Aspies For Freedom

Hello. I have been informed by friends and others that I exhibit certain behaviours that are unusual and merit further examination. These behaviours include:
1.Persistent insomnia/difficulty sleeping. I find it enormously difficult to stop thinking.
2.Near complete inability to read body language or signals.
3.Inappropriate jokes or comments that tend to offend, even though I do not presuppose that they are offensive.
4.Inability to interact sufficiently (verbally or otherwise) with the vast majority of people.
5.Advanced interests in specific and unusual areas, particularly academic.
6.Extreme sensitivity to unexpected noises, to the extent that I sometimes feel pain.
7.Dramatic alterations in behaviour when intoxicated.

In addition I tend to score anywhere between 135 and 150 on IQ tests. My mathematical abilities, though above average, are relatively underdeveloped. I am certain that I am not autistic, as I find it more easy to interact with people than an autistic person might.

I know very little about my early childhood. I have been told that I spent a lot of time drawing, reading, writing and playing with bricks. I isolated myself to quite an extent. I was able to talk before I was able to walk. I spoke a lot, but did not really 'communicate'; that is to say that I told people things rather than communicating with them. I was obsessed by zoology and enjoyed collecting animals and had a love for all forms of taxonomy. It was not until late adolescence and University that I began to make many friends and interact with relative ease. This said, I sometimes identify as being something of a misanthrope and find the vast majority of people to be abhorrent or dull. I am aware that this arrogant but I have been told these feelings often correspond to an ASD. In addition, a close relative of mine has ADD etc.  

I was directed to http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php.  Here are my results:



Do you think that I should visit a psychiatrist and see if I can receive some sort of diagnosis?

Well, provided this isn't an April Fools Day posting, you sure seem to meet the criteria as I see it. Of course, I am not a psychologist.

Still, in anticipation of what I suspect will be your eventual conclusion, I'd like to be the first to welcome you to the wonderful world of Aspergers Syndrome.

And AFF, of course :-)

Many aspies are unaware that they are aspies, though they may relate early difficult experiences, or perhaps have crisis' in adulthood that lead them to seek treatment for some illusive ailment. Asperger's is often a later diagnosis when no more serious "mental illness" issue is found.

For others there was a delayed pattern in development during childhood. The actress Daryl Hannah had such a problem, and thus, was not allowed to join the Kennedy clan. You see, she is one of us.

I don't mean to cross examine and I will be easy on you. I'm just curious, that's all.

That is absolutely fine. I am not entirely sure, simply exploring possibilities.

It all depends. Do you classify severe social or psychological impairment as being related to AS? It may be possible that it is something else. I cannot report any 'delayed patterns in development', but I can say that my mind has always functioned rather strangely. Feel free to question me.

I agree that labels can be problematic. I understand that there is a spectrum. Varying degrees etc. I have to concede that I do not think that a diagnosis would change my life. The purpose of my endeavour? To know the self. A more sophisticated and complex understanding. This is not idle musing but rather a genuine attempt to reconcile my constituent parts.

As I see it, there are two ways the social/psychological stuff could go, Wondering.  There certainly ARE social problems that come with the Aspie package deal.  But also, making a fool of yourself in public repeatedly as a kid (you mightn't have, but i sure did!) can lead to being overly self-conscious and a degree of self-guessing and social paranoia as you try to not do it again.  The social problems can become MORE than just what comes with Aspergers.  Also the psychological stuff - so many of us suffer from depression, low self-esteem, identity issues, and some of that might come from Aspergers itself, but a degree of it comes from how Aspergers affects our lives.  I'm not depressed because I'm autistic, I'm depressed because I've got no Real Life friends, which in turn is because I'm painfully shy, which in turn is because of the social stuff that goes with Aspergers.

I understand. It's holistic. I have suffered from intermittent yet extreme depression for as long as I can remember. Perhaps I have made an error. Perhaps not. My posts are a part of a greater process. Would it help if I provided more details?

Provided the rest of your post is accurate, you're going to have to rethink that.

Same exact deal here...  well said.

I only started reading about ASDs when it was suggested that my youngest might be on the spectrum. Reading all the available literature was like a light being turned on. I had all the signs myself - in fact, I thought the diagnosis fitted me rather better! And it explained why I didn't find anything different about my children (or, indeed, other autistic kids I had met over the years). When one of our sons was diagnosed, the diagnosing team said that I (and my husband) could get the diagnosis too, as we were pretty obviously Aspie, but that it wasn't necessary given that we don't need any accommodations.

Some of the more damaging myths about autism are to do with friendship; e.g. that we none of us have friends, that we are incapable of having friends and that we don't want friends, etc..

Simply untrue. If we are raised in the right environment and meet the right people we can be as popular as we want to be.

Surround us by mean bullies and of course we have no friends. Same as anyone, really.

I have had close friends, and acquaintances aplenty. That doesn't mean that we all think alike. Many of my friends have baffled me at times, as I have them, no doubt!

Some of my friends I have recognised as being rather on the spectrum themselves.

Until recently, 'high functioning' autists (including those who would now be diagnosed as having Asperger's) given the right environment were merely regarded as eccentric.

So, I come from a family of eccentrics. We all think that the rest of the world is odd!

Welcome to the world of ASDs; where those of us who inhabit it fail to recognise the descriptions of us handed down by observers without ASDs!

Well, ASDs come under the heading of 'Pervasive Developmental Disorders' or PDDs for short, i.e. conditions where people who have them do not develop in neurotypical ways.

So, the diagnosis of Asperger's versus Autism depends largely on what you were like as a child. Basically, whether or not your acquisition of language was advanced or delayed.

Because we continue to develop throughout our lives, it becomes harder and harder to tell the difference as we age.

We still view the world in a different way to the NTs, but no longer seem quite as 'odd' to them as we learn intellectually to behave in ways they learn instinctively.

Whether or not you get a diagnosis will depend at least as much on the memories of family members of your childhood as it does on current behaviour; possibly more so.

There is a way around it. Find an autism society that does adult diagnoses. They will be much more 'tuned in' to the way we present ourselves, and may well be able to diagnose you on that alone.

That is what happened to my hubby and me when we took one of our boys for a diagnosis. Once we added our recollections of our own childhoods that was pretty much a clincher.

When I didn't think it at all odd that my children were all fluent talkers by the age of two; that they were all fluent readers by the age of three; that they noticed everything around them yet had trouble fitting in at school; it was because I had been all those, and so had their father; and their grandparents.

We are just different thinkers. Only in the last century was it thought that the majority style of thinking wasn't just common but somehow correct; thereby making uncommon thought processes incorrect - and therefore a disorder.

If you feel that the description of Asperger's Syndrome describes you at any stage of your life, then that will feel like a revelation; an explanation of why you didn't always 'get' what the other people around you 'got' without thinking.

It isn't necessary to go for formal diagnosis unless you think that it will help you in some way; AFF is just as happy to accept those of us with informal/self-diagnosis.

Role playing, or mimicking the environment around oneself is a characteristic personal style is characteristic of aspergers. Having very many friends fortunately may place you outside of aspergers.

Aspergers really isn't that much "fun", anyhow, since it overlaps with other conditions.

All in all, it's really hard to imagine how others see you since you can never really step into their shoes.

What I'm trying to say, is that they may think you're just fine, while you feel somewhat reticent due to depression symptoms.

What's wrong with seeking out other neurodiverse people?!

Pardon me, but there are some of us who don't have the college education, the expensive car, or the strong intellect needed to "compensate" for AS deficits.  Trying to find an NT partner with all these difficulties is unrealistic.