We have been newly assessed

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Congratulations! I hope you got some really tasty dark beer to celebrate. And plan to get some more when the written report shows up.

My WP signature block doesn't elaborate but I bought champagne on the way home from the Psychologist telling me my assessment, and then I got more champagne when the written report showed up.

Thanks!

Given that my girlfriend has not received her result yet, and I'm not sure how she will react to whatever she's told, I still feel a bit "unsettled" until that happens. Celebrations, if any, will be delayed for the moment. And how reading the written report will affect me is yet to be determined, as well.

Given my life circumstances of the moment, too, and a looming "deadline" to meet, that also limits my ability to feel celebratory for the time being.

Darron

ASD1. A.K.A. Asperger. I suppose you already knew that though, right, with high certainty. The other 2 things are basically co-morbid side effects.



Me too in a sense. Lol. Even though I know intelligence tests are somewhat 'bogus.' I know statistically, I'm aleast smarter than 75% of general population, and I'd put YOU in that SAME category too, from the way you write. It find it easy to suss people intelligence levels out, fairly quickly, irl and online. Not that I'm a genius of observation or anything.

Yes, I was placing myself at Level I, with some "error bars" that extended from "not quite diagnosable" all the way into "Level II", given my general failure to be able to live without support for essentially all of my life.

And yes, the depression and anxiety increasingly seem to be strongly related to the previously unknown influences that my social difficulties have on my mood.


I may be willing to disclose the numerical results of my cognitive assessment, once I have them. I'm not sure how I'll rate in the way they do it now (population percentile), but the one numerical I was shown in about 9th grade was in IQ points, based on the standardized testing that all students underwent. The guidance counselor in the public high school had me in his office, going over the usual concerns about why I was not performing according to the expectations engendered by the test results. This had been a frequent occurrence in my school years.

At one point in the discussion, the GC said "I'm not supposed to be showing you this", as he showed me a piece of paper, pointing to the score, which was "150+". He asked me "do you know what this means?", to which I replied something like a simple "yes", but what I was thinking was more like "Yes, that means you have a narrowly defined idea of what that number means I should be doing, or wanting to be doing".

I assume that the "plus" meant that I had achieved a 100% result on the multiple-choice test that we had all been given, and that the test was designed to measure general cognitive ability in the range of "Uh, oh!" to "150". I've often thought that above a certain level, IQ is often associated with being "too smart for one's own good", and that at such levels, problems will often occur for a variety of reasons, often overriding any seemingly obvious advantages, and making one's life more difficult, not easier.

The assessment doctor had apparently never been asked to disclose the results of the cognitive testing in non-numerical terms, so she had a bit of difficulty in coming up with ways to express them to me. I'm glad I asked to have them delivered in this way, though, as I was able to focus much better on listening to and understanding what I consider to be far more important aspects of the testing, those being the behavioral observations and interpretations of the stories I told about seemingly notable parts of my life experience.

Darron

Well, if your not sure you should have some dark beer to "celebrate" then perhaps to "acknowledge" a significant event?

A significant event, indeed!

I guess I'd better get my old Hombre goin', and head off to Walmart to grab some Modelo Negra! (quite cheap and good enough)



Darron

She'll have a significant event, too. Maybe pick up something she likes, too.

Swedish Fish!

Darron

I'm not sure where I got that 75% idea. Maybe this.

But that would place myself at 110 IQ. Being humble and everything. That's a more realistic number. Its hard to live up the these kinda numbers.

131 is smarter than 98% population. Even a more modest 120 IQ makes me smarter than 90% of population.

150 means your brain is firing on all cylinders and is razor sharp. A genius of unlimited potential. Super Human almost! Or you were just really good at taking the test. Could be that...

IQ is just a tool to filter people. Neatly categorize them for potential jobs/ tasks/ applications/ roles.

Also high IQ is highly correlated with introversion. Not surprising. It's not that we are so smart, it's that ASD tendencies lead to isolation, seclusion, introversion, disconnection, yet introspection, perfect grounds to develop a intellect (slightly or sometimes greatly) above the norm. In my opinion. Another 'side-effect', this time more benign.

Hell, just Kratom tea might be the ideal thing.

We've each been using Kratom for different reasons for the last year and a half or so, and both get something out of it. She hasn't tried a high enough dose to "feel" it like I do, rather she uses it for pain management, for which it works wonders for her.

I've found that at low doses, it sometimes eases anxiety and depression enough to be quite useful, and at slightly higher doses it becomes lightly "recreational", creating a mild and pleasant buzz that while not quite like alcohol, could be compared to it in a vague way (A moderate dose of Kratom is better than a moderate dose of alcohol, IMHO, when considering the "purity" of the experience, and the lack of any noticeable side effects.)


Darron

The Dunning Kruger Effect pretty much guarantees that someone in the 130+ range will underestimate their own capabilities. Don't sell yourself short.


WAS 150, in 9th grade, perhaps.

I can't be certain that this memory is accurate, except to the extent that I believe my ability to lock in accurate memories was much better at that tender age. I wonder if that record still exists, somewhere? It really doesn't matter, as the limitations of any such testing, and the decades that have passed since make it a moot point.

I'm virtually certain that I've lost a lot of my marbles as I've aged. Almost everything academic in school at that age seemed remarkably effortless, offering no challenge, and not being able to hold my interest (there were occasional exceptions to this, of course!). For the standardized test in question, for example, I expended very little effort, and just went through it more or less as fast as I could, then put down the #2 pencil and spent the rest of the class period looking around at the busy, worried bees, wondering why they seemed to find this process so challenging.

For what it's worth, my younger brother (two years younger), took a "full" IQ test when he decided to enroll in this private school as a teen.

They had a minimum score requirement for enrollment, being a "school for the gifted" ("gifted" is one of my all-time least favorite labels). He scored 149, went for a day or three, and was very despondent about the bizarre "open" nature of the educational environment, and of the behavior of what I'd guess were largely loopy, undiagnosed autistic kids (this was in the mid-1980s, well before "Aspergers" was a well-known thing in the USA). Before he enrolled, one of the many ways in which my parents tried to support me was to take me to that school for an interview. I decided that I wanted no part of it, and did not get to the point of taking their IQ test.

My mother scored in the 140 to 145 IQ range, in late high school, and then again in nursing school. In our recent discussions, she has decided that she is very likely on the spectrum, too, and may even seek a diagnosis (she's in her late 70s, and lives in Florida now with my father). I can't say that what she's reminding me of of her behaviors and attitudes puts her anywhere but on the spectrum, based on my recent "level up" in knowledge about the subject of ASD. Previously, I would have not guessed that at all for her, but it all lines up.

I saw the results of some cognitive testing that my oldest niece underwent when she was very young, and was having behavior problems (diagnosed as tantrums, as I recall). She was in the 99.9+ percentile range over several cognitive subgroups, and I recall that some may have been nines in two or more decimal places. She ended up getting a full college scholarship at about age 14, I think.


From my limited understanding of the history of IQ testing, there does seem to be a quite strong predictive value to a moderately high IQ, correlating to "conventional" success in later life. Certainly, some of my challenges in later life were eased by having an ability to learn most tasks reasonably quickly.


About a year ago, I read a proposal that when considering the ability to lead others, a potential leader having an IQ of roughly 20 points above those that they wish to influence is ideal, and will very highly correlate to the outcome of that leadership ambition.

But given a sufficiently high disparity in cognitive ability between the leader and the led, a breakdown in the ability to communicate becomes so evident that such leadership becomes very unlikely. If you're talking 50+ IQ points above your target audience, then you might as well be speaking a foreign language...

Darron

I guess I should mention American Mensa. You don't have to take their admission test if you can provide acceptable prior evidence.

Outside the U.S., see International Mensa. Mensa chapters in different nations might have different paperwork rules.

Congratulations! I understand the diagnosis means a lot to you. But I hope you just continue to live your life the best way that suits you.

Congradulations on being to get tested........ if you do decide to do the beer........ ENJOY !

Thanks!

Darron


Thanks!

Darron

I guess the results of the cognitive portion of my ASD assessment make me feel OK, given that I was sure that I'd lost quite a few of my marbles as I've gotten older.

Sure enough, I'm now down to 99th percentile in cognitive ability...

Darron