Do you have Asperger syndrome?

[Insulin]

I know it's many aspies here, so I wanted to start a poll.

I'm sorry if a poll like this have been posted before.

[Cate Perfect]

Moving this to the Census Forum.

And I have a few symptoms, but I've not been officially diagnosed.

Cate

[Shivers]

(Seconds Cate) Ditto.

[Lors]

OK, as much as I don't like asking questions (I do have a problem with showing I don't know something, even when there's no reason for me to know it, but that's besides the point), I'm sure I'm not the only one who doesn't know what Asperger syndrome is. Although I have seen the term 'aspies' a few time here.

Since I've never heard of it the answer is probably no, but I'm still interested.

[gypsylady]

Here are some links to other discussions about Aspies I stole from a discussion on one of the boards:

http://asexuality.org/discussion/viewtopic...light=aspergers

http://asexuality.org/discussion/viewtopic...light=aspergers

http://asexuality.org/discussion/viewtopic...light=aspergers

http://asexuality.org/discussion/viewtopic...light=aspergers

http://asexuality.org/discussion/viewtopic...light=aspergers

You could also google it.

[VivreEstEsperer]

ditto cate: a few symptoms.

i love that this is such an incredibly popular topic. :)

[gypsylady]

I also have a few symptoms, but have so far had a problem considering that this syndrome may have something in common with me. I don't really know, and I don't want to claim it if it isn't so. I reserve judgement for now.

[Orbit]

I have never heard of this before! I read a book a couple of autobiographys by a high functioning autistic woman though, and felt like I could sort of relate to the author on many levels. But I'm not that severe.

And even this, I don't fully qualify. Though, I too have a few symptoms, more so when I was younger. I have learned/am learning to over come many that I considered 'problems'.

For instance, someone told me when I was in college that I never looked people in the eyes and that made people uncomfortable. Now I force myself to do it, even if it feels extremely uncomfortable to me.

I still don't understand body language cues very much. Usually it isn't until after a situation that I think about what someone wasn't saying but was trying to communicate. Though, then it's too late to respond appropriately. :(

Others of these symptoms I don't think are problems - like super sensitivity to lights, sounds, smell, personal space etc. and a love for words..

I notice a lot of these symptoms in my older son as well - but he's not as severe as the 'syndrom' sounds.

hawke

[Lors]

Thanks gypsylady. I about google but it was late and I don't always trust it to come up with what I want to know straight away.

I looked up a couple of the links in your links.

http://www.isn.net/~jypsy/whataspe.htm

I found this one quite good if anyone else needs to look it up. It gives lots of different ways of explaining it.

At first I thought that although I could see myself in some of it, it was a bit weak for me to call them symptoms since I'm shy and so I'm bound to have social difficulties.

The really long one at end is the one that's pushing me to choose "I have a few symptoms" since I identify strongly with a lot of them, and somewhat to all but a few.

However, the chacteristics that I relate to, I've always seen as problems to be overcome, just me, or thought everyone else felt the same.

Hawke, I've also started making myself look people in the eyes. I'm getting better, but most of the time I'm concentrating so much that I don't listen to them well, and when I speak I can't mange more the a few words, anything longer and I have to look past them (sometimes I managing talking to the nose-it's a good cheat, I wonder if they notice).

[VivreEstEsperer]

i can't *think* if i look people in the eyes. my mind goes blank and panic takes over. it feels like it's boring a hole in my soul, like a light saber.

i can look at them if its a really inconsequential thing we're talking about, small talk, and i have some degree of comfort. but anything at all important/serious or if im feeling particularly anxious, nada.

and its kinda annoying because besides the obvious social consequences you do miss out on some of the connection with the other person, you dont feel quite as connected to them, if you're talking to their shoes instead of their face! but it's better than nothing.

Kate

[Jockey]

These could be related because autism is linked to Sensory Integration Disorder, in which most people with its severe form are asexual. I have a severe form. This is kinda dangerous info though, because Sensory Integration Therapy is out there and waiting to get you :P just kidding. It is there, and I've done it, and it's helpful for coping with real life, but hasn't made me sexual. It's more effective when done intensively and when started earlier, but it can't actually do more than teach you to cope with tactile and vestibular and proprioception. with sight and hearing they can make a difference for some people.

[baa*baa*grey*sheep]

I haven't been diagnosed with Asperger's but have been diagnosed with Dypraxia. I've just looked up Aspergers as even tho I've heard of it before I didn't know what it involved. Reading about Asperger's, it seems to have quite a few similar symtoms as Dyspraxia. If people don't know what Dyspraxia is, here is a link:

http://www.dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk/dysp...ltsymptoms.html

Also, here is the link to the Asperger's website I found:

http://www.aspergia.com/whatisas.htm

I think I also have slight ADHD, as I get hyperactive and over-excited about some things. I have also diagnosed myself with slight OCD, which developed in my teen years.

:D

[Nugan]

(Seconds Cate) Ditto.

Ditto your ditto.

[Islander9]

I voted "have some symptoms". In fact, I have enough to enquire over the local ANZ site re that possibility. Anybody else think there may be a continuum between 'normal' and 'diagnosed Aspergers''?

[Nugan]

I'm sure there is a continum.

Pyschological conditions have no concrete barriers. Their symptoms often tend to bleed into each other and into individuals without any pyschological condition whatsoever.

That's why the general rule is that, no matter how unusual an individual is, they do not have a pyschological disorder unless thier mental state is causing harm (emotional or physical) to themselves and/or others.

[Rob Peterson]

I voted "yes" in the poll, even though I haven't been officially diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome by a doctor, since I exhibit all the symptoms I have read about to varying degrees.

I have difficulty looking at people in their eyes, especially my parents and my co-workers. In my annual review at work, my manager wrote that I can come across as aloof due to the way I interact with people. There is one major exception my behavior - I stare at my best friend, the person I'm most comfortable with in the world, in her rather large eyes. She gets disturbed by too much staring, though, since she has a beautiful face and gets frustrated by the amount of people who stare at her wherever she goes. I think she once described my stare as "intense", which I imagine it could be when one doesn't practice looking people in their eyes.

I used to write similarly to how I do now when I was 13 years old - I wasn't as skilled at spelling, but I still paid attention to grammar and punctuation and have always been fond of using the correct words to describe how I think and feel despite the fact that small words are the socially acceptable kind. I find some people get offended when you use large words and think you're just trying to sound more intelligent than them, but I refuse to diminish my vocabulary to sate their insecurities.

I'm extremely sensitive to bright lights and loud noises. I don't like having my blinds open and prefer sitting in dark rooms lit only by the glow of my monitor than in well-lit rooms. I can't stand going to clubs featuring loud music or bars where many people are talking at once. I like telling people that I like the "sweet sound of silence", and don't even listen to music unless I'm driving from one place to another in my car.

While I have taught myself to pick up on non-verbal cues over time, I still have difficulties sometimes reading people's intentions based on their physical behaviors. I'm much better at analyzing what they say and the tone in which they say it than what they do and how they do it.

I feel detached from humanity at times because they can be so emotional and feel so much while I just observe and analyze what's happening instead of feeling it.

I get jumpy, nervous, and tense when someone tries to make physical contact with me before I know who they are. I don't mind giving physical affection to someone I care about, but I am disturbed when someone tries to invade my space by initiating the physical contact. The person I'm physically closest to is my best friend, and I don't mind if she makes physical contact with me at the present time, but I did tense up when she tried to make physical contact with me when we first met.

I like keeping to myself and feel no pressing urge to go out and socialize. It's not that I don't enjoy hanging out with my friends - in fact, I feel most alive when I do - but I don't enjoy regularly leaving my home to socialize. I could go days in complete solitude without having a problem.

I also enjoy mimicking people (especially doing voices) the way Autistic people do. My niece is fully Autistic, and my dad has noticed some similarities in behavior between her and myself. I attribute that to my Asperger's Syndrome. I don't feel the sadness other people do when coming in contact with my niece because I don't see her Autism as a horrible tragedy but rather a different way to experience life.

-Rob

[bard of aven]

bump

[Retasha]

I haven't been officially diagnosed, but I know without a doubt that I have it.

[Opel the Old]

i read about it, i may have sime similarity here and there, but i never visitied a psychologist

[Verin]

I've never being diagnosed but i am aware that i may show what could be some symptoms of asperger's but i'd really rather not say for certain, i don't know enough about it.

[Frigid Pink]

No.

[beadsland]

I just posted on the Musings board asking if anyone was familiar with Baron-Cohen's The Essential Difference, in which he argues that autism spectrum disorders might be a case of "extreme male brain", or more specifically, high systemizing and low empathizing.

My own experience is that I have "some of the symptoms" of Asperger's, as per this poll, but only those symptoms associated with low empathizing. I don't have the high systemizing traits.

Baron-Cohen's model is presented as four quadrants, which would suggest that low systemizing / low empathizing was possible, but he devotes all of three sentences to that possibility in his entire book, essentialy dismissing it as something one wouldn't expect to encounter.

Yet, when I took the Empathizing Quotient and Systemizing Quotient tests at the end of the book (also available online), I came up with low scores in both. That is, I came up in the quadrant just to one side of Baron-Cohen's extreme male brain!

I've started referring to this as "Hypo-Gendered Brain" or "Tangental Asperger's", the later to distinguish between low systemizing and "Borderline Asperger's" -- which sounds more like it would involve a mix of systemizing and empathizing.

I'm wondering if anyone else who would answer "some symptoms" in this poll would score the same on Baron-Cohen's EQ and SQ as I did.

- Beads

[downpour]

...

[Aeriel]

I haven't been officially diagnosed, but I know without a doubt that I have it.

Same here. It was a real problem when I was younger. However I have spent many years now learning to mimic NT behavior; and apart from my agnosia for faces (which I don't seem to be able to correct no matter how hard I try) I am apparently able to pass as normal. I always score on the extreme high end on all those on-line aspie tests.

I don't see much point in spending a lot of bux to get a diagnosis. It's not like anything can be done about it!

I do think that my asexuality is an extension of my aspie social difficulties. However I visit an aspie forum pretty regularly, and most of the posters there are quite sexual.

Other aspies, what say you?

[kat]

I officially have NLD, or Nonverbal Learning Disorder, but it's basically the same thing from a neurological perspective. My doctor expects them to be the same diagnosis in a few years. As a female, I don't like Baron-Cohen's suggestion at all. I know that autism spectrum disorders are much more common in males, but I certainly don't consider myself "male-minded" in any way. I am a very empathetic person; in fact, I often feel other people's pain more than my own. This is not good because it means that I can only be happy if all of my friends are relatively happy, *and* if things are going pretty well for me. I'm working on letting people take care of themselves, but basically, I don't have the problem some aspies have of not understanding others' feelings (when they're clearly expressed, of course). I've always been picky with words; I suppose I've earned my Grammar Nazi title, but people don't understand that if they only say vaguely what they mean, I miss it entirely. So if anyone needs a copyeditor, let me know...

Kat

[Shadow girl]

I've got it. People seem to find it amazing that I have AS ADD/ADHD

and make the honer roll everytime I get my report card (I got straight A's this time). Plus when others see that I'm in special ed and have these problems they automatically knock 100 points off my IQ. For example when I was 15 and in 9th grade (currently in 11th) when we had a senior lounge which was a place only 12th graders could go. I decided to knock on the door and run which I did 3x before I was caught which is very rare for me. Anyway this teacher started fussing at me then out of nowhere this teacher came up and said "She's one of the special need's kids you can't do that she didn't know what she was doing" then that lady said "Alright go on and talk to the wall like a good kid". A very werid position to be in indeed because on one hand I was glad I'd gotten away with it. On the other hand they though I was a retard.

I usally get out of trouble just by making them laugh and laugh so hard they let me go scott free which is a much better not to meation funny way to do it.

Theres a really great site/community like this on www.wrongplanet.net .

A lot of other avenites are on there including myself (still Shadow girl).

Check it out.

[squiggle]

A few symptoms. Like not knowing when the speak in a conversation involving several people. I can be too quiet sometimes. Other times I don't know when to stop talking. Sometimes I can talk about the same subject for too long.

I like categorising information about things -and meticulously planning things

Those behaviours could be regarded as being a bit aspegian I guess.

I have no problems with figures of speech 'cos I've learnt them all

I laugh at literalisms a lot, and appreciate the absurdity of certain things -if taken literally.

I come up with a higher AQ than the average when I've done online tests -but not sufficiently high enough to be diagnosed with Aspergers or PDDNOS

[The MoUsY spell-checker]

I was officially diagnosed when I was 7, but I no longer show any of the symptoms that originally led to the diagnosis.

I've got it. People seem to find it amazing that I have AS ADD/ADHD

and make the honer roll everytime I get my report card (I got straight A's this time). Plus when others see that I'm in special ed and have these problems they automatically knock 100 points off my IQ. For example when I was 15 and in 9th grade (currently in 11th) when we had a senior lounge which was a place only 12th graders could go. I decided to knock on the door and run which I did 3x before I was caught which is very rare for me. Anyway this teacher started fussing at me then out of nowhere this teacher came up and said "She's one of the special need's kids you can't do that she didn't know what she was doing" then that lady said "Alright go on and talk to the wall like a good kid". A very werid position to be in indeed because on one hand I was glad I'd gotten away with it. On the other hand they though I was a retard.

I usally get out of trouble just by making them laugh and laugh so hard they let me go scott free which is a much better not to meation funny way to do it.

At school, I got the "you can't do that to her, she's a special needs kid" treatment too, and I used it to my advantage to flout many of the school rules.

The thing is, since I had good grades too, it confused a lot of my classmates, and it just made them think I'm even weirder than I already am.

[Porygon]

No, but I have OCD. And people have thought that I had it before. :P