"I used to have Asperger's"
Kajjie
Velociraptor
Joined: 12 Aug 2008
Age: 33
Gender: Female
Posts: 495
Location: Sometimes London, sometimes Coventry
Does anyone feel like they used to have Asperger's, but don't have it any more?
When I was little I had a lot of Asperger's-like problems: not looking at people when talking to them, not understanding what is appropriate, taking everything literally, being really out of it, repeating phrases that I'd heard (I'm not sure you'd call that a problem, but it confused people!).
I still have some traits, but I don't really have trouble with social skills any more, or the problems I have can be explained by my anxiety. I still feel different, but not disabled or significantly disadvantaged.
The generally accepted idea is that if you have an ASD, you have it all your life, but does anyone think that's not true?
Last edited by Kajjie on 18 Oct 2008, 9:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
I'm certainly not disabled. As far as being disadvantaged, MOST are worse off than I am. My "social skills" are BETTER(In some ways I am better than most), but not good enough.
Frankly, I think people with AS are different, so they have to learn some things that others don't. They are still the same person with the same problems even after they become acclimated.
Kajjie
Velociraptor
Joined: 12 Aug 2008
Age: 33
Gender: Female
Posts: 495
Location: Sometimes London, sometimes Coventry
Frankly, I think people with AS are different, so they have to learn some things that others don't. They are still the same person with the same problems even after they become acclimated.
Do you mean your social skills are better than most of the general population, or better than most Aspies?
Hmm... but social stuff just comes naturally to me now - even though I did learn it later.
That's kinda like saying, I used to be alive.
Asperger's is quite stable throughout life they've found; the environment around the individual can change and make it harder or easier for them to adapt, but the individual themselves will still be just as autistic as they ever were. Autism improves many times [to a level of someone with AS], but the child with Asperger's tends to get worst as they age as the social deficits begin to show more and more as they're thrust into more contact with people.
You generally have to be disabled in the ways outlined for the specific disorder to receive an ASD label. See:
Kajjie
Velociraptor
Joined: 12 Aug 2008
Age: 33
Gender: Female
Posts: 495
Location: Sometimes London, sometimes Coventry
Asperger's is quite stable throughout life they've found; the environment around the individual can change and make it harder or easier for them to adapt, but the individual themselves will still be just as autistic as they ever were. Autism improves many times [to a level of someone with AS], but the child with Asperger's tends to get worst as they age as the social deficits begin to show more and more as they're thrust into more contact with people.
You generally have to be disabled in the ways outlined for the specific disorder to receive an ASD label. See:
Reminds me of that guy in Scrubs who thinks he's dead.
That's interesting - where did you learn that?
You have a good point about the disability thing. Does this mean I'm Aspie-like, rather than an actual Aspie?
Sorry to be off-topic, but what is "Was my mother careful?" about?
skywatcher
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Joined: 2 Sep 2008
Age: 38
Gender: Male
Posts: 72
Location: Ironton, OH
I was personally thinking about posting this topic myself, at least until this week.
Then, as sometimes happens with Aspies who think they are over the symtoms, I get a wakeup call.
I was good enough with social skills to fluently ask a girl out, but not enough to realize she had been dating someone for 3 1/2 years. Of course, on hindsight, all my NT friends have said that they probably wouldn't have had the gut feeling to ask her about what was going on after only one supposed date, in fact one of them got married to a girl after dating them while they were dating someone else for 3 months, only then to find out.
However, the whole thing, along with my general hostility towards people at times, has alerted me to the possibility that I probably do still have Aspergers, even if the symptoms are minimalized greatly.
I am certain that you probably do have Asperger's still. If you doubt you have it right now, be observant and wait a month or two and realize that you just did something, maybe few and far between, Aspie'ish. Because we typically have higher than normal intelligence, and a good analytical mind, people with Asperger's can reason their way out of many of their symptoms even without therapies. But this doesn't mean that you still don't have Asperger's, or that you won't have it when your 80.
_________________
Skywatcher
-"Look to the future, be aware of the present, and beware of the past." -Me
Yes yes yes.
Does that mean you don't have ASD anymore if you overcome that part?
Kajjie
Velociraptor
Joined: 12 Aug 2008
Age: 33
Gender: Female
Posts: 495
Location: Sometimes London, sometimes Coventry
Kajjie
Velociraptor
Joined: 12 Aug 2008
Age: 33
Gender: Female
Posts: 495
Location: Sometimes London, sometimes Coventry
Does that mean you don't have ASD anymore if you overcome that part?
The idea of 'not having an ASD anymore' doesn't seem to exist in medicine.
If you fail to meet the "disabled" clause of Asperger's, one can still be hit with PDD-NOS; this includes Residual Autism for example (that's what they call it), where people met the full disorder as a child, but they improved as they developed.
At college during the Finals when stress and deadlines become critical I find it easier to talk to some people because they are forced to the edge. When I meet them after the stress has passed it's much harder to connect with them. Sometimes I feel that they've been like 'spectrum tourists' of some kind. They may not be A-S but they have come to appreciate the tunnel-life experience. When they return to normal anxiety it's like the connection/similarity is ended.
When I was little I had a lot of Asperger's-like problems: not looking at people when talking to them, not understanding what is appropriate, taking everything literally, being really out of it, repeating phrases that I'd heard (I'm not sure you'd call that a problem, but it confused people!).
I still have some traits, but I don't really have trouble with social skills any more, or the problems I have can be explained by my anxiety. I still feel different, but not disabled or significantly disadvantaged.
The generally accepted idea is that if you have an ASD, you have it all your life, but does anyone think that's not true?
I think that there are differing degrees of severity of ASD and you just caught a minor dose, for lack of a better term. I for one unfortunately caught a massive dose.
Kajjie
Velociraptor
Joined: 12 Aug 2008
Age: 33
Gender: Female
Posts: 495
Location: Sometimes London, sometimes Coventry
That's very interesting!
Maybe I'm like an Aspie because I'm very stressed.
Interesting discussion. I suppose it depends on how one looks at it. If one goes strictly by the diagnostic criteria, I would think, yes, one can used to have it. Doesn't necessarily take a lot of change to go from just fitting to not quite fitting.
That in particular is open to change, I think. Both directions. Learning to cope with our differences can get rid of or lessen impairment. So can one's circumstances.
I'm not sure going strictly by the diagnostic criteria is the best way to look at it.
I'm inclined to think it's a matter degrees. Heck, honestly, I think I could be in the "used to have it" category. But that hardly means I don't have any aspie traits anymore. I have better skills than I used to have, but I still don't have an NT way of looking at the world.
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