How sever is your Asperger?

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You make a point. I've thought about my severity many times. I've been told by a couple friends that they dont really see how theres anything wrong with me and sometimes Im like, how can you not? As how I think strangers see me, probably mostly as shy, quiet, reserved and sometimes rude. I think by now I've learned enough of how to socialize to maintain a decent conversation with a stranger but situations really vary. My socialization dosent shut down nearly as easily as it used only when Im really depressed, extremely focused with work, or in really huge groups with lots of unfamilar people. I think my severity is from mild to moderate even though some stupid psych of mines thought I was from moderate to severe.

That's no help to the "top" half of Kanner's and the "bottom" half of Asperger's. (Top/bottom in need for services). They overlap so very much.

By your argument, that means that the "bottom" half of the Asperger's group will not get the services they need, and the "top" half of the Kanner's group will be underestimated and stigmatized. No, thank you.

These diagnostic categories do neither group any good. You can't assume that because somebody is an Aspie they are superior in functioning to any given Kanner's autistic, nor vice versa.

If I had been diagnosed Kanner's autism I would probably have gotten the services I needed, instead of crashing and burning because I couldn't take care of myself when I left for college; but I also might never have left for college at all. Instead, I was considered to be just fine because I could speak and had normal grades in school.

For me, "looking worse" might have been a good thing, depending on whether or not I got ABA'd half to death. Or maybe it's "looking better" that's a good thing. I don't know if I would have made it this far if people had assumed that, thanks to a classical autism diagnosis, I was in need of a great deal of help and unlikely to get as far as the average Aspie might.

There isn't any clear AS/HFA dividing line. Divide by functioning level, and you leave a lot of Aspies on the HFA side despite decent self-care and speech; divide by speech, and you get lots of "Aspies" who need anything from special ed to 24-hour care. Divide by IQ, and suddenly you have "Aspies" who are completely non-verbal. None of that makes any sense. The AS/HFA divide is just completely arbitrary to me.

I can see maybe that somebody with just a touch of AS doesn't want it assumed that they are totally disabled (I don't know of anybody being totally disabled who isn't in a coma, but people will assume it anyway). But those assumptions do harm the other way, too. If you're Aspie and you do need help, you don't want people thinking that you are just a bit quirky and they should save their resources for people with "real problems".

There's a better solution to this than dividing AS/HFA and hoping people end up in the right category for the services they need; and that's simply to get rid of the dividing line altogether and take it on a case by case basis. This particular Aspie needs peace and quiet to take tests; that Aspie needs somebody to shop and cook for him; this one over here needs somebody to talk to because he's socially isolated and lonely. We're individuals, and what we need is also very individual. There's no one-size-fits-all anything when it comes to the autism spectrum.

i only read the first few posts, so sorry if i repeat anyone here.
i am answering the original question and with no reference to any other posts.

i was suspected to be autistic from about 6 months old i was told.
i was diagnosed HFA as a child (before the DSM inclusion of AS).

i do not think there are levels of "severity" of asperger syndrome. it is just that the continuum of "autism" stopped at "HFA" once upon a time. then a fellow called Asperger "raised the bar" as it were to include children that seemed milder than the definition "HFA", who had autistic characteristics. these children were labeled as eccentric or maladjusted etc before AS was considered that included these people in the continuum of autism.

i know that is simplistic so i will get to the point and say that i have "severe" AS (in the common concept of the term) , as i was diagnosed as autistic before AS was a possible diagnosis.

but "severe" can refer to either direction (up or down) on the continuum.

like if the term "AS" connotes "mildness" of autism, then severe AS would be very close to non autistic. but looking from the top down, severe may mean deep into the stratum of autism that is termed "AS".

i look normal and i walk without any gait anomalies (although the way i walk makes people look because i walk at a constant speed and direction no matter what is happening)

i have no speech impediments but i speak in an accent that does not really exist. it is mainly australian based, but australians do not hear me as australian. they hear me as a pompous british snob. pompous british snobs hear me as australian.
my parents and my sisters talk in standard australian accents, so my accent is not a reflection of anyone in my upbringing which is odd.

people who are eager to meet me are quickly deflated when they realize i have a poverty of emotional content. their attempt at bonding with me fails dead at the first attempt because i do not see how to respond to what i do not understand.
if they joke with me i am deadpan and have no idea. they are disappointed that i do not run more than skin deep (as far as they are concerned).

i am obviously afflicted with "something" in the eyes of all who meet me. but to those who see me from across the street i may seem normal.

i am neither "affectionate" or "affected". apart from the obvious meaning of physical affection, i also mean i am not affected by things like others yawning.

i have studied people a bit, and i notice that when one person yawns, they all end up yawning soon after. i never know why this happens. is it a subconscious desire to fit in? i have no clue, but i certainly do not feel like yawning when i see someone yawn.

if someone unrelated to a group of people starts laughing hysterically, everyone seems to smile as if they know the joke, although they never heard it, or know the laugher.
i am not infected by laughter in any sense. if i did not hear the joke, i remain expressionless.
even if i did hear the joke (unlikely as i do not listen to people in the background even when alone) i would not likely see it as funny and would not smile.

people can say "cheer up" to me but i say "cheer down" to them, as i can not see the sense in pretending to be entertained by something that i am not entertained by.

i never felt any social pressure to do anything. i can not tell if people are happy with me or mad with me until they tell me. even then i just accept it as a piece of data.

autism for me means the absence of that thing that makes NT's smile when they think of their friends and family. also it is the absence of understanding of how they can feel so good about something that i can not logically determine exists. it is many things more too.

i have some intelligence, but i have a great degree of impairment in my neural connections that are needed for plugging in to the world of people.

"severe" is my answer

Who knows * I would not have a clue. It is not severe, I know. I don't notice that I am different. I sometimes don't undertstand or comphrehend if I am acting socially inapproriate. All I know is I am me and who the f**k are you? because like my NT friend said "you can be difficult person to get to know' When she got to know she often commented "how beautiful person I was.' Most of my girlfriends I have been close to say that and boyfriends but you can't beleive them.

My NT friend said to me that I am "One of the most normal people you could ever meet." It is the getting to know me part - I find or others can find difficult. I don't know why. I just don't know what you are supposed to say and I am not pretending to make some thing up.

However, I wish I had more insight in regards to AS and how it has affected me. Ways I can better manage. I have no idea. I cannot read article about AS and reflect that to myself. It is not who I am.

Yes I agree with you.

I can appear very NT - have lots of friends - and then a small set of close friends.

So mild.

For me it is me needing my space which is the issue - I also get some sensory stuff - but I can cope with it unless very tired. Generally pretty hyper-active so I think I can cope better.

It varies. I have my good days where I act pretty NT, then my bad days where I have many troubles.

I'm told I'm very mild. That's what professionals say about me.

But when it comes to raw AS(D) symptoms, I continuously get the impression that most people on WP are a lot milder than me.

Also, on some videos about autistic people people here on WP call them severe when I'd call them mild or 'normal'.

I haven't been diagnosed yet, although I know I must have asperger's seeing as how nothing else fits. But I'm not quite certain what qualifies as "Mild," moderate," or "severe." If I were to guess, though, I would guess moderate overall, for myself.
Socially, I'm definitely severe.
Developmentally, I'm moderate.
Self-care: mild to moderate/life-skills: moderate, depending on the circumstance.
Work-wise, moderate to severe.
Verbally, pretty NT.. sort-of. The words are all there in my head, I just can't get them to come out right.

I could go on & on & on about various other things, but I'll stop now.

What would you call me based on my posts?

Oh, mid to mild I guess. It's hard sometimes to separate my autism from my bipolar, they pull some neat team jobs on me from time to time.

I guess mine is mild except as a child I was autistic or that is what it seems to specialists. Something was definetly wrong or different. I was very withdrawn and placid. No one understood me. It is medically documented of brain images there can be significant difference and typical pattern in regards to the differences between AS/HFA and NT's brains.

Don't quote me on that. May not be entirely correct the way I have stated but is the best way I can explain.

You know, sometimes I feel so frustrated having AS. It has always been - I know I can work things out and understand. I could be more intelligent than alot of other people. If I could just express...

It is like this confused thinking that never goes away. I remember vaguley, as a child even, having this frustrating thinking were I could not control my own thoughts or get out of my own thinking. Like I am lost and then my mind just stops and I am like - I want out of here. It is weird and it is agigatating me and it has never gone away.

No wonder some people with AS get suicidal.

I'd say moderate to mild, depending on situation and stress level.

I'm pretty well socialized, mostly because I wasn't diagnosed till I was quite old, and I don't exactly come from a family that has patience for, or even acknowledges, people's differences in any way, so I was sort of forced to be. The majority of the people I deal with on a business or superficial social level consider me a bit eccentric, overly-focused, and sometimes a tad arrogant (yes, I am aware of this, and don't care ), but are surprised if they learn there's actually something diagnosably 'wrong' with me. Don't know, though, if that means I'm less Aspie....it might just mean that I'm good at faking neurotypical, since while I BEHAVE differently to the way I did as a child (when I was thought to be Kanner's autistic!), my brain still works more or less the same way, since my thought processes, fixations, internal reactions, reading of people, and (most of) my automatic responses haven't changed a bit.

Hmmm....interesting....I'm Irish born, raised, and mostly educated....Kerry, specifically, by a Kerry father and a Cork mother (really, REALLY typical, and recognisable accents on both of them). I have been speech-trained (for work), but even before, was often told my accent was more stilted-British than Irish at ALL, and since I've lived in the States, have been accused more than a few times by Irish people of faking my accent, since I apparently sound more like an English stage actor badly mimicking an Irish accent than any Irish person they've ever met. I have no idea what I sound like, though, since in my head I sound NOTHING like recordings I've heard of myself, and listening to said recordings makes me massively uncomfortable, so I avoid it at all costs!

RoisinDubh-your experince is interesting; my situation when younger was very similar.
raised in the NE of england picking upa very distinct accent, moved to NW again very distinct but different accent.

Then moved abroad for several years and returned with an american accent, which I tried to lose in order to assimilate.

To top it all my family then moved to the SE of england, eople just could not work out where I wa coming from with my accent. On top of standard AS sh*t , I really was stufed.

I've ended up with what peole recognise as RP english but I still drop in howlers with some of my vowels.

I do recognise what you mean by the discomfort thing, it is somuch more than just being what people would refer to as being self concious.

That is why I never listen to my recordings, and why I am so glad I do not have to leave messages on my own voicemail.

BadMachine - Oddly enough, like yourself, I have picked up bits of accents from places I've lived, which even I myself can hear. Despite NEVER having the 'appropriate' accent (which includes never having picked up most of the characteristic Kerry or Cork pronunciations), AND being speech-trained, I managed to pick up a few VERY obvious speech tendencies from short-ish (adult) stints in Belfast and the Bronx. Best of all, I can't seem to lose them, no matter what. So if my overall accent and the rest of me isn't enough to make people go 'WTF?!', they've got the added bonus of having to figure out why the hell someone with a stilted English accent pronounces her vowels like a cross between a low-class Norn Ironer and The Nanny.

And as for the over-the-top self-consciousness regarding hearing my own speech recorded, the WORST part of speech classes was the actual panic attacks I'd have listening to myself on tape. I thought the worst part was going to be being forced to speak publicly, but that was WAY worse.

Padium - Listening to my out-going VM message is enough to make me want to puke. Literally.