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jamieevren1210
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10 May 2012, 10:24 am

My social skills got magically better like league girl when i entered eighth grade, having transferred to another school. But I've got plenty of comorbids and I'm 2E( twice exceptional).
I have:
Aspergers(dxed)
ADHD(pretty certain self dx)
Bipolar(mild)
I'm highly gifted. Trust me this is no good once you're over a certain iq threshold.
I'm genderqueer and bisexual/asexual.
And I'm a teen living in taiwan under tremendous academic stress.

I am currently lower functioning than before.

Sorry, a bit derailed.


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Oldout
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10 May 2012, 10:24 am

My shrink admits he doesn't understand AS. Then he writes to Social Security that I might have AS, but it's mild and doesn't affect my life. You cannot imagine my response when I found out. I keep thinking why can't I be obviously ______________ like all the other disabled people.



Joe90
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10 May 2012, 11:42 am

I was diagnosed with mild AS, which is pretty accurate for me as an individual. I have normal self-awareness to the extent most people have, and I can observe and pick up on typical NT behaviour, which has helped an awful lot growing up.

I can also pass off as NT, maybe I do sometimes slip out something that is odd, or I may say things in a way that makes me sound a bit odd which I can't seem to help, but I know immediately afterwards if I have said something odd. I am also good at picking up on what other people think of me, I don't know how, it's just something that I can sense. If somebody likes me for what I am, I know that they like me for what I am. If somebody is being nice but thinks I'm not their type, I can also pick up on that. And usually I am right with this.

Also I can generally relate to other people quite well. They can say something and I can totally agree one hundred percent and can even delve myself down into their feelings and really know what they mean. I can also express my feelings.

And, although the fashion trends annoy me, I still know how to dress in a way that is not considered unusual or funny when I go out. I don't go over the top, but I like to know I look reasonable, which I always do. Also I don't hold an unusual posture, and I don't do other signifficantly unusual habits what would make people single me out (this is why I get so mad when people stare at me funny or laugh at me in public).

I also don't like to be different. When I feel different or unusual, I feel uncomfortable, and get sensitive to other people's reactions against me, so I do try to fit in as much as possible, and some of it comes naturally too. So I'm not completely different, some ''normal'' things that I do are what I intend to do naturally.

And lastly, I can be independant. Well, I do struggle at some things like getting a job, but I know it is due to lack of confidence and anxiety, because once I get a head start on trying new things I can become more confident at it and can handle it well. If it's something that I can't handle very well then I won't, but I've found that everybody is like that to a degree. Not all NTs are good at everything and they don't all have this super special skill where they can stick everything out no matter how much torture it is to them.

And my AS never showed when I was under 4 years old. I was a typical baby, never had any unusual behaviour that stood out among other toddlers, and my AS only showed after I started school at 4 years old. And as a child I was quite typical, the only thing that wasn't typical of me was having temper tantrums after the age where most children grow out of it (involving kicking and screaming and going absolutely crazy at such trivial things what other children wouldn't worry about any more).


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Joe90
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10 May 2012, 11:59 am

Quote:
Yeah, I agree; sometimes life is most stressful for people who are closest to NT, because they have less assistance, but still have to try to make up for being in the lowest ~5% on all the things that autism makes it harder to learn, like face-reading, conversations, self-regulation, etc. And they are the least obviously autistic, so that people give them less room to make mistakes and less forgiveness when they make them.


This also.
I feel miserable because I am never locked in my own world. I have the same awareness of what is going on around me than what everyone else has. I care too much, that is my problem. I take in too much of what all my cousins are doing, and then start getting all jealous and upset with myself and start pining to be like them and have better social skills and be able to do more with my life without becoming anxious about people. It would be nice to feel excited before attending a social event, instead of nervous and reluctant to go.

Coming from a family who are all NTs does make you feel worthless, and also makes you feel more disabled than what you really are. I know my cousins haven't got better lives than I've got, and they all have their own problems and some have even faced bullying and other forms of social rejection in their lives, but they seemed to have overcome it and have now made new friends and are just getting on socially better than I ever will, and it panics me because I wonder what this would mean to me later on in life.


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Robdemanc
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10 May 2012, 12:18 pm

I was told I was mild because I have had jobs and have had a relationship. I was told that more severe would mean I would not have been able to have a relationship or a job. However, it is no secret that relationships can develop purely because someone fancies you. And you can get a job simply because the interveiwer likes the way you look.

If I had never been able to get a job after leaving school, and nobody had ever asked me out then would that make me severe?

Yes you are right, it is superficial NT criteria that decides. How well can we fit into this NT world.

But what if a person was very ugly and was never asked out, or never offered a job. Would that mean they are autistic? Even if they have no autistic traits? Or would the NT world make up another syndrome for them?



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10 May 2012, 1:10 pm

What I've ran into is 'but you seem too intelligent.' like I can't possibly be struggling because I seem intelligent. If anything I feel that makes it harder.


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10 May 2012, 1:34 pm

Based on how well I function in the NT world, I have been severe and moderate and mild and moderate and mild and moderate and severe and moderate during different periods of my life. I started out severe in childhood, but autism did not hamper my intellectual development, or perhaps even enhanced it, so I learned well in my own ways from birth, and I learned a lot in school, and I learned to speak and communicate, and I learned moar and faster after that, and I learned enough social stuff to get by during my teenage years, and I ended up appearing mild as a young adult. Or perhaps it is moar accurate to say that I became very high-functioning without being mild to begin with. It is hard to say that I was born with mild autism based on my childhood history. Anyway, probably because I became very high-functioning without being mild, I ended up burning out for awhile, and I did not appear at all mild or high-functioning during that time. I recovered from the burnout, and I guess that I now appear moderate when I behave mostly naturally like myself and take many measures to avoid burnout in the future.



Joe90
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10 May 2012, 2:04 pm

Sweetleaf wrote:
What I've ran into is 'but you seem too intelligent.' like I can't possibly be struggling because I seem intelligent. If anything I feel that makes it harder.


Yes it does make it harder in a way, because people think that just because you are averagely intelligent or over averagely intelligent it means you can get along socially aswell and will have no problem in doing things that involve social activity like getting a job in retail and having to deal with people all day (not saying no Aspie can do that, but for me that is hard, even though my intelligence is average and I'm high-functioning and mild).

I can't get the support I need because of my intelligence being average. I think the government only thinks every single person in this world who has intelligence that is above average or over will do perfectly in society and has no problems with the social part of life. People don't seem to realise that having social deficits can cause just as much barriers as being someone with a low IQ, if not more barriers, because social interaction makes the world go round.


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10 May 2012, 3:08 pm

Having mild asperger's..well they diagnosed me as that. I don't get it. I get really bad at times and would seem completely normal at others.
I wouldn't know about being "too pretty" to be an aspie but definitely if your physical appearance doesn't match that of what is perceived to be a severely mentally disabled person they tend to just dismiss you or think you have a "mild" case or whatever the heck that means.



Jarax
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27 Nov 2013, 12:13 am

For me, having mild Asperger's is frustrating because I can be so normal and responsive with certain people, particularly family and adults, but still fail to keep friendships going with peers. Is it an inability to reach out based on lack of knowledge on how to go about it? Why is this a problem for me if I'm normal and have good social skills?...what am I missing in my brain that allows this to work? Frustrating...



pensieve
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27 Nov 2013, 2:37 am

Sounds like something I could never experience. I'm not sure though. I have a lot of co-morbids so it's hard to know if I wouldn't have such a hard time if I just had Asperger's. One problem I have always had has been an extreme fear of change and I still go through it. I react with anger when my routine is disrupted, need order to function and still don't know how to have a conversation, even if I've learned the structure of it. I've got some crippling sensory sensitivity too.

I don't think I can hide my AS. My stims are obvious and sometimes my whole body just changes in overwhelming environments. I can't work because of a mood disorder, plus I have all the usual thought processes one with AS has, and that causes a lot of miscommunication.


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naturalplastic
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27 Nov 2013, 6:37 am

Poke wrote:
"Mild Asperger's" is a funny expression. Kinda like, "tall m***et"


Exactly.

Aspergers is already the high end of the autism scale.
Not going to get into whether the DSM was right in eliminating aspergers or not, but everyone can agree that aspergers is a type of high functioning autism. So to label someone as having 'mild aspergers' is basically saying that you're "'a high functioning high functioning autistic', as opposed to an 'average functioning high functioning autistic'" which is like saying "giant giant dwarf" as oppsosed to "an averge giant dwarf".



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27 Nov 2013, 6:52 am

Perhaps it is something close to BAP area, which is the "outer" end of the spectrum, where people doesn´t have enough traits to qualify for a diagnosis, but still have enough traits to experience problems for which they should have had some help all along.


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schnozzles
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27 Nov 2013, 9:15 am

naturalplastic wrote:
Poke wrote:
"Mild Asperger's" is a funny expression. Kinda like, "tall m***et"


Exactly.

Aspergers is already the high end of the autism scale.
Not going to get into whether the DSM was right in eliminating aspergers or not, but everyone can agree that aspergers is a type of high functioning autism. So to label someone as having 'mild aspergers' is basically saying that you're "'a high functioning high functioning autistic', as opposed to an 'average functioning high functioning autistic'" which is like saying "giant giant dwarf" as oppsosed to "an averge giant dwarf".


Yep, that's pretty much what I was going say, only you put it better.

The way it's been described to me is that it's a spectrum that everyone is on, even NTs. People with one or two traits would probably be classed as NT with quirks. Then you get more and more quirks to the point where there are so many traits that they can totally get in the way of every day life without specialist care and help. I guess from that perspective "mild" would be enough traits for it to get in the way but not so many that we cease functioning altogether.

Incidentally I find plastered walls feel nicer against my forehead than wallpaper. Glass windows are nice too. Haven't done that for a long time but now that I've remembered the sensation the ceramic tiles in my bathroom are calling to me...