Is it possible to have a mild form of asperger's?

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From self diagnosis I suspected I had ADD and then after more searching I thought I had asperger's. The more I research though(this forum, looking at vids, read all the wiki article) the less certain I am. I am 100% sure that I am not like the others, I'm sure that I have some sort of condition, either ADD or asperger's. I have a lot of the symptoms of ADD and asperger's but in mild forms, it doesn't seem as excessive as what people describe here. Actually I need to rephrase that, the most excessive things from aspies I don't have, but I do have a lot of stuff that is not as excessive. I don't feel like typing out some examples atm, maybe later.

You either fit the criteria or you don't. FYI, a large amount of people here describe themselves as mild as is.

I have heard of mild AS, moderate AS, and severe AS so it is possible. When I hear people say they have a mild form of it, I assume they mean mild AS.

AS is a spectrum in itself.

Some say it's black and white, but I think there's no reason you can't have it to a lesser extent than someone else. Then again, maybe you have some other spectrum disorder that isn't Asperger.

In my opinion, not only are there milder variations, but there are also partial variations, where one might have a few of the traits but not enough to be diagnosed. Since they suspect a whole cluster of genes to be involved, one would assume that some people might have some of the genes, but not enough to "have" the condition. That can be seen in families where a child is diagnosed but no one else in the family has been, or believes they should be.

I also think there is borderline AS which is basically mild AS because the symptoms aren't always present. There may come times where they appear NT and not showing any traits and then there are times when they do show it but it still impairs them enough to have the diagnoses. They slip on and off the criteria.

Guess I have mild AS then.

i would guess no two humans with a. s. have exactly the same symptoms. way too many options. as has been mentioned....it's a broad spectrum. there are many test, online, to help you. many commenting in the forums have taken one that measures in variations of 200. my score was 158/200, so i'm firmly in there somewhere. don't let it bother you. just do the best you can.

Autism is a spectrum disorder that can range from just a few odd quirks to severe impairment. Even if you don't fully fit the diagnostic criteria for AS, you can still be on the spectrum if you have some of the traits.

I have pretty mild AS, I barely reach up to the criteria. But at the same time it's not just just a matter of that, symptoms also vary. Someone with more severe AS can in a way have milder AS than me. I can function pretty well socially if I try, and not all people can. But I have no real wish to socialize. There are aspies who can't socialize as well but at the same time they want to socialize more than I do. So in that aspect they are more normal.

As above.

The main purpose of a diagnosis is so you can access support services, etc. Therefore in order to be formally diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (or pretty much any disorder), you need to have significant impairment in functioning. So you can have traits of autism (many or few) but not be diagnosed with AS.

There's always the PDD-NOS category to apply to atypical cases, some of which are atypical because of partial criteria or criteria that only cause impairment sometimes.

If you don't meet the criteria for a certain Dx but are still on the spectrum, that's what you would be.

Sorry if I'm double-posting, my response doesn't seem to have appeared.

It's my understanding that a NOS diganosis occurs when you don't meet all of the criteria for a particular diagnosis, except for the impairment criteria which must always exist. (The impairment needs to be significant in the eyes of the assessor, but may not necessarily be persistent or pervasive.)

I could be wrong though, and would be interested in having it clarified.

Yes. The diagnosis is just a legal thing really, an attempt to assign a simple "yes" or "no" to something that's much more complicated than that. Real people have various amounts of each trait, from 0-100%, and each individual will be adversely affected by them to a different extent, depending on their environment and on their capacity to adopt good coping strategies.

I used to worry a lot about whether individuals I met really had AS or not, until I figured that the reason it's usually so hard to know is that it's rather a meaningless question. So now I just note their traits and estimate the strenght of them, and whether or not the trait is causing harm to them or others. Rather like any other personality trait.