Im NOT a genius...

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Anyone else?
Im kinda sick of the asperger genius label, and feel kinda werid.
Im not that good at maths, although i wish i was, i am at the mo having an obsession with prime and square numbers, trying to figuire out a pattern, but thats about it.
Im also at the start of a dinosaur phase which im excited about, but i know im not going to remember every name and every fact and i kinda feel embarrased that im not a genius.
I quit college as i couldnt fit in and my behaviour wasnt catered for, and now im 23 and trying to figure out my career, ut i have no confidence that i shall get a degree or anything.
I want to do something big! like law, or horse vet, or teaching, a child shrink would be a dream, and mental health has been an obsession for a long time, but i dont feel smart enough.
Although, my IQ was measured at 137, which is pretty good i know, but whats my field? how do i find my intelligence? how do i know what i can excel in? im still waiting to find what i can be great in! - also noted im adhd, so my add doesnt help with the college thing.
Advice needed please, help me find what i can be great in!! !! !!

I'm not a genius either and I share your frustration. Do you have a community college nearby? They sometimes have very good career counseling centers or at least know who might be able to help in the area.

I understand how you feel, although I'm not 100% in the same situation as you. I have an IQ of 160, as tested by an educational psychologist. My IQ shows when I do maths in my head or solve mathematical problems, and I can learn huge amounts of facts about my obsession topic. However when I am given something to learn that is not maths or not anything I'm interested in, I struggle to learn it. I'm doing pharmacology in university, but I am struggling with one of my first year modules, cell biology, because I don't like it and no matter how many times I read it, I'm still confused. However give me a psychopharmacology textbook or the British National Formulary, and I can learn the book off by heart. Well, almost. My IQ is not showing in my current modules and I'm struggling. Psychopharmacology is a second-year module. I can't wait

Me neither. I tend to get a bit flummoxed by numbers. It's pretty annoying.

I think I am a genius, it just isn't in maths.

Ahh, what a way to make my 4000th post.

You have to go exploring poppy. Get into the wilderness. Many of us have talents for things that don't even exist within the narrow confines of the mainstream's box of acceptable human behaviours.

People often think I'm very intelligent but my IQ scores don't reflect that and I get easily frustrated and am kind of slow at things. I think people think I'm smart because of my interests, and I like to learn things. On the other hand sometimes people think I'm mentally ret*d.

I'm certainly not a genius but I can see how people might think people with AS are all smart if their interests are in anyway intellectual (someone collecting information on dinosaurs would be seen as more intelligent than someone texting on their phone all day, probably...)

I think this might be a big reason why AS is seen as a mild condition as well. Who cares if someone needs alarms to remember to eat and can't tie their shoe laces or look you in the face yet can spout tons of trivial facts?

How about doing an internship somewhere, poppy-lou? Not only will it help you find out how you perform in a field/profession that you are interested in, but I find that my own internships give me a lot of motivation that keeps me going when my studies get tough. When I am despairing about yet another construction project, all I have to do is to remember my time in the surface chemistry lab of a big company producing printing presses (which has almost nothing to do with my study subject at all...) and I know that I simply feel at home in a lab and can do very good work there, even if I am helpless with the simplest calculations for the equipment used in said lab.

I don't remember names or dates easily but I can remember facts about things that I'm interested in really well (except things that require remembering dates/names).

For example, during my phase of being really really interested in ancient Egyptian mythology/history, I could remember many stories about the various gods worshiped in Egypt at various times but wouldn't be able to tell you when they were mothers and sons, brothers and sisters or fathers and daughters. At various times the some of the relationships changed throughout Egypts ancient history.

Don't worry about genius, think about what really makes you happy and see what you can do to make it happen. If conventional college doesn't work for you, perhaps a long distance learning course may work better?

Genius isn't just citing large math problems, I've lost most of my math ability but I can fix things, make things and figure stuff out like nobody's business. I have very little motivation to put any of this to money making use but that's another story. You are still rather young, doesn't sound like you are not smart enough to be a mental health professional, I have two friends that went into this field getting the degree they needed in their 40's and 50's.

Do you think you could do a smaller class load? Taking it slow might help a bit. It's not your intelligence that's the problem, it's finding a way to communicate what you are capable of to the people who need to see it. And I don't think fitting in at college is really a good thing, judging by the students I see all the time.

Actually, with an IQ of 137 you technically are a genius, according to some statisticians at least. To achieve a score like that while suffering from ADD is quite impressive.

I'm not a genus by any means. My IQ is 113.

I have learned that the vast majority of people, including people in jobs where we would think they would be smart, aren't. They just went to school for a very long time and, at the very least, got C's and managed to get a job. Just because they have a degree or a job doesn't mean they are smart, it just means they got passing grades and managed to get hired.

I know I'm very intelligent, but math and I have some serious issues to work out.

My IQ is um... 140...

Yeah... I know... sometimes I forget that there are Aspies that might not fit the "genius" label. To be honest though, I'm definitely not a straight A student by any means... Seriously...

If you're spatial aspie you are generally crap at maths, unless it's of the geometric kind. I'm actually fixated on design and on plants so I get a lot of stupid gardener comments, taken a while to find people who take urban green design seriously (at least in Australia). I also preoccupied with permaculture and sustainable development which is viewed very dimly by the hard sciences (a lot of crazy beliefs mixed in with some good biological science). I wouldn't say genius but I've been told v bright. I certainly got absolutely roasted by the conservative mainstream students for being arrogant. Think I'm too lazy to be a genius, you need to put in a LOT of hours to get to that level of fluidity & surety. Have a look at Richard Feynman's interviews done with the BBC, he has good things to say about the matter...

My iq is 147. I was never a straight A student. I was more of a straight F student.

My IQ is 141. Not a genius...