Do you suspect others unknowingly have asperger's?

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As the thread title says, is there people you know that you think fit the description for asperger's syndrome but they themselves don't know it, perhaps because they never heard of the condition?

I have a semi-friend who I was talking to tonight who, like me, does not have many friends and tonight she revealed to me that she is obsessed with frogs. That sounds to me alot like an aspie, doesn't it to you? So should I tell her about the disease, and if so, how should I do it? I also know alot of other people and have family members who are weird and wonder if they too might be unwitting aspies. Makes you wonder how many people are out there with some kind of autism who spend their whole lives not knowing what they are...

I've met a couple people like that before. One of them is an Eagle Scout who was in the Venturing Crew I was in. I have an Uncle that I don't see very often who could be AS or HFA too.

From your thread title I thought you meant people that know they have AS but you don't know they know. Then i relised I didn't read it properley.

Oh well. I know a handful of people that seem to havea similar if not the same condition.

It's not a disease.

I suspect that several of my family members are also aspie; but when I mention this to the ones I suspect and list a few of the glaring sypmtoms that hey posess, they mention other members and don't seem to think that it could be them I'm speaking of!! ! I haven't had the nerve to outright say, "I think you might be aspie, too".

I was over at my cousin's house yesterday, and he was looking through my online space, where I have these two files stored:
http://geocities.com/bourqie/Aspergers.txt
http://geocities.com/bourqie/AspieCritieria.txt

He went through these lists and it was like "tick, yes, tick, yes.", nearly all of them, not enough to be definitley Aspie, but enough that he could be...

GA

I suspect my dad. It would make a lot of sense, as it could've migrated down the gene pool to me. he dosn't talk to anybody, dosn't have a ton of friends and really dosn't care. He's the best damn mechanic I've ever known and people bring in their car from miles around to have him do the repair work. He has customers that have been coming to him for years and continue to come to him because they trust his work so much. That is his aspie obsession, because you can talk cars with him (me too) any time, anywhere and he will get a smile on his face. Otherwise, its a flat expression (like me)

I suspect my grandfather on my father's side had it, although he died before I was born.
Becauses :
- he collected anything about World War I (at my grandmother's place, you can find in a room a complete collection of ALL the issues of a French newspaper from the start to the end of the war) and knew a lot of facts about it
- he had curious beliefs
- he would read the dictionnary aloud
- he would be pacing for hours, walking around the table
- he was a doctor and had his office which was his territory and it was hard to be allowed to come in

I also suspect one of my aunts - still on my father's side - has Asperger's.
- her voice is flat (I did not notice it, I was told so)
- she keeps everything
- she has an interest in facts, she remembers them just like that, especially those about nature
- my parents say that if I keep on acting the way I do, I will turn into her double

The last time I saw someone I thought was autistic, he turned out to have a diagnosis already.

One kid that my stepmom babysits defiently seems like it, especcially after he got wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy over stimulated the other day and started hitting himself... just seemed so autistic (though when I raged I generally hit other things.)

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A know of a couple people who probably have it.

First off, there wasa kid in Jr High, and later Highschool with reallythick glasses, and eyes that were constatly darting around, (Earning him the nickname of "Cylon") I didn't really know him that well, but he at least seemed ok enough to smoke a joint with during class break.--I know, I know, back in the day...

Another guy I know named Nate, may have it as well.

An couple of older guys that I knew in NC may have had it as well. One of them more or less wore dresses all the time and lived as a woman. --Back in the 60's and 70's, he had been employed as a codebreaker/cryptoanylist for the CIA.

The other was a guy who was really got me into computers. He was really into security issues, as well as computer based conspiracy theories.

All of the above were more or less as flaky, or flakier than I.

I've done my share of speculation, but never brought it up with anybody and I'm really wary of doing so. The broader we try to stretch the diagnostic criteria, the more meaningless it will become. Should "Asperger's" mean a diagnosis with clinically impaired functioning, or a set of personality traits like INTP? Is every shy geek an aspie?

I would hate to see the spectrum become a convenient excuse for victim-thinking (like people who call gambling addiction an incurable genetic disease). Or a scapegoat in conflicts (like all the NT spouses who blame it every time their spouse does something they think is rude or inconsiderate). The more mainstream and trivialized it becomes, the more we unwittingly open it up to interpretations like that.

I know my uncle has AS. He is absolutely textbook...every single symptom associated with AS he has. He does not know it, and if I got the opportunity, I'd tell him about AS, though not neccesarily tell him straight out that he has it. I also know a couple other people that are probably AS, one who definetely has ADHD almost as severe as mine and another one who probably has ADD. I probably will never mention this to any of them,

I no sumone who i think mite have it. Shes a reelly nise person, but can sound quite nasty sumtimes when she talks, and i no she dosent meen to at all.

I have a manager at work who I think has Aspergers. I haven't spoken to him about it, so it's possible he already has a diagnosis. It's not very easy to bring the subject up with a manager though.

I can think of scores of people I've worked with - but then I am a software engineer.

And then there's my family. I haven't had the nerve to discuss it with them yet.

1. My dad, who I doubt ever heard the term up till his death.

2. A friend who was misdiagnosed with ADHD. He's about 35 now. But he is CLASSIC Aspergers. I waited a long time to talk to him about it because I didn't want to play psychiatrist. But after awhile I noticed he continually has problems with other people because of reciprocal problems, etc., and I felt too guilty about NOT telling him and perhaps giving him the opportunity to understand himself better (he is not the type to feel degraded by any diagnosis). So first, even before mentioning AS, I asked him many questions about his childhood and interests and everything. My God. Classic. He was obsessed with dinosaurs and UFOs for years. And after I felt confidant enough, I told him about Aspergers and recommended he do some research on his own and see if he, himself, thought it fit.