Could I be an NT?

Post Reply New Topic

I am not diagnosed with anything but ADD, and that was a sort of hackish diagnosis...doc goves me a battery of questions...says ok you have it..writes script...YAY..at long last...diagnosis!!...but was it really?

Sure I don't drive, have the emotional maturity of a teenager, walk on my toes, don't make eye contact, pace wildly about, am severely disorganised, have trouble feeling appropriate emotions for situations (my business made thousands of dollars in one day yesterday and I felt depressed and panicked).., have large obsessive collections, ring finger much longer than index finger, difficulty relating to other people, (I can't read them and so I often assume I am disliked)...I stim physically and vocally, stammer, have repetative behaviour, have upwards of 3000 posts on WP...a family history of people with neurological differences...blah blah blah.....

but could I have all these features and more, but just be kidding myself?
Could it be that I am just an aviodant personality and I ramp up the symptoms in my head to reenforce my frequent negative "I can't" mentality that is the result of low self esteem due to my lifelong struggles with ADD?

I always will say how much I hate the phone, but yesterday I calmly and articulately handled about 50 calls from customers without freaking out once...except at the end...after I was done talking to them all...Granted I did so by mimicking the customers....their accents and speech patterns...


Soory for the dumb self-pitying rant on the general autism discussion...bah....

is that an aspie thing?

what would you like to be? would you like to be an NT with 'negative "I can't" mentality'? in that case the responsibiliy of that kind of mentality would be entirely yours, right? do you want to take that responsibility? if yes, it seems simple. if you want and try and eventually can change yourself (not just fake it), then it's the mentality you speak of.

go ahead, and let us know then

cool, my ring finger is also longer than the index finger...
this is something i found: http://www.palmistry.org/autism.htm
(i found it after Jellybean posted her entry, i had no idea about it before.)

Last edited by tomamil on 10 Sep 2008, 7:55 am, edited 4 times in total.

It is thought that Aspies often have a longer ring finger than index. There is no definitive research yet but it is known that this is caused when a feotus gets too much testosterone during pregnancy. I have a longer ring finger.

If you were speaking purely mechanically on the phone, i.e., just business, I don't see that would matter either way.

Of note, ADD isn't "normal" or neurotypical, it's a difference. There's some overlap with ASDs and ADD, so if you think you display symptoms of an ASD, I don't see that it'd be unwise to assume that you may have something else or you were perhaps misdiagnosed.

You know the only thing that'll alleviate your doubts to some extent, and that is to see a professional who knows what Asperger's/PDD-NOS looks like in appearance.

(My index and ring finger are close to the same in length. It speaks of children however.)

Maybe I can use some of all this money we are getting to see a decent professional...at least I hope so....before the DEA freezes our bank account and hauls us off in the night...

(see link below for what I am referring to)

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt76866.html

Last edited by poopylungstuffing on 10 Sep 2008, 8:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

For the record:

Aren't really AS symptoms. SOME show some correlation, etc... but aren't really even seriously mentioned.

And you missed clumbsiness, different way of thinking, and hyper/hypo sensitivities.

As for calling the people, etc... that IS hard to do but, like anything else, you can grow into it. ESPECIALLY if you really get into it or make fun of it, as you apparently did.

BTW for the record, I have a number of the things you mentioned including all of the above but the first 2.
I HAVE collected things obsessively that people would say are large collections. I HAVE gotten depressed EVEN when I logically should have been ecstatic. My ring finger IS longer than my index.

Yes.. I also have motor clumsiness...pretty severe....AND sensitivites to lots of stuff....and a different way of thinking as compared to it seems...lots of people...and auditory processing difficulties....really annoying and apparent when trying to talk to people on the phone all day...and mild face blindness....

Got you.

It's obviously not 100%, as I'm a perfect example (unless of course I have some form of Autism that isn't testosterone mediated).

of course it's not 100%, i was just trying to show that the fingers ratio does not change as we age. unless i have misunderstood that bit that it speaks of children.

Three possibilities:

1. You do not have Asperger's. Your difficulties are caused by something else.
2. You have Asperger's, and your difficulties are caused by Asperger's.
3. You have Asperger's traits or diagnosable Asperger's, along with some other, more significant diagnosis, which causes your difficulties.

The one thing I know is that from your description, you have some real issues that seem to be holding you back, whatever their source; and whatever your actual diagnosis, finding work-arounds for them should be very helpful.

The emotional immaturity is a symptom; toe walking is; a large collection of items is a sign, and it's a very important one if it's in relation to an interest.

The biggest sign is the lack of "normal" social reciprocation, which means you don't participate in the normal give and take of social interaction (being one-sided, pedantic and lecturing, interrupting, only interested in talking about an interest, etcetera), and a lack of displaying and understanding nonverbal cues.

I had to look it up too

Toe-walking is mentioned quite frequently, as is large obsessive collections.

WRT the finger thing, both my ring fingers are longer than my pointer fingers, the right one way longer and the left one just longer. In women, this is also said to be common in lesbians (though obviously not universal or exclusive there, any more than it is with autism).