Does this girl have Asperger's?

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While browsing on Youtube, I randomly came across this video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vPNV6B4UMk

The girl is very communicative in my opinion and I would never have thought she has asperger's and in the comments there are many people writing to her that she doesn't have Autism but she has written in the comments section that she was diagnosed by three different professionals.

How mild can asperger's really be?

Please watch the video and tell me what you think. Thanks.

She reminds me a lot of....me. In certain scenarios I can communicate very well-- I'm actually an excellent public speaker. I have to give talks at conferences and it doesn't phase me. The second I have to have an interactive conversation with someone, however... whole other story. Even then, I like to think that I've gotten better at coming across as normal. Most people (those who didn't really, really know me) were baffled by my diagnosis.... I can converse fine, but on the inside I'm constantly wrestling with my facial expression, body position, am I saying the right thing? What do I say next? etc.

So in that case, I guess one could consider me very "mild", but in other aspects (most of them), I'm definitely well into the aspie spectrum. That quiz that goes around? I scored 156 Aspie/39 NT.... and yet I'm a successful professional with friends and a successful marriage. People's internal battles may surprise you.

Could you describe a few of the symptoms that you have? That might help me, thanks.

OP, it's said AS manifests differently in men and women. So if you're male, a female subject might not be the best person to compare yourself with. She herself even mentions this at the 10:30 mark.

I'm not a doctor, I can't tell you for certain if she has AS or not. However, in her case, I can't rule it out. She does indeed seem somewhat AS to me.

Why is it you feel she wouldn't have Asperger's? What do you think Asperger's is?

In terms of communication, she's not communicating with a person. She talking to a camera, and she chose to make this video, so her communication skills with others can't be observed here.

Hmm... I stim a lot (wringing my hands, ankles, etc), though I'm better at controlling it around others. I'm terrible at reading faces, voice intonation, etc. I have a hard time telling people apart. I get very, very anxious in social situations and if it's a high-stress situation (a party, etc), I can't make eye contact or small talk and generally freak out. Conversation in general is exhausting. If I do talk a lot, it's about stuff I'm intensely interested in and can't pick up boredom cues from others. I like routine, and if my routine is broken it's anxiety-inducing. If I'm over stimulated, especially emotionally but also sensory (auditory stimulation especially), I'll have a meltdown. I compulsively feel fabrics, etc. I'm hyper-aware of everything my body/voice is doing in social situations. I can't stand changes in plans or unpredictable situations. I have a very hard time comprehending verbal instructions, directions, etc. I have relatively poor motor skills. I thrive on structure, rules, etc and get nervous/lost without them. I'm very distractable. I gt VERY frustrated at irrational times and can have outbursts, though usually only if I'm already over-stimulated. I hyper-focus on unusual interests. Irrational attachments to objects. I can't verbalize feelings very well, so when I have intense feelings it makes me really uncomfortable (cue meltdown). I have an extreme difficulty in making decisions.

These are all things that to the outside person can be really subtle... my husband was a bit incredulous when I was diagnosed, but after thinking about it he was like "oh my God, it explains everything." Like I said... I can pretend to be normal fairly well, but I also have nearly 30 years of practice. When I was a teenager you would have figured it out in about 10 minutes of talking to me. I do have a difficult time maintaining friendships; it's both a defense mechanism and an inability to relate with others. The only person I can tolerate being around extensively, oddly enough, is my NT husband... otherwise, my closest friends are Aspies. The rest, come and go.

It's just that I've seen several aspies on youtube and they all seem very shy, introverted or at least they seem socially awkward.

I'm not undiagnosing her or diagnosing her as "very mild". You're right, I don't have a clue about her. I've only seen this video of her.

Interesting. Most I've seen on youtube with personalized videos seem articulate and coherent, mainly because it's a one-way conversation and they chose to make the video.

What are a few examples of other videos you've seen where they come across as more shy?

Looking at a video someone makes of themself is completely different from meeting them in person. Idiots on YouTube comments are not trained professionals.

She has similar speech patterns to me, although she has more facial expressions.

I only watched the first three minutes and glanced at the comments:

atypical/abnormal body language or as the criterion puts it "marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction" - she has it, at least on this one video. As opposed to all those people who claim she can't have it because they claim that she's "expressive".

So, no. The criterion describing non-verbal cues doesn't simply equate to that expressions and gestures are all reduced to completely absent but that their use to regulate social interaction (and regulate it properly) is impaired.

Expressions and gestures can be present but the criterion is still met if their use is grossly impaired and simply not like that of a normal person without autism.

That is similar to how it's perfectly in line with criteria of AS or classical autism if an autistic kid who cannot speak and can hardly communicate by other means totally snuggles up to about every stranger he meets and climbs on their lap unasked within seconds to minutes of meeting them (pleasantly warm furniture). That's a symptom of autism and an noticeable case of impaired social-reciprocity (because how many of us are snuggling our face to that of a stranger and go ahead and sit on a stranger's lap at an restaurant?) though it's not exactly fitting the public stereotype of how autistic people should be totally physically withdrawn.

I don't know about the rest, I stopped watching after the first few minutes. The tone of voice is, well, somewhat atypical and I'm really bad at listening to a video version of such a monologue that's not catered much to the audience who watches it. This talking "at" people instead of "to" people also is fairly typical for people with AS but certainly not exclusive to them. May just be inexperience with doing videos for all I know. Talking to a camera unsettled a lot of people for the first time.

She may or may not have AS. Alas, there's nothing in those first few minutes that points to that she can't have it but from the few things that come across as noteworthy in that short amount of time, it appears as if she at least has a few characteristics of it.

What she says about school problems is exactly the issues I had in school. I barely made it through highschool because I didn't care about some subjects so I didn't try. On the other hand, I did really well in the classes I was interested in.

The part about going to the hypothetical party and being really self conscious around people and not knowing what to do also describes me very well.
l also related to the part of reading about aspergers for the first time and thinking "OMG, that's me!"

As an aspie I would NEVER post a Youtube video where I'm yawning. No freaking way. It just wouldn't happen. I'd have to edit out those bits because my attention to order and perfection regarding those mediums is all encompassing. That said, I didn't look at the rest of the video because after the 3rd yawn, well, if it's boring to the narrator, it'll be boring to the audience, too. I therefore couldn't tell if she is an aspie. If she'd just list all the bits that makes her an aspie then, yeah, maybe I could tell. By the way, is she here on WP? Also, isn't WP the be all and end all of all autism forums?

Maybe she's an aspie-ad(h)d combie. She reminds me of myself and many other combies

I only watched a little of it, but she reminds me a bit of myself due to the need to overly describe the reason for the video instead of being able to just state the reason and move on. Plus, what little I saw of her hand motions are similar to what I do as well.

Sure she could have aspergers; not everyone has the "classic" symptoms or symptoms that are immediately obvious. The symptoms manifest differently in everyone and are more mild in some people than others (women especially are usually better at blending in with NTs). And not everyone with AS is shy, I've met people with AS who are loud, in-your-face and talk incessantly. Everyone is different. And that video is not a good indication of her communication skills. She is talking to herself, aka having a monologue, something people with AS are often good at. Personally I can speak very well and actually find public speaking easier in some senses than back and forth communication, which requires processing another person's language and facial expressions and formulating an appropriate response within seconds. That isn't to say I can't have back and forth conversations with people, but it's a lot harder and requires more effort.

And of course there's people on youtube commenting that she doesn't really have AS- it's YOUTUBE it's full of idiots who will disagree just for the sake of disagreeing. And even in real life there are people who will say you can't have AS if you aren't flapping your hands and having a one-sided conversation about trains; random people are not qualified to determine if a person has AS or not.

I can see why it's got some aspies upset. Envy maybe, or fear that the world may wrongly see all people with asperger's as histrionic or only mildly disable or not at all? She comes across as very well spoken, symmetrically pretty, young, and sounds like most other healthy neuro-typical young women I hear. She talks very expressively on this video, smiling all the time, using many gestures. She says in her video she was speaking to a psychiatrist that said she had mild asperger's because she doesn't feel like she fits in and feels awkard when thinking about socializing. I am sure there must have been a lot more tests and evaluations than that especially in such a mild case. I have asperger's, not mild, so of course she is very different from me, but I can not say she does not have asperger's just because she seems to have no difficulty expressing herself in this video. But then we are all unique aren't we? For instance, I'm not inclined to read mags like Cosmopolitan as she enjoys! She did say it took practice and guidance to become so capable socially. In most social cases I come across as extremely monotone and humble or boring, shy, weird etc. which is probably why people never listen to me, they just talk at me or ignore me. Like I am a machine that refuses to function as it was intended, like I am not a human being with thoughts and feelings. I have problems making home videos, I even bore myself watching them or listening to myself. The only time I become more expressive and use gestures is when I am describing something I am passionate about or if I am angry. Perhaps this girl doesn't always talk like this, maybe she practiced a lot, or maybe she is just really passionate about the subject. Anyway I admire the aspies that can make videos and share them with the world, because they must have some level of confidence to be able to stand up to this overly judgmental and narrow-minded world.