Aspies For Freedom

Not seeking official diagnosis--I’m too old and nothing hangs on it.

When one friend said I seemed “sort of autistic” I was kind of bemused but then, a couple years later, when a coworker told me he thought I probably had Asperger's, I looked it up and there wasn’t a whole lot to find (that was about 3-4 years ago).  But when I checked in recently, wow, there is a LOT out there (God bless the internet)!  Based on what the DSM-IV says, I don’t know that I’d fit the criteria--I’m not especially socially impaired unless you count not driving, not owning a TV and not liking sex as impairment. I’m out there in the world functioning just fine and I have, and have always had, many wonderful friends. But much of what Tony Atwood talks about definitely fits me. Based on tidbits of information my mother has dropped over the years, here are some of my childhood behaviors:
“We thought you were deaf or *** because you’d be in your playpen in the living room and ignore everyone--you were more interested in your blocks.  Babies are supposed to be interested in people.”
“When I visited your kindergarten class you were the only kid who couldn’t skip--it was so embarrassing I taught you how to skip that day.” “Mrs Fields [my kindergarten teacher] always got a kick out of you because you’d make these really elaborate and complex patterns with colored beads.”
“I’d have to tell you, would you please look at people!” “It’s no wonder you never recognized anyone, you just never paid attention!” “I was so mortified when you didn’t know who your uncle was.”
“The biggest problem I had with your brother and a couple of your sisters was teaching them to tell the truth.  You, I had to teach how NOT to tell the truth.”
“You would collect the strangest stuff, like Popsicle sticks you’d find on the street.” “You were always picking through people’s trash looking for treasures” (Actually, I still do that!!!  :lol: )

Anyway--AS for me makes a lot of sense--my handwriting’s awful, I have focused and obsessive interests that change every few years, I miss non-verbal signals right and left--totally clueless most of the time, except that I’ve learned how to pay detailed attention to what people say--most of my friends think I’m a great listener and they trust me with all sorts of intimate information about themselves because they see me as safe and non-judgmental.  When I told a co-worker I thought I had AS, he said: “You’re not crazy, you’re just realllllly realllly weird!” (Go figure!)

I’m so glad this forum exists, and thanks for listening and the help I anticipate that many of you will give me.

I would vote 'suspect I have AS; seeking a formal diagnosis', to explain my own situation.

I'm rather confidently self-diagnosed.  The only practical benefit I can imagine to "official" diagnosis would be if, someday, I should lose my job, it would be nice to have some folks who could help me find something suitable.  Suffice it to say, I'd make a lousy Amway distributor...

I noticed a link to such a group, up in Canada.  That would be a bit of a commute from NYC...

Amway is a company that sells all sorts of products.  The distributors sell Amway products on their own, going to door to door, etc.  It takes a lot of good salesmanship to be at all successful.

Is Amway like Betterware in the UK?

The more I read about all this stuff, the more confusing it all seems. For example, what exactly is empathy? What exactly does "impairment of imagination" mean? (i.e. one of the key requirements for an autistic diagnosis).  In some descriptions of the "triad of impairments' I was reading about yesterday, it seemed like a characteristic such as difficulty with eye contact could be classified under either social interaction impairment or communication impairment.

Being autistic or not....
Are we talking about differences in kind or differences in degree?
Are there any "objective" measures that are applicable cross-culturally?
If one learns compensatory strategies with respect to impairments, is one still autistic?

Help!!!

I think you should continue to post here. IMO, this forum is for individuals, not diagnostic categories.

The URL article you cited struck me as sort of strange...for example the claim that most people with AS also have Tourette's...I know some do, e.g., Uschi, but most? I haven't seen that claim made elsewhere.

Okay thanks
Seems as if there are lots of ways to be neurodifferent, so you get spectra, syndromes, comorbidities (crappy term), etc.  I do find it confusing.

Oh, no she's not mine. I was walking down the road I live on and because I had been given a cellphone with a camera, I decided to take a picture. I tend to do that quite a lot with cats, often spending several minutes taking pictures. Some of the pictures make it onto the PC, but most of them don't. The one I use as an AV was cropped. The orignal can be see here: here  (opens a new window) though it might be slow as it is on a local machine.

My first diagnosis came when the article was published in Time in 2002.  My sister (who was living with my mother at the time) read the article, put the magazine down, and said, "So that's what's been wrong with Jon all this time!"

Since then, a number of psychologists and social-services workers who specialize in working with autistics have agreed with the diagnosis.  (I encountered them while getting help for my daughter, who is more of a "standard" autistic - mostly preverbal at age 4, no sign of potty training, etc.)  However, I haven't really seen the point in seeking an official diagnosis - it doesn't seem to rise to the level of a disability as defined in the Americans with Disabilities Act, and definitely wouldn't entitle me to disability payments from Social Security (since I can get jobs - holding them is the tricky bit!).  :?  My wife is very understanding, thank Deity, and has spent the past eight years helping me learn to simulate standard human responses to others (when we met, she just knew I was different - thankfully, she *likes* different, and smart...).

For the "typical" (are there such?) Aspergian, the only difference between a self-diagnosis and a "professional" diagnosis is a few hundred bucks out of someone's pocket.

tenaciouscj,
AS isn't "mild Autism".
Some people; with AS might be able to cope independantly without support,some people with AS might have average/above average intelligence and have a job working amongst people well,some people with AS don't have sensory or working memory difficulties,some people with AS might be better at learning coping mechanisms,some people with AS are better at knowing what they're feeling,some people with AS might not feel disabled.
But,that isn't what it is like for everyone with AS,AS is like the Autism Spectrum in that everyone is affected differently,it is severe/disabling to some and mild/highest functioning to others,there is not one set severity to AS as we are all wired differently.