Aspies For Freedom

Batman55: I just want to say that having a low IQ doesn't necessarily reflect your intelligence. Remember that it is designed to test the general population and everyone is tested the same, despite common knowledge that everyone has particular strengths which they utilise in order to function. For example visual and auditory learners learn very differently. All it means is you are eccentric. Judging by what you post you seem to be rather intelligent.

Another thing that I want to say is my music teacher who has a very bright son who is considered as having mild intellectual delays and also as being gifted. That doesn't make any sense at all but it is true. It is because of his learning disabilities.

Oh and also I am learning disabled too- Visual Processing Disorder and dysgraphia (the last one isn't diagnosed yet but it will be). I know that visual processing disorder is detrimental to my life but I try to think positively- I have learned to rely on my other senses and as a result I am stronger in those areas.

Also, try to remember that 20%-40% of gifted people have a PDD/LD/ADHD or some kind of neurological condition and the smarter you are, the more likely you have one. I think this just goes to show that to have a great variation in intelligence your brain has to be structured differently and that obviously the NT brain is not the superior one but one with a high intelligence and the ability to compensate for learning disabilities. Even gifted children without learning disabilities have a large difference between their strengths and weaknesses. I suppose that this would be because either their learning disabilities are too mild to be recognised or they simply do not have the time to be that far ahead of their peers in every subject. Especially ones with Asperger's, like me. My range is so great because there are the subjects that I NEVER put any effort into and come out with incredible results like English and then there are the subjects that I am obsessed with like cognitive psychology and Linux- just please don't expect any brilliant mathematical working, okay?

ADHD people have common sense but they do not utilise it due to inattentiveness to the world around them and hyperfocus on their interests or whatever is currently most stimulating to them. Whilst that is different from Asperger's, often it manifests in the same way.  

Just to help break down communication barriers, I consider the NT brain to be one belonging to someone who is generally normal and does not have any quirks that are found to be rare or diagnosable. I think that people with ADHD are NOT NT. By the same definition neither are gifted people or Aspies or Bipolar kids. Originally NT meant 'not Autistic' but since then it has become a simple way of describing anyone not 'normal' and I personally define it as such. If you don't, well it is an opinionated thing and I can see where you are coming from and agree but I just find it easier to define it how I do.

Now, explaining this:
I think this just goes to show that to have a great variation in intelligence your brain has to be structured differently and that obviously the NT brain is not the superior one but one with a high intelligence and the ability to compensate for learning disabilities.

Sometimes to get an official Learning Disability diagnosis you need to have an area where you score 15% lower than your average of other areas. There are many other ways of testing but I've read that it can be done this way.
For someone like me I will get crazy variations in tests of intelligence like 100, 95, 65, 85, 100, where 65 will be visual-spatial questions and 100 will be language comprehension. Something like that. The reason I vary so much is due to a combination of a few things: 1. My brain is different. Today's society was not built around my brain. I do not learn like other people. I do not think like other people. I do not utilise my visual processing anywhere near as much as my auditory and I don't need to, so failing a visual test which decreases my overall IQ doesn't reflect my intelligence. 2. We may be smarter than others but we don't have any more time than others. We may be able to process more information but there is a set limit of time we can spend learning so some areas where time wasn't devoted miss out. 3. People with ADHD or Asperger's have lots of trouble learning what they don't find interesting for different reasons. For ADHDers it is because they need to be stimulated more so they get distracted by more interesting things and end up hyperfocusing on them. For Asperger's people it is because their concentration is too strong yet linear and they find it difficult to shift their focus from what is most stimulating to something that isn't. As a result ADHD and Asperger's is kind of like a learning boost when we want to learn about cognitive psychology and a deficit when we want to learn about.. anything taught in a high school classroom.

You don't have to agree with me, this is  merely my personal theory and in fact I'd like it if you disagreed or found any flaws because I am interested in learning from you.

No, you aren't an idiot. It is just a part of my ADHD thing. I have troubles working out which of my thoughts are important or directly relevant because in my head I see the link with all of them because I got to the thoughts via the links, but I can't possibly tell other people the links because then I would be presenting them a 7000 page book to illustrate my point. So to them I just make lots of seemingly random points.

Anyway, back on topic (woah, out of body experience).

I'm not saying the NT brain is more intelligent. I'm just saying that we live in an NT society where the education system caters for NTs and as a result they can excel with less effort and support required. I do miserably at school despite knowing that I am the smartest kid in my grade. I just focus on the fact that school is for me to learn how to interact with people and home time when I can go on the computer is learning time.

I agree that an IQ score has nothing to do with the kind of person you are. I have a high IQ, like three of my friends and when I told them about the possibility that I had AS, they all sort of nodded and moved on.
I have also a friend with a lower IQ and she saw a book in my room about autism and asked me about it. So I explained the whole thing and ended with that autism explained why I was a bit strange at times. She immediately told me that I was not strange, just different and that she liked it. There was this immediate acceptance, which was brilliant. The fact that she doesn't do to well in school doesn't mean that she isn't smarter than my other friends.

And Aliengirl, I know this has been said quite a few times in this thread, but I admire your writing and your posts,

Christmas- well I am no good at buying presents so I get mum to help me there.

I love receiving computer parts!

I HAAAAATTTTEEEE family outings. I have to go up to some place far away with no computer or swimming pool or anything that I like and have a 'holiday' there where I meet my family whom I hardly see and don't really care about. I know they are family but I don't love them. I've probably seen them less than 30 times in my whole life. The other thing is they always pick on me because I am weird. "Why are you reading? You should be talking. Why don't you hold your cutlery properly?" [my way is more efficient because I can actually do it! I don't have the fine motor skills to hold it the proper way. It is so uncomfortable.] etc, etc.

I don't look forward to Christmas but then I don't dread it either.

I am not religious and neither is my family so we celebrate it somewhat differently to most. As a 14 year old, I do get rather excited about present time but the rest of it I despise. I wouldn't say my extended family are abusive but they neglect me because I am asocial. Often when I try to converse with them they will just start talking to someone else midway through the conversation so I have given up trying. I just bring a book, say hello, sit by the food and read. If people disrupt me I make the excuse that I am tired and don't really feel like talking. Easy, except it is kind of hard to concentrate with all of the people around me.

I have dysgraphia! IN fact I am going to get diagnosed today

No,no I really would like to hear more.I had serrios learning disabilities as a child/teenager.They are an intregral part of autistic life,as are comorbid medical problems.

Do you have a history of pneumonia? Both I,and my bipolar sister,do.She has autoimmune asthma,and I had autoimmune interstitial lung disease for years.
Have you looked into tests for systemic lupus ?

B"H

I am not sure that you all want me on this thread.  I am diagnosed as Asperger.  However, I do not feel so "highly functioning."  I do not have academic learning problems.  However, some of what I experience fits me here.  I cannot seem to make a "go of it."  That is the best way to put it.  It is as if I cannot start the engines or something.  Planning and organization are extremely difficult for me.  I also have a way of stepping in the "poop" socially, and smearing it, as some of you might catch the irony.  

I do not have a low IQ.  However, sometimes I have difficulty getting my *** out of a paper bag.  Sorry to put it that way, but it is true.  Thus, I question the whole HF Asperger versus LFA dichotomy.  I am just not sure it fits me entirely.  I have also been the victim of a coordinated assault on the part of certain NT's in my place of work that would make me sound as crazy as 8Magus8 may have sounded to many of his detractors, if I were to really tell the story.  8Magus8 was horrible abused for telling some profound truths, as well as some things that I thought were extreme.

However, back to the point, my answer to the negative around me is to meditate upon the Positive.  I believe in accentuating the positive.  Where am I?  Where am I going?  How am I going to make a difference?  I may or may not be highly functioning; or, as I like to say, I may be MIDDLE functioning.  At the same time, I want to make a difference.  If I can, it means more to me than being "highly functioning."   It is doing Right that makes me the man I want to be, not being capable of doing something right off the bat.

All the best,

Thank you to the lady from Mars.  I hear it's a little cold there on Mars, and lacking oxygen, but I would sure love to visit! Yes, I appreciate the welcome.  Again, I believe that there are many ways of being challenged.  And, I wish the absolute best of luck working through it to everyone who has posted.  Thanks.

Well said, I have been that way when I was in school, and I still am.  School to interact with people and home to follow my interests.


I am more of the school to follow my interests, plus a bit of studying, and home to follow my interests, plus some time with my family. I still get pretty good grades, though. weird.