Are NT's just real?
07 Jul 2009, 9:38 am
Greentea wrote:
Well, you either developed ToM at age 3-4 and get the nonverbal intuitively or you don't. There's no in-between.
I have to disagree with that... say someone develops a theory of mind at a later age? Or if they have one, but it's just a bit off? Some people understand some nonverbal communications, but not others. There's lots of different in-betweens.
07 Jul 2009, 10:20 am
fiddlerpianist wrote:
To add to the continued discussion of the "spectrum"...
If you think of AS to NT as one spectrum you're not getting the whole picture. It's actually multiple spectrums; one for each trait. Throw in other neurological differences in there and you have even more spectrums.
It's probably easy for someone who has more pronounced AS traits to believe that there is somehow this clear cut, cut-and-dry line where ASDs stop and NTness begins. I can tell you from firsthand experience that it doesn't work that way.
If you think of AS to NT as one spectrum you're not getting the whole picture. It's actually multiple spectrums; one for each trait. Throw in other neurological differences in there and you have even more spectrums.
It's probably easy for someone who has more pronounced AS traits to believe that there is somehow this clear cut, cut-and-dry line where ASDs stop and NTness begins. I can tell you from firsthand experience that it doesn't work that way.
Very good point, but I still believe if something is hot, then somewhere cold exists as well as warm. I know it sounds too simple but usually those are the best explanations right? I kinda hit Autistic and Non Autistic related things only on my spectrum. ADHD can have its own spectrum and so can BiPolar etc. Kinda like Myers Briggs. You can be mildly introverted, but you can also be extrememly sensing. These two little spectrums overlap to create you. This concept works on more than one level, like each symptom put together into context to create each disorder put together in context to create you. For disorders that scale it (from mild to severe) it would only make sense that an opposite would hold true. A smart dude from Germany on here once told me for papers you create a thesis and the Anti Thesis as he put it. Anyway, if it's a disorder or disordering to not make any facial expressions, then to make too many facial expressions would have to be a disorder as well right? Most people in the autistic spectrum do make facial expressions, just not as much as what is considered normal, so therefore, that has to be a point where there is too much for normal. I will admit I have a hard time thinking about an opposite for other disorders (such as my Short Man Syndrome that I'd like to see added to the APA), but I promise you, my sister is the exact opposite of autism to a point where I think it's just as dysfunctioning if not more, and it clashes so much with autism that it has to be related somehow. No matter what you tell me, it is still fact that my sister is irrationally normal (from an autistic perspective, I assume from a normal perspective, she has a disorder they have yet to create). Either way, she is the exact opposite of me, so I know the exact opposite of Autistic exists, and it's bad if not worse than what I think I go through.
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07 Jul 2009, 11:04 am
Tantybi wrote:
fiddlerpianist wrote:
To add to the continued discussion of the "spectrum"...
If you think of AS to NT as one spectrum you're not getting the whole picture. It's actually multiple spectrums; one for each trait. Throw in other neurological differences in there and you have even more spectrums.
It's probably easy for someone who has more pronounced AS traits to believe that there is somehow this clear cut, cut-and-dry line where ASDs stop and NTness begins. I can tell you from firsthand experience that it doesn't work that way.
If you think of AS to NT as one spectrum you're not getting the whole picture. It's actually multiple spectrums; one for each trait. Throw in other neurological differences in there and you have even more spectrums.
It's probably easy for someone who has more pronounced AS traits to believe that there is somehow this clear cut, cut-and-dry line where ASDs stop and NTness begins. I can tell you from firsthand experience that it doesn't work that way.
Very good point, but I still believe if something is hot, then somewhere cold exists as well as warm. I know it sounds too simple but usually those are the best explanations right? I kinda hit Autistic and Non Autistic related things only on my spectrum. ADHD can have its own spectrum and so can BiPolar etc. Kinda like Myers Briggs. You can be mildly introverted, but you can also be extrememly sensing. These two little spectrums overlap to create you. This concept works on more than one level, like each symptom put together into context to create each disorder put together in context to create you. For disorders that scale it (from mild to severe) it would only make sense that an opposite would hold true. A smart dude from Germany on here once told me for papers you create a thesis and the Anti Thesis as he put it. Anyway, if it's a disorder or disordering to not make any facial expressions, then to make too many facial expressions would have to be a disorder as well right? Most people in the autistic spectrum do make facial expressions, just not as much as what is considered normal, so therefore, that has to be a point where there is too much for normal. I will admit I have a hard time thinking about an opposite for other disorders (such as my Short Man Syndrome that I'd like to see added to the APA), but I promise you, my sister is the exact opposite of autism to a point where I think it's just as dysfunctioning if not more, and it clashes so much with autism that it has to be related somehow. No matter what you tell me, it is still fact that my sister is irrationally normal (from an autistic perspective, I assume from a normal perspective, she has a disorder they have yet to create). Either way, she is the exact opposite of me, so I know the exact opposite of Autistic exists, and it's bad if not worse than what I think I go through.
I guess the thing to remember is that concepts like spectrums are merely models. That is to say, they help us understand something in a very specific way, often relative to each other. Models exist only for this purpose; they are, by their nature, simplifications of the real world.
Therefore, saying definitively that someone does or does not fall on the spectrum is an interesting academic exercise, but that's about it.
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07 Jul 2009, 1:11 pm
fiddlerpianist wrote:
Tantybi wrote:
fiddlerpianist wrote:
To add to the continued discussion of the "spectrum"...
If you think of AS to NT as one spectrum you're not getting the whole picture. It's actually multiple spectrums; one for each trait. Throw in other neurological differences in there and you have even more spectrums.
It's probably easy for someone who has more pronounced AS traits to believe that there is somehow this clear cut, cut-and-dry line where ASDs stop and NTness begins. I can tell you from firsthand experience that it doesn't work that way.
If you think of AS to NT as one spectrum you're not getting the whole picture. It's actually multiple spectrums; one for each trait. Throw in other neurological differences in there and you have even more spectrums.
It's probably easy for someone who has more pronounced AS traits to believe that there is somehow this clear cut, cut-and-dry line where ASDs stop and NTness begins. I can tell you from firsthand experience that it doesn't work that way.
Very good point, but I still believe if something is hot, then somewhere cold exists as well as warm. I know it sounds too simple but usually those are the best explanations right? I kinda hit Autistic and Non Autistic related things only on my spectrum. ADHD can have its own spectrum and so can BiPolar etc. Kinda like Myers Briggs. You can be mildly introverted, but you can also be extrememly sensing. These two little spectrums overlap to create you. This concept works on more than one level, like each symptom put together into context to create each disorder put together in context to create you. For disorders that scale it (from mild to severe) it would only make sense that an opposite would hold true. A smart dude from Germany on here once told me for papers you create a thesis and the Anti Thesis as he put it. Anyway, if it's a disorder or disordering to not make any facial expressions, then to make too many facial expressions would have to be a disorder as well right? Most people in the autistic spectrum do make facial expressions, just not as much as what is considered normal, so therefore, that has to be a point where there is too much for normal. I will admit I have a hard time thinking about an opposite for other disorders (such as my Short Man Syndrome that I'd like to see added to the APA), but I promise you, my sister is the exact opposite of autism to a point where I think it's just as dysfunctioning if not more, and it clashes so much with autism that it has to be related somehow. No matter what you tell me, it is still fact that my sister is irrationally normal (from an autistic perspective, I assume from a normal perspective, she has a disorder they have yet to create). Either way, she is the exact opposite of me, so I know the exact opposite of Autistic exists, and it's bad if not worse than what I think I go through.
I guess the thing to remember is that concepts like spectrums are merely models. That is to say, they help us understand something in a very specific way, often relative to each other. Models exist only for this purpose; they are, by their nature, simplifications of the real world.
Therefore, saying definitively that someone does or does not fall on the spectrum is an interesting academic exercise, but that's about it.
Except in this case, everyone falls on it just like Myers Briggs. The autistic spectrum alone the way people see it now has people on it and people not on it. My spectrum expands to all people and there would be areas that are highlighted for different types of help and therapy (as well as actual diagnosis). Someone like me would fall under the Aspergers area whereas someone like my husband would fall under NT very close to Aspergers and my sister NT very far away from it. It's just a model to see the relationship between where person A stands next to person B.
Myers Briggs has all the subcategories of IE, NS, TF, and JP. But all together, it makes up a neat little spectrum of your personality type. Well, Autism could be a series of subcategories (such as specific symptoms) that all together put you on an Autistic General Spectrum. But in my mind, for it to be a real spectrum, it should include all people. The autistic side is only a model of half the story.
To be honest, it would be kinda neat if all symptoms in the diagnostic criteria could be listed and people placed on a range with it like Myers Briggs like an overall diagnostic exam that measures those specifics, and then the results could be entered into a computer program that would configure possible diagnoses. That would almost eliminate many misdiagnoses.
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07 Jul 2009, 2:04 pm
Tantybi wrote:
Except in this case, everyone falls on it just like Myers Briggs.
Or, at least, everyone is supposed to fall on it.
Tantybi wrote:
Myers Briggs has all the subcategories of IE, NS, TF, and JP. But all together, it makes up a neat little spectrum of your personality type.
Your personality type as modeled by Myers-Briggs, that is. There are other facets of your personality that aren't covered (or meant to be covered) by the model. Suggesting that all INTJs, for instance, think a certain way, is only so useful. Many won't think that way. So it is still very much a simplification of the real world. A model that accounted for absolutely everything would be so complicated it would be useless.
Tantybi wrote:
To be honest, it would be kinda neat if all symptoms in the diagnostic criteria could be listed and people placed on a range with it like Myers Briggs like an overall diagnostic exam that measures those specifics, and then the results could be entered into a computer program that would configure possible diagnoses. That would almost eliminate many misdiagnoses.
It may make more consistent diagnoses, but I doubt that the misdiagnosis rate would change. In fact, it would probably go way up.
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07 Jul 2009, 2:45 pm
Greentea wrote:
Well, you either developed ToM at age 3-4 and get the nonverbal intuitively or you don't. There's no in-between.
Are you're saying all adults either understand the nonverbal intuitively or don't? What about intuitive aspies? If I can use my intuition to understand scientific concepts then what prevents me from using the same intuition to understand social/psychological concepts?
Also, where's your proof that degrees don't exist? Can you clearly define what you mean by nonverbal? Don't just bring up your own examples and claim that I haven't read them. I have. However, I could come up with my own examples that show that I do understand some nonverbal communications intuitively.
Maybe you think I'm NT, or that I'm lying.
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07 Jul 2009, 3:14 pm
marshall wrote:
Greentea wrote:
Well, you either developed ToM at age 3-4 and get the nonverbal intuitively or you don't. There's no in-between.
Are you're saying all adults either understand the nonverbal intuitively or don't? What about intuitive aspies? If I can use my intuition to understand scientific concepts then what prevents me from using the same intuition to understand social/psychological concepts?
Also, where's your proof that degrees don't exist? Can you clearly define what you mean by nonverbal? Don't just bring up your own examples and claim that I haven't read them. I have. However, I could come up with my own examples that show that I do understand some nonverbal communications intuitively.
Maybe you think I'm NT, or that I'm lying.
Greentea, I would really like to hear your response. This is now the third post that has questioned your position, yet you seem to have chosen not to answer.
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08 Jul 2009, 11:33 am
fiddlerpianist wrote:
Tantybi wrote:
To be honest, it would be kinda neat if all symptoms in the diagnostic criteria could be listed and people placed on a range with it like Myers Briggs like an overall diagnostic exam that measures those specifics, and then the results could be entered into a computer program that would configure possible diagnoses. That would almost eliminate many misdiagnoses.
It may make more consistent diagnoses, but I doubt that the misdiagnosis rate would change. In fact, it would probably go way up.
How's so?
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08 Jul 2009, 12:21 pm
Tantybi wrote:
fiddlerpianist wrote:
Tantybi wrote:
To be honest, it would be kinda neat if all symptoms in the diagnostic criteria could be listed and people placed on a range with it like Myers Briggs like an overall diagnostic exam that measures those specifics, and then the results could be entered into a computer program that would configure possible diagnoses. That would almost eliminate many misdiagnoses.
It may make more consistent diagnoses, but I doubt that the misdiagnosis rate would change. In fact, it would probably go way up.
How's so?
Because adding up a whole bunch of details together can often miss the bigger picture. How do you determine, solely from a bunch of criteria, how impaired someone is in every day functioning? That's kind of the point of a diagnosis, anyways, isn't it? I mean, why bother to get a diagnosis if you're doing just fine?
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08 Jul 2009, 1:45 pm
There is no such thing as a completely average person.
However, I think there is as much a spectrum of non-autism as there is of autism, and there are traits that cluster together to distinguish non-autism - certain kinds of sensory perception and processing (such that the everyday world tends not to be a bother in a physical sense), certain styles of pattern recognition (detail-blindness, ability to see vague patterns), certain styles of communication (can generally talk without much trouble, copy people inexactly, and read a wide variety of nonverbal communication, etc.), and so on.
Asking if "neurotypical" or more precisely "non-autistic" is a neurological condition is kind of like asking if white is a race. Of course it is - yet "race" is also a social construct, and it is us, society, who assign certain meanings to these differences in physical traits that cluster together according to where someone's ancestors are from. And even then, there are always multi-racial people, or people whose ancestors are from a place where they tend to have characteristics that are associated with more than one "race" due to intermingling or living in a place where the "races" had a common ancestor (e.g., parts of Central Asia where people have both "white" and "east Asian" features and have for thousands of years). It's similar with neurological condition. The most common or socially dominant condition may be widely varied and often seen as kind of "invisible," like the Wizard of Oz behind the scenes, but it is as much, as real, and as peculiar a condition as any other.
So NT is as real as autism, IMO.
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08 Jul 2009, 1:53 pm
Greentea wrote:
Well, you either developed ToM at age 3-4 and get the nonverbal intuitively or you don't. There's no in-between.
I'm still not entirely sure which of these is me. I'm pretty sure that I have ToM, although I have no clue when I got it. I have no memory of imagining what someone else might be experiencing when I was a kid, but I could tell when my mother was angry at me by looking at her face and body posture. If anything, I'm too sensitive to other people's moods. My AS son is like that, too.
I know I can pick up plenty of information from people's faces and body posture, at least if they are communicating directly to me. But I also am pretty sure that I must be missing something, because there are so many things that happen which confuse me. Like, other people seem to intuitively know what to do and how to be part of the herd. They are picking up signals from one another, and I am not getting those signals. Like getting a job and intuitively knowing what to do without being told. You know, "Welcome to your new job. Here's your desk. See ya round." Or going out on the playground and joining in with the other kids playing a game, naturally. I assume there is some kind of nonverbal understanding going on there, but I'm not sure. Maybe it's something different.
08 Jul 2009, 2:13 pm
TPE2 wrote:
A problem with this talk of "neurotypicals" is that is not much clear what "neurotypical" means.
- Sometimes is used in the sense of "people without an ASD" (I suppose that is the original meaning)
- Other times is used in the sense of "people without no neurological condition" or even "people without no neurological or psychological condition" (what will probably made NTs a demographic minority)
- In another moments, seems to me that some people use "neurotypical" in a meaning very similar to "extraversion + low neuroticism" (or what the ancient greeks called "sanguine personality")
- Sometimes is used in the sense of "people without an ASD" (I suppose that is the original meaning)
- Other times is used in the sense of "people without no neurological condition" or even "people without no neurological or psychological condition" (what will probably made NTs a demographic minority)
- In another moments, seems to me that some people use "neurotypical" in a meaning very similar to "extraversion + low neuroticism" (or what the ancient greeks called "sanguine personality")
I've always had a beef with the way people correlate autism and NT with personality traits - e.g., autistic = nerdy, introverted, emotionally distant, and socially awkward and neurotypical = extroverted, hyper-emotional, and hypersocial. In terms of perception and strict neurological qualities I'm very NT (I have perfectly average sensory sensitivities, no synesthesia, an awareness of detail within the normal range, motions that are typical of the general population, and a fluidity with nonverbal communication that is well within the average range). When I take the Aspie Quiz I tend to get an extremely low score in AS traits (like, less than 50) and a moderate-high score in NT traits (~130ish) - the most neurotypical score I see even among my neurotypical friends and acquaintances who have taken the quiz. Yet my introverted and neurotic temperament is not unlike that of many people on the autistic spectrum when viewed from the outside. I don't believe this makes me any closer to autistic than your average NT - in fact, I think I'm farther from autistic than many NT's I know, neurologically speaking, because of the above traits that I mentioned. Temperament may not be quite orthogonal to the neurological trait clusters that distinguish AS from NT, but I think it's given way too much weight in the popular understanding of the autistic spectrum. My little sis thinks I'm mild AS/broader autistic phenotype based on what she knows about it not being the psychology nerd that I am, but based on my understanding of the primary neurological traits that seem to be responsible for a lot of the secondary issues associated with autism, I'm nowhere close.
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08 Jul 2009, 4:17 pm
elderwanda wrote:
Greentea wrote:
Well, you either developed ToM at age 3-4 and get the nonverbal intuitively or you don't. There's no in-between.
I'm still not entirely sure which of these is me. I'm pretty sure that I have ToM, although I have no clue when I got it. I have no memory of imagining what someone else might be experiencing when I was a kid, but I could tell when my mother was angry at me by looking at her face and body posture. If anything, I'm too sensitive to other people's moods. My AS son is like that, too.
I know I can pick up plenty of information from people's faces and body posture, at least if they are communicating directly to me. But I also am pretty sure that I must be missing something, because there are so many things that happen which confuse me. Like, other people seem to intuitively know what to do and how to be part of the herd. They are picking up signals from one another, and I am not getting those signals. Like getting a job and intuitively knowing what to do without being told. You know, "Welcome to your new job. Here's your desk. See ya round." Or going out on the playground and joining in with the other kids playing a game, naturally. I assume there is some kind of nonverbal understanding going on there, but I'm not sure. Maybe it's something different.
I know exactly what you mean. I'm known to pick up moods quicker than most male NTs. Particularly signs of discomfort or anxiety. I don't seem to struggle with basic knowledge of emotional states that are universal inborn human traits. I could probably communicate fluently with a feral child. What gets me are all the little unspoken cultural norms, customs, and expectations, jargon and slang terminology that even the most obtuse NT's seem to unconsciously learn. I think NT culture is intentionally inscrutable in order to make conformity more challenging. It's all about weeding out and ostracizing the ones that don't put enough effort into conformity. Aspies just aren't wired to care so much about this kind of BS.
Anyways. I know what you're saying. I feel like I'm miles ahead of people when it comes to understanding things in theory, yet I have no way to put my theoretical understanding of things into practice because there's too many little details that are supposed to be automatically remembered and understood.
08 Jul 2009, 7:07 pm
fiddlerpianist wrote:
Tantybi wrote:
fiddlerpianist wrote:
Tantybi wrote:
To be honest, it would be kinda neat if all symptoms in the diagnostic criteria could be listed and people placed on a range with it like Myers Briggs like an overall diagnostic exam that measures those specifics, and then the results could be entered into a computer program that would configure possible diagnoses. That would almost eliminate many misdiagnoses.
It may make more consistent diagnoses, but I doubt that the misdiagnosis rate would change. In fact, it would probably go way up.
How's so?
Because adding up a whole bunch of details together can often miss the bigger picture. How do you determine, solely from a bunch of criteria, how impaired someone is in every day functioning? That's kind of the point of a diagnosis, anyways, isn't it? I mean, why bother to get a diagnosis if you're doing just fine?
The normal thing was about the spectrum. Like have you ever played in publishing software and chose the option, "more colors", and you get a spectrum, and generally on that spectrum you have red on both sides with all the colors in between. The Autistic Spectrum is pretty much just showing all the different shades of blue. That's not really a spectrum.
What i was saying about a diagnostic program.... what it would be for is basically taking all the symptoms listed in the APA manual and testing for levels of those symptoms, all of them, and then configuring possible diagnosis almost like a search. Many symptoms are shared between disorders such as depression and anxiety, and many physical symptoms of depression are also physical symptoms of other disorders and even diseases. A person could be depressed, or maybe they just have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Either way, most of the time, a psychologist thinks from the top of his or her head what your symptoms sound like (if you haven't suggested anything yourself already) and then they will pull out paperwork regarding that disorder and ask you a bunch of questions and approach it very similar to a personality test, except that it's biased toward that disorder. So if I told my shrink I think I'm ADHD, she's going to ask a bunch of questions about ADHD and then probably diagnose me as such unless I was really far off base. That same day, I could walk next door to her competitor and tell that shrink I think I'm Aspergers and could very well get diagnosed that based on answers similar to the ones given for ADHD. It would almost be better to answer a bunch of general questions and have a computer program say, based on these answers, there's a 95% chance this person is Aspergers, a 92% chance ADHD, a 100% chance to have a sensory disorder, a 99% chance to have a social phobia, etc. Then the psychologist asks questions not based on one disorder, but to help distinguish between a plethora of them.
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08 Jul 2009, 7:19 pm
Tantybi wrote:
The normal thing was about the spectrum. Like have you ever played in publishing software and chose the option, "more colors", and you get a spectrum, and generally on that spectrum you have red on both sides with all the colors in between. The Autistic Spectrum is pretty much just showing all the different shades of blue. That's not really a spectrum.
What i was saying about a diagnostic program.... what it would be for is basically taking all the symptoms listed in the APA manual and testing for levels of those symptoms, all of them, and then configuring possible diagnosis almost like a search. Many symptoms are shared between disorders such as depression and anxiety, and many physical symptoms of depression are also physical symptoms of other disorders and even diseases. A person could be depressed, or maybe they just have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Either way, most of the time, a psychologist thinks from the top of his or her head what your symptoms sound like (if you haven't suggested anything yourself already) and then they will pull out paperwork regarding that disorder and ask you a bunch of questions and approach it very similar to a personality test, except that it's biased toward that disorder. So if I told my shrink I think I'm ADHD, she's going to ask a bunch of questions about ADHD and then probably diagnose me as such unless I was really far off base. That same day, I could walk next door to her competitor and tell that shrink I think I'm Aspergers and could very well get diagnosed that based on answers similar to the ones given for ADHD. It would almost be better to answer a bunch of general questions and have a computer program say, based on these answers, there's a 95% chance this person is Aspergers, a 92% chance ADHD, a 100% chance to have a sensory disorder, a 99% chance to have a social phobia, etc. Then the psychologist asks questions not based on one disorder, but to help distinguish between a plethora of them.
What i was saying about a diagnostic program.... what it would be for is basically taking all the symptoms listed in the APA manual and testing for levels of those symptoms, all of them, and then configuring possible diagnosis almost like a search. Many symptoms are shared between disorders such as depression and anxiety, and many physical symptoms of depression are also physical symptoms of other disorders and even diseases. A person could be depressed, or maybe they just have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Either way, most of the time, a psychologist thinks from the top of his or her head what your symptoms sound like (if you haven't suggested anything yourself already) and then they will pull out paperwork regarding that disorder and ask you a bunch of questions and approach it very similar to a personality test, except that it's biased toward that disorder. So if I told my shrink I think I'm ADHD, she's going to ask a bunch of questions about ADHD and then probably diagnose me as such unless I was really far off base. That same day, I could walk next door to her competitor and tell that shrink I think I'm Aspergers and could very well get diagnosed that based on answers similar to the ones given for ADHD. It would almost be better to answer a bunch of general questions and have a computer program say, based on these answers, there's a 95% chance this person is Aspergers, a 92% chance ADHD, a 100% chance to have a sensory disorder, a 99% chance to have a social phobia, etc. Then the psychologist asks questions not based on one disorder, but to help distinguish between a plethora of them.
That's basically what tests like Aspie Quiz do, right?
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08 Jul 2009, 7:59 pm
fiddlerpianist wrote:
Tantybi wrote:
The normal thing was about the spectrum. Like have you ever played in publishing software and chose the option, "more colors", and you get a spectrum, and generally on that spectrum you have red on both sides with all the colors in between. The Autistic Spectrum is pretty much just showing all the different shades of blue. That's not really a spectrum.
What i was saying about a diagnostic program.... what it would be for is basically taking all the symptoms listed in the APA manual and testing for levels of those symptoms, all of them, and then configuring possible diagnosis almost like a search. Many symptoms are shared between disorders such as depression and anxiety, and many physical symptoms of depression are also physical symptoms of other disorders and even diseases. A person could be depressed, or maybe they just have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Either way, most of the time, a psychologist thinks from the top of his or her head what your symptoms sound like (if you haven't suggested anything yourself already) and then they will pull out paperwork regarding that disorder and ask you a bunch of questions and approach it very similar to a personality test, except that it's biased toward that disorder. So if I told my shrink I think I'm ADHD, she's going to ask a bunch of questions about ADHD and then probably diagnose me as such unless I was really far off base. That same day, I could walk next door to her competitor and tell that shrink I think I'm Aspergers and could very well get diagnosed that based on answers similar to the ones given for ADHD. It would almost be better to answer a bunch of general questions and have a computer program say, based on these answers, there's a 95% chance this person is Aspergers, a 92% chance ADHD, a 100% chance to have a sensory disorder, a 99% chance to have a social phobia, etc. Then the psychologist asks questions not based on one disorder, but to help distinguish between a plethora of them.
What i was saying about a diagnostic program.... what it would be for is basically taking all the symptoms listed in the APA manual and testing for levels of those symptoms, all of them, and then configuring possible diagnosis almost like a search. Many symptoms are shared between disorders such as depression and anxiety, and many physical symptoms of depression are also physical symptoms of other disorders and even diseases. A person could be depressed, or maybe they just have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Either way, most of the time, a psychologist thinks from the top of his or her head what your symptoms sound like (if you haven't suggested anything yourself already) and then they will pull out paperwork regarding that disorder and ask you a bunch of questions and approach it very similar to a personality test, except that it's biased toward that disorder. So if I told my shrink I think I'm ADHD, she's going to ask a bunch of questions about ADHD and then probably diagnose me as such unless I was really far off base. That same day, I could walk next door to her competitor and tell that shrink I think I'm Aspergers and could very well get diagnosed that based on answers similar to the ones given for ADHD. It would almost be better to answer a bunch of general questions and have a computer program say, based on these answers, there's a 95% chance this person is Aspergers, a 92% chance ADHD, a 100% chance to have a sensory disorder, a 99% chance to have a social phobia, etc. Then the psychologist asks questions not based on one disorder, but to help distinguish between a plethora of them.
That's basically what tests like Aspie Quiz do, right?
Yeah except that it would combine everything into one test that would direct you to Aspie Quiz or whatever you want to use at that point to help you with your diagnosis (you being a psychologist). I really think I'm on to something here. All I need is a guy with a PhD, my mother, a computer programmer, the APA diagnostic criteria book, a bunch of coffee, and a few years, and I could do this.
