I suspect someone at work might be an Aspie if he is so much under control he is like a robot, so well socialized, speaks when spoken to, so obedient, or is an obsessive worker with unusual interests, for example an engineer.
Unless I tell them or they know, nobody suspects that.
I think most people realise that I am not quite 'right' but few people say anything to me directly. Those who do use words like sad, geek, 'you need to get a life', etc., but they tend to have known me for some time. Alot of it seems to come about because people ask me things about myself and then seem confused about what they hear, hence they insult me.
People can tell there's something different. In the "fandom" subculture that I'm involved with, I've overheard the president of one of the Trekkie groups use the word "aspie" when talking to someone several feet away and telling them about her friends. She didn't think I could hear her, but it didn't bother me anyway. I ran the possibility past another friend, a retired special ed teacher, and after thinking for a minute, she said I do have the traits. In the past, I've had my share of "you need to lighten up", "are you ***", and "@$$#0!3".
After spending much online time on AFF and I2, I've been noticing things in people I know... Some co-workers, for instance. There's one guy who drives slow and used to keep his office all dark. Then there's the engineer I usually eat lunch with. He and I might have the same conversation (on one of a handful of topics) we had the day before, and the dark-office guy sometimes gravitates into those conversations. In fandom, there's one guy who I overheard say he's taken the same literature course over and over again, not because he keeps failing it but because he just likes it. Another, a security guard, who's generally quiet and a bit uptight. Then there's the new guy in a literary sci-fi club that I'm in... He and I were talking about TV shows on DVD, and I noticed he does the same hand-fidgeting thing that I do and has a voice that's modulated a bit different than what most people are used to.
No, I wouldn't think people recognize me as Autistic. Just a wee bit off the beaten path. The one's I've discussed it with that have some knowledge of Autism (careworkers, sociologists, teachers...) they can even say that I'm not Autistic; well, not in the way they see Autism, which is from books or from working for 1 specific person.
I've met people who I've instantly pegged as Kin folks though (that's the way I see other Autists--Family).
[quote=GuessWho]
...the closest he gets to being an astronaut is the Buck Rogers uniform.
[quote=GuessWho]
Curious... Am I correct to assume the guy owns a costume similar to the one Gil Gerard wore in the lead role of a certain 70s sci-fi show? [laughs] Even among sci-fi geeks, Buck Rogers isn't all that popular.
My condition was difficult to diagnose, because I'm both high-functioning, and highly intelligent as well. When I was diagnosed (1992), Asperger's wasn't part of the DSM diagnostic criteria yet, and there still wasn't all that much known to the public other than "Rain Man". When I was 5, I was labeled as 'hyperactive', and spent some time in a children's ward at a psych hospital, but in 1965, almost *nothing* was known about autism, and what *was* known back then was more about the severe cases.
-BobB
Nah, I don't buy the idea that being highly intelligent makes someone with AS less likely to be diagnosed. I'm 26 and I'm very lacking in intelligence... and to this day, nobody has ever mentioned the word "Asperger's" or autism to me (not until I told other people first, that is.) These words haven't been mentioned to me even with over 100 sessions with various shrinks.
And I don't buy the idea that the skills needed to do well in academics, Math, or reading (which obviously comprise the "highly intelligent" statement) can "compensate" for most AS-related problems and give you a "skip ahead" past a lower functioning level.
If you want to show otherwise, then please be my guest.
Some people treat me as if I'm lacking in intelligence because I can be a bit slow in picking up on non verbal cues but at the same time, others expect me not to have any impairments in social interactions despite being diagnosed with Asperger's. This is annoying.
Just curious, have *any* of the various shrinks you've seen been specialists in autism and Asperger's? That *could* be the reason they didn't mention it; they simply might not have been familiar with it.
Nope, none of them have been specialists in that field.
I'm at an intermediate point now, not knowing where to go or who to see about my idea that I'm an Aspergian adult. Someone who supported me a while ago--in school--suggested I mention Asperger's to my psychiatrist, but there's no guarantee that he'll just accept my idea on a whim. How would I go about "presenting" such a thing, without seeming like I'm telling him how to do his job (which doctors don't like, apparently.)
If you don't want to derail the thread there is always PM...
Just curious, have *any* of the various shrinks you've seen been specialists in autism and Asperger's? That *could* be the reason they didn't mention it; they simply might not have been familiar with it.
Nope, none of them have been specialists in that field.
I'm at an intermediate point now, not knowing where to go or who to see about my idea that I'm an Aspergian adult. Someone who supported me a while ago--in school--suggested I mention Asperger's to my psychiatrist, but there's no guarantee that he'll just accept my idea on a whim. How would I go about "presenting" such a thing, without seeming like I'm telling him how to do his job (which doctors don't like, apparently.)
If you don't want to derail the thread there is always PM...
Batman55,
Having autism/Asperger's specialists examine you will probably give you a *much* more accurate result.
To mention Asperger's to your psychiatrist, you could tell him something like, "I've been doing some reading about different conditions, and there are a good number of things about me that seem to be traits of Asperger's Syndrome; do you know any specialists who could evaluate me?"
Before I forget, I know you've mentioned that you scored a 99 on an IQ test; was that the WAIS (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale)? If so, you might want to have your psychiatrist give you a test called the Raven test; it's a more accurate assessment for people on the autistic spectrum. In fact, quite a few test subjects who scored low on the WAIS shot *way* up when they took the Raven, so taking it might be worth your while. 
-BobB
Yes, it was the WAIS test, I'm almost certain of it. But I took it when I was 15.
Taking a realist's point of view, getting a higher score on a Raven test would not make me feel much better. It is not a mainstream IQ test, and unfortunately, as we live in a mainstream (NT) world, things are measured the mainstream way. I would not be able to tell myself--and other people--the "lie" that I scored well on an IQ test, when the test I took is not a normal test.
99 is average. I don't understand what is so bad about that... The average seems to be always the most comfortable place to be in society; everything's geared to the average.
99 is not telling a thing. The intelligence profile will thell you much more. And then your average score can seem a lie, because your profile turns out to be anything but average.
Oy, but it should be evident from my posts that my adult mental age is lower than what it should be for someone my age. And what can I do about that one? 
Adult mental age as in: There are a few childish behaviors I do in real life that I would even be embarrassed to post on AFF, a place designed for Aspies! But I still perform these behaviors, and I wonder if it's something I should be concerned about.
And of course the immature overreactivity to innocent posts from people, on this forum, where I bend the topic to myself because I'm "jealous." And so on.
brought the world certain political witticisms, some possibly original, such as
Ellen Degenerate
I'm sure that passes for witty in your social circles. Second grade homophobic ***.
Chris, what is wrong with you?
Give that question some serious thought: what is wrong with you?
My mom just told me yesterday that I often act like I'm flirting with guys. This really surprises me. I knew that in 7th grade, every boy in my classroom flirted with me extensively, because a friend told me so- but until now, I thought that my not-knowing had made them back off, because I didn't respond to them. Apparently not so. My mom says they all thought I was flirting back. I guess it was because I was so nervous- I get bouncy and out-of-control when I'm nervous, and I suppose that could have led to me doing things that could be misinterpreted as flirting.
It's weird. I wonder if that sort of thing happens to many aspies? And if so, doe it cause it to be harder to spot the aspergers?
Interesting. This one actually strikes a chord with me, and it was around the same time/age (I was in 7th or 8th grade.) Yes, when I get nervous I get pretty bouncy and don't know how to act, and that can be misintrepeted by some people.
One time, when I told a male student during my undergrad studies about autism, and I asked him what he sees when he looked at me. His response was, "a person." The way that I look at it, he saw me as any other person, even if I act strange at times.
It's difficult to say whether general NT folks recognize that a person is aspie. The term "Aspie / Asperger's" is unknown to most people and misunderstood by most who do know it superficially.
I remember when I first started reading about asperger's. It was like there was suddenly this "category" that had not existed before. And I realized that there were so many people in my life over the (many, many) years -- people who were... I had never known a word for it. My brother jonathan, my aunt betty. many students -- stan and Jennifer and daniel and and and and...
I remembered a professor back in the mid-1970's who talked to me about his theory -- he called it "social misperception" -- that some people saw social situations the same way a dyslexic sees a block of text -- it didn't make sense, or it made imperfect sense. Or it took more time to figure it out.. Looking back, Dr. Fremont himself was a classic aspie.
I think I have pretty good Aspiedar, but if the term did not exist I'm not sure how well I would understand the phenomenon.