Similar disorders (or whatever) to HFA/Aspergers

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Ok so I wanted to try and get a diagnosis soon but I'm wondering if there is something that is so like HFA/Aspergers that it could easily be that thing or be mistaken for that because maybe I am too functioning or something like that. I heard it's a common problem that doctors don't believe you for reasons like that. So what's your take? Is there actually anything so close to HFA that it's hard to tell between the two. I'm not talking about something that shares some symptoms I mean something that shares a great deal of them.

Thanks for reading

I believe there are many, but only some have been defined and even fewer have been conclusively related to ASDs. Luckily there are ways around this, such as defining them for yourself inter-personally with everyone you can relate to. I suggest doing so before you seek diagnosis, as well as examining what such a presumptive type of knowledge of self will do in terms of influencing big decisions. Ultimately you must decide if anybody on the planet is ethically justified in cataloging neuroses. If you view the world as a single organism, I can say conclusively that diagnosis plays havoc with everything.

Do you mean I should see who / what I relate to by talking to people?

I think I have maybe had the advantage of not knowing and been limited in some things anyway, so I think I want the advantage of knowing too.
Why does it play havoc? I'm curious about what you mean. There are big downsides?

Nobody has all the traits.
You might be very high functioning, which can mask quite a few problems.
Your brain may have matured, which doesn´t eliminate AS, - or you might have "only" 80% of the required traits in terms of diagnosis, - but that is quite sufficient to give problems and a need for guidance.
I suggest, that you read Tony Attwoods book: "The Complete Guide to Aspergers Syndrome". You might find it helpful.
Mark everything, you recognize, - and consider family-"games", that might have contributed to development of certain behaviors.

Remember to write down your strong sides as you go.

Schizoid PD; age of onset being the determining factor

Simple Schizophrenia; ditto

A combination of other mental disorders that alone don't manifest close to such; say depression (flat affect and the possible social withdrawal/lack of interest in socialization) plus OCD, could appear like such, but again, age of onset

I am also in the UK and wondering about trying to get diagnosed. At 33 I have obviously developed a fair amount of coping mechanisms. I think a problem for me is that I am almost certain my mum is on the spectrum and maybe my dad too, so home life was never a problem, however I can not compare things there as I have no idea what a 'normal' family life would be like. The only reason I would want diagnosis is because now I am a mum and I can also see traits in my kids (they are 4 and 6, both reading well above their age, have difficulty in forming/retaining friends of their own age, have extreme emotional episodes) I think that maybe the first step in helping them is to go for a formal diagnosis myself. If I wasn't a mum I think I would be happy to just self diagnose as from what I have read it can be a long and arduous process to official diagnosis.

Well, there's Nonverbal Learning Disorder. I personally think it's all part of the same spectrum.

There are some dx that just cover individual pieces of what aspires struggle with:

ADHD, if the executive function issues are causing the most trouble.

Social Communication Disorder. This one is very new, it's basically the social issues of ASD without the repetitive behavior and restricted interests.

SPD -- sensory processing disorder.

BAP (broader autistic phenotype), which is not really a diagnosis so much as a description of someone who has ASD traits but is not considered clinically impaired by them.

Okay don't want to sound stupid but can you explain repetitive behavior to me? Or somebody else?

Slightly off topic maybe - I find it easier to remember having difficulties from the age of 8 onwards, and in some cases I'm not sure if I had some of these issues before my teens. I could get only vague (and maybe there were a little evasive) info out of my family from that I thought "maybe..".. so, I'm wondering.. can aspergers/hfa itself have an age of onset?

That's part of my issue here that I've got those coping mechanisms and really don't want that to effect a diagnosis. In my late teens was when I really pushed myself to social interaction, I even went for a job/career that would allow me to better learn social skills, and I did get a job in that area eventhough I didn't fancy that career choice. I continued this by reading books - like one on body language to help me get what's going on with people better.But as I say I don't want this to affect the diagnosis, either I have AS/HFA or I don't and I'll be happy either way so long as I don't get brushed off.

Last edited by savvyidentity on 21 Jul 2013, 11:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

Repetitive behaviors, from what I gather, are things like lining up or organizing one's toys (though not all kids who do this are autistic), "stim" behaviors (fidgeting that differs from that of NTs in degree and/or kind, like rocking, hand-flapping, or doing a lot of more typical fidgets like leg-shaking, hair-twirling, or pencil-tapping in situations where NTs wouldn't), echolalia and echopraxia (precise repetitions of other people's speech or movements), and things like needing to eat the same foods, do certain things at the same time every day, etc. and being freaked out if one's routine is disrupted.

As for the "age of onset" question, I think for social communication disorder (and probably true for ASDs as well) they say that there have to be signs at a young age, but they may not be fully manifest - i.e., a clinical problem - until the kid is challenged beyond his or her limits. Which for some kids may not happen until late childhood. Furthermore, speaking as an NT and seeing this trait in myself, NT perception is often heavily dependent on situational social role cues and the significance assigned to things. We basically forget about or discount things that we consider irrelevant, or may not even register them in our memories. So if your family doesn't really think you're all that different, they will not remember anything that was different about you as a kid, or they'll blow it off as irrelevant and not mention it. Whereas by the time I was diagnosed with ADD as a teenager, my family had already long seen me as different, and so they brought up all kinds of quirky things about me dating back to my being colicky and sleeping poorly as a baby, which may have had nothing to do with the neurotic behaviors and attitudes that led to my childhood issues and the diagnosis (which I now believe to have probably been inaccurate because I no longer see ADD symptoms in myself).

Thanks that's really useful/insightful.

No problem. By the way, if you want to know more about NTs and some of the strange things we do that might make so many of us incomprehensible to and unable to comprehend autistic people, try reading "You Are Not So Smart" and "The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty." Both are addressed to NT readers to point out to them their own quirks and pitfalls as found by psychological research, and I found them fascinating.

Awesome, I'll give them a read along with the book jenson mentioned.

Thanks that gives me an idea what to expect, I doubt the first three would matter maybe the last one.