Are highly intellectual aspies different than other aspies?

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I think high intelligence has both positive and negative effects. Highly intelligent people on the spectrum are able to learn skills more quickly and may have more intuition to guide them. The negative aspect of being intelligent is that in the wrong environment increased intelligence can lead to an even greater sense of social alienation from one's NT peers. Gifted people need a supportive and stimulating environment to become successful.

There's also the issue of "higher intelligence" -> "higher self-awareness" -> "higher self-consciousness" -> "higher anxiety" -> "more likely to develop depression". Intelligence isn't a free ticket to success in all cases as it can also increase a persons level of emotional sensitivity and suffering which interferes with life progress.

The distinction is really arbitrary. The group of skills that we consider "intellectual" is just a random, culturally determined group of skills, not some kind of fundamental thing that makes people who are good at those things really really different from all other people.

Technically, of course "intellectual" Aspies are different because the world responds to them differently; but if you're asking whether there's anything about them that's significant, other than having lucked out with a group of skills that are useful for academics--then, no. They're not different.

Thanks for the video.

As a child I was placed into a gifted program at school and have always been considered highly intelligent. It's my opinion that that is why I've been able to recognize my "flaws" so to speak and adapt, even before I knew about AS. I'm not so sure that an aspie with a lower intelligence would have been as good with that.

I think that the absentminded professor is the archetypal intellectual with Aspergers. I fit in here myself. I forget to eat too. I also organize things in a manner that allows me to see them so that I do not forget them et cetera. I also got an M.A. in European history shortly after receiving this official diagnosis and history is a common interest for people with Aspergers.

In graduate school, I befriended the oldest faculty member in my department and I often visit him still. He lives on a small farm where peacocks freely range, he is developing a new breed of chicken and he has recently finished his sixty year translation of a Medieval German Epic poem. He is also the most knowledgeable member of the history department. This man knows ancient Greek and Roman history by the decade and that is not even his specialty.

We recognize in each other many of the same qualities that others might term "eccentric" or "obscure" and we both realize that there is something different that we have in common there.

It's not like Aspergers has not existed for the past thousands of years already.

Do you think it could have anything to do with upbringing? Some people are wrapped in cotton wool. Others have to learn to deal with the world at a very young age. This could trigger the brain to be more active throughout life?

<_< for some reason this thread seems narcissistic >_>

I guess it depends on what you mean by intellectual. If you mean academic, I'd say that's definitely arbitrary. If you mean tending towards idea-thought, I think that's something more substantially different between different people. At least tendency towards and away from it makes a big difference in my life.

I've told my mother that if it hadn't been for her in the first few years of my life, I probably would be some catatonic in a in institution somewhere. We lived on a farm in the middle of nowhere in rural Pennsylvania, and spent every second of every day together in a calm and controlled environment. She would read to me and teach me things. People told her my development wasn't normal, but she was really young, mostly uneducated, and I was her first child. Besides, Asperger's didn't really exist then.

Sometimes I wonder if I had been diagnosed as a child, I wouldn't have been held to such high standards, and wouldn't have developed my intellect as well. There was a lot of excuses made for my lack of social skills as a child, because I was gifted. For example: "She just can't relate to the other kids because she's so much smarter. Her interests are more advanced."
It's funny, I go to a support group for Autistic students at my college (and yes there are Autistic students as well as Asperger's), and there's a noticeable difference between the younger kids (under 25) who were diagnosed as children, and those who, like me, were diagnosed later. It seems like those diagnosed as kids have had the bar set lower for them, and have performed not quite as well despite ability. There also is less development with social skills and verbal communication. The older students seem to have developed more myriad talents like art and music or history, while those diagnosed as kids seem to have been ushered towards math, computers, science, things like that.

Don't get me wrong, going undiagnosed for most of my life was a terrible burden, and it wasn't until I discovered AS that I become functional to a high degree. I'm so grateful t finally understand myself and get the help I need. I just don't think I'd change the life I have had.

That's because it quickly devolved into a place for some people to raise their hands and say "me too, me too, I'm smart too, don't forget about me", and ceased to be a place where anyone bothers addressing the OP.

I am of the understanding that somewhat higher intelligence is a prerequisite to having an Asperger's diagnosis; whether or not it is documented that way. In reading through this forum since I joined, I have yet to find very many poorly written posts (assuming that English is the member's native language), as compared to any other forums to which I belong. Most questions here are very meaningful and intellectual, and when you consider the ages of many of our fellow members, it adds to my theory!

Charles

Interesting (and a bit troubling). I wonder if this is the cliche of Aspies loving tech being taken too seriously by special ed professionals resulting the younger ones getting pushed in that direction.

The users of WrongPlanet are not a random sample of the Asperger's population. They are self-selected as being A) comfortable writing, and B) technically proficient enough to use a computer and the internet.

Experience programming. It can be pernicious.

I can relate to what you are saying very well. I am 40 and have only begun getting a diagnosis. Lately I have been thinking how I would be different if this diagnosis happened in childhood. I reckon I would have been protected too much by my parents and siblings. So maybe I would not have been able to go out to work after finishing school. Plus I reckon all the things I have done in my life I would not have done and may be still sitting at home in my bedroom. But at the same time I wonder how it would have helped me too.

I don't know with me. I like to have friends, and anyone to appears to like me and asks for my number, I fill up with glee inside and my self-esteem increases a little bit. I like to be on my own sometimes when I'm at home, but I hate being on my own when I'm walking in the street, or when I'm at my volunteer job (I always like to work with others because I feel I can get on better, than when I'm working on my own). I like getting attention from men, and I'm good at flirting, but each time a man actually asks me out, I tend to panic and back away again. This might be due to my obsessions - I seem to be aiming more for a man I'm obsessed with, rather than just any man.

I'm not very clever for an Aspie. When I read other posts by Aspies, they always use good words, but I don't know the meanings to a lot of words, and so I just stick to basic words (which is why I can never win on some of these topics I have started, ie the ''Aspies Are Normal'' thread, or the ''Autism and AS are different'' thread - it's because I don't explain myself properly, then other Aspies come along and write in really good, convincing posts with good, convincing words, and leaves me confused). Anyway, enough with that. I'm not clever with maths either. I'm not particularly clever at anything really. I can play the piano, but only with one hand. I can draw, but only basic cartoon pictures with no background detail (I find it hard to get the perspectives right in the background). Even with my special interests (which is the weather) I still don't know much about it, even if I think I do.

And what else?
With the job hunting, I am NOT being lazy, but I seem to be more slower with looking for paid work because I don't have much confidence. But I can't talk about that on here because I get replies saying ''don't live on benefits all your life - get a life - finding a job doesn't involve confidence.....'' and all that crap. So I'm not going to get started with arguments over the economy.

So what sort of Aspie am I?

You don't need to categorize yourself. It doesn't accomplish anything. A lot of Aspies enjoy categorizing and a lot enjoy verbal sparring when in written form. There is no reason to let either get you down or make you doubtful. We are all unique.