Back To Being "NT"

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hmmm- i sucked at maths too.

you know NQ - i think you are just a big adorable softie hiding behind your gruff "big girl panties" exterior! i actually like reading your posts. see, some people actually find you ok, in spite of your constant oppositional defiance. have a drink for me..........

Now, millie: If you go and start seeing past my miserable reputation on this forum and see me for the great and amazing person I really am, I'mma have to find a new forum to go play on.
Yeah, I love playing into all the crap people post. Like any good troll I post crap just to irk people (sometimes)- and while I'm unashamed to admit it I am certain there are others doing exactly the same thing and in complete denial of it.

Well, the truth is, NQ, when i first arrived on WP - you nearly scared the crap out of me. and i am no pushover.... BUt i was at a complete low point in my life and off medication - which can really do me over. AND Wp was my first ever chat forum.

Then i checked out your pics and your photos you posted and thought - this guy is pretty well ok. he looks cool and if he makes quilts - well - he's creative and that means he is doing something to redress the rather imbalanced perception and belief that all people with AS are geeks and maths whizzes. (some aren't.....some are creative maths hating fiends.) Now that you have decided to swing back to NT, you've thrown my wish to redress the "geek" perception of AS, sky high and out of the water. i am devastated.

Then, after calming down from my initial terror of you, i decided quite definitely you were just a litte sweetie who loved getting a rise out of people. YES NQ - A LITTLE SWEETIE.
and then i took note of some of your political comments and thought - he is no faggot-hating right wing american boy, that one!

he might just be bent enough to mix in some of the bent cirlces i have been known to mix in, over the course of my life. ANd he has AS. very, very good.

by the way - what size are the big girl undies????

ego stroke for 2008 is now over.
let's get back to the gnashing of teeth.........................

Well yeah if you can't relate to aspies maybe your empathy is lacking. I do not relate well to most and am at great odds most the time but I think I am here to raise awareness and guide too. If you lack empathy it's easier to play the devil's advocate and get people to see what they aren't exactly...erm...seeing.

My own mother said I wasn't smart enough to have AS, and I have had a fairly regular life. I, however, am not a regular person. I have the same issues with education struggles, and for that reason I'm in a minimum wage job. My job requires me to be sociable too. It has helped me to understand people a lot more. I, too, value my friends, and love them deeply.

What exactly is your point? Just because you're doing ok in your life it means you don't have autism? Are we not allowed to have regular lives?

I often question what label I actually have, whether it's called Autistic Disorder, Asperger's Disorder, one of the various labels under PDD-NOS, Schizophrenia featuring predominately negative symptoms, Schizoid PD (contrary to popular belief, I've done some research and the outcome of those with Schizoid PD isn't that great in many cases, and it can be "lower-functioning" like the prior disorders).

I know I have some form of autism as the word and disorders are defined, i.e., "within self and cut-off from social influence".

Professionals think I have Autism or Asperger's (I have a couple of official labels), I think my mother thinks I have Schizophrenia in addition (I seem to be dwindling in functioning with age, much like someone with such).

O, and I have the full-disorder of OCD (official there), but that's more of a nuisance to me than something like the "autism" thingy above which greatly impacts my ability to function.

BOY, I don't know if you are being sarcastic or what. So what is MY take?

1. Nobody claimed to have "super human" IQs, and many take LONGER than 3 hours for a book, which depends on its length anyway.
2. How can you tell?
3. Can you give some examples?
4. OK, one point kind of against, but it IS relative.
5. Are you SURE?
6. I think that is more like a possible comorbid.

BTW I don't know much about the GED, I went through the normal program, but I HAVE known people that dropped out because they were bored, and went back to take the GED. I've been toying with getting the CLEPs(basically a kind of college equivalent of the GED, though they cover subjects instead of the whole.) I imagine a number of people here took the GED.

I took the GED without studying and not only passed but did pretty well, even on math. I knew someone who took it over and over and could not pass it. That amazes me. I can't understand how someone can keep failing that test it seemed so easy.

It depends on the book...Dr. Who books, Whatever for Dummies, etc., those take 3 hours. War and Peace, etc., are more like weeks...

Think; until you had a 'label', were you all that different from how you felt before? There's no 'punch list' of symptoms you have to or don't have to have to be AS or not. I have many of the symptoms to a lesser degree, but I have many of them. A lot I don't. But, as it's a spectrum, not a job description, it's not a matter of fitting in.

I don't hate people, I just feel like I'm on the bomb squad; every time I meet someone, is it the red wire or the blue one? Am I going to set someone off? Onesies and twosies I can handle, groups are harder to manage.

Instead of having an instinctual grasp of 'how to deal with people and situations', I have thousands of 'rules' to say or not say around them. As long as I'm on familiar ground, I can fake sincerity with the best of them...

According to the IQ tests around here, I'm about 130. I'm usually also the dumbest person in the thread, mainly because for people to consider IQ important, they're likely high IQ already. I'd happily shed a few points in the IQ side to boost the SQ (Social Quotient) side...

I've never considered the stimming (I had to have that explained to me), but mainly because I tap in drum rhythms (used to have 2 drum sets) on the wheel when somethings' good on is as close as I get . Weighted blankets...just never even thought of those...

Since I found out so late (49 years old or so), I've had to learn a lot of coping mechanisms on my own. Whether you are or aren't AS, that's something only you can know. hang in there.

First, isn't quilting your special interest?

Second, Aspies learn social skills and coping mechanisms over time. A lot of people on this forum are very young and have not learned as much as you have. Also, since a lot of people on this forum were diagnosed young, they have been sheltered to some extent. They were not thrown into the world to fend for themselves like we "pre-diagnosis" folks were. Sometimes you learn best when you have no other choice than to learn or you won't survive.

good point. us oldies were thrown to the wolves and have survived.

I hadn't thought of it all in quite that context before. Good points.
For me there was no label, there was no skill set outlined for me to learn, no therapy. It was fake it to make it or live under a bridge.

Ummm...you need about six or seven traits to be concidered on the spectrum -or something like that. Anyway, I have friends that I value also and Autism is a spectrum.

You will not fit all the steryotypes and neither will anyone else on this forum.

Reject the diagnosis?

After more than ten years, I've considered being re-evaluated -- not because I've changed, but because medical knowledge does -- yet I can't say I'd ever reject a diagnosis.

I haven't been officially diagnosed with anything, but I'm learning a great amount about myself and autism daily from reading this site.

If you were diagnosed by a doctor, you most likely do meet most of the criteria. Some Aspies do not realize that they are different from others until it is pointed out to them, while others feel extremely uncomfortable in social situations and have no idea what to say to strangers.

In response to the points you made:

1) The criteria for Asperger Syndrome lists "average to above average IQ". If you are able to use a computer to post on this forum without assistance, then you are within that range. Also, try put so much weight on your IQ in terms of what quality of life you could be having. Just be yourself - you have a great creative side that many highly intelligent people would only dream of having.

Personally, I don't know what my IQ is, nor do I want to know. It could be low; it could be average; it could be high. I'm only going to live once and that is the number I will have to live with, like it or not.

2) Many people with Asperger's don't like people, and the reasons that these Aspies give for this are usually much more complex than the simple fact that they are Aspies.

I don't like people because I like to be alone, and I don't get any sort of enjoyment when I'm around other people for prolonged periods of time.

3) Every person is unique, regardless of whether or not they have autism. Although there may be coincidences with life experiences of different members of this forum, the truth is that no two Aspies are the same.

4) Many Aspies have friends whom they are very loyal to. I believe that I have Asperger's, and I have several good friends whom I would not want to lose. The other problems that you mentioned can be learned skills for Aspies, like exchanging small talk. In addition, you may believe that you are making good small talk, but are in fact scripting your conversations.

If every conversation you have goes somewhat like this:



I'd say you are an Aspie. Ask yourself this question - Does it feel more comfortable to lead the conversation or to answer the other's questions?


5) That is a common trait, not a requirement. Also, it's very possible that you had a special interest without realizing it. Take your quilting for example - do you often find yourself spending many hours quilting in preference of other activities? The books and pamphlets about AS like to express the very unusual cases such as where children memorize entire phone books and recite the contents to their relatives. In reality, special interests can be about anything - normal for the age level or completely abnormal.

6) You don't have to be autistic to resent a physician.

This is a good description. (Mission Impossible music going through head.)