Do I Have Asperger's?

Post Reply New Topic

I recently read a book about a girl with Aspergers. I could relate to everything that she thought and did, but I couldn't relate to her situation (brother died). The book was called Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine. I didn't know what Aspergers was at the time, but it was like as if my brain got shoved into a book, it was that accurate. I took an AQ test and got 37. I was very shocked. I have always struggled with social relationships. I didn't keep friends for very long when I was little, and I only had 1 friend in the 3rd grade. I also have struggled with sensory issues. I can't go to amusement parks because the loud noise and flashing lights overstimulate me. I had significant trouble with this as a child, and was deathly afraid of the Operation game. I still am.

When I was in the first grade, I was obsessed with fairies. OBSESSED. I read all of the fairie books and played the games online. I even made little "fairie clubs" at school. I always wanted to be the leader in the group. Always. I ended up being very bossy, and kids then left the group, saying, "I don't want to be in your stupid club." In the 4th grade, I really changed. I became obsessed with all things Nintendo. I still am! I started going through depression, and the teasing and bullying got worse. I would often sit alone at recess, not wanting to play with the other kids. All of my teachers said I was very quiet. Later in the school year, I was diagnosed with ADD.

In the 6th grade, one of my teachers was a man (we switched for some classes). I felt nervous around him, and never really spoke to him unless I had to. Maybe this could be a part of selective mutism? To this day, my teachers say I'm very quiet, and some wonder if I even have friends. I've always felt different socially to other people; they had better social skills than me. I've also noticed that I follow a "script" when speaking sometimes. Whenever someone asks how I'm doing, I say "good". It's always been "good". Then, after watching people interact more, I learned to say "I'm good, how are you?" Now I use this in my conversations, even though I'm not very fond of small talk.

I see a therapist. At first, she thought that I had Aspergers. She gave my mom a questionnaire, and my mom mostly answered "no's". I think this is because Aspergers is different for girls than it is in boys (I'm a girl, and the symptoms are a lot different). My therapist says I shouldn't self diagnose myself, but I truly believe that I have this condition. Kids at school would yell at me and not want to be my friend. They often got frustrated with me. I've taken a neuropsychological evaluation, and I learn my results on the 18th. My therapist says to wait until then. I've also taken the Aspie Quiz online. My scores were: 134/200 (neurodiverse) and 80/200 (neurotypical).

Do you think there's a possibility I could have this?

Last edited by TriforceOfAwesome1 on 12 Jul 2014, 8:48 am, edited 3 times in total.

The best way to find out is to read a lot here and see if what others are saying describes you. We're not all exactly alike but are brains are wired different than neurotypicals.

The only way to be at all sure is to go to a psychologist or psychiatrist who can actually diagnose you with it.

A psychologist or psychiatrist will always be basing their diagnosis on their limited understanding of a person. The ability of a person to know themself is far greater than the ability for others to know them.

Getting a diagnosis from a psychologist or psychiatrist may be a simpler way to go about it for some people. But to say that's the only way to be sure? That doesn't seem right to me.

Compare your symptoms to the diagnostic criteria.

It is far too easy for individuals to misdiagnose themselves. That can easily happen when someone wants to arrive at a particular diagnosis or when there are several possibilities and the individual doesn't know enough about how to make a differential diagnosis.

It is far better to have an evaluation from a knowledgeable third party than to "evaluate" oneself.

Not even then can you be "sure."
Until they have objective tests that can confirm a diagnosis, there will always be room for doubt--but if the preponderance of evidence points toward something, it might not be completely unreasonable to consider the possibility.

But to the OP, I hope those tests are useful in some way. Most neurological tests can't really tell you anything about ASDs, but they will provide interesting data points.

Good luck with the process. I hope you are happy being yourself no matter what your neurology turns out to be.

I love the book Mockingbird; sad as it is, it's on my list of favourites.

Regarding the potential for your diagnosis, as others have said, the only way to be 100% certain is to get a doctor to diagnose it. If I were to offer my opinion however, I would say that I need more information; difficulty making friends and sensitivity to noise by themselves do not make autism; they are also symptoms of other conditions, such as high sensitivity (not a disorder, but worth looking into) as well as simple shyness, coupled with mild sensory processing disorder. To learn more about the necessary criteria, you can just google "autism, DSM 5" and they should come up; they're very easy to find.