What is PDD-NOS?

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Can anyone explain what this means, because I swear that on my papers this was listed and I heard "borderline" during the conversation with the doc and my mother...

Does it means that I show some but not all symptoms? That I pass as half normal and half autistic?

Sounds a lot like me. If I picture how I acted back in elementary school, that sounds very fitting...not totally unable to socialize, but still, different. And I will never forget the tornado siren meltdown (among other things, like fire alarms, but that was the worst one). What idiot thought it was a great idea to put a tornado siren IN the schoolyard, anyway?!

While I know I can't make a diagnosis like a professional could...this is the category in which I strongly suspect myself to fall. (Would that be a fair statement? I don't want to step on any toes or seem to be overreaching.)

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Official diagnosis: ADHD, synesthesia. Aspie quiz result (unofficial test): Like Frodo--I'm a halfling? 110/200 NT, 109/200 Aspie.

Yeah, reading through that that's almost exactly how I was, minus the hand flapping. Doing some research I know for a fact that I'm not lower functioning, but I can't say that it's Asperger's either. I can do small talk with little hesistation, I'm not intimidated by public places anymore and academics would not be a problem if I try hard enough (those darn video games were fun ), but I still have trouble getting the courage to go out and socialize like I want to. The loner label definitely applies here, and I'm not bothered by that like 90% of the time.

I can do small talk, but it feels like an acting job and not something that connects me to people, like a real, meaningful exchange of information and/or opinion does. Eye contact...I can make myself do it, but there is no doubt it is absolutely forced, like a box I check off in my head every so often. It is definitely NOT in my normal repertoire. I can interact, but the way I would describe my feeling is "permanently off-balance," unless I get into topics that are solid ground or I am with someone I've known for a long time.

I feel deeply for people--I misread them a lot, though...I suck at identifying sarcasm and I have a tendency to assume people are angry or upset when they're not. I also have trouble telling when I've gone "too far" with something in a conversation, although I think that at my age I've made progress from when I was younger.

And this is the biggest irony of all, and maybe the greatest indicator that I am indeed stuck "in between": I believe I may be called to be a minister, that I will become ordained and serve God. Maybe this will be in a congregation, even. But, I suspect I have some challenges I'll have to deal with if that's the case, because I know I'm not exactly like a lot of the people I'd be ministering through, although I can think through their situations. (Though I definitely wouldn't rule out "seminary professor" or "theologian" as my calling, either...and who knows, that might be the right balance?)

There's a strong sense that only a small number of people would like the "real me" if I let it all the way out. I have a fair idea of what parts of me aren't normal, and I can act, but it's not me.

I do find I seem to be an Aspie magnet, when I'm in other venues, and someone made the observation that sometimes like attracts like. Not sure how valid that is--certainly not proof of anything--but I do suspect I've had at least a few Aspie friends where they either didn't say or weren't diagnosed, in addition to the ones I HAVE known about.

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Official diagnosis: ADHD, synesthesia. Aspie quiz result (unofficial test): Like Frodo--I'm a halfling? 110/200 NT, 109/200 Aspie.

I'd say for me it's as simple as it being "OK" to relax and be myself. And definitely the feeling of not being insane, or at least being weird together.

Example: 2 years ago I went to a sci-fi con...I went thinking I was going to meet lots of people, hang out, blah blah blah, but I only really seemed to connect with/make an impression on one individual, who I have now been keeping up with through a forum all that time. As it turned out, he was an Aspie. And once I found out, it was kind of like, Oh, OK--maybe THAT'S why he didn't run screaming at the way I went on and on and on (especially about Cardassians).

Of course, I still wouldn't conflate "Aspie magnet" with "diagnosis," but it probably at least points to "broad autism phenotype."

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Official diagnosis: ADHD, synesthesia. Aspie quiz result (unofficial test): Like Frodo--I'm a halfling? 110/200 NT, 109/200 Aspie.

My psychologist said she suspected PDD-NOS.

I can relate vastly to the half normal - half aspie thing.
If you learn to manage both these worlds in my experience it can be an awesome thing.

Monique--I don't know where you got that article from, but this is one of my major pet peeves: PDD-NOS doesn't mean "subthreshold", and shouldn't; and people think it does, and some doctors think it does, and it's messing things up even further.

PDD-NOS is the diagnosis they give when you have a pervasive developmental disorder, but you don't fit criteria for a specific pervasive developmental disorder. People with PDD-NOS are autistic, and can be anywhere from mildly to extremely severely impaired (in fact, chances are some of the most severely impaired people are given the PDD-NOS diagnosis because evaluation is so difficult that doctors can't get closer than "Well, he's got some kind of PDD."). They make up about 65% of the autism spectrum (which should say something about the diagnostic system); and they are simply the ones who don't fit into any other categories. That's what "NOS" means. (The "not otherwise specified" tag is used for other classes of disorders, too. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSM-IV_Codes]this list of DSM codes[/url], and look at all the "NOS" diagnoses.)

Yes, it's used for people who don't have all the traits. That doesn't mean that it's necessarily milder, though; it just means that your number of traits is lower. It's also used for people who are very young and whose presentation isn't obvious yet; for people whose history is unknown; for people who fall in between disorders; for people who have some other condition that make it very hard to evaluate them properly. One of the bigger groups of PDD-NOS diagnoses are people who used to fit Autistic Disorder criteria as children, but have "grown out of" some of the traits, and now no longer have enough traits, usually in the language domain, to fit the regular Autistic Disorder description.

Some doctors think it means "mild PDD." These doctors should go back to psychology class.

For a full explanation read this post.

Silentmiaow, that is her right? I'm intimidated by her now after reading through that blog...saw her videos on Youtube and those nasty comments people made. Her perspective is unique, it's people like her who make others think before they laugh at autism. It's sickens me though, some people are too ignorant and whipped by society to see it from a different point of view so they make all kinds of wild assumptions.

Wait a second...

It means Asperger's Syndrome Extra Light. It means that you're more NT, than AS, but you have enough traits, to warrant the diagnosis, that you've been given.