Social Anxiety Disorder and Autism/Asperger Syndrome

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Hi, new to this forum, my name is Wilson. I would like to investigate the relationship between SAD and Autism/Asperger.

I am diagnosed with SAD by a psychologist. I am fine and not feeling anxious at all in individual conversations with younger kids and adults (although they may find me annoying at times). My biggest problem is social interaction with peers in group settings especially. I also have repetitive and stereotyped behavior such as walking around somebody or objects, picking nails, obsessed rare interest at my age and lack of sympathy. I have done various online tests on Asperger and it all says I have a high chance of having Asperger. My psychologist is not a specialist on developmental disorders and he says it is not important to label/catergorize me as autistic or whatever.

Anyone have both SAD and any PDD here?

So here is my question, is their any research regarding the co-existence of SAD and ASD? What is the co-relation between these two disorders? Are aspies more likely to have SAD due to their "higher" social-sensitivity an consciousness then other autistic people?Thanks

I agree with Raziel; if you have an ASD then your issues are different than an NT with merely social anxiety, and it is important to have that recognized by the mental health professionals you are working with.

I have both issues with social anxiety and ASD, and I was told by the doctor who diagnosed me that it changes the way my treatment ought to be going. I think this is mentioned in one of Raziel's links. While NT people with social anxiety are often better at socializing than they think they are, and have normal abilities to pick up on social cues and learn the social skills they lack, autistic people usually have real deficits in social interaction that they are anxious about. You might say that NTs with social anxiety are kind of paranoid while autistic people are socially anxious for good reason. As my doctor said, this means that autistic people need to go slower with getting out into the social world and often need social skills training before a therapist can do exposure-type therapies, while NTs with social anxiety can kind of be "pushed out of the nest" earlier and challenged more. Autistic people with social anxiety need to compensate for neurological differences while NTs with social anxiety just need to expose themselves to new social experiences to unlearn their shyness.

i think you need to look up what asperger is. social anixety if say ur talking to ur friends and you want to say something but your too nervous to say it. asperger is you see a group of your friends standing in a circle talking. you are calculating how does one fit in a circle and how can i join in. do i walk up and tap someone on the shoulder or just use my arms to pry open a space. do i stand on the edge and a space will magically appear. or do i walk str8 into the middle of it and a space will open on the other side. then once ur there what to say. you have no idea what to say so you might say ''i like turtles'' and the group is talking about spaceships. you note that when ppl are talking about space that turtles are not so important. you try again and say ''i belive a turtle would do better than a monkey in space'' the group then shuns you and continues the conversation. you are depeseratly trying to figure out how to hold your hands, ur stance, ur legs, do you breathe at a normal pace or what, who do i look at in the group, what if i want to leave how do i do that, finally they talk about fish and you say ''i like turtles'' and the group turns and say what is up with you and turtles'' you are then confused on how to react because you thought by now you mastered what the topic was about and youd say something that could have you involved in the conversation.

in short asperger is the inability to instinctively know how to socialize.

Sorry, what is NT? I think most of my social worries and negative preceptions of my self (such as classic autistic traits like repetitive movement and awkward body language, atypical vocabulary used in social interactions, little professor style one-side conversation, difficulties in recognizing and understanding verbal and non-verbal social cues are in fact legit, although some of those issues are exaggerated with my SAD issues. Like typical autistic people with SAD, my social anxiety issues develop when I reach 13-14 years old. I also have poor motor coordination problems and difficulties in following instructions, which are autistic traits but not related to SAD. For what is worth, I have asked my psychologist, he said he doesn't think I have aspergers. But he is not very sure about that. What he told me is that social phobia is my primary issue, while my personality traits/developmental disabilties (if there is) are secondary underlying causes which are not important for addressing my key problems.

NT=neurotypical (i.e. not autistic). Sometimes the term also excludes people with other issues, such as ADHD or schizophrenia.

I'd get a second opinion if I were you.

Those links Raziel posted sound exactly like me, I was a very outgoing kid to an extreme and an oddball but as I grew older I was picked on more and more (thanks middle school) until I was quiet and found it hard to speak up, people noticed a difference even and asked me what happened you used to be so talkative. It took me a long time to figure out what happened and why it did. I would describe having both like running into a wall over and over a cycle of being talkative and odd behavior and then social shunning and eventual withdrawal from people, then trying again and getting the same results.

Nothing you describe of yourself suggests social anxiety. Confused.

Delete plz

I am pretty sure I have SAD, just a less severe specific subtype of SAD. One of major symptoms of my SA is that I have unconditional beliefs that "I think they think I am _____ (fill in Watever negative term u want)". Some of my worries can be partly true. Also, this kind of thought processes only occur towards peers.
I have no fear of talking with people with authority (in fact I think I am better then avg population of same age in dealing with people with authority), no fear in shopping in a supermarket, not thinking how strangers perceive me when I'm walking on a street, no fear in socializing with younger and older ppl.