How bad is your Aspergers?

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It seems like every aspie I've talked to online is mild or very mild so I'm wondering if anyone on here is severe or very severe or moderate. Mine's mild, sometimes moderate when I have stress going on.

I'm voting "moderate," but we all probably have different definitions of each severity level. I too find that most people who seem to be posting online tend to present themselves as not being as severely affected as I am. Sometimes I question if maybe those people ARE severely affected and maybe they're SO severely affected that they can't even see how much it affects them?

I find myself very confused by all the posts of people who say things like "I don't think it affects me all that much, it's just a different way of looking at the world," or "I live a normal life except for being uncomfortable with people." I tend to get a little disheartened when I read things like that because I think that maybe this site isn't really full of people like me.

On the other hand, I present as very high functioning. I hide all of my symptoms fairly well, at least well enough to camoflauge them as other problems. I can fake it really well, but the problem is that I can only fake it for a few hours. It's so exhausting that after that I fall apart and I need a lot of alone time to recouperate before I can even think about "faking it" again. I definitely can't fake it 8 hours a day/40 hours a week to get through a work week.

You have described my expression of AS perfectly. I too can fake NT for several hours, but I get increasingly exhausted after about 4 hours and need to be on my own afterwards. This is why I've never been successful with NT dating or relationships. I do just about hold down a 9-5 job, but that's because the social interaction required is limited. My theory is that it's exhausting because we're using a different part of the brain to make decisions about how to respond to conversation, and logical decision making in real-time is exhausting (e.g. Should I say this, or that? What do I think the impact will be on the other person if I say? etc)

I've learned to socialize pretty well in the last 8 years or so. I find certain situations exhausting, especially with new people or "temporary" people that I don't particularly want to be friends with, like people who chat me up in my condo elevator. Just a few moments with them can be exhausting for me. There have been a few occasions of social blunders on my part when someone actually had the courage to tell me which have been particularly traumatic for me. I took the comments very personally, but they aren't too common.

I put "moderate" because of the comorbids(sp?). Did I spell that right? My adult ADD has caused me serious problems at work-- two bad reviews from previous bosses and now I can't even be productive for more than a few moments at a time.

Sometimes I feel that I'm one of the more severe cases, here. There doesn't seem to be a day, that I don't mention London or Routemasters. I even have to sleep with a toy version of that Bus on top of my Night Dresser. It's like sleeping with a Stuffed Animal. I would still never call myself "Handicapped, or Disabled," though. I'm not afraid to admit the possibility that I might be one of the more AS influenced Members.

Damn! I've just mentioned my two main Obsessions in one sentence!

I am barely on the spectrum.

Tim

I wish I had real-life contact with other Aspies. That way I could have a knowledge base from which to gauge my own degree of "aspieness".

AS affects every aspect of my life. Still, I don't call it "severe"... because it really is just a different way of thinking. A lot of my AS traits--stimming, introvertedness, hyperlexia--are neutral traits, not disabilities. And my special interests and creative, "out of the box" way of thinking are assets that most NTs don't have. I take an intense joy in the acquisition of new facts that I haven't seen in anyone but one of my professors--and he's an eccentric physics prof who, if he isn't an Aspie, is pretty close to the spectrum.

But then... I have very few friends--right now, I have only one, not counting housemates (and she used to be a housemate). I've never had (or wanted) a date. I was bullied as a child because of my insistence on truth in the presence of lies from my stepfathers. My special interests have taken over my life so completely that I failed in class, became depressed, and ended up in the hospital. My sleep cycle is unpredictable. I can't focus on anything unless I hyperfocus, and that usually only happens with intensely interesting things. I have sensory problems that force me to avoid crowds, noise, strong smells, and anything but cotton clothing. I have a hard time holding a job that isn't absolutely fascinating.

My AS causes problems for me. But it also solves problems. I am not vulnerable to many problems that NTs have: I will never become a gossip, a liar, a drug addict, or a con artist. I will never shun learning. I will never let the lure of popularity shake my loyalty to friends. My moral code is consistent and I can be trusted to follow it. I may have meltdowns, but they're temporary; I will never be permanently emotion-driven. I'm not prone to prejudice; I don't blindly follow leaders or factions; I'm not swayed by emotional arguments or catchy slogans.

I don't know how to categorize my own AS. I wasn't diagnosed until I was 22 years old--surely I must have been compensating somehow for all those years! But then... all these problems now, in my first unrestricted environment... AS gets better as time goes on; but it's causing a lot more problems for me now than it did when I was a child (barring the bullying, which I'm glad to be rid of).

I think that "severity" might be the wrong word to describe Asperger's traits... the "strength" of the Aspie traits seems a better way to put it.

My AS doesn't mean that I have added "symptoms" of Asperger Syndrome in my otherwise normal life, and that the more severe they are, the worse the disorder. Rather, it means I've traded some benefits and drawbacks of an NT brain for the benefits and drawbacks of an Aspie brain.

I like the trade. I'm willing to struggle in school and at work if it means I can take such joy in learning, and learn so much about the things that interest me, and be so unaffected by the problems that plague NTs. It's worth it.

I have read about a dozen of books about Asperger's, written both by professionals and by people with AS themselves. I've also seen other people with AS on TV and I have read hundreds of posts from you guys here.

Judging from that, my AS is pretty mild, no offense.

On the other hand, in the eyes of an NT people with AS are as much NT as a mulatto is white in the eyes of a KKK-leader. Think about that.

I would have to agree with you on that.

Tim

My ex - psych told me I was severe but I no longer know who to believe or who to trust.

I would say mine is mild, just because I don't have many sensory issues. I am slightly averted to certain strong smells and I dislike bright sunlight but these are comparatively mild. The part that most characterises me as AS is my social problems but even these aren't as severe as they could be. Of course, being mildly AS means I miss out on the cool things such as synaesthesia.

I rate my symptoms by severity rather than my whole person.

Social Interaction- mild (though in the area of intimacy I am more moderate to severe)

Language Issues (including aphasias, literalness and problems with metaphor)- mild

Sensory Issues- moderate to severe (depending on which sense)

Obsessions- moderate

Need for Routine/Predictability/Calm- moderate to severe, depending on stress level

Executive Dysfunction- moderate to severe Multitasking; mild for Attentional Issues and Impulsiveness; excellent for Organization

Coordination Issues- mild to moderate

Comorbids- CAPD mild to moderate; Epilepsy mild; Depression very mild (exogenous); Anxiety mild to moderate, depending on amount of life stress and consistency of support system

Overall, averaging the individual symptom categories, I am generally mild to moderate. The worse life gets and the more rocky and unpredictable and stressful, the more severe my symptoms get (as I would suspect is the same for most).

HFA moderate to severe. CAPD and LD have caused the most difficulty.

I really have no idea what counts as Mild Moderet or Severe.

I honestly don't know. I can't really tell if I'm mild, moderate, or severe.