Genius and totally non-genius.

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I have an IQ of 160 as recorded by a clinical psychologist. However I don't think my intelligence is evenly spread at all.

I can beat a calculator with my mental arithmetic in certain cases (such as multiplying any two numbers like 78 x 56, or finding out if a number is prime). I got into Cambridge University (although I'm not there now because I hated it there and it made me ill) and even managed to impress the interviewers (apparently). I taught myself how to program in Visual Basic on a computer at the age of 9. Etc etc.

However I cannot follow a cooking recipe. I cannot follow road directions if someone gives them verbally to me. It took 20+ attempts for me to learn how to change bed sheets. I am in supported housing because I struggle to live independently. I cannot handle phone calls. If I were faced with customer services in a shop, or a bank, or the post office, I would not know what to do, and the stress of it would make me walk out immediately. I have to be reminded to do things that others would do naturally. I can't even open a bank account.

Is it possible that my academic genius (sorry if that sounds like narcissism) has "taken over" such a large part of my mental energy that simple tasks such as cooking and posting a parcel are not delegated any energy by my brain and therefore become prohibitively difficult? Is it an unusual distribution in skills?

I have had times in my life where, without effort, I have been able to do calculations such as 563 divided by 4591 in my head in less than a second and beat a calculator in how many decimal places I can produce. However I cannot do this all the time and it is involuntary as to when I am able to do this. Most of the time my mental arithmetic is "highly superior" but not 100% savant level.

I also have multiple neurological and psychiatric conditions, is it possible that all of this, and my AS, and my high IQ is intertwined into one neurodevelopmental difference?

Maiden, I can relate completely. While my IQ isn't 160, it is very high, and has been as much bane as blessing. When it became obvious that I wasn't headed toward Harvard or Yale, my parents became very hateful toward me. Since I am very aspie, and there was no such diagnosis when I was growing up, the only message I got while growing up was that since I wasn't willing to try a little harder to be a decent human being and fit in, that I was lazy and no good, and would soon come to a bad end.

Having said this, my understanding of AS is that it's not a high level of aptitude so much as a mixed profile of aptitudes. For example, I can grasp and explain the most sophisticated philosophical concepts and keep enormous amounts of information in my head and recall it almost on command, yet I struggle with the simplest things such as routine maintenance on my motorized equipment, or making small talk with those around me.

I spend my time and energy concentrating on those things I am good at, and only do the rest when I have to. I'm not sure what else I can do. If you find a solution to our dilemmas, you will have my full and undivided attention.

I also scored well on my cognitive tests. I was in the superior ranges, and I got a few high averages in some of the subtests. I did not score well on the visual spatial subtest, though. I was pretty weak in that area. I struggle a lot with day to day tasks that other people seem to handle with ease, though. There is definitely a gap there for me, as well. I feel like I would have been more successful if I would have been more "balanced out." The intelligence would be more valuable to me if I could actually use it in school. As of now, my lack of social skills and anxiety get in the way of doing that.

I don't know if they're all related, but I think it can definitely be frustrating and cause some anxiety after a while. I've always felt kind of stuck like this, and I know that causes me a lot of anxiety about my life. I also wonder how common this is...

This all sounds very familiar to me. My grasp of some things is almost instantaneous and my retention (collection!) of facts on a very diverse range of topics is very large. I have never held onto an interest in any one thing for long enough to become truly expert yet I am often thought of as being so in some areas by others. I am not sure what my IQ is, never having been formally tested, but the indicators are that it is very high - but only in the classical sense. I once described myself as the type of person who can explain the Latin/Greek (etc) root of a word but gets lost on the way to the shops.
What the OP said about being unable to follow recipies etc is something I am all-too familiar with. My flat got quite untidy last week but my two teenage sons were coming for the weekend and my girlfriend was coming over on Friday night. I found myself pacing from room to room, gazing at the chaos, fervently hoping for inspiration, finding none, pace more etc etc etc until I burst out crying like a fool, ashamed of my inability to co-ordinate something as "simple" as cleaning up my house.
So, sometimes I feel really, really smart and sometimes I feel really, really dumb. The upshot is usually that other people see me as not trying or being lazy when it's something I suck at, which, unfortunately, tends to be tasks regarded by many as menial. When I point this out, and suggest where I may be better placed to be more productive, they tell me that nobody likes doing these things so I should suck it up and stop being lazy. They confuse/conflate job satisfaction and proficiency.
Finally, to further complicate matters, as the OP suggested, I too have fluctuations in my ability to perform whether it be in areas I am strong or weak in. Sometimes I forget how to spell something simple (usually because of overthinking) yet at other times I can fly through domestic chores like Mary Poppins! (usually because I thought less about it) but the norm is for me to be better at tasks that require classical "intellect" as opposed to organisational skills or theory of mind.
Aspies, huh? Go figure
Edit: As far as careers go, I managed a successful career for many years in luxury automotive retail. I was able to do this for the same reasons I didn't get diagnosed until 44- one of my lifelong "special interests" has been people - how they think, interact, the reasons behind different sorts of behaviour. I have always (as long as I can remember) been aware of focusing on any conflict I saw in TV/film drama/soaps/sitcoms etc. I also read lots of books on philosophy (the ethos was less important than the thought processes so I found gold in such diverse characters as Nietszche, Voltaire and Plato) and I studied psychology to degree level (never completed...sigh) So, with that background, a decent intellect and a product that was the best of its type (so I didn't have to fundamentally lie) I was able to construct a personality and a series of "scripts" that made me very successful. Then they changed things so that instead of requiring a pen and a cigarette box to do the finance sums on you needed to fill in endless forms, use ever changing (crappy) bespoke software that was a study in BIBO (BS in/BS out) management-time justification and all sorts of other things which were non-functional and bloody confusing! I had to quit after one meltdown too many but I reckon I could do it again if they cut out the dead wood and let me do the core job.
I may have rambled - if so, apologies.

I cannot follow driving directions. I used to buy road maps and now I use a navigator so I can feel smart.

Working in a field like neuroscience and getting to do something I'm so passionate about would be great. It would be awful working at a cubical all day or having to work with lots of customers or coworkers =/.

Beige, as you find out more about your chosen profession, you likely can determine your work environment, at least to some extent. I would imagine that a lot of neuroscientists work in labs, and have a staff working for them, which would get you out of a cubicle and office politics and such. Being a boss myself, I can assure you that once you're in charge that part of the job description for your underlings will be able to get along with you, which would make things much easier. Your superiors would expect you to concentrate solely on your work, and if you do that they won't care about people skills so much.

I'd say you've chosen well indeed.

And, I'd take a lab over a cubical any day =D.

the last iq test I took was when I was 10 or 11 I got a 101

I seem to be genus about my special interest but they have been shifting over the last few years
when I was in high school up until the end of my senior year it was IT, I even placed 5th in state for the business professionals of Americas pc troubleshooting competition. no one told me I was allowed to use books during the test so I never marked pages or anything like all the other people did, my friend got 2nd and went to nationals I think he might of had aspergers too but we never talked about it. I remember him having an IEP at the time I did not think much of it

The last time I got my IQ test was over 20 years ago and I was at 154. I wonder if its has changed at all now that i am older.


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It's not the strongest nor the smartest that survive. It's those who are willing to adapt - Darwin

I'm a high school student planning to be an author, and my English teacher calls me a savant on numerous occasions.

I don't know how to tie my shoes, the thought of doing dishes makes me a little ill, and I like to spin around in a chair for hours on end.

I think we can all relate

SteelMaiden i can relate to your feelings, and even worse, i have a higher IQ, according to statistical studies im a genius but i dont feel that way.

The last IQ test i took, was the past year and i got 143 wechler, that is aproximately 169 in Cattell that is the usual scores.

I cant do anything of those thing you do, im borderline dyscalculalia, this is due to my OCD, and everytime i do sometime, i have to check at least 5-6 times doing it by different methods to check if is right, and sometimes is wrong and i cant see it(dyslexia).

I even have to check sometimes, things like 5*6 or 12+89, other times i can do them fast, but not as fast as a calculator, and i indeed have problems with procedural knowledge like you, i forget things really fast if im not interested, i cant even walk right.

The things you are saying, doesnt have anything to do with intelligence, im sorry but i dont think, adding and multiplying numbers really fast mean you are intelligent, not even getting into a good university.

I can tell you, Paul lutus, was a hobo by the time he was 12-14, he managed to work for the NASA and created some spacecraft parts,then shifted to programming some important things for Apple, he never had formal studies, and you can see on his page that is Arachnoid.com, he is a very intelligent person.

Intelligence for me, is the act of creating new paths of pattern to solve problems,basically thinking different.

You have really good abilities, but those abilities are not really related to intelligence, if you think adding and substracting numbers really fast is related to intelligence, go and see savants that have those abiities, im not saying that their abilities are bad, they are amazing, but they can not do the simplest algebra problems, lets not even mention about differential geometry or lebesgue integration.

The fact that you learned to program really early, is related to intelligence, kinda like a prodigy, i skipped two years, and by the time i was 9, i was already studying some basic calculus and physics, due to bullying by my classroom acquaintances, i lost all interest in studying and was just going to school for the sake of going, and just retaked the learning by the time i graduated of school, i barely graduated of school, and even failed a year, but in those 6 months, i could remediate my deficits and got into the 2 best college in my country.

Now people call me "Talking Encyclopedia", my Asperger obsessions are really random, right now im finishing neuroscience, before that one i was learning polymer engineering and law, and im about to start to review quantum physics again, there are new things now, and i studied that like 2 years a go.

You are a very intelligent person, you dont need to know how intelligent you are, you are just putting yourself barriers, just learn as muchs as you can and enjoy your life.

Apologize my bad english, im not mainly english speaker.