Comparing someone with Asperger's to a gamer?

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My friend is a total gaming freak, and very NT would disprove your brother. He does literally NOTHING but play videogames all day, but my god, he can organize events and coordinate large raiding groups through voice chat like nobodies business. I'm actually very envious of his skills of communicating, I sometimes tell him watching him go at it is like seeing a conductor of a orchestra do his thing, just pure magic.

I think his ability to communicate actually makes him a bigger gamer because he's deriving a lot more enjoyment from interacting with people at a much greater depth than I would be capable of... he typically climbs guild ranks in whatever mmo he's playing.

I think everyone, AS, NT, or anything else, is good at some things, and not very good (or bad) at others. Myself I can't do this kind of things like your friend, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if some Aspies could do it just as well.

im both.

I am the same way; this why I exclusively play RPGs or adventure games; anything that doesn't require a lot of tactics or reflexes.

A lot of people with ASDs have intellectual and learning disabilities. So what do you mean by intelligence?


I like strategy games, but I rarely play video games as I think they're a waste of time and I rather spend my time doing something that I believe is valuable i.e. learning about something or learning to do something.



If you're self-diagnosing just because you share some superficial, and probably misapprehended traits, then I would say your brother is right.

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I don't even do computer games and refuse to. I have played DOS games on my computer from my childhood after uploading D fend Reloaded and DOS Box. But that was different than playing the games we have now.

I mostly do computer, writing and internet. I don't play video games as often like I used to. It's just a side thing I do, same as for watching TV.

Actually, video games help improve social ability.

http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/ ... games.aspx

I'm not self diagnosing myself through gamer traits, I'm self diagnosing myself through every single web search and online test on Aspergers. My example was just an example, and only one of the many traits I have. I'm just saying I think I have Aspergers, but I am also a gamer.

It's the other way around for me, I'm too fast, if that makes sense. Sheer speed ended up becoming my main defining trait when it comes to most any game, fighting games being the ones I'm best at. I think though that there's also a bit of the autistic stuffs going on with this though; even outside of gaming, if things are moving too slow.... or what I call "slow" anyway.... well, stuff tends to go badly. I have zero patience as a result. Affects gaming, too. I cannot focus very well when things are moving slowly, so some types of games I end up not being very good at. Slower-paced FPS games played online, for instance... my usual instinct is to rush forward and go berserk, which is typically my answer to everything, but that doesnt work in a precision game of that type. I end up getting sniped alot and cannot snipe worth a crap myself, as that requires patience and not moving much.

I attribute some of this to the autistic stuff, particularly my inability to break out of this trend and control the side effects of the speed in general. Lack of patience can screw me up (particularly back when I used to have jobs and such) and there's nothing I can really do about it. It's irritating.

I've forgotten where I was going with this.


As for the main topic here, hmm, while alot of gamers seem to have a few comparable traits to an autistic condition, I find that most will be unlike that in most other ways. Often more outgoing and talkative, and they seem to have an easy time communicating with others in-game (whereas I really cant).

So I can see SOME comparison, but... not all that much in an overall sense.

I'm not referring to the gamer type. I'm saying your brother may be right that you are taking superficially similar personality traits and calling it autism. If you're not impaired by the condition and no one noticed anything to be concerned about, then it's very likely you don't have autism. Even if you are impaired there are other mental health issues that a lot of people mistakenly assume are due to autism, and shouldn't be ruled out.

Online tests are flawed and subject to cognitive bias. Also many autism researchers believe they aren't objective or useful in diagnosing autism. The best known one by Simon Baron-Cohen has come under scrutiny by other autism researchers who believe it's not a useful/accurate test in diagnosing autism.



And this I think is very important:


Having a geeky personality does not equal to autism.

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It does not help that my parents don't really think of anything as a disorder, just a different way of thinking, so they wouldn't be concerned by pretty much anything they saw, and wouldn't pay attention to it. Though I know that most of my classmates in elementary school thought I was ret*d.
The only reason Its not as impairing as it could be, to me, is because I don't care about or participate in the situations in which the symptoms would most likely cause problems. Also, at my age, it's not very likely that teachers are going to report to my parents of any strange behavior.
And another, just because online tests may be mostly wrong or unreliable, does not mean they are wrong altogether, and I'm using more resources than just online tests.

That's really interesting. Other things in my life, I actually do go about very quickly simply because of lack of patience. Details are always missed though, and I usually end up with a mess (or forgetting something important).

Your second point is very true. Most gamers I know are quiet until you talk about games, then they are the life of the party. Or to put is simply: everyone's different, AS or not.

Autism, even on the mild end, would warrant concern to any parents. Even those who have a distaste for labelling.

I don't buy that you could go through life not experiencing any big problems directly related to the symptoms. So your traits are subclinical?

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Don't worry about it Dragon, for some reason Acedia regularly tells people that they probably don't have Aspergers/Autism, and that they likely have some other condition with symptoms similar to Aspergers/Autism (I don't know why he does this, but I will assume that his intentions are good and that he feels doing this helps people somehow). Granted it is a possibility tho, so worth looking into that as well. But what I do know, is that every single person who got a diagnosis did so because either their parents noticed something was different about them when they were children, OR because they noticed that something was different about them themselves when they got a little older (teenagers or adults), and were finally able to either ask their parents to see a therapist, or able get a therapist themselves if they were adults.

For some reason he assumes that your brother is right and that you are wrong, eventho he doesn't know either of you, and eventho your brother is obviously not the one who lives in your head and body. But you certainly know yourself much better than anyone else. Also note that family members in denial is a very common occurence, even for people who have been diagnosed, unless the impairments or disabilities are very obvious and/or physical (and even then, unless it is severe autism, family members are still often in denial). Unless there is obvious impairments or disabilities, many parents (not all of course) will simply assume that their child has a "quirky" personality, that they are simply a bit "different", and that there is nothing to worry about. That's why there is so many people who were adults when they finally got a diagnosis.

I can tell you from experience that despite obvious physical impairments, and other impairments that were obvious to me (but not to my husband), my husband still didn't believe that his son had Aspergers. He also didn't believe me when I tried to explain to him that his son was taking all his "teasing" and "jokes" litterally, as if he actually meant them, and that he needed to make it clear that he was just teasing him and/or joking. He also thought it was just "him", his personality, when he didn't talk to anyone until the age or 3 (or so) but he could hear him talk to himself in his bedroom all the time. He also pretty much ignored the fact that he couldn't run normally, nor could tie knots, nor could handle a hammer (and some other tools) correctly eventho he showed him how to many times, etc etc. He was in total denial, he always idealised his son, and to him I guess it was just not possible that his son could have Aspergers.

Also no one can diagnose you online.

Last edited by Shadi2 on 22 Jun 2014, 5:52 pm, edited 3 times in total.

I don't. I rarely answer most of these self-diagnosis threads. But I'm adding these opinions because I see time and time again people wrongly self-diagnosing and misapprehending criteria.

Unfortunately autism is still in limbo in being worked out and understood. But the diagnosis is for those who differ significantly and need help. And yes I'm presuming, but my presumptions are unsurprisingly right. How did I know her parents never had any concerns? I can predict these threads because they're so common. Not just here but on numerous forums about ASD across the net.

It's always the same questions.



And for some reason people on here take the side of the poster over the relatives, like their opinions are always wrong or irrelevant. I'm diagnosed because of how others viewed me and the problems I have, not because I decided I was autistic.



Subjective bias means we can easily make wrong self-diagnoses or misunderstand that our problems are more common than we think. One cognitive bias is to assume bad things are more likely to happen to others than yourself. Believing your voice is completely reliable is fallacious. I don't notice things about myself until they are pointed out by others. It's actually how I become aware of my difficulties, from other people's input. And it's input I sorely need, so I can improve and get help. So I'm not against the input of others because I don't like what they're saying, like you and others who routinely defend self-diagnosis like it's inviolable.

As I find that outside input very helpful in understanding my difficulties. Why do you think that is?



Provide stats for that. Most parents seem to be very aware of their children's differences and difficulties. And in exceptional cases, like those of abusive parents, I doubt many parents would deny their children are autistic when they clearly are. But I would be interested if there is research that shows what you're saying.



Absolutely, but this thread is about opinions obviously, not diagnoses.

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How would you know if they are wrongly self-diagnosing, you don't know them, you assume.



I don't take either side. I do not know the person, I do not know his brother, I do not know all the details that lead the person to believe they might have Aspergers/Autism, and I do not know whether he has Aspergers or not. But you don't either, yet right away you assume that his brother is right, eventho you don't know either of them, and you know very few details about the person.



While many posters are younger and their family members had noticed some traits, there is also many posters here who mentioned that no one ever said anything to them (i.e. never mentioned they might have Aspergers/Autism), and that when they told others they had been diagnosed, the others only then said "we knew there was something different about you". Don't assume that things are the same for everyone, maybe you were completely unaware of your issues and others had to tell you, but others are very aware or their issues and other people never say anything to them about it. Myself I am aware of my issues, and so was my son before his diagnosis, he just didn't know why he was different. I learned about Aspergers after reading someone's blog where the person was talking about her daughter, it was like she was describing my son (this was actually a long blog, where the person was talking about some issues with her daughter, and Aspergers was revealed only many pages later). After that I looked for more information (a whole lot of information!) ... forward about a year here ... and ultimately my son got a diagnosis of Aspergers (I should have mentioned I also discovered a whole lot about myself at the same time, but for me it is enough to know, I don't feel the need to get an official diagnosis for myself at this point).



I can't provide stats, and I didn't look for stats. I can only speak from my own experience, from my own family members (including aunts, uncles, cousins, etc) reactions, and from the experience of many of the posters here who mentioned family members, and sometimes friends, who are in denial, sometimes even after they have been diagnosed, also from the experience of many posters here who have been diagnosed sometimes very late in adulthood, because their parents either had never heard of Aspergers (or Autism in general), or because they assumed they were just "quirky" and it was just "cute".

Also in some cases family members are in denial because of misconceptions about Autism, eventho they might have heard of it. Often they don't know anything about the spectrum, and they assume that since their child doesn't seem to have severe Autism traits and/or disabilities, therefore they are not autistic at all. There is also many parents who don't want to think of their child as "disabled", and to them admitting they are autistic would be admitting they are disabled (these parents don't have bad intentions, nor are bad parents, they simply prefer to see their child as "different" and "quirky" and "cute", and as long as their child can do fine in class they don't see why it would be considered a problem). Myself I prefer to call Autism a "difference", with some traits being disabilities and/or impairments, while other traits are positive, and in some cases even abilities that are uncommon.





Exactly. But you tend to express your opinion as if it was a fact, a definitive thing, of course you could be right in this case, it could indeed be another condition with "symptoms" that are similar to autism, but neither of us knows whether it is or not. Maybe you don't realise that you do that (stating opinions almost as facts). I can't blame you too much for this tho, because I was told I tend to do this as well.

Last edited by Shadi2 on 22 Jun 2014, 7:09 pm, edited 4 times in total.