This is me

Post Reply New Topic

I have a healthy sex drive in the context of a loving and intimate relationship. I hug people and kiss my cats.

I dislike the concept of sex when it is used as a weapon for people's own fear and hatred. I would most definitely cringe from the touch of someone who touched me with that on board.

I am sensitive to emotions and hypersensitive to loud, obnoxious noises and smells.

I am honest and direct and don't understand the willful use of intelligence to hurt or manipulate others.

I have a sense of humour based on word play, irony and farce.

I dislike teasing, taunting, hatred and fear disguised as "humour".

Which of these is AS, which NT? I no longer care. People are people. Some are easier to know than others.

What I have learnt here? To go forward without a label, being true to myself.

Being an aspie is merely being antisocial, along with the other stuff in the DSM criteria (I like to ignore the distress part). The rest are attributes that people with AS are likely to have, and people seem to confuse them with them being indicators of having it. They are not, just possible "co-morbids".

There's personality, and there's the disorder; they can overlap, but for the most part, the personality of the person with autism affects how you "deal" with having the disorder. There's some specific personality traits in those with autism (obsessing over certain subjects you find interesting, but you'd like said subjects whether you had autism or not), we're just as diverse in our personalities as "normal" people.

It's social retardation and narrow/focused interests first and foremost.

DSM-IV-TR on ASD

I'd say that most of the things you named both are AS and aren't.
Having Asperger's has an affect on who you are and what you do but it's just a part.
You're a person with AS and you have your own personality and so does everyone with Asperger's
You are very right...People are people.

Umm...there are miles of difference between AS and antisocial personality disorder. For one thing, sociopaths are compulsive liars, whereas Aspies may spend their lives trying to figure out how to do it at all. Sociopaths won't take any responsibility at all for their own actions, yet Aspies may have unusually strong feelings about personal responsibility. There's a difference. The disorders don't even work along the same lines as far as I know. I honestly think that the sociopaths are more in need of treatment than us.

Sapphix, do you experience meltdowns? This isn't a required symptom as far as I know, but they're essentially fits of paranoia, anger, and panic characterized by uncontrollable raving, crying, shaking, and a few other disruptive behaviors. They're a complete break with reason, although you're nominally in control. I'm not entirely sure that they're a required symptom, but they tend to be associated with autistic spectrum disorders.

Do you tic or stim? Both are related to excessive stimulation from dopamine. They are both involuntary or semi-voluntary movements that may arise during moments of anxiety, stress, or overexcitement. In Aspies, tics seem to be less common, and stims tend to be almost usual.

These are some of the more serious symptoms of AS. In the absence of these, the worst problems Aspies tend to encounter seem to be more like a specialized form of social anxiety, which, while serious in itself, isn't in the same class of problems.

I agree with the idea to look as Asperger's as "part of the personality package" rather than a handicap, at least around the part of the spectrum where I am -- fully understanding that things may be much different elsewhere on the spectrum.

Whenever social workers or the like try to sort me out into a "personality-bin" and a "handicap/Asperger's bin", I object: Hell no I ain't "handicapped in the head", I'm just me, with all the little quirks and charming oddities that implies.

Labels such as "Asperger's" are merely useful for looking up information and places like this...!