Aspies For Freedom

Stats:

Gender: Female
Age: 21

Recently I was diagnosed with ADHD Combination type, yet the more research I do the more question I have. Although I show-case enough manifestation for this diagnosis I feel that there are pieces missing. I don't want to jump into anything, but AS or another type of high-functioning autism might be the real source. I'll try to put everything in chronological order.

1. I was born pre-mature, with no known complications except for my mother going into a comma.
2. When I was between 2 weeks to 2 months old I had an unexplained fever. It was severe enough to have a lumbar procedure performed. My concern with this is that extreme fever can lead to loss of oxygen to the brain; a cause of autism.
3. My mother always told me how impressed she was by the reaction I had to my environment as a baby. I am sure that qualifies as sensory sensitivity.
4. I learned to walk and talk before I was one.
5. I have always been obsessed with my appearance. Even as a toddler I had to make sure that my socks matched my outfits. Despite the fact that most autistic individuals are careless in this aspect, I find my preoccupation to fit in with what's described as OCD tendencies.
6. I thought myself how to read and write when I was four.
7. Even as a small girl I was influenced visually.
8. Problems in elementary school; including my teacher pointing out that I was not well socialized and behaved. One close friend, many acquintances.
9. Constantly fantasized, day-dreamed, and refused to maintain a schedule or bother with routine pass times, i.e. homework.
10. Only bothered with things that interest me and ignore everything else to a point that it is neurotic.
11. As I got older I became aware of how certain social interactions made me feel uncomfortable. Especially strangers. I could not get close or maintain small talk with people that did not interest me.
12. Being touched without welcoming the act made me extremely frustrated.
13. Although initially liked by everyone, unable to maintain friendships due to poor or lack of interaction or follow-through.
14. Fights or arguments as a result of verbal misundertanding.
15. Conscious of being different, always felt misjudged.
16. Sensitive to lights (they give me migraines), sounds (always aware of ticking clocks even if they are in another room). Hate tags, socks, jewelery. Either hyposensitive or hypersensitive to any of this things. Unable to regulate body heat, either too hot or too cold. Hard to find a perfect medium. Given up sports due to this. CLUMSY!!! Can't concentrate at all if bothered by anything in my environment.
17. Detail oriented, often miss the big picture unless pointed out to me.



More to come soon! I lost interest.

Let me know if anything I have listed so far sticks out to you.

number 1: there a trend in AS and Autism is premie(i am one)
16

15 and 17 too.

I am a little puzzled by the title of this thread. Your list is pretty complete and in a chronological order. You appear not to be extremely lost to me. And why the smiling smiley?

Two more hints on your original question:

21. you make a list in a chronological order of your traits
22. you posted the list on the AFF forum

*chuckles*

Ok, too much time spent on formating and removing typos. Sorry for jumbling your enumeration.

I somewhat agree with Cryowolf. I don't mean to be rude but I read a lot of wikipedia and to me that basically looks like you just wrote down in a list everything on there, because surely you can't have all of those, described in the exact same manor as wikipedia. I read the wikipedia thing and that's how I asked my doctor about it, but I didn't have 17 things  right off it.

I swear guys/gals, go to wikipedia, read the entry and its the exact same, almost as if its a summary.

...so.. this caused my puzzledness?

Maybe. It was in chronological order. There are people out there who want to have illnesses, diseases, disorders, anything wrong with them to get disability or whatever. Its not like we can do anything because we're not qualified practitioners, but by saying "Oh yeah this is that...." when they see someone who is qualified they could just use that information.

Lexydidit writes : "what I need is a source".

Not really. While a label can sometimes be helpful (relative to understanding), in end it is just a label. We are people, individuals, each unique even within the label offered.  You are who you are, not a label applied to you. In actuality I think the label AS is probably more useful to me as an NT than the person who is AS.  If someone tells me, or I recognize them as AS I know there are certain things, accommodations  I can provide, things I can do,  to make it easier for them to interact with me. I also don't take offense to certain behaviors I might with another  NT because I know they come from a different source. I can't speak for AS, but my perception is the AS label is helpful relative to confirming what they already know, that they are different in the way they approach and process the world,  and in helping them to find each other on sites like this when relative to their daily living they are otherwise often alone and lost amid a huge crowd of NT's. What I am saying here, and probably not via the best articulation, is the formal diagnosis doesn't really matter.  Many here are undiagnosed AS... this is simply where they feel most comfortable, the group or label that best suits their needs.  If it works, use it.  If not, don't.

You appear to already have a good insight into who you are, your strengths and weaknesses, what you do that is helpful to your situation, and what you do that is not.  Start there. It is where all of us start NT and AS alike. Many if not most Autists and AS on spectrum will tell you it is who they are not something they have.  Helpful adaptations, accommodation and coping mechanisms can come from many places including here.

Relative to us individually, I will often post a question from something Hrick experiences. Others then respond with similar and/or different experiences which posts often include commentary on how they deal with it. This has proved very helpful to us, sometimes providing an adaptation or accommodation we had not thought to try   The list you offer is long.  You might have more luck getting the response you are looking for if you separate out some of the things you are wondering about ..... or you may have already gotten the response you have been looking for based on Kylo4's  suggestion that your list reads like a laundry direct from wikipedia for AS.

Finally, I want to comment on one item from your list:

"As I got older I learned how to fake being social. I am now able to easily manipulate people and read them. "

I dislike the word "manipulate" because to me it implies intentionally taking advantage of someone. Sorry, but that is simply not an AS trait per se. Actually I think Aspies are far less prone to it than NT's, but in general it is simply a human trait.

If you meant by that statement that you successfully tell people what they want to hear and in that manner you appear to "fit" in where you really don't feel you "fit" in ,then I'd suggest the only person you are really manipulating there is yourself, the you you present.  I would also note that while many AS may not view themselves as social, I have found them to be immensely social, witty etc.  Hrick says it is difficult to interact and converse absent commonality.  I think this is what may lead to the false impression that Aspies are not social. It is difficult to be social amid a group of NT's whose commonality is strained. Kind of like plunking a Born Again Christian into the middle of a Coven of Satanists.  It is the groupness that defines the norm and the AS just happens to be in the minority. Here NT are in the minority.  I get laughed at a lot.... often for doing exactly what I've done here, which is seen as talking too much.  

I hope the comments are of some help anyway.  Best of Luck to you Mom of Hrick

Sorry, Lexydidit. I'm agreeing with several others here.

The big majority of what you describe is very typical gifted/ADHD (I'm both -- I  know how it works.) You have some Aspie traits (again, so do I) but why go shopping for the Diagnosis Du Jour when your original ADHD dx covers most of the bases?

I also agree with Kylo4 that there's a tone of "I want to have Asperger's" to your message.

But is it really worth faking interactions all or most of the time? I did that for years and ended up despising myself.

Ummm... Gee, I don't know... maybe because you have ADHD?  

These seem unaspie: 4 (talking is delayed in HFA and would have at least been odd with AS); 8 (autistics are least likely to have a "best friend" when they are in elementary school..i don't know if that's what you meant by "close friend...also they're least likely to have a large group of friends/acquaintances); 9 (religiously adhering to routines is among the more common aspie traits); 13 (aspies are unlikely to initiate contact or gain approval when others initiate the contact because of social awkwardness, etc.)

UH, how can I put this that doesn't sound like I'm talking to a stupid, self-involved bitch.

If you are too shallow, confused, dumb, infantile and neurotic to understand the deep truth in what tenaciouscj said, and if you are too much of a bitch to respond without calling her dense (which believe me, she is NOT) then perhaps you should take your inane, narcissistic self to another site where your rudeness and your boring self-obsessions are more welcome.