Do I have Asperger's or an ASD?
CozPoz2802
Snowy Owl
Joined: 8 Mar 2011
Age: 31
Gender: Male
Posts: 149
Location: Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, UK, Europe, Earth
I know none of you are doctors and can't really give a professional diagnosis but...I just wanted to see what you think regardless, so here are my symptoms:
- I don't understand jokes, and sometimes I seem to 'over understand' them, as in, I understand them perfectly, but don't laugh, so many people avoid telling me jokes as they think I have no sense of humour (which isn't completely true, I prefer slapstick, physical humour which is very funny)
- I find it difficult to look people in the eye when talking to them, unless I know them very well e.g. family, good friends, but if it's a stranger or someone I feel is 'above' me, I only glance at their eyes during conversation
- I tend to take things too literally, which is part of the reason why I don't understand jokes, so I don't always understand metaphors e.g. she was the apple of his eye, I understand that this is supposed to mean that, to him, she was good, but literally you can't have an apple for an eye, and what if the apple is rotten? :S
- I am quite openly honest and blunt, but when I do this I don't understand why people always take offence, because people always say, "Be honest all the time, it's the polite, best way to go about things" but when I am honest, people take offence, wtf?! WHY?
- I have specific rules and schedules for each day that I formulate in my head, and if these are suddenly disturbed (as in, someone decides that we're going out shopping and I had scheduled a gaming session) I get anxious and irritated
- I am obsessed with books, I read them as much as possible, I used to be obsessed with my phone (until it broke) and I can play Sims 3 for days on end if I was allowed, and on occasion I get obsessed with a celebrity and absorb lots of information about them, and talk about them so much that eventually as soon as I mention them, people tell me to be quiet
- When people disturb me from these activites I get very irritated
- I am very slow to comprehend (another reason why I don't understand jokes) but this also means that I might not understand that I am annoying someone until they start yelling at me :/
- I will do the same things for days on end e.g. wearing the same clothes for days, or eating the same food for days on end
- I'm very sensitive to light, any sudden bright light will blind me and when transitioning from a dark room to bright sunlight I take longer to recover than my friends do, as I am almost completely blinded
- I have difficulty concentrating and I get easily distracted, unless it's one of the obsessions I mentioned above, then I have unlimited concentration and I am much harder to distract
- I have a tendency to not listen to people, and when I actually do, I stare, which my friends have said is actually quite disturbing
- I have repetitive movements such as hair twirling, leg bouncing and gently hitting the table (or desk) with my hand repeatedly, I will also pace sometimes, and I do all these things when I am bored, thinking, anxious, or excited/nervous (I find it difficult to tell the difference)
- I am easily frustrated by people and when things don't work out the way I planned and have episodes where I withdraw into my room screaming and yelling at people (if I'm at home) or if I'm at school I just put my head on the desk and don't talk to anybody
- I don't take criticism well, even if it's constructive and designed to help me improve my work, it makes me feel as if I can't do anything right
- I have a good visual memory and good facial recognition (I could tell it was Hugh Jackman by just his eye when the rest of his face was covered in a quiz) I am also quite good at remembering routes
- I dislike being in large crowds, especially noisy ones, because I don't like being surrounded and I especially dislike people behind me, and if the crowd is really noisy, I feel like the noise is building and building and my head will explode :S
- I have bad handwriting and I am very clumsy, constantly dropping things (when I'm distracted), knocking things off things, and I find it difficult to catch smaller objects, although I'm not brilliant at catching larger ones
- I find people confusing, they have motives I don't understand, like how they will do things that make no sense to me, like my friend who says she will resit an exam if she gets an A (she wants and A*) which makes no sense, a LOT of people would 'kill' for an A
- I have no common sense, even though I am intelligent, and quite frequently say stuff that people take offence to (I know I've mentioned this, but I thought I'd bring it up again
) because, for example, I don't realise people aren't responding much to me when I'm talking to them because they're annoyed with me, and I keep talking, and then I'm surprised when they suddenly snap at me
- I have pretty repetitive conversation, as when people talk to me, I don't know what to say, so I'll just repeat stuff about my obsessions or a statement I've already said until they tell me, "You've said that" and then I go quiet until they come up with another topic I can contribute to
- Because of the above reasons I'm not very good at chit-chat
- I drift off in my head a lot and imagine situations that will happen, because this makes me feel better about going through with them
- I'm pretty good at reading people's faces and body language, but I'm slow to comprehend and I don't always understand why they're displaying them
- I don't understand why people care so much about certain things, it's very confusing to me
- I don't understand the concepts of respect, trust and personal space, I don't understand how you know when you feel respect or trust, because they're not really an emotion are they? But when people ask me if I respect them, and I say, "Nope." They get annoyed, why?
- I have difficulty following verbal instructions and I forget them almost immediatly, and I also have difficulty following rules, and then when I break them, I don't understand why people get so annoyed with me
- I don't understand why, when I'm in a big group of friends, that I'm supposed to contribute to the conversations that I don't care about, and if I don't, it's 'rude'
- I don't understand why, when I don't talk to people for a while, I'm no longer their friend
- When I was younger I used to build towers, in exactly the same colour sequences every time, and send a lego train around and around a circle until I was told to do something else
- I'm overly curious and ask "Why?" to almost everything people do, not knowing when to stop
- I don't have too much sympathy and/or empathy because I'm not too sure on what they are
- I don't understand why when someone says, "Does this dress make me look fat?" That they don't really want your opinon, why ask if you don't like what my true opinon is?
- I have difficulty reading 'between the lines' I could go on and on about a topic that bothers someone because it happened to them recently, but I won't notice
- I don't understand how people are so hung up on appearances and fashion, personally, I only wear the same clothes all the time anyway, but I don't see how what you wear defines who you are as a person
- I also have difficulty expressing my emotions, I prefer to talk to people via email, because I physically find it hard to express myself in the way that I choose
- I am overly pedantic about spelling as well, and chatise those who spell incorrectly, I also get annoyed with incorrect grammar (but since I'm not brilliant at that too, I am less likely to correct you)
So...yeah, that's all I could think of so far to put :/ what do ya think?
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Last edited by CozPoz2802 on 25 May 2011, 5:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
TenPencePiece
Veteran
Joined: 11 Dec 2009
Age: 31
Gender: Male
Posts: 46,009
Location: Greater Manchester, United Kingdom
Based on what you've written alone, it sounds like you have a lot of traits consistent with AS, and the quiz score in your signature reflects that it is likely that you have it. As you've said of course, nobody can be certain over the internet.
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I'm always here, all you have to do is ask and you shall receive
It's definitely possible.
You have a lot of the traits and I can relate to a lot of the points that you made and I was professionally diagnosed with asperger's. Of course nobody can diagnose you over the internet though, so the best thing to do would be to speak to somebody you know and ask them if they think that it is possible, or speak to a professional if you think that a diagnosis would help, or if these things are bothering you.
It's probably the answer you expected really, that it's definitely possible but nobody can diagnose over the internet. ![]()
