Your Gifts...

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...because there's a good side to having AS as well. In fact, there's a great side. Our unique talents and perspective, and inability (or fundemental lack of desire) to conform to social norms can allow us to break free from the crowd & really achieve in life. So what are your talents? Your mental quirks? your cognitive system? you memory skills? I'm interested because I haven't seen a lot on this topic around here, and it's no harm to focus on our strengths instead of weaknesses for a while

I am a very logical thinker. I have the ability to use systems to my advantage to solve problems NTs dont even consider. I am always used for literal and straight thinking. People also think I am genius with watches. I have one guy who comes in my shop and buys watches from around the world, and has never met anyone with the knowledge (and trivial facts) that I have.

I have hyperlexia and my son who was recently tested scored in the top 0.01 of society for verbal comprehension

I'm pretty awesome in general, but still absolutely worthless.
My IQ is perfectly balanced without drops and leaps and I have good skills in everything from logical thinking to language and music. I'm just more intelligent than the average NT but not awesome at anything. I would also say I'm more high functioning than even most high functioning aspies, and I have some decent acting skills which I put to use when needed. Other aspies are usually shy around me and admire me. I commonly find that I can read other aspies easily while they have a hard time understanding me. Of course I can also see through and predict most neurotypicals.

I'm like a mix between two extremes you could say. My asperger is like oil on clear water rather than a muddy lake. This is why I'm more adapted to neurotypical thinking than the average aspie but also create more conflict around me. Not gifted enough in one field to truly excel, and unable to function in neurotypical society in a harmonious way, makes me a genius poser who is in reality useless.
My strongest gift is actually my charisma I would say. I always felt I had an almost regal presence and others have confirmed this as well. I know it sounds narcistic but it isn't.

At last. I am not diagnosed with AS, but I have just found someone with similar traits to me.
I am always commented on as charming, and I can seem to function in a NT society. I have always proclaimed that I am jack of all trades, master of none. My biggest aspie trait is my way of thinking and some social inadequacy. My speech is normal unless I am rushed, then I mumble or stutter. Or even speak to fast.

I am pleased to meet you.

Should I get diagnosed?

I'd say your talent seems to lie in being really, really hard on yourself.

I always suspected there were more people like me who were too much in the greyzone to be diagnosed. Especially in places where there are no really specialized psychiatrists. In fact, if it wasn't for my reoccuring, violent tantrums as a kid which were first believed to be borderlinish/behavioural disorder when I was around seven, I probably never would have recieved a diagnosis at all.
Having gotten to know my own mind perfectly over the years, I realize I actually have AS and in a way I recieved a new sort of respect for the psychiatrist who managed to see it when I was twelve, the same psychiatrist I always hated for labeling me and destroying my childhood. The asperger adapted solutions were counter productive, but it's still AS I have, as strange as it may sound.

As for a diagnosis, I would say definitely no to getting one in your case. Mine never helped me, despite being placed in a tailor made, infinite budget AS-class in the eighth grade. To be honest my diagnosis has been a humiliation and stigma. The one benefit I do get is $1500 every month straight into my bank account, no questions asked. No asperger adapted solutions ever worked for me, I'm simply too aware and high functioning for it. In a more unstable society, I would probably be a leader of some sort.

Hmmm..I do have some cool abilities. Usual AS stuff, the "hyperlucidity" state, the very logical mind, the ability to go into extreme monofocus for long periods at a time. (though that can be bad as well...I get into something, work at it like a deranged girl...and the next thing I know it's 5am in the morning.)

Mmmm, I do also have morbid curiosity. I am already a leader of sorts. An assistant manager. I done the Aspie quiz test and got 172/200 and 31/200, so I must be a lot worse than I had imagined. I am only learning of aspergers recently, and am glad I have found someone closer to what I am like. However, there are also many other things that are VERY aspie, and I think it has helped toward me being a bit of a hard bugger at work. Please see my poll 'have I got aspergers...' and see what you think

I've got a great IQ (143), a good Verbal IQ (122), and a mentally ret*d Emotional IQ (77)

I feel the same way, I'm better than most people at everything, but I'm not pitch-perfect, I can't texture & unwrap 3d models, and I don't have the social skills to use my "talents" to my advantage

I'm very lucky in that I can instantly remember 50% of the stuff I read, especially in the field of Biology, and if I remember something I remember it for life. Unfortunatly it's extraordinarily difficult for me to learn the other 50%. I have good musical talent, I can play some songs by ear (I'm untrained), but I'm not pitch perfect. I have an great memory for songs, I usually have one normal song and one classical song "lodged" in my mind, and I can "hear" them in perfect detail, every note and detail perfect. Maybe NT's have that too...

I have a good long term memory, I can remember some things from younger than one year old. In case you're wondering, being one really sucks, you have little bodily control so it's like being in prison, doing nothing all day, utterly reliant on other people. I was artistic from birth, and it was torture being artistic but not being able to express it . My memories are all third person, which is weird. Anything I learn just bypasses my short-term memory and ends up in long-term (Except for maths and german ).

I'm a little confused about that AS quiz you posted. I got 194/200, and yet I'm quite high functioning.

I enjoy giving advice. I believe my unique perspective can be used to help people see things differently.

It confused me too, as I consider myself to only have a slight aspie tendency. I have do the quiz 4 times, and always have the same result.

Does anyone have a link for this test?

http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php

'ere you go

Is it an Asperger's trait to have trouble taking those kinds of tests? ...in the sense that you kind of know which way each answer will lead, so since that is in your subconcious, how can you take it seriously? Like, you're just kind of manipulating the test the whole time?

I have a difficult time with cut and dry questions also. A term I read on here is 'hyper-lucidity'. I think that is an excellent way to describe it.

I am diagnosed with AS. I am an autistic savant---I can play whatever musical instrument I become fascinated with, without lessons and in little time.

I am quite good at writing (poems, short stories, essays, novels, etc.) I put my intense interests in my works.

My biggest intense interests are music, house plans, and roller coasters/amusement parks. I had memorized the statistics for every roller coaster in North America by the time I was in high school.

My IQ is 111.

I am a Gifted Intervention Specialist at a public high school.

I am a church organist.

I am married and have two sons (one of which is going for a diagnosis this summer for autism).

I love having autism---it has been a true gift to me. It has been my friend throughout life.

I do have sensory issues (bright lights---ouch!, loud noises---ouch!, and touch---Do Not Touch Please!)

I lack the social skills that NTs have. I also don't get a lot of jokes that NTs tell.

I stim a lot (finger flapping, pacing, thumb popping---click click click).

I have picked on my pointer finger of my right hand for so many years now that it is callused---I sometimes pick at it until it bleeds.

I don't keep my autism a secret---even my students know. And---I am highly respected.

Last edited by glider18 on 04 May 2009, 8:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.