Are you AS or MILD AS?

Post Reply New Topic

Hello Melissa,

I can relate to this. I too have a specialist area of work and can see that in order to develop my business I will need to bring in people who do the things I cant.

This is true of most entrepreneurs but in our case, the one area where we consistently need input is the social element of our business.

Congratulations with your endevours.

Hello Boomshika,

I wanted to comment on your lovely photo last week, when you welcomed me in the 'getting to know each other' forum but..........

Now that Greentea has broken the ice I dont feel (quite) so awkward.........

Last edited by Blindspot149 on 11 Oct 2009, 11:40 pm, edited 2 times in total.

My AS is certainly not mild. It is moderate to severe.

I feel like mine is just plain ol' AS. The core features of social difficulty + obsessive-ness have certainly impacted my life in ways that are far beyond what i'd call "mild," but i still function very well in a lot of ways. I mean, i sometimes have trouble communicating *effectively,* but unless i'm very stressed or upset i can communicate with other people well enough, and i can drive, work, and go places on my own. But my AS-related traits do still cause difficulties for me every day. Some features are mild, some are more severe, and i think it evens out to somewhere in the middle of the road. I'd agree with most that even within AS there is a very obvious spectrum, but not something as simple as a straight line from "mild" to "severe," but that includes a bunch of related traits that can all individually range from mild to severe and can manifest in different ways. I mean, you take one aspie and they keep everything they own in a very specific order and well-organized or else they get frustrated and confused, and you take another aspie and they can't organize a binder for one class in school to save their life. The first probably has a more severe need for order and the second probably has more severe executive functioning deficits, but both could be of a similar level of functioning and be well within the diagnostic criteria of AS.

For me, my natural social skills when it comes to making and keeping friends are pretty much nonexistant, although i've improved significantly since i was a kid and can now initiate conversations(although somewhat repetitive) without much trouble, and i can interact well in a structured environment where the expectations are clear-cut. I even have a few "peer" friendships now, although none of them are to the level that most people have in friendships, where we actually hang out and stuff. In conversations, i try to remember to ask people about themselves, but i usually do fall back into talking about myself and/or my interests mostly, and sometimes don't remember to greet people back when they greet me(i thought i had mostly gotten over that as a kid, but people at work have told me that i still don't always respond when someone says hi to me). And, even though i have a job, i constantly require extra clarification and assistance with making decisions when something unusual comes up(kind of get treated like a kid sometimes, even by people who haven't been working there nearly as long as i have and are around my age). I also have a hard time with basic living things like making appointments, and my mom almost always either makes those kind of phone calls for me or walks me carefully through what to say beforehand. A lot of aspies on here seem to be much more independent, so i'd say that a lot of that can range from moderate to severe for me. But then, i only have mild-ish sensory issues. I have more than some aspies out there, i can get overloaded and i can overreact to certain things.. Some things like sudden loud noises or someone touching me when i don't expect it are about as pleasant as getting punched, but most of the time i can take it. Having a hard time hearing what people say over noise or when they whisper or something is hard, though. One very mild thing for me is that i'm not clumsy in the same ways most aspies are. I do have noticeable problems with posture, and people say that i'm very "stiff" most of the time with my movements and they have since i was a kid... My handwriting also sucks and lacks any kind of personality. And, yes, i do often run into things when i'm not thinking about where i'm walking... BUT, when i'm actually thinking about what i'm doing, my body control isn't bad at all. I walked early, i always caught myself when i fell as a kid, i could ride a bike, and i have pretty good balance. I loved to climb on most anything and everything i was allowed to climb on as a kid. I suck at most sports(did well in taekwondo as a kid, though), but i can do simple things like kick a ball or catch something that's thrown at me fine. When it comes to repetition and obsession, my need for ritual or routine is very mild. I do like to know what's going to happen and to at least have a mental plan in place for *certain things*... But, for the most part, my executive dysfunction overshadows any kind of need for order i have in my life. Most things are an unorganized mess with me. If i'm used to a certain way of something happening and it happens a different way it is definitely going to cause a little confusion for me, though. As far as "special interests," my thoughts are very obsessive. In any given chunk of time in my life, there is always something or other that is dominating the majority of my thoughts and this is extremely apparent to family members, and sometimes even to people i just know a little bit from work or school. These days i also stim like crazy. Sooooo, it's a mix of all kinds of levels of functioning for different traits.

Some strange stuff here!
How come someone said that they were only a few years older than a 16 year old, Greengrrl, and now talk about their more than 40 years............

DSM V AS or no AS......how will it change who we are?

What will it change?

No AS might change the amout of funding into research on AS!
Who will lose out? Those earning money by doing research!

Irrespective those of us who are aspies will still be aspies, those interested in continuing with doing work on AS, such as Tony Attwood, will continue to do so I would be bold enough to presume.
Regarding financial help for having a disability..... it is not necessary to be defined by DSM 1V . The resultant effects of AS on the individual may qualify one for benefits.....depending upon which country one lives.

AS isn't like Limbo! Limbo was a state of existence for the unbaptised soul.....purely an invented state.
AS is not an invented state of existence.
The state of Limbo has been removed from the Church's dogma.

If AS is removed from DSM V it cannot cease to exist per se.
Reclassification would be necessary........ maybe under medical/ neurological rather than Psychiatric Medicine.
I'm aware that my wording is somewhat clumsy at the moment but I'm sure that those of you wish to follow my train of thought will do so.....I'm rather tired and being quite obsessive by not letting go of this topic!

I characterize my AS as being a moderate level. I am "mild" if you only consider social deficits. I hate socializing, but I can "fake" it and appear "normal." However, my special interests and sensory issues and some other factors of AS are very severe. So, I consider it to balance out and be "moderate." People who don't know me well think I'm mild, though, just because they are so used to hearing of AS as being strictly a problem with social issues. But when you get to know me, my AS becomes very obvious.
-OddDuckNash99-

i was diagnosed AS after 19 years of having an HFA diagnosis. i was 3 when i was diagnosed HFA, and it was 1994 when i got diagnosed AS.

the only reason i am classified as AS is that my intelligence is above average and i can calculate how to cope with the world i see.

it is a matter of functioning. i can not relate in any way to people in general, and so in that manner i am severely autistic.
but i can easily do some things that they find hard to do, so i find secure employment.

sometimes i have to physically travel to work to solve some issue they have (i normally work from home)

at work, when people talk of their children, or their ideas for their future, or their gripes about their world - i pay no attention because if i do, then i feel hurt in the brain. it is just a jumbled code that people live by, and i can not decipher it, and it hurts my brain to try to understand their codes of understanding.

i just tell them to get to the point because i am only there to solve a problem and not to make "friends".

they think i am mentally defective due to the obviousness of my extreme "arrogance", and they need to be told i am autistic by HR so they will not fly off their handles.

i am not arrogant at all. i am just not interested in anything else than why i had to go to the office in person. it is a hassle to go to the office!

the resident psychologist at the company thinks i am quite autistic (<AS) and i should be treated carefully. he is a fool. i just must be given correct data and i will not present any problems.

whatever. i am aimless in my post so i will say i am severe AS and probably often HFA.

I chose mild AS. In the midst of my most severe symptoms, it certainly doesn't feel mild.. however, I consider myself milder due to the fact that I've been at the same mundane job for almost 10 years, so at least I'm employed and able to earn some sort of income on my own (not a lot of one, it's part time work). I'm in a relationship (albeit severely dysfunctional by normal standards) for 13 years. I have a son, and although he struggles on a daily, sometimes hourly basis, and although our sensory issues sometimes clash severely, he is without a doubt the light of my life! At least 5 times a day someone will look at me like they just don't 'get' me, but I still manage to communicate. All of these things make me feel as if I'm doing at least half ok.

A lot of NT people I know would look at my life and perhaps think it sucks, which sometimes it does, and I've been told by the same people (who obviously don't know me very well) that I'm an underachiever, how could I be so intelligent, yet not aim for the stars??? Little do they know, intelligence has nothing to do with the things that hold me back, and if they lived a day in my life, they'd certainly know that I'm achieving much more than they can percieve.

Most people would not suspect I have AS unless they were familiar with the condition.

If a person can put together two sentences on a topic that it 'mildy' (here we go again) intellectual (or a thesis on our chosen specialist area) we are consider very clever and so we cant be impaired can we?

Closest acquaintance didn't have a clue?

They wouldnt feel sorry for me either other than perhaps some 'pity' over my lack of friends (or perhaps more importantly my lack of a 'social' life).

A lot of people do consider me weird, from their comments

'some people think you are very intense'



'why aren't you looking at me......again'

'I was just asking a question, I didnt want a speech/lecture'

and the one that always make me feel like a complete idiot.....

'That was a rhetorical question' or worse yet, they let me run on into the finer workings of agricultural output in Brazil.

I have AS and I am able to function in the world though adaption (independent consultant, highly specialized field NO team work)

With a more middle of the bell curve IQ I have no doubt that I would be far more frustrated and prone to outbursts than I am.

Blindspot149, you seem pretty hung up on your IQ!

Why?

Yes good point.

Growing up my IQ was my only source of self esteem.

It was all I had and scoring top marks in everything was an absolute, black and white, unlike the social grey stuff that I flunked at anyway.

As a teenager, I happened to develop athletically to the extent that this also added to my self esteem but all of my athletic pursuits were solo; running, swimming.......


Clinical psychologists have commented that to over come my difficulties, particularly attention isssues, would have required a lot of intellectual work and that it probably would have been harder without the 'IQ'

I dont know what kind of state I would be in today if I had been closer to the middle of the bell but I suspect I would not have achieved quite so much as I have.

Infact the more I think of this and the more I see people posting that AS is very debilitating, the more grateful I am for my lottery ticket.

Sorry if the IQ references are annoying (to anyone). I dont see much written about it although there is a thread about raising IQ (that I didnt start)

Should I keep it quiet from now on? I ask this because as an Aspie my perspective on what I say (and my special interests) is not always clear and objective.


Thanks in advance for your advice

Your behavior seems very similar to mine. Also my high IQ is what "removed" the need of a DX in my childhood. Psycologist always said "he is just too much intelligent to behave like a normal child".

i'm surprised no one else commented on this .. how many people with AS are impaired enough to be unable to drive or unable to go somewhere alone? isn't this a really narrow (and possibly very inaccurate) diagnostic criterion?

Well, here's the weirdness of it.

I have some skills that people would say, by their very presence, made me high-functioning. But those same people are the people who don't believe me when I say I have deficits that they attribute only to those they call low-functioning. There is really no way to say "mild or severe"... because it is both, depending on how you measure it.

As far as everyday things go, I'm pretty far behind the NTs. Still can't do some of the things an NT child can easily do.

On the other hand, I can do stuff that NT adults don't even know exists to be done.

I find this problem very annoying because people keep expecting me to do things I can't do, and then they won't believe me when i say I can't do them until I break down trying... which I think is happening right now and nobody will believe me, all because of my stupid GPA and my stupid IQ test.

I must admit to having a skeptic flag pop up when I see claims of mild-AS.

If the claim is made in a sense that it suggests trying to identify what some see as positive benefits of having AS, while downplaying the negative aspects which are actually fundamental parts of what autism is... yeahhhh, not my place to rail at them, but it doesn't help my case to be lumped in with that sort of self-diagnosis behavior.

I'm an extremely logical, scientifically minded person, who honestly went through and catalogued examples of instances, behaviors, questions, and whatnot that I've been through, then considered what did or did not fit the hypothesis that I have AS.

I didn't take to the idea so I could claim I'm super good at math, or to make myself feel better about being shy, you can be shy, or a math whiz, without being AS.

You can be pedantic, excessively literal, and possess many of the traits associated with the distorder, without being AS.

You can't actually be AS without exhibiting development impairment in certain key areas, the same type of impairment as HFA generally, which suggests that AS is nothing but a flavor of HFA.

I am high functioning, but autistic in some ways, by definition I am HFA, I just happened to fit certain AS stereotypical traits exactly, so I felt that explained the most phenomena, while raising the least questions.

Occam for the win.