Does this meet the criteria?

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Do you think this meets the DSM-IV criteria for Asperger's syndrome?

(I) Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:

(A) marked impairments in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body posture, and gestures to regulate social interaction I generally do not have trouble making eye contact, but I do have great difficulty interpreting and using nonverbal behavior, i.e., I can't tell apart facial expressions

(B) failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level Even as a very young child I had few peer relationships, and still have only one friend outside immediate family. I do not have criteria c or d.


(II) Restricted repetitive & stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests and activities, as manifested by at least one of the following:

(A) encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus I don't thnk I have had the typical kinds of special interests, i.e. in objects, but I did have interests that felt all-consuming. For instance, as a child I had a deep fascination with dragons, which I believed were literally real until I was at least ten years old. I thought up complex strategies for finding and capturing them, and I read everything I could get my hands on.

(III) The disturbance causes clinically significant impairments in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Yes.

(IV) There is no clinically significant general delay in language (E.G. single words used by age 2 years, communicative phrases used by age 3 years)

Correct.

(V) There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or in the development of age-appropriate self help skills, adaptive behavior (other than in social interaction) and curiosity about the environment in childhood.

Yup.

(VI) Criteria are not met for another specific Pervasive Developmental Disorder or Schizophrenia."

Ditto.

Yes, that fits. You'd have to get a psychologist to actually evaluate you to check for whether your symptoms are above the threshold for diagnosis, and to check to make sure it's AS and not something else, but what you have seems to be enough cause to seek an evaluation. You do have unusually few traits for a case of Asperger's (most Aspies have more than just the minimum number), but a small number of traits says nothing about individual trait intensity.

Incidentally, that is a textbook example of a special interest, and just by the way, dragons rock.

Sounds like you fit the criteria, but as the criteria suck, that means little. It also sounds like you could well be an Aspie.

The details are far too vague to tell.