Oh man, it turns out I might be autistic

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shinylight
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27 Feb 2009, 5:44 pm

Hi all,

Listen, I don't know if this is even possible, but has anyone come to discover on their own that they have autism? I'm 32, and I'm pretty sure I have to have something. Can you usually just look at someone and tell if they are ret*d? I mean it's possible I'm just really ugly, but I don't know if it's just that or if it's actually a chromosomal abnormality that would result in that and/or mental deficits.

Anyhow, can someone just check out a few pics, and lemme know if I got autism? I really would like to know if that's possible. I converse well online, my spelling and vocabulary has always seemed at least average, then again I'm judging this. I had a doctor say he was testing me for suspected Asperger's Syndrome, but he said that the fact that I desire relationships with people rules this out. That sounded like complete BS to me. They administered an WASI IQ test, and said the results were in the "superior range" between 120 and 130. I'm pretty sure that is BS as well.

I just want the truth, and it seems like no-one will tell me. It's driving me insane. I don't know if anyone can understand this, but I need to be able to determine what exactly I have. If it's just a case of an ugly dude thats one thing, but if its actually a case of Autism I think I have a right to know. Any suggestions?



Liresse
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27 Feb 2009, 5:52 pm

As far as I know, ugliness isn't an autistic trait. What specific problems do you encounter that make you think you are autistic?

EDIT: Oh, and there is no isolated "autism gene." There is a big genetic component but generally autism is considered neurological rather than genetic.


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Last edited by Liresse on 27 Feb 2009, 5:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Emor
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27 Feb 2009, 5:53 pm

As far as I know, Autism has no effect on physical appearance(well, I guess it could have an effect on the clothes, but, you know what I mean xD).
I know a lot of people on this forum who've said they're not a loner by choice which would imply that they want relationships, so I think your doctor's reasoning is flawed.
I converse very well online too, but don't really care if I do offline anymore, but I don't think I do.
EMZ=]



whitetiger
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27 Feb 2009, 5:56 pm

You definitely do not have to be ugly to be autistic. Your IQ can be 140 and you can be autistic. I found out when I was 36 that I am autistic. Nothing fits me better. Also, most of us do seek out and want social relationships. We just have trouble making and keeping them.



NUTLOG
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27 Feb 2009, 5:59 pm

shinylight wrote:
Listen, I don't know if this is even possible, but has anyone come to discover on their own that they have autism?


Yeah

shinylight wrote:
I'm 32, and I'm pretty sure I have to have something.


I concur.

shinylight wrote:
Can you usually just look at someone and tell if they are ret*d?


No. There can be visual clues of course, but looks don't tell the whole story.

shinylight wrote:
I mean it's possible I'm just really ugly, but I don't know if it's just that or if it's actually a chromosomal abnormality that would result in that and/or mental deficits.


Mental deficits don't make you ugly. Autism doesn't make you ugly.

shinylight wrote:
Anyhow, can someone just check out a few pics, and lemme know if I got autism? I really would like to know if that's possible.


That ain't gonna work.

shinylight wrote:
I converse well online, my spelling and vocabulary has always seemed at least average, then again I'm judging this. I had a doctor say he was testing me for suspected Asperger's Syndrome, but he said that the fact that I desire relationships with people rules this out. That sounded like complete BS to me.


It is BS. Next time you see that doc, give him a good slap and tell him to keep his medical advice to himself.

shinylight wrote:
They administered an WASI IQ test, and said the results were in the "superior range" between 120 and 130. I'm pretty sure that is BS as well.


Quite possibly.

shinylight wrote:
I just want the truth, and it seems like no-one will tell me. It's driving me insane. I don't know if anyone can understand this, but I need to be able to determine what exactly I have. If it's just a case of an ugly dude thats one thing, but if its actually a case of Autism I think I have a right to know. Any suggestions?


You need to actually read about aspergers and autism and see if the listed symptoms match up with you. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that that might give you an indication.



MrMisanthrope
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27 Feb 2009, 6:10 pm

NUTLOG wrote:
...
shinylight wrote:
I converse well online, my spelling and vocabulary has always seemed at least average, then again I'm judging this. I had a doctor say he was testing me for suspected Asperger's Syndrome, but he said that the fact that I desire relationships with people rules this out. That sounded like complete BS to me.


It is BS. Next time you see that doc, give him a good slap and tell him to keep his medical advice to himself.

shinylight wrote:
I just want the truth, and it seems like no-one will tell me. It's driving me insane. I don't know if anyone can understand this, but I need to be able to determine what exactly I have. If it's just a case of an ugly dude thats one thing, but if its actually a case of Autism I think I have a right to know. Any suggestions?


You need to actually read about aspergers and autism and see if the listed symptoms match up with you. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that that might give you an indication.


I concur with the all of the above. Autisim, and in particular Asperger's, is NOT equivelent to "retardation".

The "Doctor" "testing" you for Aspergers doesn't now his hat from his DSM-VI if he actually believes what he told you. As a matter of fact, DESIRING relationships but not being able to understand the fundamentals of how they work is one of the key indicators of Aspergers.

"Being Ugly" has squat all to do with making friends. Lots of Ugly people who are great at gladhandling and have loads of friends.

There are online tests you can take (Cambridge Asperger's Quotient, Aspie Quiz, etc) that can give you some primary feedback. I would (I did) start there.

As for "worrying" about "having autisim" as if it were colon cancer or a boil on your nose... relax.

There are certain difficulties that you may have to work with, but once they have been identified it makes things somewhat easier... and is damn sure isn't fatal.


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27 Feb 2009, 6:29 pm

I won't begin to comment on Asperger's versus the wider spectrum. All I'm sure about is that the professionals aren't sure enough about the distinctions to give me a clue.

But, as far as the autism spectrum, yeah, desiring relationships with others doesn't rule that out. And as far as IQ, one can have high IQ. IQ measures only one kind of smarts. It doesn't measure social smarts.

I learned on my own that I have autistic traits. Not unusual.



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27 Feb 2009, 6:43 pm

shinylight wrote:
Listen, I don't know if this is even possible, but has anyone come to discover on their own that they have autism? I'm 32, and I'm pretty sure I have to have something. Can you usually just look at someone and tell if they are ret*d? I mean it's possible I'm just really ugly, but I don't know if it's just that or if it's actually a chromosomal abnormality that would result in that and/or mental deficits.
First: Autism can occur in people of any intelligence. So you're basically asking about two different issues here.

Most people with MR don't look "ret*d", especially those with the "cultural/familial" type (that is, the extremes of the normal range that dip below the 70 IQ threshold). They look like average people who are not as good at learning. Some congenital traits, like Down syndrome, have visible physical signs and mental retardation together. And other congenital traits have only visible physical signs, with no associated mental retardation. So not only can't you predict autism from facial features (or if you can, they are so subtle that nobody has defined them yet), you can't really predict mental retardation either unless you know what a particular syndrome looks like, and know that that particular syndrome makes MR more likely.

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Anyhow, can someone just check out a few pics, and lemme know if I got autism? I really would like to know if that's possible. I converse well online, my spelling and vocabulary has always seemed at least average, then again I'm judging this. I had a doctor say he was testing me for suspected Asperger's Syndrome, but he said that the fact that I desire relationships with people rules this out. That sounded like complete BS to me.
It is. The doctor doesn't know the first thing about autism, evidently. Many autistic people--including some who don't even use spoken language--intensely desire relationships with other people. Some are very introverted; but this isn't diagnostic or universal.

Quote:
They administered an WASI IQ test, and said the results were in the "superior range" between 120 and 130. I'm pretty sure that is BS as well.
Well, 120-130 isn't particularly surprising; it's not unheard of for someone with autism to score in that range or even higher. I do believe that IQs don't say as much about autistic people as they say about most people, because it's possible to have a very high IQ and still require a lot of help to live, or conversely to score quite low and still be rather independent. That's because IQ tests are made to measure typical brains, in general, and when applied to an autistic brain, they aren't nearly as useful. Especially notable is the way that many people score in the MR range for no better reason than that IQ tests are verbally based and they are strongly visual thinkers with speech/langauge problems. People have been labeled MR, only to have it found out later that they simply couldn't communicate the skills they had; and people with actual MR have surprised everybody by figuring out ways to learn and follow their dreams despite people labeling them as incapable.

However little the overall IQ test says about you, I'd still recommend you ask for your IQ test results and look not at the main score, but at the sub-scales. Are there any scores that are really high? Really low? Those would give you clues as to what you're good at and where you're weak. That's important knowledge to have.

Quote:
I just want the truth, and it seems like no-one will tell me. It's driving me insane. I don't know if anyone can understand this, but I need to be able to determine what exactly I have. If it's just a case of an ugly dude thats one thing, but if its actually a case of Autism I think I have a right to know. Any suggestions?
You do have a right to know. Ugly doesn't have anything to do with autism, but if you are autistic you definitely have a right to know, because that means you would know more about yourself, and maybe figure out how to solve some of the problems you have come up against. Not knowing you're autistic while trying to figure out psychological or social problems is like trying to fix a machine without knowing whether it's a blender or a cell phone! Whether you're autistic or not, of course, you're still the same person you were yesterday--a diagnosis doesn't change that; it just gives you (possibly critical) information about yourself that you didn't know before.


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27 Feb 2009, 6:48 pm

Try this (as was mentioned above).

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html

It's the Cambridge Asperger's Quotient.

My score is 42.



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27 Feb 2009, 6:54 pm

shinylight wrote:
Hi all,
Can you usually just look at someone and tell if they are ret*d? I mean it's possible I'm just really ugly, but I don't know if it's just that or if it's actually a chromosomal abnormality that would result in that and/or mental deficits.

Are you saying that people think you are ret*d when they look at you? I am confused about where you are going with this paragraph. Yes, it's true when people see someone who looks ret*d they often ignorantly assume that person is ret*d, if this answers your question. Doesn't have anything to do with whether you actually are or not.

shinylight wrote:
Anyhow, can someone just check out a few pics, and lemme know if I got autism?

I don't see any pictures.
shinylight wrote:
I just want the truth, and it seems like no-one will tell me. It's driving me insane. I don't know if anyone can understand this, but I need to be able to determine what exactly I have. If it's just a case of an ugly dude thats one thing, but if its actually a case of Autism I think I have a right to know. Any suggestions?

Well you know ugliness is subjective so it doesn't mean everyone will consider you ugly just because you feel that way. If you do look ret*d that is worse because this is an even tougher stereotype to break through. There's no way to know if you are autistic on the basis of this one post.



whitetiger
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27 Feb 2009, 8:30 pm

It's also not the end of the world to be autistic, you know. It's the begininng of a new one. You can talk and relate and post here towards people like yourself and feel less alone. You can go to support groups and make real friends. You can finally get a true understanding of yourself for the first time.



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27 Feb 2009, 9:21 pm

whitetiger wrote:
It's also not the end of the world to be autistic, you know. .


QFT and yeah! it's not.

course, I don't know any other way.
Doesn't even seem like NTs have that stress free of a life, either.

Merle


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28 Feb 2009, 7:10 am

NUTLOG wrote:
shinylight wrote:
Listen, I don't know if this is even possible, but has anyone come to discover on their own that they have autism?


Yeah

shinylight wrote:
I'm 32, and I'm pretty sure I have to have something.


I concur.

shinylight wrote:
Can you usually just look at someone and tell if they are ret*d?


No. There can be visual clues of course, but looks don't tell the whole story.

shinylight wrote:
I mean it's possible I'm just really ugly, but I don't know if it's just that or if it's actually a chromosomal abnormality that would result in that and/or mental deficits.


Mental deficits don't make you ugly. Autism doesn't make you ugly.

shinylight wrote:
Anyhow, can someone just check out a few pics, and lemme know if I got autism? I really would like to know if that's possible.


That ain't gonna work.

shinylight wrote:
I converse well online, my spelling and vocabulary has always seemed at least average, then again I'm judging this. I had a doctor say he was testing me for suspected Asperger's Syndrome, but he said that the fact that I desire relationships with people rules this out. That sounded like complete BS to me.


It is BS. Next time you see that doc, give him a good slap and tell him to keep his medical advice to himself.

shinylight wrote:
They administered an WASI IQ test, and said the results were in the "superior range" between 120 and 130. I'm pretty sure that is BS as well.


Quite possibly.

shinylight wrote:
I just want the truth, and it seems like no-one will tell me. It's driving me insane. I don't know if anyone can understand this, but I need to be able to determine what exactly I have. If it's just a case of an ugly dude thats one thing, but if its actually a case of Autism I think I have a right to know. Any suggestions?


You need to actually read about aspergers and autism and see if the listed symptoms match up with you. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that that might give you an indication.


I'm going to just quote what NUTLOG said. It is 100% true!



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28 Feb 2009, 8:03 am

It's not the end of the world.


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28 Feb 2009, 1:23 pm

And, the thing is, it's not like cancer or something where there's a good chance of getting worse, when you discover you have it.

No such forecast with autism and Asperger's. It just explains what already is. The only thing you lose in finding out you have autism or AS (with or without a formal diagnosis) is illusions. And, really, it can be quite freeing.



ItsMike
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01 Mar 2009, 5:11 am

Good test Tiger, I got a 30.

As far as the topic goes, looks aren't everything. The fact is, most men are unattractive anyway. Oh sure, some more than others. But the joke on women is that God made us for them to look at, and he made them for us to look at. Tee Hee. :lol:


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