Very high functioning AS in denial -no I dont have aspergers

Post Reply New Topic

My family might have known before I did. I don't know for sure, though. They know now.
My personal opinion is that my mother was in denial and glossed over my issues because she thought it would take too much of her valuable time and might require more of her valuable money. So, she pretended everything was fine, my IQ was high and it would carry me through endless, agonizing hours of school. I didn't require any assistance and failings were due to laziness and personal shortcomings, or me not trying. She thought I could be remedied by being held back a grade when the last thing I wanted, at the time, was spending an extra year in a place I couldn't stand.

Theres 2 guys in my neighbourhood that have many symptoms of AS.

They are lost in humiliating confusion, depression and suicidal thoughts, unless someone like us WP aspie professors approaches them....

AND SO MANY HERE THINK THAT IS THE BEST THING TO DO IS TO JUST WALK AWAY????

The more I think of this the more it upsets me. I am openly disgusted in this collective rhetoric that increases the suffering of others

I only hope these people can learn to reach out and help these very HFA learn of their plight.

You could approach them, Surfman.

You know, there are ways to do this without trying to unprofessionally and possibly invasively diagnose them. I didn't see people advising "walking away."

You see, I mentioned a friend earlier in this thread who I think has AS. Yesterday she pretty much confirmed it (but still doesn't seem to know/suspect) and I told her to mention those things when she goes in to talk about ADHD.

But the thing is, that the news about ADHD has hit her pretty hard as it stands. She's not taking the news well and it's made her anxiety much worse. Do I just go ahead and pile more anxiety on because the "honest" thing to do is say, "what you just described is a common sign of autism" or do I go ahead as I did and just say "You should have that checked out?"

The thing is that you're arguing in favor of an approach that has outright failed as you outline in the first post. Why are you trying to defend something that didn't work out for you?

And what does VHFA mean?

Kids don't really have much of a choice when they go get tested and diagnosed. Also kids need a diagnoses to get the help and accomodations they need. I needed it for school so that was why I got diagnosed. Plus it did help my mother understand me better and it completed the puzzle for what was wrong with me. I think a official diagnoses isn't need for that but I needed one for school so I could get the education I needed. Maybe your mother did it for the same reason too. Society will not help childen nor give them what they need unless they have a label.

I remember I had an online friend and still do who was diagnosed with ADHD. I suspected AS in him long before we started talking because of the things he say about himself that were not ADHD traits but were aspie traits. When we started talking, he was saying his ADHD makes him be obsessed and focus on them and I told him that is not ADHD and that is Asperger's and said he could have it. Well he got tested for it and he had it. But I wasn't the first person to mention it to him. His aunt mentioned it to him who was a special ed teacher and she worked with aspie students. But back when she mentioned it to him, he didn't really care then and didn't think much of it. He had too many things going on back then so he didn't really want to focus on another thing that was wrong with him. To this day he still says I had helped him. After he found out he had it and got diagnosed, his life got better and now he is more social and outgoing and he goes to bars and drinks and talks to people. But his boss helped him out. But he had to quit his job recently due to a health problem with his back.

I assume it means "Very High Functioning Autism?"

I know that.

What is "very high functioning autism?"

It would be folks like Bill Gates who can makes tons of money, be mega successful while having autism.

High functioning autism I would assume. Maybe someone like John Robinson since he runs a business and maybe somoene like Temple Grandin since she does speeches on autism and is a college professor and you would never guess they have autism. Anyone who comes off as normal and doesn't look like they have anything wrong with them is very high functioning. New term I just learned.

Hmm, I find a category in which people aren't impaired by their autism to be kind of dubious. That's what "broad autistic phenotype" describes (but I already said that).

Making tons of money whilst sh*tting on everyone from a great height. He even tried to screw over his partner Paul Allen when he was ill with cancer. Is that being mega successful? If it is I don't want to be successful.

I received 0 accommodations at school, because I did not need any. I did very well academically, far beyond what most of my peers achieved.

I think you are being very rigid with your terminology expectations. Most people aren't aware of "broad autistic phenotype" and it was pretty obvious what he meant by very high functioning. It's an informal discussion- no one is suggesting putting it into the DSM

Yeah, that happens to me sometimes. I'd rather be rigid about terminology than some other possibilities, though.

I disagree with the usage. but it's not as if I can control whether people use it.

That's successful by society's standards and that's corporate cutthroat politics for you, autistic or not. It's a dog eat dog world, unfortunately.