worried i dont have AS

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err, no! i just would prefer it above the other things.

That would be a very peculiar view of Asperger's.

Spazzergasm - it's too bad your parents are closed to the possibility. I was lucky because my parents both have AS, and my little brother does too, so it was sort of the obvious choice.

Just so you know - if, worse case scenario, you do end up being schizo, there are ways to handle that. My adopted brother has it, and he's a pretty chill dude.

I can also relate to the issue with the whole parental denial syndrome. My mother was irate when I mentioned to her that I thought I had AS and was contemplating the posibility of seeking a Dx. Interesting, I later learned that my elementary school psychologist had suspected that I was on the spectrum and my whole childhood was an attempt on their part to prove to the world that I was "normal" and my social problems were the result of my inability to relate to others on account of my having an IQ in the profoundly gifted range.

I find this fascinating - my first psychiatrist said my inability to relate to others was due to my profound giftedness as well. Sometimes I wonder if that's actually true. I'd like to think I'm just both, though.

i have a high intelligence, too. but my teachers/psychologist never really said i was unable to relate, really they said my problems were that i had a low self confidence, and was too shy in school, but talked too much amongst my friend. i remember having a few friends, and not really paying attention to anyone else.

Aurore- doesnt schizophrenia get progressively worse? my uncle has some very disabilitating beliefs...and he refuses to get a DX because he thinks its part of the conspiracy. it's really sad to see. .

You're reading things into the statement that just aren't there. I know you're all anti-self-diagnosis, but that doesn't mean that nobody who thinks they have it ever does. People who have undiagnosed aspergers don't want to be disordered-- they are disordered and it's not officially explained. Granted, there are some who suspect aspergers who don't have it, but that happens with professionals as well. If you haven't spent your whole life wondering what the hell is wrong with you, and being blamed for everything you fail at, you just can't understand what such people go through. You can blame the label and say you don't want it, but people who don't have the label can still have the disorder, and it sucks to know that there's something seriously wrong with you, and not know what.

In my case, (sorry, I was a bit ambiguous in my previous post... oops) it was my parents who were unwilling to accept that I was on the spectrum - and they set out to prove the school wrong.

do you think this enabled you to develop better social skills, or worse?

I think it helped, as they used to force me to interact with other children... sort of a 'sink-or-swim' approach. It definitely made life stressful and unpleasant at times. However, I think that I ultimately benefitted from their refusal to cut me any slack.

Sadly, it does get progressively worse if left untreated. But studies show medication can arrest the changes. Some, like Clozaril (which my brother's on) may even be able to reverse those changes.

I'm sorry about your uncle : (

see, that's what i thought. you wouldnt have that excuse to rely on. . i mean, having it is good, but it's bad to use it as an exuse unless necessary, you know what i mean?

me too! he doesnt like me either, he thinks i get brainmilked for information, unawares.
i wish it was ethical/legal to medicate him without consent. then he could see the difference made. we (my family) should try and persuade him....

I'll trade you my diagnosis if you like!

I'm in the process of getting my medical record amended to say that I no longer fit the criteria for AS. In fact looking at category A i only fit part of the first one at the time and i dont know if the other 3 even applied to me at all ever. but I hated my diagnosis ever since I got it since I didnt feel too abnormal before it but after it i just kept second guessing myself and i still feel ashamed and frustrated if i fulfill one of the traits. I'm probably the only person in the world who feels stupid whenever they do something really clever.

But i also think if you're told about it under the right circumstances and at the right age it could help a little bit! Good luck!

All that I can say for certain is that it seems to have worked out well for me. I definitely lucked out in that I avoided any sort of Pigmaleon effect. Also, it may be good that I was forced to 'earn my stripes' and develop the rudiments of social interaction on my own, and subsequently build off of them after I found out I had AS and had some idea as to what I was working with.

Hmm.. Well, which of the DSM criteria do you meet?

With me, i questioned for awhile whether i had it or not because it seemed that "routines" were something that was always emphasized about the autistic spectrum in general, and i didn't have many routines. In fact, in many cases creating and sticking to a certain routine is difficult for me. There were little routines i had gotten into at a few different points in my life, like having a tv show schedule for every day, and i always did better in unfamiliar situations when i had some mental idea of what was going to happen.. but, for the most part, my life is extremely unorganized. But i've found that there are many aspies with this kind of executive dysfunction also. Plus, i have obsessive interests, stim a lot, and sometimes focus a bit too much on parts of things.. And you only need one. Now i think about it and it's obvious that i do have AS.

I can't really speak to your concern over having AS or not, but I can say that I think if you are actually socially impaired somehow you probably wouldn't truly recognize it yourself the majority of the time anyway. It often seems like social impairments comes with an obliviousness to how you really seem to other people, so having it will to some extent preclude the ability to recognize it in yourself.

(Also, just a total opinion aside - whether or not you have it may change how you look at yourself, but it doesn't change who you are, so if it turns out you don't have it I think that it's worth remembering that you are an individual, and no more or less so with or without an official explanation for it)