Being in between Asperger's and "normal"

Page 1 of 2 [ 17 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next

Odyssey2077
Emu Egg
Emu Egg

Joined: 14 Nov 2015
Posts: 8
Location: Arlington Washington USA

14 Nov 2015, 8:31 pm

So i was diagnosed at age 10 and am now 18
The older i grow the less i have in common with aspies but still am awkward with neurotypical people.
I feel i am somewhere in the middle of being a aspie and "normal" and it's a really hard state to be in because i feel like i don't fit in anywhere.
I have taken a bunch of aspie tests like the one on rdos.net and always come back as neurotypical.
Your neurodiverse (Aspie) score: 84 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 127 of 200
You are very likely neurotypical
Has anyone else on here have dealt with this sort of thing?
Thanks in advance :heart:



SilverProteus
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 20 Jul 2007
Gender: Female
Posts: 7,915
Location: Somewhere Over The Rainbow

14 Nov 2015, 8:37 pm

Could it be that you've learned over the years how to be less socially awkward and mimic NTs better now?


_________________
"Lightning is but a flicker of light, punctuated on all sides by darkness." - Loki


Odyssey2077
Emu Egg
Emu Egg

Joined: 14 Nov 2015
Posts: 8
Location: Arlington Washington USA

14 Nov 2015, 8:40 pm

SilverProteus wrote:
Could it be that you've learned over the years how to be less socially awkward and mimic NTs better now?


I have learned things yeah but i'm still socially awkward and have a hard time fitting in.



DailyPoutine1
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 14 Mar 2015
Age: 26
Posts: 2,278
Location: Province of Québec, Canada

14 Nov 2015, 8:58 pm

Maybe you're just antisocial.



Odyssey2077
Emu Egg
Emu Egg

Joined: 14 Nov 2015
Posts: 8
Location: Arlington Washington USA

14 Nov 2015, 9:04 pm

DailyPoutine1 wrote:
Maybe you're just antisocial.


From what i read a side effect of being a aspie is social anxiety in that even if you have learned you still have this feeling of anxiety because your afraid your gonna do something socially wrong and come off as weird.



SilverProteus
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 20 Jul 2007
Gender: Female
Posts: 7,915
Location: Somewhere Over The Rainbow

14 Nov 2015, 9:19 pm

Odyssey2077 wrote:
SilverProteus wrote:
Could it be that you've learned over the years how to be less socially awkward and mimic NTs better now?


I have learned things yeah but i'm still socially awkward and have a hard time fitting in.


I think some NTs could fit that profile, it's not exclusive to Aspies.


_________________
"Lightning is but a flicker of light, punctuated on all sides by darkness." - Loki


iliketrees
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 16 Mar 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,155
Location: Earth

15 Nov 2015, 12:16 am

Residue Asperger's perhaps?



Odyssey2077
Emu Egg
Emu Egg

Joined: 14 Nov 2015
Posts: 8
Location: Arlington Washington USA

15 Nov 2015, 12:44 am

iliketrees wrote:
Residue Asperger's perhaps?

Residue?
please tell me more.



Grammar Geek
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 22 Oct 2015
Age: 30
Posts: 892
Location: Missouri

15 Nov 2015, 12:53 am

Yes, my therapist said almost this exact phrase to me. I'm too socially awkward to fit in with neurotypicals, but I'm not "weird" enough to fit in with a lot of others on the spectrum. I joined the ASD club in college last year, but I was an outcast there, as well as at a camp for people with mental disorders.



iliketrees
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 16 Mar 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,155
Location: Earth

15 Nov 2015, 1:03 am

Odyssey2077 wrote:
iliketrees wrote:
Residue Asperger's perhaps?

Residue?
please tell me more.

It's come up on WP before:

viewtopic.php?t=220927



Joe90
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 23 Feb 2010
Gender: Female
Posts: 26,492
Location: UK

15 Nov 2015, 4:56 am

I feel the same way. There are times when I'm reading up about Asperger's on Google or going on WP, and thinking "wow, maybe I don't have Asperger's at all."

But then I think "but I am quite awkward around people in general, and don't make friends that easily, so I must have Asperger's."

But I do have social anxiety. In a group I normally stay quiet because I'm afraid of saying or doing something that will make me feel stupid.


_________________
Female


deafghost52
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 16 Jul 2014
Gender: Male
Posts: 329
Location: Colorado, United States

15 Nov 2015, 10:24 am

I'm sorry, but I have to criticize the title of the post before I begin. By what standards does one measure "normal"? As my therapist has been teaching me lately, there probably really is no such thing as "normal" - between Developmental Disorders, Behavior Disorders, Mood Disorders, Intellectual Disability, and Personality Disorders, humanity really is quite fractured when it comes to "normality". Plus, considering that each individual is unique, normality, in my mind, would suggest that at least two people on Earth are not unique in any way whatsoever - that they're pretty much, for all intents and purposes, exactly the same. We might think there are "Neuro-typicals" who are all "normal", but that's just how they appear to us on the outside, exactly the same - we know nothing about the them on the inside until we get to know them more, and realize that they're not all the same.

I also have a hypothesis (nothing new, really) that normality arises from the way a society is structured culturally, ethnically, and ideologically (e.g., autistic people have a hard time in the U.S., U.K., and especially France because a lot of us struggle with language, and it doesn't help that English and French are a couple of the least phonetic languages in the Western World - I was fortunate enough to be the opposite, as I picked up on language very easily, and have even learned some Spanish and Russian; it's just my idiosyncracies and poor conversational skills that get in the way). Also, consider this - black people have rough times in all-white communities, and homosexuals have rough times in all-heterosexual communities. Muslims have hard times in all-Christian communities, and Socialists have hard times in all-Capitalist communities, and so on and so forth. It's all about homogeneity + deviants/outliers and status quo.

Like you, I have a hard time fitting in with both non-autistics (not normal people, because we've established that there's no such thing) and aspies, in spite of the fact that I usually score in the low-mid 30s out of 50 on most AQ tests. As my therapist puts it "I think you're just f***in' weird! But in a good way!" And he can relate to it too, which is the neat thing about our friendship.


_________________
"Works of art make rules; rules do not make works of art."

-- Claude Debussy


iliketrees
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 16 Mar 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,155
Location: Earth

15 Nov 2015, 10:50 am

deafghost52 wrote:
I'm sorry, but I have to criticize the title of the post before I begin. By what standards does one measure "normal"?

The title is just focusing on one line - the autistic to NT spectrum. It's simplified of course as there are way more things someone can have but this just focuses on autism. So someone "normal" is someone without anything related to autism - a typically developing person.



BeaArthur
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 11 Aug 2015
Posts: 5,798

15 Nov 2015, 10:54 am

Odyssey2077 wrote:
So i was diagnosed at age 10 and am now 18
The older i grow the less i have in common with aspies but still am awkward with neurotypical people.
I feel i am somewhere in the middle of being a aspie and "normal" and it's a really hard state to be in because i feel like i don't fit in anywhere.
I have taken a bunch of aspie tests like the one on rdos.net and always come back as neurotypical.
Your neurodiverse (Aspie) score: 84 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 127 of 200
You are very likely neurotypical
Has anyone else on here have dealt with this sort of thing?
Thanks in advance :heart:

Here's how I look at it. Maybe you are not seeming very Aspergian (or autistic) in the circumstances you are in now. You have learned to cope pretty well. But as you test your limits, perhaps taking on higher education or a challenging job, you may find that your autism again interferes with your success.

Each person with Aspergers will have a different level they can achieve, and not one is more or less human just because of the level of success they can achieve.

Good luck to you. I am also somewhat on the margin between NT and ND, but I have had enough experiences of not being able to succeed in my endeavors, to know this is truly a diagnosis I have.


_________________
A finger in every pie.


League_Girl
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 Feb 2010
Gender: Female
Posts: 27,318
Location: Pacific Northwest

15 Nov 2015, 12:37 pm

I'm too different to be normal but too normal to be different.


_________________
Son: Diagnosed w/anxiety and ADHD. Also academic delayed and ASD lv 1.

Daughter: NT, no diagnoses. Possibly OCD. Is very private about herself.


Joe90
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 23 Feb 2010
Gender: Female
Posts: 26,492
Location: UK

15 Nov 2015, 12:42 pm

Quote:
I'm sorry, but I have to criticize the title of the post before I begin. By what standards does one measure "normal"? As my therapist has been teaching me lately, there probably really is no such thing as "normal" - between Developmental Disorders, Behavior Disorders, Mood Disorders, Intellectual Disability, and Personality Disorders, humanity really is quite fractured when it comes to "normality". Plus, considering that each individual is unique, normality, in my mind, would suggest that at least two people on Earth are not unique in any way whatsoever - that they're pretty much, for all intents and purposes, exactly the same. We might think there are "Neuro-typicals" who are all "normal", but that's just how they appear to us on the outside, exactly the same - we know nothing about the them on the inside until we get to know them more, and realize that they're not all the same.


I don't get so annoyed when people here use the term "normal", but I do get upset when people here say that 99% of the population are NT. That is a big figure, and is inaccurate.


_________________
Female