Aspergers or something else?

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Hello, I have a question. I was diagnosed by a children's doctor a few years ago that I had Aspergers. He wasn't a psycologist/psychiatrist so I'm not sure how much he knows about it. But personally I don't think I have it. And neither does any one of my family or friends. Here is what my personality's like:

-I have trouble looking people in the eyes
-I feel uncomfortable around people when they are staring at me
-I often feel ugly when people look at me
-I can't make friends easily
-I have a quiet voice
-I can understand peoples motives/facial expressions perfectly fine
-I don't get obsessed over things, I have hobbies but they don't interest me very much. My main interest is hanging out with my best friend and playing games, but I have a short attention span so I don't stick with doing one thing for very long.
-I am a perfectionist and it often gets in the way when I want to get something done.
-I love getting compliments though I always feel awkward when I get one and I usually take critism personally without intending to.
-I feel like people are judging me whenever they look at me. (except with close family/friends)

Here are some personality disorders that sound a bit like me:
Avoidant personality disorder
Schizoid personality disorder
Obsessive compulsive personality disorder (ocpd)

Hi! Glad you dropped by Wrong Planet!

I think you missed one possibility--ADD--Attention Deficit Disorder. That sounds possible from some of what you described. You don't sound schizoid, though, unless you are delusional, or talk to fantasy people. Talking to oneself is okay if you are just doing it to organize your thoughts, but talking to people who aren't there is not good, and is probably schizoid or schizophrenic. Some OCD is possible, and also mild Avoident personality disorder is possible. I have that one big time, but you seem to be at the milder end for that.

There are some other disorders that may be possible in your case relating to social issues, but I can't keep all of the alphabet soup acronyms straight in my head. I think you really need to see a psych doctor with some experience in these things. What you have related doesn't sound especially like Asperger's and definitely is not classic Autism, but you do seem to have some issues, and do seem to want some help with this, so see a good psych doctor.

You were diagnosed by a doctor as a child, you have many traits that are common in Asperger's and you partly identify with the personality disorders that most closely resembles Asperger's....

You probably have Asperger's. Why do you doubt it?

(Your family and friends are probably idiots)

I don't know what to tell you. Not everyone has all the symptoms of any particular syndrome. I think diagnosis depends on the biases of the person doing the diagnosing. I've been diagnosed as having dyslexia, thyroid problems, ADD, Social Anxiety Disorder and Depression.

My dyslexia and thyroid disorder diagnosis came early, in the 1960's. That would explain my developmental delays and my listlessness. I was later diagnosed with ADD and depression in the 1990's. ADD was all the rage then, and the doctor doubted my earlier dyslexia and thyroid diagnosis.

A little over a year ago, I was diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder. The therapist says that my ADD diagnosis was simply due to the fact that I am nervous around people so I have a hard time paying attention, and that my social isolation causes my depression.

Of course, Aspergers would explain my peculiarities too. My therapist doesn't think so, and says I am imagining things, as do my friends. I think they don't have a very accurate picture of what Aspergers is, and think because I don't behave like Dustin Hoffman in Rainman that I couldn't be autistic.

If I am an Aspergian, I think 51 years of being in the Neurotypical World have ground off all my interesting Aspie edges and left me indistinguishable from the NTs around me.

I'm at the point where I think everyone is full of sh*t and I am just garden variety weird. I think I want a label, I want to belong somewhere. I just don't think I ever will.

Why does it matter?

I forgot to mention I can handle being around 3 or 4 people just fine but a group bigger than that, unless they're people I know really well, freaks me out. I'm perfectly "normal" in social situations because I have the ability to pretend I'm comfortable around people when I usually am not.

My friends/family aren't stupid, they know me far better than a doctor who met me 3-4 times.

I do daydream but not an excessive amount.

It could be avoidant because I try avoid social situations as much as possible, because I know I feel uncomfortable around heaps of people.

It matters because I don't want to be labelled as something that I'm not, because it actually makes me feel even more uncomfortable around people. It makes me think that everything I do is going to be classified and explained by a label, which might not even apply to me. Imagine being told you have depression yet you feel perfectly happy all the time. That would probably make you feel depressed.