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ASD-Radar a thing?
Poll ended at 13 Apr 2020, 6:34 pm
Yes! 50%  50%  [ 20 ]
No. 5%  5%  [ 2 ]
Maybe. 40%  40%  [ 16 ]
The Heck? 5%  5%  [ 2 ]
Total votes : 40

fie
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05 Jan 2020, 6:34 pm

I'm not diagnosed but I have many of the symptoms. I've talked with doctors/therapists about it but it seems the only way for me to get diagnosed is to pay like $2500 to some place for "testing." But that's another story. The point being I hate to self diagnose and claim to others that I have something.

So when I first got into therapy 5 years ago I was going over all the things that I thought I might have. I had been aware of aspergers for a decade and knew a little bit about it and mentioned that "It's silly, I probably don't, but maybe aspergers."

I had a bad therapist, the next time I saw her she said she thought I might be right about that. I didn't know much about the mental health system process so I assumed that meant that I had it. So it kind of sent me down a road doing a lot of research on it. Reading articles about it, reading personal experiences, reading DSM-5 entry, etc.

About a year after that experience I started noticing ASD in other people. Of course having symptoms of it doesn't mean you have it but it seems like every time I'm positive someone has ASD I am always right.

A year ago a family moved in upstairs from me. They had an 18 year old all I did was see him walk from the car and up the stairs and my ASD-Radar was going off like crazy. It took me about 8 months to ever speak a word to him. I only saw him like 4 or 5 times in that stretch and everything said ASD to me.

It seems counter intuitive to me that someone with ASD would be good at detecting it in others. Maybe some ASD people are super obvious. I have this feeling that it might be a thing though aspies have special radar for detecting other aspies. Or I've just done a lot of research and watched a lot of movies/shows about autism.

Thoughts? :P



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05 Jan 2020, 6:41 pm

I was on a listserv with a guy who was married, running a small business, etc. He'd never heard of Asperger's before I asked him if he had it, but he realized that he did.
A divorced woman once told me the one thing that made her despair of her marriage, and I'm pretty sure her ex was one of us, and she was somewhat taking it out on me, still unable to grasp the difference.

I wouldn't spend a lot on a pro DX. I just read the symptoms, and my life suddenly made sense. It is very rare for a professional to be able to diagnose anything but a single, isolated condition. Combinations, which are the usual case after life's traumas reacting on AS, get them thinking of all kinds of conditions, but seldom about a blend.



fie
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05 Jan 2020, 7:44 pm

Dear_one wrote:
I wouldn't spend a lot on a pro DX.


I was looking into it because I am applying for disability. I do have some other diagnoses and those along with my other symptoms which don't fit those make it difficult for me to do most jobs and I can't find anywhere willing to conform to my needs.

I got lucky a few times in other states finding computer jobs but the tech industry around here is practically non-existent and there's a local university and those kids always get picked first.

/me resisting writing a whole auto-biography in this post.
:roll:



fie
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05 Jan 2020, 8:31 pm

So I did attempt to search the forum before I posted this but I wasn't using the right words. "Similar topics" feature is awesome.

viewtopic.php?t=206118

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The idea is quite funny, I smiled just reading your post, it's like we're all little aliens posing as humans, who can only spot each other xD


viewtopic.php?t=139579
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I feel like I have "A-dar" and I think most spectrummy people do. If I don't find them, they find me.


So yeah. I guess it's a thing for some people. It's probably just knowing symptoms and comparing people with other people you've seen.

From my perspective though it does feel a little bit like a special power. :spiderman:



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05 Jan 2020, 8:52 pm

There is something that alerts me to autism almost immediately on meeting someone new...in the community And not connected with my work. I certainly don't claim this as diagnostic, but I've not been wrong yet.


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05 Jan 2020, 9:50 pm

yes i think so, have had some instant acknowledgement times but usually new aspies especially men vs women are reluctant to say outloud . very strange here in midwest , is like its not spoken of .. cause still alot of stereotype of mental disorder.. i think ..have told my doctors nurse.. and met a younger man at a fastfood serving counter .
it was so weird .. you could read it in their eyes , their non distant like expression you had seen before . that could have gone easily un noticed . then for a moment there is a reflection , i cannot explain. not mirroring but the non eye contact, then eye contact momentarily. a way of speaking ... and please do not take this as gospel but its not something to easily put a finger on .. like gay dar.. that is so easy , you wonder if everyone else is clueless... looolz.
but believe it or not that seems easier to engage .. than aspie _ dar . its almost a social thing to ask as a NT if someone is gay.. much more acceptable ?? a assessable .? and am not about to say am 100% on either of these but .. my it miss ratio , at least in person has been good .
having seen this happen with a young man and seeing kind of questioning recognition in his eyes ,, when place was not busy .. allowed my self to be myself and just presented genuine honest and kindness in words and expression..
was my version of a answer to him and there was that look of relief in his eyes and almost see him feeling acceptance ..all with practically no words .. was a relief .. but as males get older , am thinking society NT society ,
messes with their smoothness of ability to interact , Rigidity ?.. oddly enough other females either find safety in cliques or possibly other outlets that are generally harmful to themselves ,this is not to say many women are applied artists in various ways and Thank Gawd for that outlet.. but familiarity can cause one to feel secure ..
lotsa aspies prefer safety of being in a shell i think , myself included .. but everyso often their is that weird radar thingy out there. ( just offering a opinion here ).


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05 Jan 2020, 10:08 pm

I'm not sure about it.

I will say that I went to a well attended (several hundred people) autism forum last year for the first time and also for the first time I felt absolutely at ease and comfortable being around that many people. The difference? They were hundreds of autistic people rather than NT.



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05 Jan 2020, 10:40 pm

@OP, very wise to study. It helped me tremendously. Even here I read comments and learn about the varying issues on an ASD human experience level. I pay close attention to the postings especially of people here that are older than I am. Their comments/write-ups are amazing and I can relate fully to much of it. Sometimes I have to read the summations a few times to fully extract the nuances and depth of life-learned wisdom.

If masking is a survival mechanism (I know this personally), the A-DAR doesn't always work. It seems that when masking Aspie's/ASD's have cracks in trying to be normal, I notice that. There are subtle and not-so-subtle cues but one has to know them. I was clueless majority of my life. If it is set in your mind to get a pro DX ensure that they understand autism fully or have it themselves. Happy 2020.


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06 Jan 2020, 4:49 am

Nobody has AS-Dar. What people can do is pickup Autistic traits in others. Since a number of people with autistic traits are Autistic if one is skilled enough at picking up Autistic traits odds are one will correctly “diagnose” some people. Since Autistic traits are also traits of other conditions and since one does not know another persons thoughts and probably does not know this other person since childhood using “diagnosing” others based on Autistic traits is unreliable.

It is not uncommon when one first suspects or finds out one is autistic to see autistics everywhere. Often it is such a relief to find out there are others like ones self that one overcompensates. That happened to me.


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06 Jan 2020, 4:36 pm

Sounds like you're taking the concept too literally.

If you're aware of autism, and if you're on the spectrum, you may pick up clues that someone you work with is also on the spectrum. So figuratively speaking you have a certain amount of "aspie-dar", or "autism-dar", or "a-dar".

The idiom was coined in the early 2000s by analogy to the earlier 1990's expression "gay-dar" (the ability to pick up whether or not a person is gay).

Back in the Nineties you would see the ladies on "Sex and the City" talking about their "gay-dar".

The difference is that both straights and gays, both men and women, are keenly aware of the existence of homosexuality. And, for better or worse, a person's sexual orientation is of keen social importance to both genders in both sexual orientations. So ferreting out a person's sexual orientation is something folks develop a talent for.

In contrast (until very recently) the only folks obsessed with autism are autistics themselves (and their parents). So (as with most analogies) the analogy between a-dar and gay-dar is not perfect.

Autistics are often driven to ferret out if another person is a fellow autistic, but historically NTs don't give a crap, and are not even aware nor even understand the autism spectrum. If you're different from them then NTs will just label you a "wierdo" , or "a ret*d", and will not bother giving you an armchair diagnosis of autism (whether its accurate or not).

Though in recent years there is more both autism awareness, and autism misconceptions, (so NTs maybe becoming both more sensitive to autistics, but also more likely to hurl the word "autistic' or "aspie" as an epithet).



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06 Jan 2020, 4:46 pm

Google "Bias Confirmation".

Aspie-dar is like gay-dar in that the persons 'detecting' their targets are really engaged in some form of pareidolia or even wishful thinking.


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06 Jan 2020, 7:53 pm

naturalplastic wrote:
Sounds like you're taking the concept too literally.

This is an autism forum.

Fnord wrote:
Google "Bias Confirmation".

Aspie-dar is like gay-dar in that the persons 'detecting' their targets are really engaged in some form of pareidolia or even wishful thinking.

Wishful thinking in my case.


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06 Jan 2020, 9:12 pm

Wow...think am at odds here, if you read my post .. It's not exact science A-dar...lolz
And no do not look for stuff in others ... Just nicely surprised. And when it goes unspoken ..
It is , well a little special I think .. am too busy just avoiding people and judgements .. Cause , am
Guessing simply a little to outspoken if someone is a nicer person...but this A-dar is very subtle and always a surprise... mostly all have had to tell me. But have had the rare experience of processing info. With out words .. Which on its surface. Sounds like something psychic .. but I do not believe that is so. If you get that connection with someone and there is no possibility of alterior motives ....Its those genuine one that you get best feeling from . When words are removed from the equation, it is hard to be too terribly deceptive .
Disclaimer :Have found to double check people these days cause motives can be hard to detect .

Awe this is prolly a buncha Huey to most of you .. no worries." just my humble opinion"
Experiences.


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Dial1194
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06 Jan 2020, 10:12 pm

Ish. In my own experience, there are visible traits which are more common among the ASD population. This ranges from actual facial features (Facial phenotypes in subgroups of pre-pubertal boys with autism spectrum disorders are correlated with clinical phenotypes. Molecular Autism, 2011, 2:15 DOI: 10.1186/2040-2392-2-15) to (culturally variable) common types of clothing choice (color, style, materials), hairstyles, body language, facial expressions, vocal indicators, and even things like choices of conversation topic, particularly when starting conversations.

While none of these are absolute 100%-certainty markers, the more of them there are then the greater chance (from what I can tell) that an individual would fall under an ASD classification. I know I've got a number of them myself, even if I actively monitor and deliberately alter some to appear more NT-standard.

So being aware of all those things, and noting their presence in people, can act as a sort-of aspie-radar. Not always accurate, and won't pick everyone up, but the results are better than chance.



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07 Jan 2020, 6:34 am

fie wrote:
I

It seems counter intuitive to me that someone with ASD would be good at detecting it in others. Maybe some ASD people are super obvious. I have this feeling that it might be a thing though aspies have special radar for detecting other aspies. Or I've just done a lot of research and watched a lot of movies/shows about autism.

Thoughts? :P


While it may seem counter intuitive, I note that the Autistic profile can be detail oriented, and so in a position to pick up the various details which might be consistent with the possibility of another the being on the spectrum.

Plus as one researches on the suspicion that one's own profile might be Autistic, one becomes very familiar with accounts of those various details,, and familiar with any of those in oneself.

It is well to heed Fnord's cautionary words around confirmation bias.

I note the case of my beloved, not as far as he is aware, on the spectrum, but very fmiliar with the details as his primary partner is diagnosed, two adults in his close circle are also so identified, and it has not been unknown that when,in the course of his work as a therapist, he has fed back to client observing some of the traits, the possibility of the client being on the spectrum has not been eliminated by the standard screening tools for adults when investigating further.

Diagnosis on the other hand is a lot more than simply spotting possibilitie, and needs to make use of much knowledge, training and clinical judgement in coming to conclusions



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07 Jan 2020, 8:32 am

Fnord wrote:
Google "Bias Confirmation".

Aspie-dar is like gay-dar in that the persons 'detecting' their targets are really engaged in some form of pareidolia or even wishful thinking.


dear Fnord am not aware of your experiences ? or if you spent alotta time in any citys of large size ???
BUT wanna ask .... tongue in cheek....... ' are you blind' ... if you have spent time in or around those parts of the community .. have found for myself some of these things are hard to miss....... only blur to overt Gaydar ever has been the now and again metrosexual type person. women can be more subtle .. in the gay arena ...
but thems my experiences .. Your Mileage may vary .


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