I definitely agree with this.

On a related note, I think of myself as more of an AS/ADHD hybrid, although my ADHD is predominantly inattentive.

Oddly enough, classic ADHD meds like amphetamines overwhelm my senses, make me paranoid, euphoric, and hyper at low doses.  The effect I got from Ritalin was an absolute nightmare--the paranoia was extreme and would last for up to 5 hours.

Absolutely! There are such fascinating little details all around, there's really not enough time to investigate them all. I have always been baffled when people say that they are "bored". Of course, I think reading the cereal box for the hundredth time is still interesting, so...

I'm an AS/ADHD hybrid, too. My med experience was very different, though. I take Adderal 30mg 4x/d, and I get the classical ADHD paraxoxical effect with it - it calms me down. I was never physically hyperactive, though, just hyperactive in thought. The meds do not address the inattention, however - still as distractible as ever, just at a little slower pace.

This is another thing I wouldn't want to be "cured" of. If the "cure" is a sentence to be forever bored and to find most things uninteresting, why would I want that?

outsidelookingin - why did you want to medicate the "hyperatcuve thought" if it doesn't stop the inattention? Is there a benefit to you, as a school aged person, as an adult? What part of you calms down if you were not physcially hyperactive?  Does it (adderol) do something positive? calms senses, stop anxiety? (sorry if this is too personal, don't feel obliged to answer)

I'm an AS/ADHD hybrid, too. My med experience was very different, though. I take Adderal 30mg 4x/d, and I get the classical ADHD paraxoxical effect with it - it calms me down. I was never physically hyperactive, though, just hyperactive in thought. The meds do not address the inattention, however - still as distractible as ever, just at a little slower pace.

This is another thing I wouldn't want to be "cured" of. If the "cure" is a sentence to be forever bored and to find most things uninteresting, why would I want that?

I don't quite understand you guys... I find a lot of things boring.  However I can entertain myself in my own head a lot, so I can see where you get the "ADHD kids entertain themselves better than NTs" etc... but some things are so boring and uninteresting to me, I cannot retain basic information about such topics.  Hence, the extreme difficulty I had in school... if I felt a topic was boring, I wouldn't learn anything.

Perhaps it is that the things which interest me, interest me MUCH more than the average person.  But the effect must be similar for things that bore me.  I do notice that I am drawn to examine as much visual stimuli in the environment as I can, I am always turning my head everywhere I go and "notice" more.

Question for outsidelookingin: why do you suppose that some people with inattentive ADHD (like me) don't get the paradoxical calming effect?  Could it perhaps be related to some physiological reason; perhaps an inherited sensitivity to the stimulant class of drugs, something like that?

Because my sensitivity to stimulants is unusual:  I get euphoric from average doses of caffeine.  Even just 10mg of Ritalin/Dexedrine is overpowering and not very calming at all, in fact it became dangerous for my health eventually.  But that's another story.

Stimulants usually excite my senses and increase anxiety.

I am confused.

Is hyperfocussing a common Aspie trait? You are the first I see mentioning it and I find this quite peculiar since I do it almost always whenever I have to do something I suck at or whenever I want to perform better than usual. And yeah, it sometimes takes a lot of preparation and can easily be messed up by disturbances.

In a word:  Yes.

Cool

Restore this soul from Purgatory!

RESURRECTION!*

Well, had discussion with parent, am now pretty sure the AS diagnosis is accurate, as was the person who diagnosed me (apparently not the same person as the AD-NOS.)  So the thread title should now read 'Stupid Diagnosis' but it's ok as it is because the Anxiety Disorder thing is stupid enough to count as two.


*This is the incantation for Resurrection from Tales of Symphonia.  Be glad, the original text was 'C-C-CARDOPULMONARY RESUSCITABUMP' because I thought it wasn't quite dead yet.

(**Edited to fix tags, no shame-dying necessary - Zakkie**)

This post was last modified: 05-22-2008 06:02 AM by EvilZakkie.

Ack, what?  I failed to get the tags right?  I might die of shame.

Why didn't it stick the unfinished one at the end of the post, I'd like to know.  That would have corrected the error.

Just a few weeks ago you reached the conclusion that you "don't think" you have Asperger's.  What made you change your mind, apart from whatever discussion you had with your parents?

Well, I kind of recognized that a bunch of things I never considered unusual are aspie traits.  Like, I can communicate just fine about things and issues and such, but not so well about personal stuff.  Also, I really really don't care what other people think of me, which is kind of an empathy/theory of mind thing; I never think about what others are thinking.  I think I just don't notice that I don't catch social cues; I can't figure out what others are thinking but I mostly don't care much either, so it cancels out a bit.

Also I realized that 'well the people who I hang out with are weirder than I am' is a terrible argument.'  And even if they are poorer at communicating they mostly have much more social drive than me.  And sentence fragments and repetitive structure are extremely cool.

For example, that was really hard to write.  A short essay on the impact of the French Revolution would probably have been easier.  Much easier, actually, I could just dig up my last one.

I find I can write fairly well about myself--introspection comes easy.  About other people and trying to show empathy and concern for them, a lot harder.  It just "doesn't feel right."  I don't often know where to begin.  I have a lot of trouble seeing things from another person's perspective, basically.

About what others think:  I can't figure out what people are thinking, either, but I do care what they think about *me.*  Because I don't want to embarrass myself and say the wrong thing, or be seen as an idiot.  If I'm not careful, I can say weird or stupid things, and I don't want to give that impression to people.  So I overthink things and analyze everything so I'm able to say the "proper" thing in social interactions, and this causes a lot of anxiety.  It can be excruciating, the amount of "extra" thinking I have to do to stay on course.

But trust me, if I didn't do the "heavy analysis" in social interaction, I wouldn't have an autopilot to rely on and my "mask" would disappear.  You can see the anxiety that comes from this.

None of those rule out Asperger Syndrome.
Making eye contact, rudimentary social understanding, etc indicate better social skills than the stereotype of Asperger Syndrome, but if you still have social impairment you'd just be mild AS.
I've found (from personal experience) that it's hard to self-assess social skills. Have you tried filling out an online test with someone else who knows you well? You might find you've been underestimating how autistic you are.
On the other hand, autistic traits are common in ADHD. In addition to inattentiveness, hyperfocusing on an area of interest can be seen in ADHD. The big difference is that social problems for ADHDers are caused by inattentiveness or impulsiveness, not lack of understanding.
If you're not AS, you are probably gifted/ADHD, as someone else suggested.

You're right, I've come to realize I haven't a hope of self-assessing this.  I'm pretty sure of the diagnosis now, though.

Anxiety disorder is still a load of crap.