed with AS, are they still counted as an NT, even though they might not be?

No, at least in my opinion.

I think so ... people are presumed "normal" until they behave otherwise.

Unless they've always acted "wierd" in which case an AS diagnosis simply provides a reason.

I am not formally diagnosed and I am definitely not neurotypical.

If people don't know, they don't usually care/talk down to you.

I think they just treat you like a person.

That's been my experience anyway.

Sometimes it is better to keep certain things to yourself to avoid upsetting other people.

No, of course not. You are who you are.

Magliabechi.

You will never know for certain until you receive a diagnosis. Until then, you may only be deluding yourself and others into believing you have Asperger's Syndrome.

You could just be Emo or Bipolar.

You are either NT or on the spectrum, and that doesn't change. If you are not diagnosed, it doesn't mean you're NT - it just means that you may not yet know with certainty whether you are on the spectrum or not. You might be NT, you might not. In contrast, if you have been evaluated for ASD and are determined not to be, then you are considered NT.

Keep in mind that none of this is absolute - diagnosis is not an exact science and there can be both "false positives" and "false negatives".

Kinda like schroedinger's cat... Once you look in the box, the waveform collapses and the cat has always been dead or alive.

(Calm down, cat-lovers; it's a thought experiment.)

Remember your rights! You are "weird" until proven "normal."

If you are having social problems or other spectrum symptoms, feel free to follow the advice on this site. A lot of it has helped me.

Besides, I read up on the spectrum once, and it was like someone was spying on me my whole life.

<_<

<_>

>_>

According to the Queensbury rules, that's true. However, west of the Mississippi there are no real fences or rules out there. NT's get tagged and released to free range (but all free range NTs have to be certified before they can be released to roam).

So until diagnosis they are a superposition of NT and AS. Many worlds interpretation: At diagnosis, they become NT in one universe and AS in another universe.

what's so wrong about normal??!

personally, I meet all the AS diagnostic criteria. so did my dad, and his dad, and his dad's brother. I don't care about the label though. I am never, ever going to take the test, even if it's offered to me for free.

it just doesn't matter.

I *hate* the f**king elitist approach that some people have on this forum!

come on, we've been around for thousands of years, and we will be. always. the human race needs us. we're one of the few genetic variables that actually bring some benefit to society.

there's nothing wrong about being considered "normal". I've been so, for my whole life, and have always been appreciated by my close friends for my rational, unbiased thinking.

it's easy to hide behind a formal diagnosis. I don't believe it's going to make your life any easier though, unless you're low-functioning enough to need it. then I totally give you my thumbs up

Anna, many people, like you, are content to be themselves, are indifferent to or outright resist a label, and may have no interest in knowing or understanding why they are as they are. That's not a bad way to live, in fact it is a good way to live, and if it works for you, that's fantastic. Too few people ever achieve that level of confidence and self-acceptance.

Where I take issue is with the "hiding behind a formal diagnosis" part. Are you saying that the purpose of seeking a diagnosis is to "hide behind it?" While you didn't explicitly say that, it is strongly suggested, particularly as you immediately follow it by saying that you don't believe it will make life easier. You have been fortunate to be surrounded by people that actually accept you as yourself, and I am willing to bet that your formative years included being surrounded by such people. In that case, I can see why a diagnosis would have no real effect on you.

But imagine a life where, even though "high-functioning", you are invariably perceived as somehow "different" by everyone in your life, family, classmates, teachers, EVERYONE. Imaging having no clue why. Imagine making every adaptation necessary to "fix" what is tipping people off, increasingly suppressing every bit of the essence of who you are, and still failing miserably. Not exactly the recipe for confidence and self-acceptance. Now transport that image back to a time when the term Asperger's Syndrome hadn't even been coined, and most people hadn't even heard of "autism" except maybe once or twice in passing. Imagine not belonging anywhere - being rejected repeatedly by absolutely everyone, and not beginning to understand why. A formal (or informal, for that matter) diagnosis does not need to be an excuse; merely an explanation. Many of us for the first time experience a true sense of belonging and understanding that we are not "wrong. If you cannot see how this can make an immense difference in somebody's life, then all I can say is that you are a very fortunate individual who must have always known belonging and acceptance. Please be thankful for that, and please try not to forget that a great many people here have not been so blessed. There is nothing "elitist" about that. Our experiences even in the AS world vary greatly, so what is of little value for one person may be life-altering and affirming to another. There's room here for all of us.

I think knowing I have AS is better becuase it gives me a potential topic of conversation. When I tell people I have AS, they usually say something like, "Wow! What's it like!" or "That's really interesting!! !" or "Really?!". Some of my friends actually thought AS wasn't a real condition until I told them I had it and had been professionally diagnosed twice. It's not something to hide behind at all.

Yes.
Without a diagnosis you would just be considered weird.