"Not Sure If I Have It Or Not"

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For my diagnosis on my profile I say "Not Sure If I Have It Or Not". The reason why I put this on here, is because I am really, not sure if I have it. I mean, I AM diagnosed, it was almost a no-brainer when I was young. My preschool teacher was SURE that I had autism of some sort. In fact, on my report card she wrote that "I was aware that others were in the room, but preferred to work alone". I was a bit social-phobic when I was little, mostly because I had some bad experiences at one of my daycares. I left that daycare and the kids at the new daycare weren't nearly as annoying. Anyway, she had an autistic kid in here other class who was very similar to me.

Now, when I look at autism symptoms, it doesn't seem to be a good "fit" for me. I would never have thought I had it if I wasn't diagnosed.

I don't:

Have sensory issues (Though I have meltdowns over other things, and I used to have extreme long meltdowns when I was like, 2)
Have Eye contact issues (I only had a problem with this when I was just starting school)
Think Logically
Think In Pictures
Notice Details
Insist on Routine (I just sort of grew out of this, it was a "learning" thing at all)
Speak Formally
Take Everything Literally
Have a Monotone Voice
Have Issues With Facial Expressions
Have Few Facial Expressions
Have Social Withdrawal
Feel the need to correct people
Lack Imagination

I don't have difficulty with peer friendships that much, it doesn't seem like to want to be friends with me. They rarely approach me and even when they do, it's just a simple "hi" or something like that. I have no difficulty with relationships with older people at all.

Maybe you were misdiagnosed? It's fairly common. There is certainly no reason that you should accept a label you feel clearly doesn't apply to you if you don't want to, no matter what a Doc/Psych once said.

It could be that you just have High Functioning Autism, because, from what I can tell, that's what it sounds like to me. My brother is the way as you. He's not SUPER close to most people his age, he has good relationships with older people than himself and has HFA. But, hey, if you want to say you don't think you have it, go right ahead! *shrugs*

No, I can't have HFA because I learned to speak at 12.5 months.

I learned to speak in a normal amount of time too and I have Atypical HFA. Maybe you can have that! You know, the one where the doctors don't really know what ya got. lol.

You have a couple of options, one of which is simply that you are a quirky individual with a few "autistic-like" traits. Other options are that you fit under the umbrella diagnostic term of Not Otherwise Specified. My husband and my son both have an NOS diagnosis because they have many of the traits of Aspergers but both had a speech issue which disqualifies them from being Aspie. I'm Aspie, but my special interest is studying people so I don't have a lot of the obvious issues that many Aspie folks have, despite having all the issues at a less visible level.

One of the things I'm noticing is that the broadening of "Autism" is putting lots of just quirky kids or less social kids under an official diagnosis. The problem with this is that we are expecting all children to be at the same developmental levels at the same age. If you learned how to speak so young, it could be that the social processing just had to catch up with the other advances. There are also options of the fact that so many psychologists are just diagnosing this because the criteria are so broad that concerned parents push for it so their kids get IEPs at school to help them.

Being less social is not being Autistic, having social phobia is not being autistic, and there are so many things that people are shoving under the term Autism that are just normal variations of human existence, to include Aspergers.

I could rant on for quite a while about this topic, but I'll reign myself in since Psychology and Sociology is my passion.

Apparently, my official diagnosis is PDD-NOS.

How old were you when you got diagnosed, maybe you were mistaken when you was younger because I often feel I have been misdiagnosed and I could just easily classify myself as a NT (but a really weird one otherwise).

I was too normal when I was in my school since I was put into special ed and I never really liked it, I just felt like the odd one out really and felt there is alot more that I can do in life, even socializing was pretty awkward.

I was then told I had aspergers, then this, but I don't know, maybe I've been mistaken as someone with ADHD?

I was diagnosed at 5.

Well, then I'd say if you do have "PDD-NOS" then it means that its likely as accurate as they could give you. It may or may not affect your life now and if you feel it doesn't then drop the ID for yourself. However, if you feel that the Dx gives you assistance in some form in your current life, then by all means use it.

I don't use my Aspie Dx at all in my life. Its common knowledge to my close friends, but most people just see me as quirky. If you are functional, there is really no need as an adult (other than for potential school or work accommodation issues) to let anyone know that you have a Dx. If you don't really think you need accommodations then drop the Dx. It may have been something that was "quirky" about you as a child that you grew out of.

Pretty much, these Dx's are useful when you are "in the system" of schools and potentially in some workplaces where accommodations must be made. Beyond that, its just a label for having a few behaviors that deviate from what our society sees as Ideal.

But I am not an adult, I'm in my mid-teens. However, I don't think I will need to live in a group home.

Well, I don't know your current situation so I was speaking of once you get out of the school system. Heck, you may not even need the Dx now, but I can't say for sure since I don't know anything about you.

Dx's usually are done for kids early so they can get IEPs and school accommodation, but if its not needed then its not needed. If it is, then disclosing the Dx is useful and helps you in whatever areas need to be addressed.

I'm not too sure if I have aspergers or not, because my school(s), my grandparents, and my parents have been keeping it away from me until only a few months ago, and that was the only time I was only hinted of having it, and I didn't really believe it. But after following it up on it, I found out that I had aspergers well at least in my opinion. I do have most of the issues that follow with an aspi like:

Have sensory issues: I think I do
Have Eye contact issues: Yes
Think Logically: Definitely
Think In Pictures: Definitely
Notice Details: Definitely
Insist on Routine: Yes, unless if you call going into the kitchen and do all the stuff you do every time you go in there a routine, then I don't know what to say, and among other things.
Speak Formally: Kind of
Take Everything Literally: Definitely, but not always.
Have a Monotone Voice: Not sure, but my voice can be deep, and light
Have Issues With Facial Expressions: Don't know
Have Few Facial Expressions: Don't know, since I don't use them a lot.
Have Social Withdrawal: Yes
Feel the need to correct people: Yes, but tend to leave it alone.
Lack Imagination: Yes.

But the thing is, I'm usually interest in a lot of different stuff.

If you don't use facial expressions a lot, that probably means that you have few.

In regards to having a lot of interests, I'm not sure, I don't think you need to have all the symptoms to be diagnosed.

By the way, my top for symptoms are:

1. Meltdowns (But I think its's related to anxiety and an "anxious reaction")
2. Prefer adults over peers
3. Special interests
4. Picky eater
5. Lack of empathy (To a point, I'm good with sympathy, but not empathy)

Possibly so.



Well, to be honest, I can see concepts like language and mathematical concepts, but I'm usually bad in High school English and Spanish; I just don't like Spanish, and I can't keep up in English, but I like to think they're easy. And I can't get away from the computer.

1. Meltdowns: I do too, but only if everyone suffers, me included; if someone gets away with something, that's what ticks me off the most. And I like for some things to say the same.
2. Prefer adults over peers: Yes, definitely.
3. Special interests: Yes, I love the internet, can't get away from it, I usually get away from it now and then, but I wouldn't classify it as that.
4. Picky eater: Very picky, I thought I was the only picky eater.
5. Lack of empathy: Not exactly, I can feel someone's empathy; I just ignore them.

Sorry for having your posts cannibalized. Anyway, you may not have asperger's (just saying this from my own point of view), but if you do, you may have a very mild form of it, if that's possible.

I'm actually kind of wondering about an alternate diagnosis.