Ahh... PDD-NOS and Asperger's?

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Having done research on Aspie symptoms and finding how I don't exactly match a lot of them anymore, I did brief research on PDD-NOS and upon finding how it was basically just mild autism that could be manifested in a vast variety of ways, I thought maybe my problem was PDD-NOS instead.
But then I did more research on common symptoms of PDD-NOS and found I didn't match a lot more of those...

So a bit like the difference between asperger's and ADHD. What's the difference between PDD-NOS and Asperger's? I'd hate to go on confused with what my problem is until I get an official diagnosis on my own.

PDD-NOS is: You clearly have autism but you don't meet the criteria for a specific condition. It may or may not be mild (but then AS may or may not be mild).

AS does not have a language delay, PDD-NOS, like the previous poster said, seems to have austim but doesn't meet the criteria 100%. with or without language delay. I'm not totally sure if the language delay is the only thing that distinguishes the two. My son is more AS like than PDD, but since he had the language delay he was diagnosed PDD.

Autistic disorder and PDD-NOS do not require language delays, and technically speaking someone without language delays can meet the criteria for autistic disorder (and if they do, they should be diagnosed with that). Practically speaking, if someone didn't have language delays (and occasionally even if they did but seem to have adapted well) they'll probably be diagnosed AS.

It was my understanding that it was all going to be lumped together eventually...I think I count as PDD-NOS...even though I was assessed as having Asperger's...I may or may not have have had a speech delay...I think I was able to get out of my parents that I didn;t really start talking till 3..which might count as speech delay...I skipped the babbly phase and went right into sentences...one of my first words was energy....

Anywhoo...there are certain ways in which I do not fit the criteria for "Asperger's"...but plenty of ways in which I manifest undeniable autistic symptoms...

When hanging out with the AS group I used to hang out with...I SEEMED somewhere between or off to the side from Aspies and the HFA folk...it is hard to explain...but we were all very different from one-another...and we are all individuals...not just the labels for our neuro-idiosyncrasies....

There are things of which I had an understanding that some of the others didn't...ways in which I am completely dysfunctional, where some of them did not have difficulties..

Some of them were more social and talkative than I was comfortable being...

Many were a lot smarter than me..but I compensated in different ways..as I am on the extreme right-brained side of things..so I had insight into some things that might be more "abstract" for some of the more rigid Left Brained aspies to grasp....

I am rigid in some ways, but my rigidity is different from that of the "Left Brained" Aspie type..
or maybe something has to do with the fact that I am female and females "present" differently....

or..um..especially super-right-brained Autistic-spectrumy females...

Clicking the following links automatically redirects to the DSM-V proposed changes for each of these, so you'll have to click the "DSM-IV" tab above the descriptions to get the current criteria.

Autism: http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevisions/P ... px?rid=94#

Asperger Syndrome: http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevisions/P ... px?rid=97#

PDD-NOS: http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevisions/P ... px?rid=98#

Click this sentence for something I wrote detailing exactly what PDDNOS does and doesn't mean officially under current criteria.

Someone in this thread (I didn't check the name) was talking about how they seemed different than others in a support group.

In response to that I would just caution you not to use the existing diagnoses as a good way to categorize the subtypes of autism that you can detect just from everyone's personal experience of how you differ. They weren't written with that in mind, and given that there's dozens or maybe hundreds of the real-experience subtypes, and if you stretch it you only get maybe... AS, HFA, MFA, LFA, and PDDNOS, you just can't make five official (or official-ish if you count functioning levels) subtypes do the work for categorizing dozens or hundreds of real-life-experience subtypes.

As an example my official label is autistic disorder. (Not any functioning label generally added. But sometimes they'll say severe or something over my objections.) I am different from most online autistic people (and from most people who come to conventions or support groups) regardless of diagnosis. But a small number are similar to me. And those people have seriously received all five of the possible labels -- AS, HFA, MFA, LFA, and PDDNOS. So I don't feel like my official labels really have any bearing on whether someone is like me or not. (AS may be slightly unlikely but far from unheard of, the person more like me than anyone in the world has been diagnosed as both AS and PDDNOS although she probably meets autism criteria too (there's just a bias away from autism and towards AS when diagnosing adults).

I was diagnosed first with Aspergers, then PDD NOS. Other than a speech delay until age 4, I seem to fit the other criteria for Aspergers. I didn't question the diagnosing doctor on this, though, so there may be other elements involved that I don't notice about myself, that he observed.

My understanding my PDD-NOS is that you have autistic symptoms, but don't meet criteria for any disorders. It can be very mild (Like between NT and AS) or very severe.

I am diagnosed with it and don't have a speech delay.