What is autism?

Post Reply New Topic

I stumbled on this little on-line test here:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html

I got a 35, which aroused my curiosity. So then I found this:

http://ani.autistics.org/dsm4-autism.html

which honestly sounds ridiculous. All this criteria and the above test measure is how sociable one is. Is not being sociable now considered a psychiatric disorder? Am I missing something? So I thought I would ask for an explanation of all this in an autistism forum, which I found here. Can anyone here clear this up for me?

Sorry if this is a "newbie" question, but this area is new to me.

Nope being non-social is not unique to autism. Those tests only matter if you take your own background into account. For example, have you always had trouble initiating or maintaining eye-contact even with your closest family? That could be an indication of some neurodeviance, for me it's always been a big problem.

Autism is a magical place where kids eat cotton candy and ride rollercoasters all day,while people in costumes dance around and pose for pictures.

Oh,sorry I was thinking of Disney land

Now that was a horrible concept, don't mention the 'D' word again...

I only scored 28.

OBVIOUSLY, somebody that wasn't very detail minded made a quiz that in HIS/HER mind covered all the bases. The subjectivity, poor wording, and bias hurt its veracity though!

Steve

i scored a 48.

OK, I found a couple questions I slipped up on, and answered in a black or white fashion, and I got 42! Just goes to show how subjective it can be.

Steve

I scored 44
Simon.

I'm speaking for myself, but I'm done with tests. I feel like I have to "pass" them or something to prove something as if the test is determining who I am and not me determining that.

Today i scored 40.
What do i win?

Another day of aspie reassurance

I got a 41

Corvus,

If I wanted to "pass" it first time, I could have. I knew what they were looking for in most cases. I think we're all just curious, etc... Besides, I don't like/trust tests, and I said that several times.

Heck, I took one test a few days ago where I would have said "no" to bouncing your leg. I mean "what is that?" I just never really thought about it. So why did I say yes? I went to a get together that last tuesday, and I guess because I was bored and/or nervous, my right leg was bouncing like crazy.

Steve

I got an 11...

Me, too! Some of the things are more me, though, like going on-and-on about the same thing, needing routine, not knowing when it's my turn to speak on the phone, and not letting others get a word in edgewise. And then there were some that I didn't even really understand or know how to answer...
-OddDuckNash99-

I've been thinking about that lately (What is autism?) because of some recent interactions with so-labeled psychologists (well, ok, the one over-generalizing egotistical ass I've had the opportunity to see ). Seeing as no-one that I know of uses their entire brain, and cannot engage it (as a whole) at will, are we humans not ALL 'autistic'? Not in the classic definition of course, but if one part of the brain is not being used and another develops/is more active to compensate for that, THAT"S what's defining the characteristics and actions of the person. And we're all like that, the difference between people would seem to lie in which part(s) of the brain that are not being engaged and the part(s) which compensate for that. I wonder, on average, if 'aspies' (given brain scans) would not prove to use more of their brains than 'NTs', and therefore 'NTs' would evidently be the more 'autistic'. I'd be willing to bet that's correct in respect to the population of already diagnosed 'aspies' vs. 'proven' 'NTs'. But on a whole, I believe if we could prove it, no group, however defined or separated would be anymore 'autistic' than any other. Bottom line, no two people are exactly alike, and we all need to help each other in the areas where we do not function well, instead of separating ourselves and generalizing others so much that some people need a 'diagnosis' of their personal neurology to cope in life, as if they need an excuse and some proof that they are who they are. I hope all that made sense the way i wrote it...