Is a Diagnosis Worth Pursuing?

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I have been stalking this place for awhile, I guess it's time get to my real question. Is it possible I have aspergers or am I just weird? I never thought about it before, not until I got to college. I'm on academic probation and if I fail anymore classes I'm going to get kicked out. I talked my counselor about why I was having problems in class and I told her about not recognizing my classmates outside and that it made them think I was rude. I told that I wanted to just read the book and pass the class but everything was based on group. She had me take a Myers-Briggs test and gave an info packet that somewhat mentioned aspergers. I got my results but I never went back to talk to her because I was embarrassed.

Some basic info about me:

I've always had social "difficulties" and I was picked on until I learned to fight back physically. I've always had special interests, my first at age 2, drawing and by age 5 it was reading the entire encyclopedia, then it was Atlantis. Until this year, I thought everyone found an interest and studied it ad nauseam.

My mom recently told me I was a weird kid. She never told before because she didn't want to hurt my feelings. She said I never would hug her, actually I didn't until she said it and asked me to hug her every once and awhile. She also said she used to worry about me, that I didn't 'get' birthday parties and would sit in a corner while she threw me one.

I probably can think of more examples but this is getting kind of long. Hopefully someone can help me. Regardless of if I have AS or not, I don't know how to get around my school problems.

Well I'd say it depends on how serious it feels to you, if you feel it'll provide answers to questions or be helpful to you in any way, then do so definitely. By the sounds of your situation, I would say yes more than no because it may help your peers and lecturers understand you more.

By the sounds of it, you have Asperger qualities, so it's possible you have it.

I'm not sure why any of this differs from the norm, though. I thought most people are like that.

I don't really want a label put on me, I like the way I am. I just don't want to fail anymore. Everything is either an 'A' or a 'F' and no one can tell me why except I have some social difficulties. I'm not even sure what that means.

Smells like Asperger's to me. You have the really important part - the narrow obsessions. But one question: Do you like simple concrete answers and straight lines? That's another good sign of AS.

blue,

I recommend you go ahead with it. I think Nexus raises perhaps the essential point: namely, the value of being understood by both your peers and the faculty. I earned three degrees at three places--the last in 1983, a law degree--and, in retrospect, was largely misunderstood by both groups at all three places. This caused each of those experiences to be less than they easily could have been. And perhaps even worse was the fact that I didn't understand myself in the process and some of the unnecessarily difficult things I was inclined to put upon myself. Please don't underestimate the burdensome cumulative effect that repeated negative social experiences can have on your confidence and expectations-personal and professional--over time. But...people just didn't talk about Asperger's at that time. Thankfully for you, me and everyone else here, now they do. You have a tremendous advantage over folks in my age group, not only in understanding yourself but of likley being understood by others as well. Get it figured out, study it, almost everyone will be supportive and you'll be on your way to mixing well with the neuro-typicals and yet have all the advantages of an Aspie.

Very best of luck,
Dan

You'll get a different answer out of everyone on this forum, but I think that getting a diagnosis was entirely worth it for me.

Thanks for the help everyone.