Are people with GAD as conspicuous as people with Aspergers?

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I was wondering if people with GAD, especially adolescents, are as conspicuous as people with Asperger's or if they generally pass as normal.

The reason I ask this question is because one of the first diagnoses I received was GAD, and while I identified with a lot of the symptoms associated with this condition, I never felt that this condition accounted for my eccentricity and social and communicational problems.

Can an acute case of GAD produce Asperger's like behavior?

(anbuend, what do you think?)

That's a good question. I was dx with GAD as an adolescent in early 94. I'm not sure that I had it, either. When I kept bringing up my social problems in therapy it was all chucked out by the therapist as either, a symptom of GAD (over worrying about how I'm perceived, or being too nervous to even talk) or a "negative attitude". What symptoms they couldn't attribute to GAD they put on depression, and when even that failed to explain me they tacked on agoraphobia.

The symptoms of GAD can appear very similar to ASD if one isn't looking to the root of the cause.

Right now I'm wondering if GAD is ever considered co-morbid with AS. A lot of the things that have not been explained by AS (so far's to my knowledge) can be explained with GAD. I've often thought my mother had a form of anxiety disorder, simply by the way she handles certain circumstances.

But I don't know... I know for a fact that I'm a narcissist, and am obsessed with how I'm percieved. It's a fear that's been with me since a child, always feared being "found out." When reading about AS, I figured the way I think could be explained by AS. Feels like I'm controlling a person that happens to be me, there's a seperation between me and who I appear to be. Nothing's ever natural. Would the hell is going on? Oy... Maybe I ought to stop reading about these things, getting progressively confused by the day...

I was diagnosed with GAD a few years back after decades of unexplained problems that in part seemed like anxiety. With the discovery of AS though, I think a lot of what I experienced was sensory and social overload with perhaps some anxiety thrown in. I tried to be social like everyone else but it was so hard and so exhausting. I never could understand how people could work all day and then still need to socialize in the evening. Now that I've mostly given up on socializing and I'm not working I experience many fewer "anxiety" problems.

I was diagnosed with GAD before I was diagnosed with Asperger's. It wasn't a misdiagnoses though; I really did have severe anxiety and even though I'm on medication, I still panic at times.

Um, what's GAD? Without knowing this I have no idea what this thread is about

General Anxiety Disorder.

I also was diagnosed with GAD. I didn't really believe I had it since I'm constantly doing stupid or painful things. Som people self-medicate...I seem to self-administer exposure therapy. Maybe my GAD is co-morbid with a bad case of anxiety-generated masochism. I do worry a lot and get overwhelmed by crap, but even when I'm relaxed, I still have trouble dealing with normal people.

The point of this thread is not whether GAD is comorbid with Asperger's. The point is, whether it is possible for a person with GAD, not on the autistic spectrum, to come across as a person with Asperger's. In other words, what if my aspie-like behavior is just a symptom of GAD? Is that even possible?

I was diagnosed with GAD, panic disorder, OCD, and agoraphobia. (at one point I was also dx'd with Borderline Personality, Bipolar II with rapid cycling, and depression LOL)

AS seems to pull all those things together and explain them much better than those dx's ever fit before. I too was always told that my symptoms were anxiety, or my OCD, etc.. even though AS explains it better.

I also thought AS explained my problems better, but what if GAD explains them just as well?

GAD would not explain AS symptoms. It would not explain difficulties with empathy or obsessive interests, unusual movements or postures.

I was diagnosed with chronic anxiety disorder about 20 years ago I wonder if that is the same thing as GAD

It could explain some overt manifestations of an ASD; "normal" people who're anxious "stim", leg bouncing is a common one (shaking hands, picking/biting nails, etcetera, too). But, not the social impairment (verbal/nonverbal) and repetitive behaviours (the all-encompassing interest that gets in the way of doing other things).

If difficulty with empathy is a feature of AS, then I guess that diagnosis wouldn't apply to me. Difficulty with empathy is also a feature of a psychopath. Now that's scary!

I guess it really has become a catch-all for just about everything.