Milder variants of Autism than Asperger's?

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For the past few years I have felt like a man without a country, even with other Aspies because I felt like I was higher functioning than them, but lower functioning than NT's, I fall in the middle of the gap between Asperger's Syndrome and Neurotypicality. I am technically still A.S., but I think I might now be PDD-NOS(restricted to Asperger's Traits) as opposed to classic Asperger's Syndrome. I have most of the traits, but don't have narrow interests. No one really knows what the hell to call me. Any thoughts?

You are a person with some autistic traits probably.
Don't worry, you're not alone. I feel that I function much lower than other 'aspies'.

I think they should create a new subcatagory of Asperger's Syndrome called Atypical Asperger's Syndrome, to describe those few individuals who are even higher functioning than most Aspies, and don't meet the full criteria, yet have difficulties primarily in social situations. They might get stuck on one or two topics for a while, but it's not to the extent of "classic Asperger's", someone with Atypical Asperger's has a wide variety of "special interests".

I think they should create a new subcatagory of Asperger's Syndrome called Atypical Asperger's Syndrome, to describe those few individuals who are even higher functioning than most Aspies, and don't meet the full criteria, yet have difficulties primarily in social situations. They might get stuck on one or two topics for a while, but it's not to the extent of "classic Asperger's", someone with Atypical Asperger's has a wide variety of "special interests".

Milder than Asperger's syndrome (or after May 2013, high-functioning autism) is clinically insignificant.

But if you have any or two of three of the criteria for Asperger's syndrome, you just have PDD-NOS.
Severity is really not relevant in that diagnosis.
I was diagnosed with PDD-NOS due to lack of rigid behaviour, which was weird because it was mentioned that I am fairly rigid, but maybe not clinically significantly rigid.
I was more rigid when I was a child than when I am now, so I think my diagnosis will remain PDD-NOS.

who says Asperger's is mild?

Merle

I've seen people with aspergers that are more weird than me, they talk a little slower and mess up on their words more. I know I have some of the symptoms of aspergers but I have not been diagnosed with AS so Im kinda lost on what is exactly wrong with me.

So, if my interests are pro audio, photography, and computer stuff, but extremely mainly pro audio, would that part of AS be incorrect? I do have strange speech issues, like remembering how words sound or just forgetting the correct word flat out?

Everything else though is still flat out Aspie.

You are not alone. I feel I am between two worlds but I lean more towards AS because my mind works different than NTs. But I seem to have everything from my childhood. The inflexibility I had, difficulty with change, the obsessions, narrow interests, problems with social situations, motor mannerisms, fiddling with objects, lack of TOM, difficulty understanding feelings. But I have gotten better and now I do fine with change and I am flexible and I have learned TOM, and I don't think my interests are narrow anymore. I don't always show everything so that's what makes me a borspie. I guess that's why they say I'm mild but yet I have bad learning difficulties, I am very literal, I even have difficulty with metaphors and idioms when I first hear them, I never get tired of the same things over and over. Some people don't think I am a borspie but that's their opinion and just as long as it's not the "You don't have AS" I don't care what they think. They just have their own view on what a borspie is and think I can't be a borspie if I have all these difficulties. I say I am because I am flexible and I can work and I do fine with change. I can talk to people and can have normal conversations off and on. Even my mom agrees I am a borspie. But I was never a little professor and I scored low on IQ tests growing up and had classic autistic behavior and by age eight my autistic characteristics weren't as prominent.

I think your perception of your autism's severity depends on what kind of counseling you had as a child. For example, I see myself as higher functioning than some other aspies but I recognize some of their tendencies and behaviors from my childhood. I learned to look people in the eye and interpret emotions so people who have known me for years do not suspect that I have Autism. I still believe that I have Autism because I have unusual interests and I am very shy with people I don't know (ie I was the one person in class who couldn't pick a partner, even in the middle of March.) Your type of autism may not be as severe as classical Aspergers but if you had any counseling for your Autistic behaviors, you may not exhibit them or even remember having them. I'm not trying to judge you, I'm just giving you my two cents

Part of the problem is that any boundaries are arbitrary and somewhat subjective. I know what you mean - I might or might not get diagnosed in, but in a lot of areas I seem pretty borderline.

For me what is important is not the diagnosis but the awareness:

I find I am much more in tune with the Wrong Planet posters [not even mentioning all the traits that constantly have me saying "THAT is what was going on] than I am with the NT. I realized forty odd years ago that MOST people think left to right, and I think up and down.

Gradually I collected some others - some of them close friends - who also think at right angles. Technically Aspie or not, I am definitely NeuroAtypical in the same way.

Broader Autism Phenotype, 10% of the population.

90% of Autism is sub clinical, no DSM Dx for you.

Also, the less autistic, the more other stuff mixed in.

Same traits, same problems, no support but Wrong Planet.

Hi Mat55

6 months after my Dx with AS I decided to
write a book about my life as I needed to
help myself make sence of this 'in-between
world'. I think that the later the dx the
harder it is to intigrate this
'inbetween-ness'.

However writing my book
helped me realize that I am like a bridge, for
although my foundations are designed
and constructed on the other side of the NT
river, due to my highly adaptive skils I am
able to extend over to the NT side, although
depresion after depression eventually
taught me that I was not designed nor created
as a cantilever structure, but a human being
born autistic, with an incredable desire
to survive in a world that was overwhelming
for me.

I am very right brained dominant too, very
visual, kinesthetic, and my natural way of
making sence of the world is through metaphor,
music and figurative language. These gifts,
alongside the deep wounding and greiving I
have experience, enable me to see the world
through the eyes of the artist and
contemplative.

However, I remain infelxable, totally engrosed
in my special interest, suffer with sensory
issues, and have a complex TOM plus many
more AS traits.

I question what is AS 'lite' or 'mild' about
my autism, but I celabrate that I am alive
and that my alive-ness comes from not being put
into any box.

My autism is integrual to my spirituality
and only I have the right to say what is mild
or intense about it.

Wishing you well

Chris

don't worry, NTs will catch up with you in that department when they get to be as old as moi. age is the great equalizer in terms of memory. as the years go by, you and nearly everybody else will have CRSS.

I would like to clarify this? Is HFA supposed to be "higher" than AS? I thought that Aspies had the highest IQ's among them. What makes an HFA more normal than AS if this is so? I've never been diagnosed and I have not taken an IQ test. I think my visuo-spatial is bad, math terrible. However I get top for literature and do well in chemistry. I usually get good grades in school,especially for essay-writing. My social skills are horrible but I have friends whom I don't hang out with. I read Darwin's The Origin Of Species when I was 15 or 16 (first edition.) Would you call me an HFA or Aspie?

I think this is what some authors called "schizoid disorder of childhood".