Aspie or not? Can't tell... >.>

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Ok. I joined this board mostly because I have a cousin who's an Aspie, but after reading up on the symptoms I think there's a chance I might have it too. We were near inseparable as kids and he's the only one even near my age I could stand hanging out with. We played pretend and all but shut out the rest of the world... it was fantastic.

When I was five, I had my own time out corner because I didn't sit still in class and threw tantrums when the teacher tried to force me to stay on lesson, because I kept skipping ahead in the phonics and math books. If I finished, I tried to help others with their work, and quickly stopped it when I got picked on for being 'too smart'. I got diagnosed with a 149 IQ at 6.

I have an abysmal time making friends in real life but have no trouble on the internet... mostly because sarcasm and all is easier to read in text. If a person talks to me with a straight face and is joking around, I can't read it whatsoever, unless my brain spins for a couple seconds to deduce if it's completely ludicrous or not. Same goes with just about any emotion beyond shouting, tears, and laughter. I don't 'get' the in between things.

The only time I enjoy people's company is at anime conventions... and only if I'm in costume. I HAVE to be in a costume to be in public. I 'goth out' when I have to brave public transportation or the mall... so forth.

I'm a ridiculous geek for Sailor Moon. I won a contest once for knowing three times as much trivia as the other four contestants put together. The judge actually started asking me the most esoteric questions on the series as she could think of and I was outdoing her. I can list every single character, transformation, birthdays/zodiac of most of them, etc.

I have the attention span of a goldfish, type and speak faster than my brain can keep up with sometimes, 'talk with my hands', fidget. I hate social interaction with anyone I'm not familiar with because I'm afraid they'll think I'm staring when I make eye contact and if I don't they think I'm being rude.

I 'forget' basic things like cleaning because I don't put it down in my schedule. I have to plan my days out two to four days ahead or I forget what I'm doing and feel ridiculously uncomfortable. I can't take fast changes in plans without going into a panic attack. Likewise for anyone so much as raising their voices at me, it makes me break down and cry like I'm five again. ...I'm 28 now.

I'm going to talk to my sister's therapist soon. I've been put on several bipolar medications (lithium, valproic acid, ritalin) and none of it really 'helped', so it makes me think that's not it.

Any advice would be great, regardless of if this is 'it' or not. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear it. Thanks a ton for reading.

You do sound a little bit off the normal scale. If you are aspie, of course nothing's going to fix it. Have you done things like questionnaires? How do you score?

A therapist will be able to give you more information, but a couple of things to look at first:

- Have you looked up specifically female aspie traits/symptoms? We present differently to males, and it may help you clarify in your mind, or it may help you have the information to hand if the therapist isn't familiar with Asperger's in adult women.

- Have you done any of the tests? My favourite is this one: http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php - it feels more rigorous than the others.

You sound very similar to me, I was exactly like that as a child. Of course, no one on the internet can give you an answer to this, but between figuring out your own mind and talking to a good psychologist, you should be able to get somewhere.

Eesh, I got a 163/200 for Aspie and 44/200 for Neurotypical. XD I definitely think I need to talk to a professional about this then. I tended to get shunted into "ADHD" category whenever I talked to anyone when I was younger. I do admit I have focusing issues but it's mostly that I rather focus on my own things than what everyone else wants me to do. Maybe I should print out that quiz and show the therapist when I go.

You should take that quiz in, yes. I understand some therapists even use it to help with diagnosis (I assume because the questions are so good).

Your numbers are pretty close to mine!

Well, Monday I can try to call the office and see what I can do about scheduling an appointment. Not much one can do on the weekend. In the meantime, I'm not gonna fret too bad. It's nice that I found a site like this with people who I can ask about these things and chat, though.

My experience has been that most mental health professionals don't really respect a person's self diagnosis. If you go into an office and tell them "I think I have Asperger's" they are going to immediately start their own evaluation process that may or may not get you any further towards understanding. I would suggest your best bet is to research the hell out of asperger's so that you can go into this fully armed with real knowledge. A good therapist will at least listen and the more evidence you can present the better. Telling a psychologist "I'm socially awkward therefore I have Asperger's isn't going to hold up. You need to give SPECIFIC examples of traits and events that support Asperger's as the BEST fit to your particular issues.

Indeed, psychologist don't like when you come up with your self-diagnosis. I think they like to search what's wrong with others and they want to do the process by themselves. Self-diagnosis can also leads to believing that you have a pathology when you don't.