Is everyone on the spectrum?

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Yes, I like this video too. If anyone claims to be "a little bit autistic" they will be sent a link to this one. I wonder what their answer would be if asked "Have you ever wondered if you were on the wrong planet". Or is it a bad idea to ask that question, since they may think you mean it in a delusional sense.

I've not been assessed yet so I could go either way. When I joined this site I wanted to ask a single question. I had several people over the years tell me I had aspergers or was autistic and I honestly thought they were having me on. I have a sense of humour so I assumed they were pranking me.
But for years and years. Actually since about the tail end of the age of six, I have had issues with my body kind of collapsing on me. I called it energy loss because when it hit, I seemed to loose the ability to power my muscles. It usually came when I was under stress.
Anyway, I had somehow stumbled myself onto a youtube loop of a few days of madly researching another trait I have which is prosopragnosia, or faceblindness. My Mum has it as well, and it has led to many embrarissing situations.
Now while researching.. If I latch onto a subject I go all out! But during this research a youtube film called "Ask An Autistic" kept coming up which I ignored. But on the third day I had exhausted every single other youtube video on faceblindness, and so this "Ask An Autistic" was left. I was soo hooked on what the lady said and it made sense to me, I started watching all the other videos she had made. I was half embarissed as I didn't think I could be autistic... But somehow some of what she said was making sense. I could not work it out. And what she said about meltdowns somehow indirectly made sense to the energy loss situations I was getting, but they were not the same.
Well. A couple of years prior to this I had been dating a lady with aspergers, and I could not make sense of what aspergers was as her attempts to try to describe it to me seemed like normal every day life... She had me try a simple online test and it said to see a doctor or a health professional as the results showed that I was around boarderline of having it. (I said "No" when it asked me things I didn't understand. When I later understood and tried the test after joining here I ad a higher result).
So for a couple of years I was trying to pluck up the courage to casually ask if it was possible I had aspergers syndrome but every time I went to ask my local GP, I would clam up. My mind would go blank.
So after these "Ask An Autistic" films, I was determined to find out as the wierd way I would collapse out was effecting my life and my ability to work.. Incase I clammed up I took my Mum in with me so she could ask if I couldn't. My Mum didn't think I have autism, but se was willing to speak up if I couldn't.
Somehow I managed to ask one of the doctors in my surgery, and I expected an on the spot "Yes or no" answer.
I found that I was referred to the specialist autism team to see if I was eligable to go on their list, and I was told by the doctor that she very much doubted they would consider me. But they didconsider me and here I am.
I came here because I had asked if what I was experiencing could be meltdowns as somehow the triggers seemed to be the same. I have since found out that what I experience are partial and full shutdowns.
(I had previously spent years of diets assuming it was allergy related along with years if many other tests from diabetis to aids. Anything doctors in the past could think of)
So here I am!
But the question "Is everyone on the spectrum?" is also "Am I on the spectrum" are ones I can't really answer for sure as the lots of research I have done is almost overflowing out my ears and there comes a point when I see soo many traits that I think "What is normal as surely every one else does this or that too?" It all gets confusing!
I have to step back and think logically again, and examine myself logically before I can examine others... But how can I examine others when I know how I think or feel, but to know how other people think or feel is impossible. I can't put my brain inside their heads! Haha!

Mountain goat, I really like a lot of Amethyst 's videos as well.

She explains things so simply and clearly. If there is something she has experienced herself, she has ways to explain it which make perfect sense. She is very helpful.
She has a real gift in her ability to describe her experiences and what the terms mean etc. I struggle to remember technical terms! It took me ages to remember prosopragnosia! My Mum and I were really surprized there was a technical word to describe faceblindness, and we were surprized to find we were not the only ones who have it!

it's a great question. In fact Autistic youtuber and therapist Carole Bird has a whole video about it. I will post it later. She talks about how that is the one single most important question and it is left out of every diagnostic and screening questionnaire. . But every single Autistic she has ever met and worked with, or spoken to, bar none, including myself, has literally felt like an actual alien and wondered if they were one because they struggled so much trying to fit into society and to be understood and to understand others and to have their needs met. If you can sincerely and genuinely answer that question with a desperate and relieving yes, 99% chance you are Autistic. You need to be assessed.

An interesting thing is that my Mum and I seem to operate along similar lines. We can and often talk to each other lengthy and deep conversations.
However, with other people including my Dad when he was alive, I could talk to them, but I could not somehow get deep connections in a conversational way. Ok, My Dad really loved me and I loved him, but somehow we were on different levels?
Now when I have been in school, college or a similar situation where I was in a group of people, I tended to feel very different. As if I am not human and everyone else is? Or it is as if I am treated like an animal somehow? People seem to talk to me as if I am a child? It is hard to describe. It is as if I feel that if I am in a work enviroment, I am never going to be considered for promotion somehow, or I never quite fit in as being "One of the boys".
It is hard to put my finger on anything specific as I could not find anything... But somehow I always felt that I was like an outsider. Almost like whatever I did I and however hard I worked, and even if I gave much better results, my work was never going to be satisfactory if I was in a group.
But put me on my own doing my own thing and at my own pace as if I was my own boss (Even though I am not any good at being my own boss so would likely need to have an employer) then I thrive.
My issue is that I go all out and burn myself out too quickly when I have an employer as I am always trying my best to please... But if I am self employed I just sit there and do nothing... Somehow I can't organize myself when I tried going self employed and I never had anything get off the ground.

So I am a bit of an odd catagory which doesn't seem to fit... Though I feel like my Mum and I (As we are very similar in the way we think and do things) are created for specific tasks and are not like anyone else on this planet.

Now occasionally I come across what I call as being "Interesting normal people" (I think the majority of peopel on this planet are not normal at all ) who I can talk and relate to. They are normally seen as "Odd" to most of society, but somehow I connect with them and I find them fascinating and to me are "Normal". It is hard to describe what I mean. Is like what I call "Normal" is reversed from what real normal people call normal. (I guess it is perspective?)

Anyway. I hope what I write makes sense and all is good.

You sound Autistic to me MG

I was thinking that because diagnosis is ultimately subjective it means there are lots of exceptions to the rules hence the rules are pseudorules and therefore the syndrome is a pseudosyndrome which means unlike let's say chromosome deficiency where there are much clearer borders (although there exists borderline cases) which ultimately leads to this: YOU DECIDE.

I don't think there are too many exceptions to the diagnostic rules if any. The manifestations of the criteria varies but you still have to fall within those variences to get a diagnosis. Most mental health diagnoses work the same way. ASD is neurological, not mental health but it is similar as far as this diagnostic question. And a complete ASD diagnostic procedure has many elements to it that are not subjective. I had to do tests that accurately measure brain processing speed and other things like that that are not subjectve. So an ASD diagnosis, when done thoroughly, is not only based on subjective evidence.

There is also such a thing like "schizophrenic autism" (mentioned for example here: https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10 ... 03157-e-77).

For me autism (not DSM-V position named autism spectrum disorder) can be just a single trait: pathological nonconformism. I think that it is very disordered symptom. People with it are not interested in adjusting to others, live in own way and are more or less asocial, typically have poor social skills regardless(?) of neurology.

The word autism may literally just mean "self-absorbtion".

I think that there is no such a thing like "social learning disability" or "socio-emotional learning disability". These conditions are pervasive developmental disorders according to me. Also "nonverbal learning disability" is not something like dyslexia or simple dyscalculia, even ADHD, it usually has to be in the same league of developmental disabilities with autism spectrum disorder. https://theneurotypical.com/myths-and-truths.html - interesting page, I think that these myths and informations apply also to a pervasive developmental disability which is misnamed as nonverbal learning disorder.

We have a term to describe this single trait “nonconformist”. Autism is a spectrum disorder/condition/personality type. I have seen too many posts here by very distressed people who want to engage socially but have difficulty or can’t. Some withdraw not out of pathological nonconformity but because after repeated failures they have given up. I am not saying there are not autistics who are natural born loners but they are a subtype of autistics.

I think that someone with pathological nonconformism syndrome (which is in my opinion a subtype of autism which should be better described) is not interested in normal social contact, that person might rather want to make others as own "clones", be one-sided in social interactions, talks excessively about his/her interests. This person is socially "odd" and especially nonverbal communication may be impaired.

Pathological nonconformism may be associated with many evil traits like egoism, cowardice, hedonism, laziness, egocentrism. But not with speech delay, idiosyncratic and very problematic sensory processing issues, need of sameness and reciprocity, lack of knowlegde that other persons do not think the same as I, poor verbal skills and speech delay.

Another type of autism is pathological demand avoidance, in it chances of getting diagnosis of PDD/ASD might be lower than in PNS, but neurological signs might be more visible in PDA than in PNS, like problems with speech (in PDA it is generally delayed).

What you are describing sounds like an adult version of Opposition Defiance Disorder. This gets dicey as describing people who think differently and who have a skeptical view of the world as mentally ill is an oft used technique to discredit such people.


While there is nothing in the DSM yet PDA is often viewed as distinct from autism but part of the spectrum.