Asperger's Syndrome?

[Ultima22689]

I don't know if I would try to get any benefit from having Aspergers but I would at least like to know if I actually have it.

I doubt you could get any monetary benefits from having Asperger Syndrome to a degree which has no noticeable effect on your earning capacity.  I guess I'm assuming you are a US citizen when I say that.

I am still in appeals for Disability and I have lupus, fibromyalgia, PTSD, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, epilepsy, a non-cancerous brain tumor, an undiagnosed fever disorder, and Asperger Syndrome.  I'm a mess that even the average layman can see has issues which hinder gainful employment and getting benefits is only a maybe.

Do you not have friends irl?  Do you frequently lose friends due to mis-communication?  Is your social support structure non-existent?  Have family members written you off for not being social enough?  Or, are your parents and siblings autistic to the point of self-isolation, too?

I have SOME friends in IRL,  we sort of banded together overtime as we're all a bunch of misfit stoners and I have lost a lot of friends through mis-communication, my social support structure? Not quite sure what you mean by that but I have a couple of my closest friends who keep me positive. My family has pretty much written me off on my dad's side but they still pretend to like me because it's likely that I will be successful in the future, excuse my arrogance but it's pretty clear that i'm intellectually superior by a far margin to the rest of my dad's side and to an extent with my mom's side however they love me unconditionally but that is the reason they distance themselves the way they do, that and I am pretty much very different from them.

[Renegnicat]

Kylyssa, sounds like we would get along, at least with respect to our choice of topics to talk about.  

Ultima, you sound like me. I am also diagnosed with aspergers. It's made me a lonely man, but I'll be getting on with it. It's something I have to deal with.

[Squid]

I scored a 15 - go figure!

I'll have to join the 15 score club...I suppose though that the score is up for contention by those who know or have met me...maybe we shall see.

[SSY]

I scored a 15 - go figure!

I'll have to join the 15 score club...I suppose though that the score is up for contention by those who know or have met me...maybe we shall see.

My number is twice as high as yours, pwned.

[LARA]

Asperger's diagnosis seems to be an in thing right now, kind of a flavor of the month label.  I kind of wonder if it has something to do with the past high popularity of Oliver Sacks and his story on Temple Grandin.  I mean, honestly, a lot of people who are simply introverted can really relate to some of the things that Asperger's individuals have to face and for those with a low self esteem getting out and being sociable can be tough, but this doesn't mean it's actually a disorder.  

A teacher tried to convince me that an outgoing family member had Asperger's recently and this was just hilarious.  We can go anywhere and she can make friends in an instant, she shares so easily, has a lot of compassion for other people and animals, it was like WTF?

I would take into account what was said but don't buy into it.  Do some real research.  There may be something to this, but then again it might be nothing more than educated name calling.

(I got a 19 on the quiz by the way.  I was curious.)

[Renegnicat]

I scored 32, exactly.  

[Kylyssa]

Asperger's diagnosis seems to be an in thing right now, kind of a flavor of the month label.  I kind of wonder if it has something to do with the past high popularity of Oliver Sacks and his story on Temple Grandin.  I mean, honestly, a lot of people who are simply introverted can really relate to some of the things that Asperger's individuals have to face and for those with a low self esteem getting out and being sociable can be tough, but this doesn't mean it's actually a disorder.  

A teacher tried to convince me that an outgoing family member had Asperger's recently and this was just hilarious.  We can go anywhere and she can make friends in an instant, she shares so easily, has a lot of compassion for other people and animals, it was like WTF?

I would take into account what was said but don't buy into it.  Do some real research.  There may be something to this, but then again it might be nothing more than educated name calling.

(I got a 19 on the quiz by the way.  I was curious.)

Asperger's is a lot more than being introverted.  It includes that but Asperger's is being introverted like a volcano is hot.  Low-functioning autism is being introverted like the sun is hot.  

I was introverted to the point that when my parents ran away from home, I became homeless.  It was completely unnecessary - I had scholarships to cover college, all I had to do was hang on until fall and then go to college.  It sounds so simple now, but my confusion and fear of strange situations paralyzed me.  My father is a high-functioning autistic and my mom was an abused and definitely not cherished child so thus, our family didn't keep in contact with either of their parents so I had no (dependable) relatives to call on for help.  I didn't know anyone and didn't have the tools to know who to ask for help and the idea of asking for help was incredibly terrifying even if I'd known who to ask.  After the first rape, I was practically catatonic and ten times as afraid of people as I'd been before.

I mostly communicate through writing though I've learned to bore people to death with my obsessions and hobbies verbally on occasion.

I think you are right about your friend not having Asperger's if she makes friends easily and is outgoing but the part about compassion ruling out autism is dead wrong.  It's one of those stereotypes that even professionals seem to fall for.  It's old school, out-dated psychology which held that autistics don't have emotions or compassion.  It probably made them feel better about institutionalizing autistic people.  They also portrayed autistic people as having no conscience.  Many autistic people are also mentally retarded making it a double whammy so they are like children.  Most small children are not capable of advanced compassion, either.  I think this is where the "no conscience" thing came from.  Or maybe it's from the monotone voice many autistic people speak in, our voices do not naturally exude emotional overtones.

Autistic people usually don't show emotions in the average way but it doesn't mean we don't have any.  My problem is that I have an excess of emotion.  When I was a child, if a child started crying near me, I went into full panic mode, usually rocking until the other child stopped and I calmed down.  If that's not empathy I don't know what is.  Eye contact makes intense, painful emotions well up for me.  I admit that I might not know a person is distressed if they don't exhibit obvious signs but once I figure it out (or someone tells me) I feel for them.  

I naturally express my emotions strangely and have difficulty reading the emotions of others.  I "read" so strangely to other people that they can't tell when I'm in pain and often don't believe me if I say I am.  I got sent away from the doctor with a broken thumb and cracked wrist without treatment or x-rays because I didn't react "right" as far as the doctor was concerned.  I got admonished for drug-seeking behavior and told I wasn't showing any pain.  I suggested the assistant compare my blood pressure and pulse rate with my records, which made things even worse.  Apparently knowing something basic like the fact that blood pressure and pulse rate can go up from pain makes one a drug-seeker.  When it turned purplish colors and swelled until the skin split in one spot I went to the ER later that same day.  Of course x-rays showed the breaks and they treated it.  I got no apology, the doctor (GP) just said I didn't respond properly to pain and my voice was too modulated for him to tell I was actually in pain.  Of course my voice was modulated!  Every emotional inflection it carries is a conscious effort, I was too busy being in pain to figure out how my voice was supposed to sound.  My natural tone of voice is a monotone.  Perhaps the fact that I said, "It hurts an awful lot and grinds and hurts a whole lot more when I move it" wasn't enough for him to think it might actually hurt.  

Anyway, my point is that autistic people have difficulty reading "normal" peoples' emotions but "normal" people have just as much difficulty reading ours and they have no motivation to learn how except in rare cases.

[LARA]

Just in case anyone is curious and wants information that's better than a WIRED quiz:

"The following is from Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM IV
(I) Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:
(A) marked impairments in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body posture, and gestures to regulate social interaction
(B) failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
(C) a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interest or achievements with other people, (e.g.. by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest to other people)
(D) lack of social or emotional reciprocity

(II) Restricted repetitive & stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests and activities, as manifested by at least one of the following:
(A) encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus
(B) apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals
(C) stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g. hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements)
(D) persistent preoccupation with parts of objects

(III) The disturbance causes clinically significant impairments in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

(IV) There is no clinically significant general delay in language (E.G. single words used by age 2 years, communicative phrases used by age 3 years)

(V) There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or in the development of age-appropriate self help skills, adaptive behavior (other than in social interaction) and curiosity about the environment in childhood.

(VI) Criteria are not met for another specific Pervasive Developmental Disorder or Schizophrenia."


(I pulled this off a site I from a search.  If it's not accurate to the DSM IV, please someone post a correction.)