Am I Not Like Most Aspies?

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Some of the stuff here and on other forums for people with Asperger's syndrome, I can relate to; but a lot of it, I can't. This talk of being unable to understand one's emotions is completely alien to me, and so are the lack of desire for regular social interaction and major sensory integration problems. Many aspies seem to have a pedantic interpretation of the world around them; I take a more satirizing, humorous approach. I'm not very interested at all in things like mathematics, engineering, physics, and such. In fact, I seem to be more of a generalizing thinker than a specifying thinker.

I view Asperger's syndrome primarily as a socialization deficit with associated anxiety and low self-esteem. Others do not. I sometimes wonder if perhaps I was misdiagnosed by overzealous diagnosticians with a confirmation bias. I seem to fit the criteria for avoidant personality disorder and social phobia - generalized type pretty well. Maybe they were mistaken? On the other hand, I do have some relatively minor hypersensitivities and definite obsessions. However, I can understand how people's minds work fairly well--or so I think--but I just screw up because of low self-confidence and anxiety.

The way you put it here, it does sound like social anxiety, but the question is where the social anxiety comes from...

When i'm with poeple, i don't know what to do, where to look, where to stand, i don't know how to act, how to react.... This is a bit normal when one is with someone he doesn't know and he feels intimidated. It becomes more an "aspie trait" when one still feels like that with poeple who he knows well, even with family. well... that's my case

I just read echospectra's reply.... social anxiety ? Is that a diagnostic on his own ?

Another Aspie specific thing (i think), is during conversation in a group, you don't know where it goes, you can't anticipate one's answer, you just can't tell what's the link between all the single element of the conversation, it seems that they are changing subject every 2 sentences, there is a rhythm everyone is following to take thier turn to talk and the conversation is fluid, until you say something, it seems to break the rhythm and everyone stops and look at you and wait to try to comprehend what you say and they don't, so after that silence (where you would just want to disapear) they just resume where they were.....

I think the social anxiety can affect self esteem, but I definitley do not think it is a seperate trait.

I think i'm different from alot of aspies because I find it easy to see through people.

many of the "social skills" aspies lack or find difficult can be learned, as can some aspects of "theory of mind". it can take years of observation, study, research, of course. i have studied psychology, particularly behavioural psychology, and "how people work" for so many years that mostly, i have an understanding of people which far outreaches that of most NTs, to the point where i am a skilled counsellor/behavioural psychologist (until it comes to personal rather than professional interactions with people ). of course, i then have to REMEMBER to apply this learning, which NTs do instinctively.

it can be done, folks. not by everyone, necessarily, at least not to the same degree. but it's hard work.

i feel the same way towards people on this board as the people on this board feel towards nt's. i cant for the life of me work out how people have jobs and go to university? even have friends! i posted something like this on another forum and got a s**t load of abuse

I think I'm different from a lot of the aspies here too. But that is to be expected - we come from widely varied backgrounds and age groups. My view is that autism affects us all at the neuro-biological level, meaning our bodies are fundamentally different from NTs at birth. As a result, our behavior is going to be different from NTs, but also different from each other given variations in both how autism is expressed and how we react to it.

Every minority group develops stereotypes that individuals within the group identify themselves with (or don't and feel more alienated).

I experienced something similar in the gay world, where I didn't 'fit' the stereotypes yet there was no doubt about my sexual orientation. IMHO, we're in a big tent with plenty of room for everybody on the autism spectrum to be comfortable, accepted, and valued. I hate feeling left out - who does?

I know what you mean- Im terrible at maths, can't work computers and I do have a reasonable theory of mind. As opposed to not being able to work out emotions I frequently feel overwelming empathy with the person to the point I feel it more strongly than they do. I dont have a logical mind but I do have terrible anxiety. I often wonder if I've been misdiagnosed as well...but ultimately I obviously did have enough traits to be considered an aspie.

I also take a satirical view on the world- probably because I gave up trying to take things seriously a while back.

i feel the same i cam rubbish @ wot ppl with as r ment 2 be gud @. my socail skills r getting better.
God Bless
Fiona

Is there a translation available for those of us who don't understand txt spk?

yeah here it is
i feel the same i cam rubbish at wot people with as are ment 2 be gud at. my socail skills are getting better.
God Bless
Fiona

It takes 5 times as long for me to read text speak than it does to read real words.

Happily, a contact has located a paper by Rosanoff in 1920, which is the earliest use of the word "autism" I've been able to locate (and well before Kanner/Asperger) and it may prove enlightening to the people who have posted in this thread. Unfortunately, it's an understanding of "autism" which is largely ignored nowadays (and completely so by the DSM) so many of you won't want to know about it.

You'll have to wait in any case (unless someone with access to a good library can beat me to it?) as it's coming by snail mail (and I'm away for Christmas).

Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater. -Albert Einstein