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How would you rank?
Mild 36%  36%  [ 33 ]
Mid-Moderate 37%  37%  [ 34 ]
Moderate 20%  20%  [ 18 ]
Severe 7%  7%  [ 6 ]
Total votes : 91

ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo
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30 Nov 2008, 11:24 am

I agree with Callista's post. The severity fluxuates. Lack of supportive people can be enough to cause the severity to increase for me.
More variables for me are things that don't make sense, inconsistencies, or several conflicting opinions. It creates what I call "gridlock" in my brain. My processing slows down.
Sometimes it takes me a while to fully understand something, othertimes I understand very quickly and accurately, depending on what it consists of or what it involves. It's really easy for me to make up games and memorize information that way. It's much harder for me to grasp what is going on with other people and I am very inept and give others the impression I am slow, I am sure.
It's not that I really am slow, it's just that my processing abilities fluctuate and sometimes it takes me longer to absorb information to the point I can figure it out. Sometimes I am stubborn and don't want to listen to others, get their feedback. Instead, I am determined to find out for myself, through introspection, and am convinced that is the only way I can possibly know, no one else can tell me. I think this is what is meant by "autistic superego", lol.
As for IQ I am soooooo tired of IQ posts....! !! ! :!:
In fact I am so sick of seeing them I am to the point where I honestly don't care two figtrees what anyone's IQ is (including my own) and am just fed up with the entire notion of IQ. I am beginning to despise the concept and am noticing how it can really limit people.
So, I will not say what my IQ is. Okay, just to be contrary, I am going to say my IQ is 50. There.
I admit it. *shrugs*. Oh well.
That's some serious admitage there...
Moving onto traits...hmmm...one thing I think I did outgrow, somehow, in my developmental stages, is my stimming. I do stim from time to time now, but nothing like I used to. It's gotten much less for some reason, as my age in years increased.
Also, even though I have AS, I have actually outgrown some "parts" of it, and have "caught up" academically. Once in college, I was free from many of the distractions that made my AS more severe in High School. The college classes were much quieter, shorter in daily durations (the classes were shorter and I could choose when I took them...this made a big difference in my ability to maintain a higher GPA), and I got the impression they were much less personal, much more objective. My confidence increased during this time. I did worry constantly about one thing, though. Whenever a term paper was due I obsessed over what the professor or whomever was teaching the class (sometimes it was a grad student) thought of me and giving me a grade based on that instead of how good the paper was. I knew I lacked good communicative/social skills and thought it would impact the scores I recieved on my term papers. Many times during these "worry" periods, I longed to be better at math and a math major because it's based more on logic and accuracy, not so much on trying to woo people with outstanding social skills so they get a warm fuzzy feeling while reading my paper and thinking about what a fabulously warm fuzzy person I am spontaneously yet simutaneously, due to my outstanding acheivements in the "winning friends and influencing peoples" department.
Now~ this will sound weird. One thing that makes my AS worse: WIND!! ! I live in a windy locale and the wind actually short circuits my CNS in such a profound way it's like total blankness or something. Non functional. Being out in the wind causes me physical discomfort. So, windy days...another factor in severity.
WIND is my personal kryptonite.



millie
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30 Nov 2008, 4:34 pm

my severity also fluctuates from day to day, even week to week and season to season. i seem to be worse in winter (not that there is even much of a winter where i live in subtropical australia.)

I do agree wtih the above post on the wind thing. It is hell for me - like a roar in the brain so loud and with everything moving and no capacity to edit out any of it. it is really difficult. I cannot do anything but attempt to get away.



OddDuckNash99
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30 Nov 2008, 4:37 pm

I'm definitely mild-moderate. To most people, I appear as a mild case of AS, and this is because I have mild social problems. However, some symptoms of mine are of a moderate severity, but only the people closest to me see how bad off I can be affected. My special interests and meltdowns are of a moderate severity, and my sensory issues and need for routine/hatred of change can go up to the severe level. But, overall, I present with mild-moderate symptoms. People who don't know what AS is simply think I'm quirky, but people who know about AS (professionals, those who have AS, etc.) spot my AS traits right away.
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anna-banana
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30 Nov 2008, 5:35 pm

I voted mild because I know how severe some people on this forum are and I'm definately manageable. I'm not offically diagnosed but looking at my traits I would say I am mildly AS/good NT faker, however- I seem to have the worst of both worlds, so:

-poor social skills
-stimming
-b&w thinking
-obsessive
-poor body language
-little empathy
-bad motor coordination
-poor orientation/visual-spatial coordination

but:

-no "special aspie powers"
-no hyperfocus (although I can manage that on stimulants... but hey, who wouldn't?)
-no high intelligence
-no talents
-brain not specialised


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Aspiewordsmith
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30 Nov 2008, 6:29 pm

I only think I am mild as I do not take everything literally and I do Know words that are slang or colloquial that could be taken literally. Her lets say for example of these ambiguous sayings 'its raining cat and dogs. It does not mean animals of the mammalian order carnivora falling out of the sky that it would be raining extremely heavy. Another one is having the crack not meaning anything to do with tropane alkaloids or slight fractures but having fun. This is a piece of Irish dialect that I picked up of my father. I am particularly good at language and using it.

I do have specialised aspie skills such as chemistry of which I learned by myself and I did get take an exam and got 100% mark. This was also in organic chemistry as I can focus on the details such in a glass of water as perceiving two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen when everybody else perceive just a glass of water. This perception is how I managed to be good at chemistry and molecular strucures included. :study:



Ambivalence
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30 Nov 2008, 6:45 pm

Mild to moderate, I should think. Most of the time I get by alright; when I'm bad, I'm not capable of looking after myself. Quite a depressing thing to say, really.


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Scorpius14
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15 Dec 2014, 6:47 pm

I have an official diagnosis but lost my paperwork regarding it. Both the medical professional and parents refused to tell me how far my diagnosis goes but my mother told me I have aspergers, it's not definitive but thats the closest they associate my traits with.

I put myself in the moderate zone of the AS scale.

Traits

- Poor social skills
- Low / Average IQ
- Poor concentration and/or gets distracted easily (wandering thoughts)
- Gets addicted to things very easily and hard to break habits (gambling, sugar & other habits I wouldn't want to discuss due to personal reasons)
- Stammering (only when my brain thinks before my mouth, only way to counter this is by slowing my speech down, however many people don't have the patience to listen to me let alone understanding what I am saying)
- Very deep and (apparently) soft voice, my voice constantly goes through my ears, I don't know if it's like that for everyone else but I hear everything I say, but it's like the sound of my voice is diminishing towards other people and the sound stays the same in my ear.
- Very computer literate, good with numbers (only if associated with a fact), I can name any element on the periodic table if someone tells me the letter(s) associated with it or vice versa.
- Can touch-type fast as much as 60-70 words a minute according to an online typing test only when I know what to type.
- I might have a very mild form of OCD when I want to make sure things I eat and drink from get cleaned, but i'm very paranoid if they even touch a surface that is clean or not, i have to clean e.g. cutlery or dishes all over again until i'm satisfied with their cleanliness, even when they are stored in cupboards, I always clean them before I use them. Good thing i'm not like that with personal hygiene otherwise i'd be wasting alot of water.

Stuff that might not count as being a trait

- Brain hurts or eyes strain when looking at a complex structure, be it something like a tunnel with interlocking pipelines, circuitry, random placement of objects put close together, or the camera panning through a fast-paced scene in a film. These sorts of things just make it harder for my brain to process so I think in a way it might be due to my slow processing power that I didn't do so well in school or my low IQ.

Things I would have preferred to have

- A technical mind, as in I would have liked to excel in my chosen field, as well as having the social skills, I would have by now completed my degree in computer sciences with a decent grade, however I didn't have the necessary mindset, my social skills just let my down in the first year, had to transfer to another course and social skills let me down again which then affected my studies. I wouldn't have fared that well in second or third year anyway since there is a level I just can't get past in my brain that makes the most technical subjects impossible for me to get through. I know how to program, but at a basic level, and that's it, I can do other things like art, creativity, DIY, design, architecture but only manage to do the bare minimum. I'd love to tell my careers service those skills or interests (however you see them) but I'd be lying to them if I had any sort of knowledge of them.

Traits I don't have

- Stimming
- Inability to pick up sarcasm
- Confidence issues
(this list is not exhaustive, there may be more I haven't thought of yet)

I've pretty much covered the stuff that you'll need to know, have an entire life story to discuss, but i'll leave that for another time.



AardvarkGoodSwimmer
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15 Dec 2014, 7:15 pm

Mage wrote:
Usually the spectrum is defined by functioning level. Can you live on your own? Do you have a job? . . .
Of course, we might re-phrase this as, 'Do you fit in with the corporate world?'

Important, but not the ethical end-all and be-all. There should be a wider array of options available. Maybe in time we could form more Aspergers-Autism Spectrum groups to help bring some of this wider array into reality. This will be quite a project.

And in the 1800s, single unmarried persons were not expected to automatically live on their own. Of course, not everyone has a great relationship with their family, so living independent with support should be more readily available. But it should not be how a human being is judged.



Scorpius14
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15 Dec 2014, 10:27 pm

I just noticed this thread is from 6 years ago, shows I can't read either



ASPartOfMe
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18 Dec 2014, 2:26 am

jimmister wrote:
Mild, Moderate, or severe?

Here are my current traits:

Traits I have:
-Stims (occasionally)
-Meltdowns (still have those very, very, very rarely, but they aren't as bad as 4-5 years ago)
-Irregular speech pattern
-Monotone voice (according to mom, I have a very deep voice)
-Face blindness/forgetting names
-Interests in computers
-Social skill, lack of (Well, I'm practicing)

Traits I DON't have:
-Above Average IQ
-Obsessive Interests (except my raging hormones)
-Young appearance (I look like I'm a little younger, but not so much that I look below teenager-ish)

I would rank myself mid-moderate.


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18 Dec 2014, 4:37 am

I went with mild/moderate. My social skills deficits are in the mild range, restricted/repetitive behaviours, more moderate. According to the OP's scale:

-Stims (very frequently)
-Meltdowns (rare/ish (one every few months or so))
-Irregular speech pattern (less irregular and more monotone, especially around strangers; "idiosyncratic use of words or phrases" has also been cited.)
-Monotone voice (see above)
-Face blindness/forgetting names (terrible with names, pretty bad at faces; met my sister's friend three times, every time I asked, "Have we met?")
-Interests in computers (no: my interests are psychology/Star Trek/dinosaur based, but definitely qualify as obsessive)
-Social skill, lack of (not too terrible; occasionally resort to scripting when interactions get too complex, generally pretty normal)


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Jensen
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18 Dec 2014, 6:58 am

To OP, I voted "mild-moderate" given, that he is very young and that it is impossible to rate oneself - really. He might turn up to be needing accomodations or not.

Regarding myself I´ve borrowed the guide from Fiz.

-Stims: sometimes a lot, sometimes very little
-Meltdowns: I can´t distinguish between meltdowns and shutdowns, - but, not very often.
-Forgetting names: Uh, one of my worst weaknesses.
-I like working with computers and am fairly good at learning new programs fast.
-Social skill: Lack of - to a point - according to situation.
-Above Average IQ
-Obsessive Interests - two-three.
-Young appearance: Everyone tells me I look younger than I am
-Irregular speech pattern (occasionally), sometimes stammering a bit/gets stuck on words. I often use literary or antique expressions by impulse, when modern language escapes me.
Anxiety: Low threshold for anxiety, stress and depression.
Sensory: Bad handwriting and no ball-eye what so ever. Not too good at depths, somewhat clumsy.

Traits I DON't have:
-Monotone voice. Monotone meaning a lack of inflection/emotion.
-Face blindness. I recognise people by their faces, I just don't use them as a tool to find people attractive.

Other:
Can you live on your own? Yes
Do you have a job? No, and I don´t seem to be able to hold one down. There seem to be some demands, I don´t understand, apart from those of honesty, kindness, accuracy, work spirit etc. etc.
I suppose, I don´t read the nonverbal cues and I have to have my orders in a very precise way, - best written.
Teaching my subjects(music and art) worked best for me, as I made the rules and knew what to deliver, what would happen, who would turn up and all that.
Did you graduate high school? Yes
I even did University, but was interrupted before I finished my Bachelor.
Have you ever had a significant relationship? I had two - each of 6 months at age 18 - 19 years.
Did you get married? No and I never will.

I see myself as mild, but my psych calls me moderate.


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JilliBean544
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31 Jul 2016, 4:58 pm

I would say that i'm moderate

Positive Traits

Above Average IQ

Good at explaining things

Good at hands-on things


Negative Traits

Emotional during certain social situations

Intermittent explosions/meltdowns sometimes

Though to make friends

Has significant anxiety



Lumi
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01 Aug 2016, 6:12 am

When I came across this poll later, I voted for myself.



Lizardsith
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02 Apr 2017, 7:28 pm

Traits?

The good...
No meds! Wooo! Ok, that isn't so great.
hyper focused on history, dates, patterns
I'm very literal, although I understand some sarcasm and figurative language as it has been taught to me.
My IQ is higher than most people

the bad...
I still lose control (rage)
I can't get thoughts out of my head
I forget new things and even if I write it down, I forget to check my list.
I lose jobs every 2-3 years as I have difficulty in social situations.
Major anxiety, but at least I try everyday and go to work.
I am teased and ridiculed for my disability and told I am just faking it for pity. :cry:

I met a woman who tolerates all of it. She married me. 16 years. Challenging but growing.

I'm not stupid....I'm autistic.



League_Girl
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02 Apr 2017, 7:47 pm

Very mild for the OP


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