What else is there thatcould give me symptoms of Asperger's?

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Thanks SeriousGIrl, but I didn't make myslef clear, but I actually got that one - I meant

I got back from seeing him, and he's going to contact his son in law who's a (psychologist, I think) about how I could maybe get tested. His grandson has Asperger's, and he's the one who first said he thought I might have it (I had never heard of it). Stuff with his grandson sounds just like me
I told him about my scores on the ASQ and EQ, and he said tests like those are...I think he said indicators or something like that. And he agreed with me that having scores like mine on those do mean this is worth investigating.

Anyway I feel so good since seeing him! I feel so much more relaxed, and kind of like a weight has been lifted or something. This is *SO EXCITING* that I might not be a freak! I mean I kept telling him that, and it sounds silly, but it's true. It's like everything I've gone through my whole life might have a logical explanation other than me being a freak or bad or something!

I can't wait to find out for sure!

My mom's said this makes sense. She just told me that back 15+ years ago they diagnosed me as "oppositional defiant" or something, which she said never made any sense to her because she said I was a really good kid, but just some things about me scared her because she wanted me to have a normal good life. But she says this sounds right. I'm not saying what she said right, but that's kind of the gist of it.

Dang it, I've still got this nagging feeling in the back of my head that says "you don't have Asperger's, you're a freak and you don't fit in with these people either".

NLD, or NVLD, is a non verbal Learning Disability. The premiere symptom, is that you don't pick up on social cues, and you can't read body langugae. Because of this, you often have negative social interactions, which lead to a host of other problems, because "if it hurts, you don't want to do it".

There are other problems that go with it too however.
I just read this article over, it sounded pretty good:
http://www.canadianparents.ca/CPO/Artic ... 87885.html

Basically, NLD in its most severe form, may be indistinguishable from Aspergers. I know some people think that it belongs on the spectrum, infront of AS. Others think that AS is not autism, and should be with NLD.

80% of people with AS have NLD. This is why you may think you have AS, because you see the NLD simularities in yourself. People with NLD's can do very well in school acedemically, it isn't like dyslexia or other LD's.

I think it is a good idea to get an evaluation. You may have AS, you may have NLD. You may have something else going on!

Good luck.

(BTW, I asked my 4 year old NT daughter, the marble question, we played it out with puppets, (my 12 year old AS son helped) and she KNEW exactly where Sally would look, and that she would be sad and confused when she could not find it. I let her be Sally, and she pretended to cry! Then Annie gave her the marble and appologised, and my daughter being Sally, was happy again! I know my son could NOT have done this when he was 5, I doubt he could have at 6 or 7. I was always very frustrated with his lack of "common sense"! )

I'm embarrassed because even as an adult, the first time I saw that question my first instinct was that she'd look in the box.

It does sound like you are somewhere on the spectrum, whether it be AS or NLD or whatever. You definitely seem to have some of the same qualities as us. Perhaps you are closer to the edge of the spectrum where it sort of blends in more with NTs (I have NT friends who have a few clear AS traits but don't have ToM problems or sensory issues, etc). There are a lot of people with "shadow traits" who would seem to have AS but whose lives are not impaired by it.

I have a lot of trouble seeing where I am on the spectrum, some days I think I'm nearly NT except for stimming, other days I think I'm really very "severe"!

Thanks for the feedback guys. And thanks for that NLD link. That doesn't seem like a very good name for it, or at least it wasn't what I was imagining with that name!

Looking through the list, I don't have good rote memory skills (although I do remember stuff that I'm interested in well, but have no real control over that), I'm a HORRIBLE speller, and really do more visually than auditory (I prefer written instructions or seeing something, or doing it). And I've never thought of myself as clumsy, which seems to be both an AS and NLD thing.

I have learned just today that some stuff I do that I thought was just normal stuff everyone did may actually be stimming (I'm not sure why I thought everyone did it, because now that people are pointing it out to me I'm realizing I've never really seen other people do it...)

If you don't mind reading, here is lots more info!

http://www.nldline.com/as_vs_nld.htm

I know what you mean by the stimming. I think that my typing all the time is actually "stimming" I also compulsively read, which is a "stim" And when I was little, I used to have to lift up my feet, or at least my toes when we drove by a telephone pole. (Did this to adult hood, trying to learn how to drive cured me of it!)

I think my drinking pop 24/7 is also a "stim".

Cool, thanks! Looks like a bit much to read tonight, but I'll bookmark that for tomorrow.

There was SOMETHING I used to do when we drove past telephone polls when I was growing up, but I can't remember what exactly-it involved imagining something with them though, can't remember what.

I posted this in the Stimming thread, but I'll repost this here for the heck of it. I'm really wondering if these things I thought were just normal behavior everyone does were actually stimms. I'm still confused by the concept I guess (since I don't rock or anything, which is what I thought it was).

I don't THINK people notice this stuff with me, but then I did just recently have my boss say I was an alien from another planet...she was laughing about it and being nice (I think) but I was confused by it.

There are a lot of other things besides AS that can look like AS. Some of them not so good, and some of them perfectly controlable with drugs (which is political, and don't anyone jump on me, please, my feeling is do what you want to). The human mind is complicated, we still know VERY little about it, despite all the learned books, because we can't dissect it without killing the individual, and the organ itself doesn't show us much, at least not in such a complicated syndrome. There have been some huge statistical advances in the treatment of Austic Spectrum disorders, but it takes a psychiatrist (or a good psychologist) to know about them. If your problems are keeping you from functioning at a level that you want to function at, then see someone. I've heard people on this board who say "I have aspergers," and then when they go on to describe it, I recognize symptoms of other things (not always as serious, but sometimes deadly serious...in that it gets in the way of their lives).

I have never liked conformity (though I'm pretty good at it). Does that make me weird, or someone who needs treatment? I don't think so. I have always seen the idiocy of some of my classmates, and said so, and been roundly hated for it, but they were still idiots. When I was younger, I just had the bad judgement to tell them so. As I got older, I kept my mouth shut, and that helped me. But it didn't make them any less idiots. I've always been obsessive compulsive, I've always done strange things when I write...like holding my breath until I can't see.....completely without planning, mind you.....and stuff like that. Do I have AS? My shrink thinks so, but he also said "In your case, it seems to be kind of useful. Are you sure you want to do something about it?" As I have to function in the working world, I do take drugs, and they help more than I can tell you, but my son, who is also AS, won't touch them, and we have never forced him, and he does okay. I think he'd do better if he took the drugs, but he's over 18, and it's his decision.
Cheers.
Btdt