Do I have Aspergers Syndrome?

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Hello there. This is my first post and I apologise if I am in the wrong place, but I am looking for a bit of advice.

I took an online test to determine my Autism-Spectrum Quotient, and I ended up scoring 31 points. As 80% of people diagnosed with autism score 32 or above, this score struck me as rather high, so I started looking up the symptoms of Asperger's and a lot of them seem to describe me very well.

I suffer from poor social skills and I think my problems go beyond ordinary shyness. I generally seem to have problems across the board when it comes to language, communication, and basic social interaction. I am inarticulate and I struggle to find the right words for what I want to say. I find it difficult to express myself. It’s very hard for me to talk to people and I come across as very awkward in these situations.

A lot of these things that I describe have nothing to do with shyness, as I am also like this with close family members. I struggle with translating thoughts from my head into coherent speech. I’m just not a natural talker.

I would describe myself as pretty anti-social. I don’t like being around other people unless I have to. I would much rather spend time on my own than go out and socialise. This is partly because I am so inept in such situations.

I feel like I have two problems - the first is that I never feel completely relaxed in the company of other people. And the second problem is that even if I was fully relaxed, I still wouldn’t have a lot to say to them because I’m just not naturally talkative or expressive.

I’m not sure if these things necessarily relate to the symptoms shown by those with Asperger’s Syndrome.

As for other things: I don’t have any special talent for scientific subjects, however, at school maths was my favourite subject because it was based on simple logic and didn’t require me to think. I found English to be the most frustrating subject because it was very opinion-based, and I appear to have the same kind of trouble with translating my thoughts into words on a page as I do with translating my thoughts into speech. Creativity and imagination generally presents problems for me.

I am a very organised and tidy person. I can’t think straight if my environment is chaotic. if I have to go somewhere I plan ahead meticulously, printing out maps and making timetables and laying out every item of clothes and make-up that I will need for the next day. The last thing is something that I do every day regardless.

A lot of the symptoms that I have researched from the internet don’t apply to me - for instance, I don’t think I have any problems with reading emotions and moods in other people and I don’t have any restricted or obsessive interests.

Based on all this, does it seem likely that I could have Asperger’s? I have an uncle who I am pretty certain has some kind of undiagnosed problem because his social behaviour is a bit abnormal, and my father shares a lot of the traits I have. How can you be tested for this? As an adult I don’t expect it to make much difference to me if I do have it, but it would be interesting to know.

Hi there, welcome to WP!

Here's another online test if you're interested: http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php

However, the only way to be "officially" tested is to go to a specialist (usually a psychiatrist).

Some of your traits might be "Aspie-like." Not having all of them doesn't necessarily mean you're not on the spectrum somewhere. If you really want to find out, look into an official diagnosis.

First of all, the word you're looking for is asocial, not antisocial. Antisocial essentially means Chaotic Evil, if you happen to know about DnD alignments. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... rAlignment

You don't give sufficient information for me to form an opinion.

Does it matter? Are there things you want explained? Are you doing okay in life? Do you need services you can only get with a diagnosis?

If this is idle curiosity, there's no point in asking a doctor. If you think you need ideas on how to make your life work better, you should give us more information. If you want to apply for SSDI or get some sort of help, maybe you should seek a diagnosis.

Restricted or obsessive interests (some ideas):

When you do get interested in something, do you find that it consumes a great deal of your attention to the exclusion of other interests... does it displace other activities, do you sometimes lose track of time, routines, or health pursuing this interest?

For example; having discovered the Aspie quiz (on x date and at x time) how much has the thought been the primary thing on your mind? How many days, and how much of your free time have you been spending on it? How many other things have you spent your free time on during that period?

Would you describe any of your pursuits as inexhaustable?

Given that you like math, are there certain numbers or formulae you are partial to? Do you have a strong affinity for prime numbers, for example?

A warning about screening tests:

80% of adults diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders scored 32 or more, compared with only 2% of the control group.

And that sounds like a really good rate, right, a very accurate test? But consider this:

Let's say 1000 random people take the test. On average, ten of them (one in a hundred) are autistic.

The results:
Of the 10 autistic people, eight (80%) will score a 32 or higher, and 2 will score below that.
Of the 990 non-autistic people, 20 (2%) will score a 32 or higher, and the rest will score below that.

So, if you take the test, and you get a positive result, the actual chances of your being autistic are not 80%. The chances of being autistic, with a random sample, given that you got a positive score on the AQ test, are actually (8:28 ), or 29%.

Now, as far as screenings go, that's not a horrible rate. But to take a screening test as diagnostic is a really bad idea.

Hi conundrum, thanks for your welcome. I will take your advice on board.



Sorry, my mistake.



Well, I would say that I am not coping very well with life. I can function on a basic level, if that's what you mean. But the problems I described affect every area of my life, from work to school to friendships ad relationships. It is hugely frustrating. I feel like a freak and I think if there was a reason why I am the way I am, it would help. I doubt there is much help available where I live for adults with this condition. I am trying to work on my problems on my own and if that fails, I doubt any outside intervention would help.

I was not sure what to put in my opening post without being too long-winded. What information do you need?

I apologise if I come here asking stupid questions, but I figured first-hand information from real people would be more help than a Wikipedia article.



Thanks for your reply.

Well, I think I would answer no to most of those questions. And I haven't given a lot of undue thought to the quiz since I discovered it. I took the quiz, thought about it, went away and did other things and thought about other things.

@Callista:
I know that an online test is not a diagnosis, and I'm not jumping to conclusions about the score, it was more a springboard that led me to read about AS and recognise some of the traits in myself, which made me curious, especially when I considered certain other members in my family.

I'm not sure I follow your math.
Or actually, I'm not sure how it applies in this situation.

The test was done with an aspie group and a control group.
80% of Aspies scored 32+ (group of xxx people)
2% of NTs scored 32+ (group of xxx people)

My logic says that your math equations seem to be an attempt to show the accuracy of test results dependant on a random sampling of people. In which case, you're more than likely right - my math skills are pretty poor.

She's looking to the test, getting a typically aspie score, and saying
I'm either in the 2% of normal folk that score high. Or I'm scoring like an Aspie.

Granted the test is NOT diagnostic. I agree to that.

Well, you might have ASPECTS of Autism. Some people have some bits and pieces of it. There are some people who are just naturally shy or very introverted. This may be the case.

If you actually know fear when you are in social situations, or a sense of being judged at every moment, and that is what keeps you from social situations, that's a different DSM condition. If you feel "apart from your self" or "not really part of this world at all" then that is yet another DSM condition...

Callista, I understand what you are saying, but Simon Baron-Cohen has researched that exact question. He actually contacted as many of the people in his control group as possible who had scored over 32. He then gave them a proper clinical assessment. He found that all of these contacted people scoring over 32 qualified as having some autistic traits (i.e. were at least BAP), and more than half of them had sufficient traits to qualify for a diagnosis of AS, leaving only the issue of impairment to consider. In other words, there is no reason to believe that the control group are non-autistic, merely that they have a low incidence of autism while the experimental group has 100% incidence of autism. The people who score over 32 in the control group cannot be regarded as false positives. They are typically people with an autistic phenotype who have not (yet) been clinically assessed. Upon assessment, they will likely be either diagnosed as ASD or found to have several autistic traits (BAP) or even sufficient to qualify for diagnosis, but for the lack of a clinical impairment (subclinical ASD). So, according to SBC, if you score over 32, you are likely ASD, or subclinical ASD, and you are at least BAP - not simply a false positive.

The assumption you are making is that the experimental group is autistic, and the control group is non-autistic. However, in SBC's studies, the control group is not non-autistic - it is normally distributed and likely includes some autistic people, as well as a large number of non-autistic people. SBC regards anyone with an AQ score of 29-34 as "medium autism phenotype" by definition. And he regards anyone with an AQ score of 35+ as "narrow autism phenotype" by definition. http://www.molecularautism.com/content/1/1/10

That doesn't make much sense, though. If he says "You're autistic if our test defines you as autistic," then how do you determine the test's accuracy?

I think SBC regards the AQ Test as measuring the "autism phenotype", with a mean of about 16 and standard deviations above the mean at 23 (1 SD), 29 (2 SDs), and 35 (3 SDs).

He validates the test by showing (a) that particular questions in the test correspond to the various autistic traits in terms of content; and (b) that diagnosed Aspies (AS/HFA) score high in the test (80% above 32, etc) and that only 2% of the general population sample score in this range ... and that a sample of these high-scorers in the general population also present as having autistic traits upon subsequent clinical assessment.

Here is an analogy. You want an IQ test, so (a) you gather a whole set of questions that require different types of cognitive abilities; (b) you test a large number of people and verify that your test scores are normally distributed; (c) you gather several groups of people you recognise as outstanding geniuses or cognitively gifted people (eg professors of physics, Nobel prize winners, etc) and show that their scores are all clustered above the 3rd SD above the mean (i.e. an IQ of 145+).

Obviously you go through a process of refinement as you discover a subset of questions that have greater discriminatory power in separating your population mean from your genius group mean.

You end up with your IQ test.

I think that is roughly how SBC has undertaken the development of his AQ test. It doesn't purport to measure autism as a diagnosis (which might require questions about impairment and about the person's environment), rather it purports to measure the degree of autism phenotype. SBC, by the way, believes in a continuum of "autistic-ness" varying from the population mean (= average NT) through his BAP and MAP, through to NAP, which he regards as consisting of the people with ASD diagnoses.

When I compare this paper with his earlier papers, I would make some minor corrections to his claims. As only 80% of his diagnosed ASD sample fall above 32, and a score of 32 itself falls within his "MAP" range (29-34), it seems to me that his identification of diagnosed ASD with NAP is wrong. At least 20% of his diagnosed ASD sample fall within the MAP range (or even lower!).

I would say, based on his own data in the earlier papers, that (A) the vast majority (perhaps even all) of the NAP group would be diagnosed (or would qualify if they had an assessment); (B) some of his MAP group would be diagnosed, but many might be subclinical; and (C) rather few of his BAP group would be eligible for a diagnosis of ASD.

In other words, getting a diagnosis would correlate with the AQ Test score: the higher the score, the more likely it is that you would get a diagnosis of ASD.

I don't think the AQ Test is useless. I think it attempts to measure the autism phenotype and does that moderately well. And the autism phenotype (viewed as a continuum) very probably does correlate with the likelihood of qualifying for a diagnosis.

So if you score (for instance) in the range 29-34, we can say (A) you do have a medium autism phenotype, and (B) you have a moderate chance of qualifying for a diagnosis of ASD, although you could be adequately adjusted to your environment and not eligible for a clinical diagnosis. In any event, you have autistic traits ("not an NT") but need to see a specialist to determine if you have a disorder.

Moral of the story: there is a difference between "autism phenotype" and "autism disorder", but we use one to screen for the likelihood of the other.

Does that make sense?

Remember that the orignal question was "Do I have Aspergers Syndrome?", not "Do I have autistic traits?" (in reality, I suspect that 99.9% of the people who ask if they have AS have autistic traits).

And (following Callista's reasoning) I think that AQ is largely useless to see if someone have an ASD or "only" BAP.

[The opposite could also be true - I have 24 in the quizz (probably because my very low attention to detaisl) but I suspect that I am a "false negative"]

I do wonder, though, whether people often say "Asperger's Syndrome" when they really mean "autism phenotype". The former term is well-known. The latter term is not well-known in popular culture. Asperger's syndrome is a disorder. The "autism phenotype" (to whatever degree one has it) is not itself a disorder. When many people identify with descriptions of AS, especially later in life, I do wonder if it is the phenotype or the disorder that they are really identifying with, even when the term they use is "AS", not BAP.

If you want to know whether you have a disorder, see a specialist. If you want to know whether you have autistic traits, do the online tests.