Anyone have Asperger's very very mildly?

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Irulan
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26 Sep 2007, 4:04 am

Ticker wrote:
My observation among live Aspies is those that say they have it the mildest or don't have it are the ones who often have it the worst. There is something to be said for most Aspies being self-unaware of how they really behave and look to the outside world.


I can't judge whether I have mild AS or maybe rather it's a moderate case. I find it difficult to judge in what way other people perceive my behaviour. I don't have a severe form - I make sure of it reading forums for parents of children with Asperger Syndrome; my quirks and various peculiarities of mine seem to be quite innocent when compared to the analogical ones in children described there. But I suspect that in many cases said parents perceive their kids's behaviour to be so far from the norm that they exagerate a bit, describing those forms of behaviour which, if seen by me wouldn't be too strange for me, as something terrible and scary - after all, I can't judge it, only reading words on the screen of computer and not having seen a child.

I don't think a psychologist having seen me when I was a child would diagnose me; probably he'd only be able to see a child who NEVER played with her peers prefering contact with adults to this, who's always honest, lacked empathy, had a lot of nervous tics, hated eating, lacked sport skills and was well read (I was able to read when I was 2,5).

Most of my quirks are hidden by me from other people and they even don't know about them - is somebody with a severe form of AS able to do it? There's only one thing I never hide - my way of perceiving the world, people's behaviour and social events. Theoretically I could control myself with some effort so as to be thought only to be very silent and anything else. In many aspects of functioning I don't have problems when I compare myself to many other people from this forum but there are also things I'm worse than they are. I have quite a big amount of symptoms but most of them are not very strong and don't affect my life too much (or at least I think so - I got used to them and I find it hard to judge them objectively). http://www.wrongplanet.net/modules.php? ... highlight= - it's a list of my symptoms so someone interested can read about them and judge whether I have a mild or moderate form on his own because I can't do it :roll:



2ukenkerl
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26 Sep 2007, 6:26 am

Irulan wrote:
I don't think a psychologist having seen me when I was a child would diagnose me; probably he'd only be able to see a child who NEVER played with her peers prefering contact with adults to this, who's always honest, lacked empathy, had a lot of nervous tics, hated eating, lacked sport skills and was well read (I was able to read when I was 2,5).

Most of my quirks are hidden by me from other people and they even don't know about them - is somebody with a severe form of AS able to do it? There's only one thing I never hide - my way of perceiving the world, people's behaviour and social events. Theoretically I could control myself with some effort so as to be thought only to be very silent and anything else. In many aspects of functioning I don't have problems when I compare myself to many other people from this forum but there are also things I'm worse than they are. I have quite a big amount of symptoms but most of them are not very strong and don't affect my life too much (or at least I think so - I got used to them and I find it hard to judge them objectively). http://www.wrongplanet.net/modules.php? ... highlight= - it's a list of my symptoms so someone interested can read about them and judge whether I have a mild or moderate form on his own because I can't do it :roll:


MAN! You are THOROUGH in that thread. I'm going to have to really read it later. Frankly, some of the things you describe seem a little extreme, so i would say you are moderate. But that is only SOME things. As for the things you list here?

"I don't think a psychologist having seen me when I was a child would diagnose me; probably he'd only be able to see a child who NEVER played with her peers prefering contact with adults to this, who's always honest, lacked empathy, had a lot of nervous tics, hated eating, lacked sport skills and was well read (I was able to read when I was 2,5)."

well, I could say:

"I don't think a psychologist having seen me when I was a child would diagnose me; probably he'd only be able to see a child who NEVER played with his peers prefering contact with adults to this, who's always honest, lacked empathy, hated eating, lacked sport skills and was well read (I was able to read when I was about 3)."

So we look very similar. I don't have the nervous ticks, and may have started reading like a year after you. And I actually DID go to a psychiatrist for the social problems. I HATE wars, but I didn't think WWII affected me that much. I was born quite some time after WWII.



Irulan
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26 Sep 2007, 8:27 am

Having read many posts here I often think that their authors are not so far from the norm and probably I would only think they're a bit eccentric, nothing more if I met them in real life, so I'm probably more serious case. But I didn't realize that some of things of my list sounded extreme (in fact I'm even not quite sure which of them sounded this way) - I thought that if I really have AS it would be such a mild case that I wondered whether having told about them to a doctor, I'd meet the criteria enough for a diagosis.

Several weeks ago I had an occasion to watch a TV programme about people with Asperger Syndrome who got a job within the framework of an organisation taking care of people with ASD or something like that - I'm not sure whether I'm right because I watched only a part of the programme but doesn't matter. There were people claiming to have AS who were affected in a very visible way - they sounded quite like robots; if we lived in much more technologically developed times, I'd say with conviction that those young people were cyborgs not human beings: extremely monotonous tone of voice completely without intonation and they didn't blink and they were staring at the interviewer - normally I don't notice that there's something wrong about other people but in that case even I was able to see that that they weren't like their peers; it was enough to talk to them for few minutes to see the difference because they looked like people under the influence of drugs.

I like being VERY thorough :twisted: I like it in such a high degree that I'm always tortured by thought that I wasn't thorough enough explaining something to my pupils and now they'll have serious gaps in the knowledge and it will be my fault.



Cooper
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26 Sep 2007, 8:49 am

alegziz wrote:
What about being culturally aspie? My little brother has a strong diagnosed, and Dad is undiagnosed only because we haven't bothered; but are the rest of us NT with aspie symptoms because that's what we learned to do/ignore/see, or are more of us aspies than that?


I think "culturally Aspie" describes my sister in some ways. She's NT, but she has some of the AS quirks. (I think my father and I have AS.) She's sometimes shy and she feels like she doesn't truly fit in with most of her peers, but I think this is just because she modeled my tomboyishness as a kid and can't handle the giggly girls at her college. She sometimes says things that others think are strange, but she doesn't accidentally offend other people. She doesn't have any eye-contact issues, though, and she just doesn't seem to have an analytical outlook on the world. As kids, she was the one who played with the neighbors or cousins while I wandered off to stare at interesting plants or talk to the adults. I think it's definitely possible for NTs with AS siblings to pick up a few Aspie traits through learning and modeling, and vice-versa.



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26 Sep 2007, 12:30 pm

In response to likedcalico, I think it's important to keep in mind that you can be AS without having every symptom or conforming to a stereotype. This is something I've thought about a lot, and I've often wondered whether my own diagnosis was "wrong." But ultimately I think there are many different possible expressions of AS. Just because someone doesn't have every trait to an extreme degree doesn't mean they aren't AS. There are also no clear divisions between AS and not, so every diagnosis is subjective to some degree. I don't think a diagnosis should be discounted just because of stereotypes, however.



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26 Sep 2007, 6:55 pm

likedcalico wrote:
I prefer to be alone and I have no desire for friends but that is because I learned to play by myself and keep myself entertained because when I was 12, my parents took me out of school for a while because I was falling apart. I was lonely because there was no one to play with. They were all in school while I was at home bored so I watch TV every morning and then watch 101 Dalmatians in the afternoon and play and then my brothers come home from school. So I had to learn how to play by myself and have fun. Now I don't get upset and wish I had someone with me. Friends are not important to me but they were when I was little but not anymore. All I need is a partner and I be happy. All I need is my husband and family, no friends.


That's why I feel I don't have AS. I used to tell my shrink all the time when I was 17 why I can't be AS but he always had his reasons why I am. I had troubles with my friends at their house, I was banned from them, I was inflexible in playing with them because I wanted everything my way and them play by my rules, the way I played with my toys was part of it, my taboo interests, my inaproppoiate social skills, the reason why other kids not wanting me to talk to them is because I don't pick up on their cues. I even told him I would have social skills if other kids let me but they tell me to go away and be quiet and he told me I was butting in on their conversations, I told them too much information, I wasn't picking up on their cues, etc.


It's interesting about your circumstances at 12 because I had a similar experience
when my parents moved house and I lost touch with a set of friends.Until then
I'd never really considered myself as being different but suddenly becoming
lonely seemed to trigger a self-consciousness within me.I started watching a lot of
TV as well,mostly news and documentaries which added to my feelings of detachment
from the other kids.
I believe our environment when we were all younger has a lot to do with the
type of traits we develop later.When I read about AS at the age of 46 I instinctively
felt that it fitted me but it could be that for some of us certain AS-like traits have
developed more due to circumstances when growing up rather than being
genetically inherent as AS itself.


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MrMacPhisto
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27 Sep 2007, 6:02 am

I think I have it mildly I mean other Aspies who have met me have said that as well.



Wolfpup
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27 Sep 2007, 1:36 pm

I guess I have it, and I guess it's mild. That seems to be backed up to by like RDOS's test or that other test, plus just that I don't have all the symptoms that are mentioned.

It's sort of hard for me to think about too because I now compensate for issues I used to have, which makes me at first think "oh, I don't do that". Like I think I've gotten pretty good at handling/faking the eye contact thing most of the time, where I don't even think about it too much.

This sounds just like me, although if I'm under enough stress I sometimes just walk away/leave a situation (which can look weird), and I avoid and try to schedule anything outside of my normal routine, because it's really draining:

Jennyfoo wrote:
I would say I have a mild case of Asperger's as does my daughter.

I'm capable of functioning in society, most people would not know I was on the spectrum or my daughter. Our "quirkiness", rigidity to routines, and emotional issues are held in check in public. It's at home that they come out- in our safe environment.

However, I choose not to socialize unless I absolutely have to. It drains me. I'm a loner, reclusive- sticking to my family. I have no interests outside of home and the kids' school and I like it that way.



27 Sep 2007, 1:39 pm

I have asked some people how bad do they think my AS is and when they say moderate, I laugh because I think it's funny.



Ticker
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27 Sep 2007, 2:38 pm

Brian003 wrote:
Ticker wrote:
My observation among live Aspies is those that say they have it the mildest or don't have it are the ones who often have it the worst. There is something to be said for most Aspies being self-unaware of how they really behave and look to the outside world.


Do you just try to be narrow-minded on purpose or do you unconsciously have the ability to tick people off by having one-sided arguments on a one dimensional reality?


What are you so offended by my expressing an observation? How do you feel threatened by this? How many real Aspies have you met? I've meet 19 at last count. Self-unawareness is part of Aspie symptoms you know. Just because someone expresses something that you do not agree with does not make them narrow minded.



monty
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27 Sep 2007, 3:31 pm

sarahstilettos wrote:
I'm almost sure you don't have to be into technology to have AS. I think it's a stereotype.


The key is that aspies tend to prefer working with things over working with people. Not all aspies have a natural talent for programming, just like not all NTs make good used car salesmen.



CeriseLy
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01 Oct 2007, 1:18 pm

just the social mistakes and some intellectual impairments but not a lot of the other stuff some of which sound pretty good intellectually speaking and the social fear. I have the opposite of that in that I really don't care and the idea of public scrutiny and opinion really doesn't intimidate me. It's like I am wearing one outfit underneath the one everyone else sees. The top one is the one that follows the rule but if you rip my clothes off, there is another outfit on that was my first outfit in life and it may look like a naked suit but that's not how it feels to me. I don't feel exposed naked. I guess it is either aspie or my grandfather or probably both that I have the nature of propriety but I also have an older nature behind it that is much stronger and that nature does not allow me to suffer the loss or damage of the other nature. I look at all the things that have been done to people in history and certain things I knew I could survive and my coldness is not disassociative disorder. The only time I had an out of body experience was when my mother beat me with a shovel and I learned a lot about materials and the difference between the order of contact. During other beatings I was right there with her in the experience and she liked to keep things/me moving with contact coming from different directions with different kinds of contact to keep the situation chaotic. What a jackass. But I am not emotionally anchored at all and it is not because it is a beating or because I am disappointed in my mother. I just think she is a jackass. Why would that make me feel bad about myself?

As for the hygiene, I am better when I live alone and am just responsible for myself. I wouldn't like to be responsible for what happens when every night I have to get up at 3 am to clear away other people's dishes. It's discouraging and disheartening. I want to live alone so I can put things in order my way and make a habit of it. Order would include not having to hear ugly voices in the house.



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01 Oct 2007, 2:40 pm

We all need to have an AS convention some time so we can observe each other in person. We'll sort out the psychological hypochondriacs (sorry, but very very very very very very mild probably means you don't have AS. Not everyone is cut out to be head cheerleader). We'll deliver the bad news to people who really are worse than they think. We'll compare notes. It'll be like the huge annual party they have for Little People of America, only taller and quieter. We'll call it AspieCon, and there will be dim sum, table games, and Aqua Massage. Who's with me?