I don't know if I actually have AS or not...

Post Reply New Topic

When I was younger, I was mostly fine. I had friends and all the other stuff that comes with being an elementary age NT, even though I had the occasional meltdown once in a while. In sixth grade, I feel the "peak" of my AS (if I even have it) happened. I was unable to socialize, had no friends, and had a meltdown nearly every day. In seventh grade, I was still unable to socialize but everyone just thought I was shy, I had no meltdowns that year except at home. In eighth grade, I was the same during the first part of the year, but as soon as the second semester came along, I got friends and a relatively normal social life. I was actually loud compared to a lot of my classmates sometimes and got quite the amount of attention for a while.

This summer, my mom decided to tell me I was suggested to be diagnosed for AS when I was a child, and I just don't believe that I actually have it. I don't have "sensory overloads" although I don't really like ear piercing loud noises...(I don't know anyone who does...) I don't only talk about few things, although I don't really talk about "normal" things, I talk about what is happening right now and what will happen in the future, usually, which covers a lot of subjects..I'm not obsessed with anything...I used to be.... but not anymore... I don't have any talents, really... I wish I did, but I don't... I don't have a lack of empathy, I am actually extremely empathetic which is uncommon in an AS teenager... Motor skills... I used to be terrible at... I still am, I guess, but I can at least do things like tie my shoes now..

However, I do have the "lives in another world" thing that a lot of autistic people have... If I get bored, I sit and fantasize about a different world in which things are, well, different... but I still don't feel like I actually have AS... I mean...people with AS are smart usually and I'm not <_<

I'm going to be tested next month and my mother says there is a possibility that I might not get diagnosed with it. From the above information, do you think that I might have it?

It is impossible to determine whether or not one has AS based on the contents of one forum post. But keep in mind that not all aspies have all of the symptoms. Personally, I don't have meltdowns and shutdowns, and I don't get overloaded by loud noises (although I dislike them). And not all aspies are geniuses, that's just a stereotype.

A lot of the things you listed are kind of stereotypical and not everybody has them.

Also, an Aspie can 'fluctuate', during an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year, or over his/her lifetime; I mean, A.S. is not necessarily a static, unchanging thing. And a person's Aspie traits can be relatively mild, or more pronounced.

Plus ISTM adolescence, middle school, high school, etc., can heighten pressures and shocks to the personality, and have an effect on Aspie traits.

Finally, Temple Grandin says that as time has gone on in her public life, people have told her she seems to gradually 'get' NTs more, and to seem less "awkward" in her self-presentation and so forth. It's possible we learn our "social cues" very consciously -- as the "anthropologists on Mars" -- and thru "The School of Hard Knocks" (including literally), rather than unconsciously and much more quickly like NTs -- so we pick up on things more gradually. That doesn't "cure" our autism, just makes us "better-adjusted autistics" or something like that. It might take us many years (she's 64 now), or maybe not so long, just not "instantly" as with them.

It's also possible you have something else going on, and not A.S. Or even in addition to A.S. It's not always cut-and-dried like in movies or TV news reports.

I wish you good luck, whatever that might mean for you!

---Pete

It's still possible that you could have AS even though it's impossible to tell just from a few paragraphs as others said. But it's completely true that not everybody with AS completely meets the stereotype athough some might- after all, it's on the autistic spectrum, and everybody with AS is an individual.

Personally I'm not in particular really obsessed with anything to what I'd say is a particularly unusual extent.

Not everybody is completely overwhelmed by noises. Most are sensitive to some sensory things such as noises, but you could be only mildly sensitive to these and have adjusted to it so as to not react in a way that others would percieve as strange, if that makes any sense.

Anyway, the assesment should answer your questions for you Just say all of this to the person assessing you and try to be truthful and not biased in the assesment.