The Credibility of the Aspeger Syndrome

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It is my experience that outliers make normal people nervous. They want to know how Aspies can do things that they cannot. Being able to put a name on these people who do amazing things puts normal people more at ease.

While many aspies cannot do amazing things--it seems normal to want to study the few that do.

Over the years I have taken that test, there have been lot of questions I found irrelevant to AS like "Are you fascinated with traps?" Okay I have always liked seeing them on TV and that was sure my favorite part of the Home Alone movies and seeing the crazy kidnappers fall into traps in Baby's Day Out so does that count as a yes, so yes it was. The question was very vague so it was hard to understand. It didn't say if you have to do them yourself or if you like watching other people do them or reading about it or liking it on TV.

"High Functioning Autism" is defined as autism without intellectual disabilty or autism with average to high intelligence. Aspergers is a form of High Functioning Autism for autistics who did not have significant speech/language impairments prior to age 3. Aspergers Syndrome is just that a syndrome. One should have most of the traits in order to be diagnosed. Besides social difficulties some sort of repetative behavoirs are needed for diagnosis. This can take the form of obsessive narrow "special interests" , often repeating back words said to you, body movements known as stims that go beyound the typical nervous ticks. In addition sensory sensitivities and problems with coordination and multitasking are common for people on the Autism Spectrum.

Most autistics will not have every trait and most typical people will have some Autistic traits. The diagnoses is based on observed and self reported behavoirs making it completly subjective. While the above are guidelines clinictions interpret them as they please. So that is why Aspergers and autism in general is vague.

The reputable online tests are not meant to diagnose. They can be a good indicator that you need to explore the idea that you are autistic further.

But which "some cases" are you basing this opinion on, though, Ezra?

People posting on WP?

If so, remember that posts can seem articulate, intelligent and as if the person typing them must seem like an incredibly functional, capable person --- and yet you yourself know that the reality for that person can be very, very different.

And if it's about the content they post about, like having jobs, getting married, doing their own stuff around the house -- don't forget that in these things too, you don't actually know how much of a struggle the person may actually be having doing any of these things.

You can't tell anyone's "barely existing" degree of autism by anything in anyone's posts here. Think of yourself as your own example, think of the failed marriages of diagnosed people, the failed working lives, the struggles.

You can't judge people by what YOU think their degree of functioning is, particularly if you've never met them for real.

Meet me ONE time and watch me over the course of a day, or look further into my life story, and tell me to my face I'm "barely" diagnosable or that what I deal with is "superficial." My clinician apparently didn't think so. I'm not at a severe level but even level means there is enough IMPAIRMENT that the condition is present. I most certainly have impairments, just because they are not the same as yours doesn't mean they're "superficial."


Superficial doesn't get a diagnosis.

I felt like there was something 'wrong' with me for a lot of my childhood, I even remember once searching through papers in my moms room trying to see if there was any medical record or something indicating something wrong with me that maybe was being kept from me. I even thought I could be an alien....like if they switched me with the child my parents actually gave birth to so one of their own could learn about earth humans and one day they'd return for me. So yeah I did a lot of rationalizing about why I was different.

Also though I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety after a suicide attempt when I was 15, then after I did some counseling for that....a terrible thing happened at my school and girl I knew was shot, so then I developed PTSD. Of course at the time I convinced myself I was fine and didn't care that much it happened and tried to just move on with things and go to college far away from there...I wasn't really in my right mind.

But yeah after I dropped out of college and moved back home my sister suggested to me I might have aspergers....by that point I figured the anxiety, depression and PTSD explained it all but I still looked into it and it made a lot of sense.

-I mean I've always had difficulties with eye contact

-I am more sensitive to various sensory stimuli

-I can't interact with people I've never met/talked to...though if they start talking to me I can interact with them, doesn't really seem like an anxiety thing more like whatever is supposed to happen in your brain to allow you to go talk to that random person doesn't connect almost feels like a physical inability.

-I tend to get hyper-focused on interests and will take in lots of information about them...and could probably talk someones ear off about details they don't care about if they let me.

-As a kid I certainly took it as a personal insult if someone said negative things about my interests, I can still now get a bit defensive but being an adult aware of this I try and keep in mind to look at it more objectively then immediately going into defense mode.

-I also have plenty of repetitive movements I do, that I am not usually aware of unless someone mentions it or I happen to catch myself doing it....like I put my left hand on my cheek a lot, move hands around when talking, when I am reading a book I fidget with whatever page I am not reading. but yeah usually I am not immediately even aware when I do those things.

but that is just some of it, kind of hard to describe all the difficulties in detail.

Thanks, everyone!

Sweetleaf, I was touched with your message. I wish you feel good about yourself. With your report and French documentary that I watched, I think don't have Asperger. Maybe I have something the autistic spectrum.

I realized that the voice of the people of the documentary is different. It's like a strange voice (mechanical voice?).

My voice seems normal. I have participated in choir, including this year - I am contralto.

When my psychologist said I could have something autistic spectrum, even Aspeger, I felt a certain relief.

Because I have trouble maintaining friendships and blame myself for that. I need affection too.

Anyway, I having or not having autism spectrum, I could reconsider a little more and I have more strength to avoid blaming me.

This thread made me smile.

Perhaps it was "dealing" with my 90+ year old father in law yesterday.
The hardest part was deciding to take the next couple days off work to help my wife.

I thought I might have Aspergers.
Took online test repeatedly.
Compared them to other peoples scores that I convinced to take them.
Me 43 or 166
Them 16 or 50ish
Went to counselor
Took "real evaluation tool"
My wife filled out some too.
Told I didn't have Aspergers

....


...

....
I had Level 1.....

The boundaries between different kinds of autism ARE a bit vague. In my country, they no longer diagnose "Aspergers" at all, it's all bundled together into "Autistic Spectrum Disorder." But usually it's easier for mildly autistic people just to say they "have Aspergers", because the general public has finally understood roughly what Aspergers means! If you say "I'm autistic," they think you can't be because you can talk. Which must be extra-annoying for more severely autistic people who learned to talk late in life, with great difficulty.

Many, many people have a diagnosis of PDD-AS or PDD-NOS. That's notoriously a bit of a dumping ground for anyone who isn't "typical". We're not all the same. For ages I thought I couldn't have Aspergers, because I don't fit the stereotype. (I'm messy, have a poor memory, artistic rather than logical....)

I'm artistic and logical.
They mix well at my regular job and my show biz gigs.

Other places are a bit more tricky.
I love to write scripts but even
more to improv.

For a French documentary about autism, I thought this one was more relevant http://www.syndromedaspergerlewebdoc.fr/ . I remember seeing "Le Cerveau d'Hugo", but I don't specifically remembers it, but I remember thinking this one did a good job at portraying some of the nuances of Asperger's.

A very good source of insight is Tony Attwood: "A Complet Guide to Aspergers Syndrome". It explains AS very well - to a extent by means of case material.

Cute! LOL

Asperger's for me and for most others is debilitating. It impairs me on a daily basis and and deeply affects every single area of my life. It has even crippled me. I am about as high functioning as anyone can be and I passed for NT for decades until I was diagnosed exactly two years ago. But the whole time I thought I was an NT, even from very early childhood, the daily struggle just to get through ever day was enormous. Of course I had no idea at the time that other people did not feel what I felt or struggle like I struggled. So to me it was just normal to struggle that hard to look and function like everyone else. I now know that it's not normal. But there is not a single area of my life that is not deeply affected by Autism/HFA/Asperger's. You want to do much more research so that you can understand what it's really like. I encourage you to do that and I am glad that you asked this question.

I clicked on your link but just got a big 0% on my screen.