Around the eighth grade (I'm now 21), I was diagnosed witg Aspergers, Sensory Processing Disorder, Depression, and Anxiety NOS. For a while, and in fact until recently, I disregarded the Aspergers diagnosis. Partly, this was because I felt like the specialists I met weren't always the brightest bunch and often spoke to me in a very patronizing tone, so it was hard to trust their authority. I also saw a few important distinctions between myself and a stereotypical aspie.
For one thing, I consider myself to be pretty empathic and even a "people person" of sorts. Although I suck with most social situations, I usually get along very well with individual people, once they get to know me. I also never much cared for the sort of mathematical, scientific, and engineering related things that seem to interest many with ASDs, and my main interests are philosophy, literature, history, and the humanities as a whole. If the theory of the "extreme male brain" is valid at all, then I am most assuredly not an aspie.
I also understand that autistic people are supposed to have very high visual intelligence, while visual-spatial processing is my weakest area. I have a lot of trouble picturing things in my head or recognizing faces, and I tend to think more conceptually and emotionally rather than imagistically.
I've wondered if the fact that I'm gay could account for my more humanistic and even feminine interests and characteristics-- most of the aspies I've met were straight men. I dunno. I guess the point is that I'm new to the forum and interested in learning more about the disorder and the culture surrounding it.
16 Feb 2015, 10:38 pm
