Is AS nothing more than low self esteem?

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Yes, although he's only six. My son loves to be social, and at this point his desire outweighs his social awkwardness in friend-making abilities. He is also very creative, so his friends tend not to mind that he is creating and controlling the games they play. Oddly, none of them seem to mind when he tires of companionship and leaves off playing in the middle, either.

I'm really happy for my happy-go-lucky Aspie.

Yes. I have met 3 in the last 6 months through the AS channels here...

I said...

And guess what... a few people said yes...

How many extroverts have low self esteem?

I rest my case - Aspergers is NOT just Low Self esteem masquerading as something else...

As said here before, low self esteem is a result not a cause of AS. However, it is something that makes you feel unhappy and therapy that improves self esteem can improve happiness. You will still have other AS symptoms, but with self-esteem these wont bother you so much, so it may feel as though you are becoming more NT. I have low self-esteem generally but some days can be very extrovert (especially with alcohol) and tend to wear extrovert clothes (I love my purple cords) and have moments when I feel as though I am better than everyone else, which fluctuate with my feeling as though I am a wierdo and not worth anything the rest of the time.

I think there are a lot of Extroverts with low self esteem. Having a compulsion to speak and express does not necessarily mean a person likes themself.

I think self esteem is more related to the confidence to be yourself, and both aspies and NTs can feel this but its not a given in life. Life tends to take away self esteem if you dont work on it.

Some of the people I've met who have the biggest problems in life are the biggest socializing extroverts you'll ever meet.

You can have high self esteem and still be who we are. You just have to deal with the fact that NT's will always think you are crazy and that you need psychological 'help' because we're not cut from the same cloth as them.

Agrees with crazy , if people with physical problems, that I don't really see as a problem, just means they go at it different, listen to people who say they can't do this, hell allot of inventions for wheel chair people are out there now, they can water ski if they want or ski on snow... But the fact they need protection by law just to get basic human wrights to stick in a ramp or something like that

You would not tell them to get out of the chair & carry it up the stairs, or use one of them grabbing arms to reach a high book shelf. I find mental health has less protection than physical...

It can't be nothing more than that. Because otherwise autistic people with normal or high self-esteem wouldn't exist.

I don't agree. My self esteem is not low. I'm an introvert and I don't like socializing, but I don't like to socialize because I don't care for people. But I think I'm hot stuff.

No. I distinctly recall my sense of self-satisfaction in early toddler-hood. I held myself in very high esteem.

I have good self-esteem, even though I have experienced times of poor self esteem in the past. My issues with social communication, theory of mind, motor clumsiness, sensory integration, stimming, alone-time needs, and preoccupations are not effected by changes in my self-esteem.

Yeah, that's what I mean. If being autistic were just low self-esteem, then people like you or me wouldn't exist. And we do, so autism's more than just low self-esteem.

Stimming

http://www.ican-do.net/sensory_play.htm

Certainly not. I don't consider myself to have low-self esteem, but a lot of people with AS do have low-self esteem probably more as a result of depression.