09 Feb 2009, 4:46 pm
Hi
Finally decided to post my first message after lurking for a little while.
Was unofficially diagnosed AS, by a therapist, a couple of years ago. I’m not going to pursue an official diagnosis as it would take some time and trouble (UK health service), and there’s no obvious advantage anyway. I’m 100% sure I’ve got it though; I scored 120 AS, 85 NT on the Aspie Test yesterday; this is despite ‘improving’ over the last few years, i.e. becoming less AS, more NT! More importantly, AS pretty much explains the story of my life, i.e. retrospectively. I might elaborate on this, and post a photo, at some point.
What I’m less sure of, however, is what precisely I’ve got. To be honest I’m not really satisfied with the conventional definition of AS, which is really a list of symptoms, each of which may, or may not, apply to any one person. Having thought about it a bit I’m leaning towards the theory that all forms of autism are the result of the brain’s intuitive capacity failing to develop properly whilst in the womb. The severity of any one individual’s autism would consequently depend on two things:
- The precise degree to which the individual’s intuitive capacity fails to develop
- The individual’s intellectual capacity, which, to some degree, can compensate for low intuition
For example, someone with severely impaired intuition and low intelligence would be ‘worst case’ autistic, whilst someone with moderately impaired intuition and high intelligence (like me, and you, probably) would be an Aspie with the potential to develop ourselves to some degree. The rare individual with severely impaired intuition and extremely high intelligence would be an autistic savant.
The classic symptoms of AS, such as poor social skills, emotional immaturity, lack of common sense, etc, are pretty much the by-product of having poor intuition and, therefore, not being able to connect with others (thus falling behind in many respects), or make sense of society’s unwritten rules IMHO.
Does this make sense? lol
Whether it does or not I’d love to hear from anyone who wants to chat. I don’t have any Aspie friends in the real world, only NT’s. I’m straight, but definitely not interested in romance at the moment, so anyone can contact me, regardless of gender/age/whatever with 100% confidence that I’m not looking for more than friendship.
All the best 
09 Feb 2009, 5:23 pm
09 Feb 2009, 6:09 pm
09 Feb 2009, 6:32 pm
09 Feb 2009, 7:09 pm
richie
Supporting Member
Joined: 9 Jan 2007
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 30,142
Location: Lake Whoop-Dee-Doo, Pennsylvania
09 Feb 2009, 7:19 pm
To WrongPlanet!! !
10 Feb 2009, 2:47 am
Sola, I think the medical term for this is 'being batshit insane'. I thought the supernatural crowd died with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Nonetheless, welcome Another_Alien - you don't so much have something, you ARE something. Its a state of being that can be measured, and most likely has a cause that will be defined one day. You may already know that aspies have greater ability in some fields, which seems to make up for shortcomings. A special interest or special talent that most NTs do not have... I figure its a trade-off rather than just impairment.
Poor social intuition does seem to be a marker, i've seen the phrase Theory of Mind bandied around a bit here. Instead of this social ability, I have an intuition when computer programming. I get a feel for where the bugs are
Welcome, and here's hoping you find something new and useful on WrongPlanet.
10 Feb 2009, 3:42 pm
