Are You Able to Tell When Someone is an Aspie?

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MoonMetropolis
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11 Sep 2011, 1:43 am

It isn't always easy. Some aspies act very NT and some NTs act very aspie. If an NT is particularly quirky or odd, you can't really be blamed for assuming that they have aspergers.

Are you usually able to tell when someone is an aspie? How do you tell?


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kahlua
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11 Sep 2011, 2:39 am

I can tell because I know what my shortcomings are, so can see them in other people. However I do over analyse people to see if I'm doing something wrong - I search for disapproval etc.



Surfman
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11 Sep 2011, 2:56 am

Its like asking how do you tell if someone is Mexican?

You have to know what a Mexican looks like! Then, every Mexican you meet, you will know they are from Mexico!

Ondaly ondaly ariba ariba!!



Ashuahhe
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11 Sep 2011, 3:32 am

That is a good question, I haven't been around enough aspies to tell. People are suprised when I tell them that I'm aspie. I guess with some you can spot them straight away and some others like myself not so easy



nemorosa
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11 Sep 2011, 3:45 am

Where are all you people meeting all these aspies? I constantly reading on WP posts about everybody's familiarity with aspies and how many they've met as though it's an everyday occurrence. I've never met one in my life to the best of my knowledge.



jamieevren1210
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11 Sep 2011, 3:58 am

I have not met any diagnosed aspie aside from myself, but yes I can detect autism in a person, even if he or she acts nt. And these nts who act as.. I sort of detect that but not as strongly.



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11 Sep 2011, 4:14 am

I think its rather delusional to think you can spot aspies, Only if you go up to every person you suspect being on the spectrum and straight out ask them to verify if your suspicion is correct then you have no way of knowing wether you can tell aspies from nts (not taking into account them being undiagnosed or not wanting to tell you). You might think you can spot aspies but in fact you are just spotting non normal traits in people, even a group of these traits doesn't necessarily mean they are on the spectrum.

Even though the thought of aspergers pops up sometimes i have had no verifications on these thoughts. I am skeptical towards anyones ability to spot aspies unless they had their suspicions confirmed on a regular basis.

Just labeling people aspie or nt in your mind doesn't prove anything.



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11 Sep 2011, 6:39 am

I have an idea that a couple of people I see regularly are on the spectrum, but I would never for one second ever consider outing them as it is their own choice to find out for themselves first and then make the decision (took me forever to spell that right lol) for themselves.

Some people do not know themselves, why should I effectively point and jeer in the street?

I know how hard it was for me to tell certain people, who still do not know what I am capable of and have gotten the wrong impression from the media (or like my family have just plain decided it is better to ignore it [for their own convenience] and hope it goes away like the flu), I would never want to put that on someone.

Yes, I have my suspicions, but they are for me and for me alone.



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11 Sep 2011, 9:40 am

TB wrote:
I think its rather delusional to think you can spot aspies,thoughts.


I disagree. When someone starts monologuing at me i cut them some slack these days n think to myself, hmm, probable aspie rather than search for the nearest exit.

There's other signs too that i pick up on like taking things literally. I've worked with several possible aspies.



Wayne
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11 Sep 2011, 12:07 pm

hurtloam wrote:
TB wrote:
I think its rather delusional to think you can spot aspies,thoughts.


I disagree. When someone starts monologuing at me i cut them some slack these days n think to myself, hmm, probable aspie rather than search for the nearest exit.


Not only that, you can cut off their monologue fairly bluntly without them being offended. Of course they'll go right back to it at the drop of a hat, but still... it's not going to be offensive like cutting off an NT would be.

Quote:
There's other signs too that i pick up on like taking things literally. I've worked with several possible aspies.


I have too, being in software and all.

Some of the signs I look for:

1. Watch people clump together. Look for the ones that aren't gravitating to the clump.
2. Among the ones that do graviate to a group, watch whether they become part of the group or just remain kind of a "hanger on". Are they "plugged in" with everyone else responding to them as "one of their own" or not?
3. Look for the one who is focusing his attention in random directions, especially while a group is doing the rapid-fire NT group interaction thing.
4. Tone of voice and rhythm of speech sometimes gives them away. A lot of times they sound "fake", because they are trying to deliberately inject a "tone" into their speech that isn't coming naturally.
5. Mashing multiple conversational "styles" together in an unusual way. Especially dropping in technical terms that don't quite fit the structure of the rest of the conversation.
6. Of course monologues and taking things literally are blatant signs of course. (So blatant that a lot of us suppress it as much as we can...)

In my experience females are harder to classify than males. I'm still not 100% sure about my wife of 16 years, but I strongly suspect her of being one of us, for instance.



The_Walrus
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11 Sep 2011, 12:11 pm

I only realised a boy in my year was an Aspie when someone told me he was. With hindsight, it was obvious, but I just didn't ever think "hang on, he has most of the symptoms of Asperger's".



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11 Sep 2011, 3:49 pm

Shortly after finding out about Asperger's, I met one of my neighbors whom I pegged as an aspie from about 3 minutes into the conversation. I didn't voice my suspicion, but later in the conversation, he admitted suspecting he was an aspie. He was rather surprised when I not only knew about AS but also identified myself as one.



1000Knives
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11 Sep 2011, 4:19 pm

Yeah, I was a bit perplexed about that on this board, too, thinking, wtf, there's that many people with Aspergers? Really? There can't be that many... I've only met 2 diagnosed Aspies in entire my life, and I've met one other diagnosed NVLD like me, too.

As far as detecting it, I mean, it depends, I can't read minds, and that's what you gotta do. My friend with Aspergers, we tend to sorta "think" the same way. Sorta the way I analyze it is the person's thought process. We're both influenced by logic and analysis a lot. We also tend to come up with different conclusions, and will argue all the time, but almost will never take it personally. We used to get into 2-3 hour long debates about random things like how airsoft guns work or something (which I won.)

However, I'm also almost certain this girl I know at the skating rink has NVLD like me. She seems almost exactly like me. We both go there during public sessions and just practice by ourselves. This is especially odd for a girl, as I live in a house full of girls, and my sister for example, she refuses to go out anywhere without a friend. She said she'd go ice skating, but only if her friend went. A lot of people I know are the same way, especially at my church, where it seems full of people like that, that just want to do things "together" with people, in a group. This girl here, exactly like me, just randomly went to my rink, liked it, bought some skates, and just practices. No lessons, occasionally she'll ask the same random old guy for help like me, and she'll just skate and then promptly leave. One older guy (like over 40, she's 19 or 20 like me) has like, gotten her to practice ice dance with him, but yeah, never brings friends. Almost all girls skating in public have friends that go with them. She just wants to be good at skating, and doesn't care. That's exactly what I do. Also, from talking to her, she seems to be like, thinking, hard. And she said her same problem writing essays is like, too much to write, as I have. Oh, and she said she's taken Adderall before, and drinks coffee and energy drinks constantly, tada, also like me.

You wouldn't guess it, though, that's the thing. It's only after being around her long enough, that I've picked up on the similarities, and that's been months. At first, I just thought she was like, some quiet haughty girl or something (I think the word I may be looking for is aloof), she just came off like that, but then when I saw that she struggled learning skating and was just compensating like I was just by trying super hard, and you know, lots of other similarities. But it took months of me being around her.

But, I think a lot of people make the mistake of nerd=Aspergers, and that's not the case. All these people actually were not "nerdy" at all, and that girl actually dresses and looks really good, same with my friends, both of them are good looking dudes who seem cool upon looking at them, and it's only after you know them a long time that things start coming out of the woodwork that seem different, they might seem somewhat aloof, etc. Me, I never noticed anything wrong with them at all, I just thought "wow they think similar to me, cool!" and just left it at that.



TB
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11 Sep 2011, 4:38 pm

hurtloam wrote:
TB wrote:
I think its rather delusional to think you can spot aspies,thoughts.


I disagree. When someone starts monologuing at me i cut them some slack these days n think to myself, hmm, probable aspie rather than search for the nearest exit.

There's other signs too that i pick up on like taking things literally. I've worked with several possible aspies.


Exactly you THINK he is an aspie, do you ask these people if they have aspergers ?. Do you walk them into the nearest psych office to get them evaluated ?.

You cannot be sure of these things just because you have a hunch about someone.



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11 Sep 2011, 4:54 pm

Only trained experts can tell do it

Zeig heil!



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11 Sep 2011, 5:37 pm

Are you serious?

I can only just about tell the difference between male and bleedin female?!