Not sure if I have AS

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I recently learned that my husband most likely has AS, he's going to talk to his therapist the next time he goes and get officially diagnosed...but while I was doing research to learn more about him, I stumbled upon a 191 question Aspie Quiz that is supposed to be very accurate (according to about 25 AS people who took it on a different forum). I took the quiz, just for "fun" and it told me that I have some Aspie traits, and some NT traits. At that point I went ahead and took the "AQ" test and got a score of 26, which I guess barely meets the requirement for Aspergers. Anyway, I guess I'm wondering how accurate these online tests are, and if I should talk to my therapist about this. The report for the longer test said that I have issues with compulsions and perception, which is true. I can't be interrupted when I'm focused on something. One time I was trying to clean and rearrange my living room, and someone kept interrupting me, so I got really mad and broke the coffee table out of frustration and fractured my wrist in the process. I also am very obsessed with lists, and going to the same places and sitting in the same seats. I am very easily distracted by background noise and have to sleep with ear plugs even when it's quiet. I am bothered by light touch, need glare reducing glasses, and am hypo sensitive to physical pain (I frequently have no idea how I got cuts and bruises). I think there are other issues, but these are the ones that the report said are the "big ones". Anyway...does any of this sound like I could have Aspergers to you? Thanks!!

If it makes you feel any better, no one is really sure if anyone has Aspergers. We're just certain that such a thing as Aspergers exists. As to doing more and talking to a therapist - if it doesn't interfere with your daily functioning then it's not a disorder and if it's not a disorder it's not worth talking to a therapist about. . . Unless you want to do it for personal reasons.

I'm certainly not going to diagnose or non-diagnose anyone on the spot here from my bed. However, if you feel you have Aspergers, try looking up this site, reading up on it, and perhaps getting involved in the community (through one of the many websites or meetings). I think a poster in a sticky has a good guide to autism http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt112787.html.

What I would do is talk to your mom and dad about your early childhood. See what odd things you did and then see if they correlate to a diagnosis of Aspergers. For example, I found out from my mom that I did not crawl normally and that I failed to share objects of interest with other children. I seemed very selfish to her and that is a classic sign of aspergers or autism. I also had a singular, obsessive interest as a child and was know to seek knowledge and understanding about topics of interest rather than social acceptance. This kind of confirms to me that a real diagnosis may not be a waste of time and money as the best adult autism test out there relies heavily on an interview with your parents over the phone. Now you may well at this point be sub-clinical because of how well you adapted while growing up. Then again, you might not be autistic and just belong on the "broader autistic phenotype". This is where they place you if you have some autistic traits but not enough to be considered diagnosable with the condition. My opinion is that you are not autistic but just have some traits, but I am a pizza delivery driver, not a doctor.

I did talk to my therapist about this last night (I'm in therapy already for depression/anxiety), and at first she was explaining to me why I shouldn't go around trying to diagnose myself with different things. I felt pretty stupid for even bringing it up, and I figured that meant that she wouldn't test me, but eventually she asked what traits the quiz told me I had...so I told her...and she responded with "I'll bring the test next week". It was really weird, but it won't cost me anything to have her officially test me (insurance).