You could be either (AS/HFA)

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Soo, finally professionals said I could have either HFA or AS, it's not clear

Is anyone else in the same position of having been told that they could be either?
And do you personally believe you have one over the other?

I don't. On the one hand I feel very inclined towards AS especially when I'm told this reaction or that symptoms is typical for AS as defined by Hans Asperger.

When I hear about modern definitions though, I tend to think I have HFA because I fulfil all criteria and AS is often considered something different from what Asperger himself thought it to be.

Maybe I have, like, modern classical but traditional AS. I just don't know haha

I don't know what I am (been said to have either by different people), and I've kinda stopped caring, other than knowing that I have some type of autism with adequate speech and a normal IQ as an adult (which does drop when I'm in certain situations, but that's to be expected).

I have the intense cerebral interest, but also the aloof social behaviour as an adult; total opposites of one another (the former is prototypically AS, and the latter is prototypically LFA or the severe end of HFA), but there they are.

I've never been active and odd with the one-sided social approach, except perhaps on the 'net; I've always been of the passive make when at my highest functioning days, to the aloof kind on the other days.

I didn't talk till I was 4 1/2, and that'd easily kick me over to HFA if people want to do that, but then there's Gillberg's.... I also have many of the things people with AS are suppossed to lack to a clinical amount, but you see people with AS saying they have them....

Best to not care, I think.

O, and you know what the funniest thing is? Hans Asperger said his disorder wasn't the same thing as Kanner's back in the seventies.

yea i agree with danielismyname its best to not care, basically your on the spectrum but your high functioning no matter what. i was talking to one of the RTs I know she was telling me that another one difference in socializing between aspergers and autism is that people with aspergers cant socialize due to their anxiety, it prevents them from doing a lot, and will seem awkward in socializing, people with autism can't socialize because they dont know how, they become confused and will just be in their own world when it comes to socializing. Honestly though the differences between HFA and AS are not a lot, put it this way, do you hide your stims most of the time in public? can you socialize but have something holding you back like social anxiety? are your self help skills are alittle delayed but not too bad? did you have no language delay? if the answers are all yes to the those questions, then your more likely to have aspergers, if you answered no then your more likely to have hfa. But even then you can't always tell, because people are being diagnosed both ways now and these days haha i just rhymed lol sorry. Anyways hope i helped ya alittle.

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Being Normal Is Vastly Overrated

Whether or not you had early or late language development seems to be the dividing line. However, I know HFA's higher functioning than me, and aspies lower functioning than me.

I do not see HFA as lower on the spectrum than asperger's for that reason. I see them side-by-side, with asperger's being only one form of HFA.

When I was assessed, the enthusiastic lady asked me several questions about my early language and speech development..i guess just to make sure I wasn't HFA...I don't know how old I was when I started talking, and I am afraid to ask my mom because I am afraid of talking about autistic spectrum stuff with her.

To me all the labels are for the professionals trying to figure.. to me its simply I am neurologically differently wired, I am an autistic individual and to me those of us on the autism spectrum are as deverse and different as those that are not.. do we worry if NTs ae high or low functioning, would be discrimination if we did!

yeah.. AS is a lable I use it because it fits me I only want a professional diagnoses so people can understand me better but then some critera I don't fill.

We used to just "say" that our son had asperger's, because it was easier than PDD-NOS, and more people seemed to have heard of that, but I think that his diagnosis would have been more along the line of HFA. His language stalled at age 3 -- would that be considered a language delay? He didn't stop talking, he just slowed down in his language acquisition. Currently, his obsessive interests are mild compared to what they used to be (he's really not bad at all -- just interested in video games as much as any other guys his age) and he likes to socialize. He's just quiet, but he's still social.

I don't know what I would label him as -- he doesn't seem to have social anxieties or obsessive interests, so I would think he's less of the asperger's "label". But does it really matter? He doesn't seem to have the hyper-obsessive interests, but he also lacks the hyper-intelligence positive side that comes with those interests.

Sora,

I didn't get the idea that you were impaired so much that being considered AS would be a detriment. And you seemed OK with the idea of you being HFA.

Yeah, "NT"s can say what they want about Autistics being stupid, but MAN, they aren't very smart.

Anyway, I digress. They have NO history of being good with standards, why should ones on psychiatry be any different?

To add, I recommend the book, "High Functioning Individuals with Autism".

It describes the various manifestations of autism in people with a normal IQ; from the aloof kind, which Rain Man is given as a perfect example (these people are usually diagnosed with autism), the passive kind (no fictional example; these people can be diagnosed with either autism or AS), the active and odd kind (usually diagnosed with AS), and to the highest of functioning people (who are usually diagnosed with AS later in life), who question, what's "normal" and what's not.