can anyone be aspie only for a while in their life?

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Just that: Can anyone be aspie only for a while in their lifetime? Like in their childhood for example and then became NT?

Individual circumstance could cause someone to have many of the traits. If these circumstances change they would most likely change along with them. However I'm not sure it is possible for someone going from diagnosed Asperger's to NT.

I think that there are probably people who become so high-functioning that their Aspie traits aren't noticable, but no I don't think an Aspie can "become" NT because it's the way the brain is wired.

Yes! I was diagnosed on the Autistic Spectrum as a child and I suddenly got off that just by maturing. So yes, I believe it can happen.

I know other people might say there is no cure for Autism and all of that, but if they really stopped thinking about their diagnosis and just focus on themselves being like every other person, they more than likely won't have that diagnosis anymore.

People think I have AS but I don't believe I do.

I wish it was like that but no, would be nice to have a switch aspie on aspie off

As most Aspies get older they have begun to masteror close to it how they should act given some situation

The outward signs of autism and Asperger's Syndrome naturally fade as age increases.

This is why autistic adults don't get much media attention, they're symptoms are much less noticeable, and hence don't generate pity which in turn means less donations to pro-cure organizations.

I've met a lot of people who seem to have an autistic sort of neurotype but not enough problems to get diagnosed under current criteria. Especially women with autistic relatives. And they have similar stories. I'm not sure if it's really about "being on the spectrum then moving off" though, as much as the spectrum being a many-sided thing that we don't fully understand yet, that of course could shade into "undiagnosable" (on a professional level anyway, currently) in some parts.



I actually did that for awhile. I tried very hard to believe I was "normal" because I didn't want to be some "bad sort of different" that I was afraid I was.

It never really worked. I suppose it works for someone who is so obsessive about it in the wrong ways that they actually create more problems for themselves. But it never worked too well for me.

Actually it worked spectacularly badly, and I was bewildered at the fact that I couldn't really do a whole lot of things, because, well, wasn't I "normal" and don't people "just do this stuff"?

I eventually did catch on to the fact that not only was I autistic, but a lot of physical problems were going on too, and that expecting my body (brain included) to work the way other people's worked was a pretty destructive act.

There are all kinds of ways that I identify with "normal" people though. That's because most characteristics are shared between all of humanity regardless of neurotype, body type, etc. That doesn't (for most of us anyway) change the fact that some things vary pretty widely, as well, including the things that get a person labeled autistic.

If the traits contained in the diagnosis could go away because a person didn't focus on their diagnosis, then all of us who were diagnosed unawares, or referred to a doctor out of the blue who ended up diagnosing us with something we'd never heard of before, etc., wouldn't fit the diagnosis. I imagine that most autistic people born these days fit that profile, given that most diagnoses take place in early childhood now.

In studies, they stay the same or fade in somewhere between about 2/3 and 5/6 of the autistic population depending on how you count it. (About 1/3 seem to experience greater difficulties during adolescence, and about half of those end up gaining back whatever they lost.) But not in all of us.

(I'd say a few things faded and a lot of others got more prominent for me. I'm just posting this so that anyone who experienced what I did doesn't feel too weird.)

Why would people think you have it, if you don't?

What reason do you have to be on this board if you are not on the spectrum?

Please do not read these questions in a confrontational context.

In reply to the OP's question, I believe that it is possible for a high functioning Autie to be diagnosed at a young age and become so adept at coping that the original dx becomes moot. But I don't believe that it is likely that any spectrum condition will just go away.

Actually I would more likely suggest that whatever was causing such symptoms as to be a diagnosis in childhood (or any period of life) is more than likely to be a misdiagnosis.


There are plenty of things that could account for at least SOME of the traits. And in concert could mimic the autistic spectrum. I would suggest that it is more than something like that than a case of you "losing" your asperger's.

This possibility makes a lot of sense to me.

Tony Attwood mentions several times that many AS adults are so adept at camoflauge that they are virtually impossible to diagnose.

Going back to childhood functions can help a therapist diagnose AS in an adult, and that diagnosis can explain many of the personality problems that "camoflauged"adults have.

I know, in my case, some of the traits I have willed out of my actions are coming back.

I have been described as "So tightly wrapped you resemble a ball of rubberbands." I never knew what that meant until I discovered my (selfDX) Asperger's. For what it is worth, I noticed that some of my traits were reappearing BEFORE I discovered that there was such a thing as AS.

Pops

I have a somewhat dark view of this. Could it be that that the older generation of Autistics are a distilled product, in that we are the survivors and our more fragile peers have died, commited suicide and succumbed to co- morbid conditions, all of which I mourn. What is left are those who appear to cope better and less diagnosed because there aren't so many of us?

I guess the bottom line is how you define Autism. If you use a purely biological definition, then Asperger's (or any other type of Autism) can never go away without physically reconstructing someone's brain. Which is impossible with even the most advanced surgical techniques known to mankind.

However, if you define Autism in a purely behavioral standpoint, then Autism can go away. Since the behaviors associated with it can be altered under the right conditions.

The behaviors associated with an ASD may not be noticeable for a variety of reasons. In my case it took a while to get the NLD diagnosis because I also have CP which to them explained the difficulties with motor skills and the visual-spatial deficits.

Even after I was diagnosed with NLD people assumed that my lack of social skills and inability to understand social cues were due to social anxiety brought about by abuse as a child and embarrassment at growing up in a poor household. Anti-anxiety medications and anti-depressants really didn't improve my ability to understand social cues at all.

It wasn't until I was at a large conference for my field interviewing for graduate assistantships that I actually noticed I had issues understanding social cues and body language.