I want a personality ! !! :(

Post Reply New Topic

I realize what I thought were my personality traits looks in fact like a list of NLD+AS symptoms from the DSM

Then where's a personality for me?

Have you done Myers Briggs, Greentea?

http://haleonline.com/psychtest/

http://www.personalitypage.com/portraits.html

I know it helped me in my early 20s... when I had difficulty understanding myself. Even before I knew about AS.

Wow, that was extremely accurate about me. Thank you, zen! However, I still feel my personality traits are only a product of my AS+NLD and not a "personality'...

YW, I found it very accurate too.

So, what kind of personality do you want to have?

This is one of the things that peeves me a bit about popular conceptions of the autism spectrum: there's too much conflation of autistic traits with certain neuropsychological conditions, to the point where either normal personalities are pathologized and written off as symptoms of a "disorder," or neuropsychological conditions are trivialized as just personality traits and not understood for their full profile and their full set of challenges and benefits that they bring to life. My little sister makes the latter mistake, pegging herself as cyclothymic because she sometimes gets over-dramatic with her emotions and me as Aspie 'cause I'm nerdy.

Neurology may somewhat influence personality traits, but nobody's personality traits are merely the symptoms of a disorder or even the by-product of a specific type of neurological profile. I wish that there were better ways to test for cognitive, sensory, and emotional processing differences and that these were more commonly used to screen for neuropsychological conditions, so that personality and neurology could be decoupled better and the conditions in themselves understood better. As a nerdy NT, I perceive, think, and feel very differently from an Aspie in certain ways, even though just about all human beings are more similar than different both within the mind and outside the mind, and even though I may show certain behavioral or temperamental similarities to the "classic" Aspie that most NT's do not. (I bet there's a lot more personality variation among Spectrum folks than the stereotypes would let on.)

If this had been a different world, where "AS" perception were the norm and "NT" perception unusual, I would read a description of "nerdy neurotypical syndrome" that would be kind of the mirror-image of Asperger's in this alternative world and wonder if I had a personality. Perhaps similar to how some Aspies feel when they read about classical autistic stereotypes, when I read the descriptions of "neurotypical disorder" written by autistic people on the internet as a joke and a critique of diagnoses, I think, "Well, I'm not quite like THAT..." But do the neurotypicals who fit those descriptions not have personalities? Would they, or I, not have personalities in a mirror world were autistic-spectrum perception was the norm, and perhaps, AS, HFA, PDD-NOS, classical "low-functioning" autism, etc. were understood as simply personality differences or thinking styles? No, we'd just as much have personalities in that world as we do in this one. So, it's the same for people on the spectrum.

In typical aspie fashion, I didn't understand the word "personality" for years. Now I understand it, I think. Personality is the way in which you interact with people (seems obvious eh?), and I imagine most aspies don't interact all that much and hence could be described as having "no personality" by people. I don't agree personally though, personality isn't entirely centred around communication, as physically helping someone, or being generous is another way of building relationships. I always tried to be liked by using my skills to help people, rather than make petty smalltalk with people, but for some reason NT's won't accept that some people are different

Greentea...
If you had no personality, and were just a clutter of AS + NLD traits, then you and I would be the same. But we're not.

We like different foods, different movies, different books, different cars...

the things that make you happy and the way you respond to your world, though influenced by AS/NLD are not 'factory made'.

You are a unique, one-of-a-kind person. Get on with it...

I don't have a very good conception of my own personality. I see other people's personalities and they seem consistent. Then I look at myself and I realize that I don't have a single personality. I have the personality that I envision myself being inside my head but that doesn't necessarily reflect what other people see. What other people see varies depending on who I'm with and the environment I'm in. I also think my online personality might be different from my real life personality since I can communicate my thoughts with so much more fluency/accuracy in written form. It almost makes me a different person.

I get told I have a great personality an awful lot-- maybe more than anything else (except shy). Myers-Briggs gives me the most common personality that people with AS have though-- the engineer type. I'm devoid of personality as well.

Everyone's personality is biological to a large extent. Violent criminals usually have low cortical arousal and lower levels of serotonin. Our biological differences are extreme enough for us to have a label for it.

Everyone has a personality even though it may not feel like it at times. If people with AS/NLD had no personality then we'd all face the exact same problems, have the same interests and find that we're all applying for the same jobs! Wow, wouldn't that be annoying!
When I was depressed I used to think that there was nothing to me but my depression but in fact, I still had a personality, because everyone with depression is different also. I guess I'm lucky that I've never felt like AS takes away my personality or hindered me from developing one.

I'm not sure if you'd be interested in this but it's another personality quiz (a different type though): http://similarminds.com/test.html

I think we all definitely have a personality! It's just that it usually goes against the norms of society and therefore we are forced to conceal our true selves to avoid alienation and thus appear boring.

Quite simply most of us have learned to NOT be ourselves!

Wow.. if Greentea doesn't have a personality, who does??

I have often wondered if my personality is more malleable than most people's. I have a tendency to "absorb and reflect" the personalities of those around me, which is possibly one of the reasons I can get along with a relatively large number of people. I don't really consciously do this, though. Maybe it's more of a mimicry skill than anything else? Or maybe it's just my gullibility at play.

I mean, I know I have core personality, and I certainly have preferences, desires, traits. It's just sometimes I wonder...

Donkey, that's a good point, hadn't thought about it. But still, my strengths, weaknesses, things I used to be proud of like language learning talent...they all stem from the symptoms...

But I guess if we Aspies all had the same personality based on AS traits, we'd all have the same avatars and special interests, or very similar...

LOL Maggie, what do you mean? If I have a distinct personality, I'm not aware...

^ That