Is my father an Aspie?

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I'm curious because some of his behaviors seem rather odd and perhaps the product of Asperger's. Here's a list:

* He's very rigid in how he believes things should be done and freaks out if anyone suggests a variation in how he prefers things are done. For example, he's very nosy with how I do my college work and believes that if I'm not working to the exact schedule he created for me without me needing or my permission, that I'm a failure and that I'm doing things the "wrong" way. He also admonishes people if they don't shower in the morning at a very specific time or get up past a certain time. If people do anything past 10 AM, he thinks they're failures.

* He seems to have trouble understanding metaphors, figures of speech, puns or subtle humor. For example, him and my mother were eating dinner last night and when my mom heard something on the radio she found revolting, she said: "Can we turn this off? The idea of dinner is to keep down your food!" and he was dumbfounded until she explained that the program was making her nauseous.

* He's very insensitive to others oftentimes and doesn't seem to realize that responding to people a certain way is insensitive.

* He's very rigid in how he shows emotions, believing that ever not smiling is bad, even when there's no reason not to smile and that showing anger is bad, even to constructive degrees.

* His motor skills are spotty and he once severely injured himself while constructing a weather vane for his job.

* He is terrible at spatial awareness and often places things in the wrong area such as when he moved my sister into New York and didn't realize how much things had to be spaced.

* He seems into sameness and is rather adverse to new experience, believing everything should stay exactly the way it is.

* He obsesses far more about the details of something than the overall larger picture/vision. For example, a couple days ago he criticized strategies I use to remember to brush my teeth and I told him: "As long as I do it, that's what matters. Who cares how?" and he responded: "It matters how you do it!"

Well, what do you think?

We don't know. He could be, as he shows some traits, but we would need to meet him in person and have a professional assessment done to tell. He could just be a normal person, based on what you've written.

He has some "aspioid" traits- it's hard to say beyond that. (My own mother is similar.) One book about Aspergers I read had something interesting to say on this. (It was a library book- can't remember the title.) The author says that once he diagnosed someone with Aspergers or PDD, other family members often asked to be assessed too. He found that these people generally showed some but not all of the diagnositic traits, implying that there's a large population of people on the "on-ramp" to the autistic spectrum.

He seems sort of OCD, and sort of Aspie.

However, in order to determine if he is actually Aspie/autistic (or actually OCD), one would have to see him in person, and observe him over time.

If I had to guess, I would personally think that he is BAP with sub-clinical or very mild OCD, but again, I would need to actually meet him.

One thing he does seem to have:

A strong authoritarian side.

No 21-year-old should be subjected to the way your father treats you.

Gee, my dad was a bit like that, and his father before him. We learn ways to deal with a world that doesn't make sense as we grow up. When you're autistic and don't know it, the 'always right' model is useful, and shouting down opposition usually works.