# Aspergers (do you have it)



## The_Wanderer (Jun 13, 2013)

I was tested during high school for the autistic spectrum, and for ADHD. Turns out I'm extraordinarily neurotypical, and my only problem is an intolerance for boredom.


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## Stendhal (May 31, 2014)

The_Wanderer said:


> I was tested during high school for the autistic spectrum, and for ADHD. Turns out I'm extraordinarily neurotypical, and my only problem is an intolerance for boredom.


tolerance is wasted on boredom!


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## mangodelic psycho (Jan 12, 2015)

Bassmasterzac said:


> Well, I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was like 7, then Asperger's around 12 or 13. I think it was misdiagnosed because I was depressed and probably concealed that and I also have some sort of OCD and I used to organize shit to a T.
> 
> I have not yet had positive symptoms... I don't think. I think I've had some experiences that are borderline delusional, but when do you really draw the line?
> 
> Anyways, I don't think it's so crazy to think I could develop schizophrenia. Maybe I actually do have Aspergers, but with high functioning. Fuck it lol


Yeah OCD sucks, and the hypochondria that comes with it sometimes..
But I have to agree, fuck it indeed.


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## asperger (Dec 22, 2014)

Asperger's still exist, it is just called autism spectrum disorder (ASD) according to DSM-5. Same shit, different label.


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## Stendhal (May 31, 2014)

asperger said:


> Asperger's still exist, it is just called autism spectrum disorder (ASD) according to DSM-5. Same shit, different label.


If by that you mean a collection of traits still exist, I would agree with you. I was partly just having a little fun playing with the slippage in the labels. 

P.S you avatar is hilarious.


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## aerotropic (Feb 17, 2015)

I'm diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. I didn't have a speech delay as a child, so I technically have Asperger's syndrome.


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## Mange (Jan 9, 2011)

psychedelicmango said:


> It's very interesting that yo said that because I know a few people who were misdiagnosed with Aspergers and later diagnosed with schizophreneia. I'm trying to find info on an aspergers-schizophreneia correlation but it seems there hasn't been a lot of research on this.


Andrew Solomon mentions something about the relationship between them in his book Under The Tree, I believe. It was excellent I wish I had kept it.


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## aerotropic (Feb 17, 2015)

psychedelicmango said:


> It's very interesting that yo said that because I know a few people who were misdiagnosed with Aspergers and later diagnosed with schizophreneia. I'm trying to find info on an aspergers-schizophreneia correlation but it seems there hasn't been a lot of research on this.


Actually, I have a comorbid diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia. People with Asperger's syndrome have a slightly higher chance of developing a psychotic illness than nonautistics, and I happen to be one of those unfortunate individuals. 

Feel free to ask me if you have any questions about my weird brain. The research on this topic is scarce, but I know more about the correlation between autism and schizophrenia than most psychiatrists do. I can go on for hours about it.


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## Brian1 (May 7, 2011)

No, but, I know someone who does. She would talk about it all the time. She, I think has problems with empathy, has an extremely high pitched voice, and it overly knowledgeable about useless facts of bullshit, that would only be handy, in a Jeopardy situation. She's rather thin. I assume those are transferable Aspergers characteristics. That's the first time I heard of the Autism Spectrum. Interestingly enough, one of the arcane trivia areas she absorbed herself in, is the Myers-Briggs Test. The first time I found this out, I thought, why would anyone want to go to pieces over an stupid test about theory. She's an INFJ.


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## I_destroyedtheuniverse (Jul 24, 2014)

I've had 4 people tell me they think I have Asperger's but I personally don't think I do. I thought it was ASD in America but still Asperger's in the UK.


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## Victarion (Aug 12, 2014)

backdrop12 said:


> I do not have it but I do have ADHD and have alot of friends with that condition. They all seem to be the most kind and the most caring individuals I have ever met with tolerance of love. Sure sometimes I may get the bad apple but overall they are just wonderful beings that should not be constrained by a box that we call the school system .


Recently, I made a friend who has ADHD at the university I attend and he is one of the most kind friends I've had. I'm a very socially awkward type and he helps me to socialize, it's funny.

About Aspergers, my family and some friends used to suspect I had, but it was solely due to my weirdness and how I was smart, and of course my INTPness helped with that. :dry:


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## mangodelic psycho (Jan 12, 2015)

rachel.craig.522 said:


> Andrew Solomon mentions something about the relationship between them in his book Under The Tree, I believe. It was excellent I wish I had kept it.


Looks very interesting, definitely going to start reading it when I have some time. :happy:


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## TheEpicPolymath (Dec 5, 2014)

No


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## Pleeb (Jan 13, 2015)

My parents thought I had it before adolescence. Maybe Fe hadn't fully settled in until I turned 13?


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## psychgirl95 (Mar 10, 2014)

a1b2c3d4 said:


> It's all ASD now, so I think technically you never had Aspergers! However, I think it's a little unfortunate that it has to be classified as anything. It should just be seen as a different way of looking at the world, not as a "disease".
> 
> Mental health diagnoses can only be made by a professional psychologist as part of an in-person interview with the subject. It's completely irresponsible journalism for a magazine to suggest a world leader has any sort of mental health issue simply based on the way they act. Such a story is pure sensationalism, not journalism.
> 
> Agreed. Even insofar as Aspergers and ADD they should never be used to define a person. Being different than other people doesn't mean you have a disease, we are ALL different. These sort of differences need to be categorized as different personalities all of which are acceptable and not as "normal" people are OK and everyone else has a "disease".


Coming from someone with ASD and who also studies autism and is researching the neurobiological basis of it (as a psychology/neuroscience double major intending to also research it at the graduate level), ASD is more than just "looking at the world differently." The fact that it's considered a neurodevelopmental disorder tells you that something neurological affects (some or all types of) development. People with ASDs have neurobiological differences that people without ASDs don't have. It's not a disease either - it's a disorder. The same goes for AD/HD, which is also classified as a neurodevelopmental disorder; again, people with it also have neurobiological differences that those without it don't have. These disorders are not personalities or views of the world, they're literally cases of the brain being wired differently; aspects of personality are things that can be changed or affected by the environment or sometimes even by willpower. (For example, an introvert (or shy person) can decide to become less introverted (or shy) and accomplish this by being more personable and being around more people.) Neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism, ADHD, SLD (Specific Learning Disorder, which people know as dyslexia and dyscalculia), Developmental Coordination Disorder (known as dyspraxia), etc, on the other hand, cannot be changed that easily. We have no way to essentially "rewire" brains right now. That's why these disorders are labeled in the first place. People inaccurately see autism - and the other disorders too - as being less serious because they only hear of the "better" cases, like "oh that super smart Asperger's kid!" However, it's called a spectrum for a reason: it's a very serious disorder and everyone presents the same symptoms differently. Don't demean/belittle people's experiences by making it seem less serious than it truly is. You probably don't mean to, but it's unfair to inaccurately categorize a topic you're not extremely familiar with or if you don't have it, even affected by.

As for the Putin thing, to be fair, they (all the news sites that reported it) were only claiming what a "case study" by U.S. government officials claimed, so it's not like the journalists were the ones claiming they'd diagnosed him. So you might want to google it. Of course the study being referenced was complete bull, but one thing I've learned from my experience in psychology and neuroscience is that people who don't understand research methods generally aren't aware what's "real" research and what isn't. That, and that most people believe that they're an amateur psychologist that knows psychology topics better than the professionals in the fields do. (Both of these are especially rampant in the MBTI and autistic communities.)

I think I deleted the "pop psychologists" comment (I think that was you who said that?), but I do agree with that. One of the reasons Asperger's was eliminated and all the "subtypes" were combined into ASD was because there was no real proof that Asperger's and PDD-NOS were separate from autism (autistic disorder, sometimes called Kanner's autism). The few differences found in people with AD (versus those with AS and PDD-NOS) really weren't differences at all. For example, the difference between qualifying for an AS diagnosis versus an AD diagnosis was having a speech delay. That's it - so speech delay equaled AD diagnosis, no speech delay equaled AS diagnosis. So the diagnoses were likely never given consistently - I've known people diagnosed AS but yet they did have a speech delay - and it's definitely possible that a lot of quiet and just "odd" children were mislabeled as Asperger's because it came to be known almost as a "better" autism (one that was characterized by extremely bright children with social issues). However, that's not all autism - including AS - is/was. People just took it that way accidentally; children diagnosed with AS still had to meet the criteria for autistic disorder/autism, so they're still autistic and still experience the things most autistic people experience, such as sensory issues. But that's why I'm glad AS is "officially" gone. I have no problem with it being used colloquially though, because I still use it - people understand AS better than they understand "autism spectrum disorder." I admit that I can't wait until it's something of the past though - when people rarely remember that it existed. 



sharlzkidarlz said:


> Before I left school, I realized everybody and their uncle had some for of Autism. This one kid who I spoke to since we got put together for our first Maths lesson, this one boy who was the epitome of an unhealthy 2 and a compulsive lair, one boy who I've known all my life who has the memory of a goldfish and the list goes on. I think it's more common not to have it with all these changes they keep making to get people diagnosed.
> 
> 
> Basically, anyone who is too weird has it, anyone who is too normal has it. Anyone who stands out has it, people who blend in have it. They basically just want to squeeze everyone into this giant box in my opinion. Even when that woman tried to explain why she thought I had it, I couldn't see how it could make sense for two completely different people to have the same illness with completely different 'symptoms'.
> ...


No, everyone doesn't have "some form of autism." I believe the estimate is that it affects about 1% of the total population. 
What laypeople consider autism is generally just introversion and shyness, combined with social awkwardness. Autism is a heck of a lot more than that - look up some of the more serious cases. I know plenty of HFA/AS people who (obviously) don't deal with serious serious issues like head banging or not being toilet trained, but they still have their own serious communication struggles. That's what autism is - a disorder that (often severely) affects communication. You have no idea what it's like to struggle with these types of communication issues. There's a reason that many with HFA/AS end up depressed - no one seems to understands us or the disorder that affects our lives so greatly. What's colloquially considered Asperger's or HFA would likely be diagnosed as Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder under the DSM-5 (that is, if the person in question has any disorder at all. It's more likely that they don't and are just socially awkward and shy). It's the social communication deficits aspect of ASD, without the other defining characteristics of autism (such as stereotyped/repetitive behaviors). 

Autism isn't completely understood because its presentation (phenotype) is heterogeneous. That's part of the reason why it's so difficult to diagnose in the first place - those considered high functioning/ASD levels 1&2/Aspergers often have comorbidities which have symptoms similar to autism: social anxiety, GAD, OCD, DCD, Fragile X, depression, ADHD, SPD, some personality disorders and schizophrenia, etc... And those are just some of the comorbidities - there are more, including physical/medical issues. (You can read about some of the known comorbidities here.) Autism isn't misunderstood because it isn't real, *it's misunderstood because it's just that difficult to understand.* Even the research into the genes causing it has been very difficult because its genotype is heterogeneous as well. It's not as easy, genetically speaking, as say, Down Syndrome/trisomy 21. And again, *yes, everyone presents the same symptoms differently. * Understand that aspect or not, it's true if you've ever been around multiple autistic people, have ASD, or have researched it (meaning academically, not what people often call googling as "research"). People don't realize how hard it is for professionals to accurately diagnose ASD and then the professionals are wrongly given a bad name. I already mentioned the multiple comorbidities ASD has and how most of them share symptoms.

*The changes to the diagnostic criteria have been made to help people with diagnosis.* The goal was to give more accurate ones so people aren't incorrectly diagnosed anymore. Besides it being extremely common for those of us relatively high functioning to receive a diagnosis late in life (some people didn't get one until their child was diagnosed or even later, such as in their 40s or 50s), girls are underdiagnosed already because we present ASD symptoms even differently than boys do, making us look like "shy girls" and the boys look like "weird boys." Clinicians often overlook our symptoms, meaning that's one possible reason we may receive a diagnosis later. You have no idea how frustrating it is to have to fight for a diagnosis you know you have, but can't prove without the diagnosis. Because legally, one cannot get simple allowances - such as the ability to record lectures at college - without the diagnosis. Without these services, many autistic people wouldn't make it through school at all. 

And as for your point about people using the terms (AS and ASD) differently, that's not new - *the term ASD has been used for years - way before the DSM even adopted it officially.* It was always used to refer to AD, AS, and PDD-NOS. It's being used more often now because of the DSM and also because of the next edition of the ICD possibility renaming the diagnosis to ASD as well. 

Please don't take this offensively, because it's not meant that way at all, but you don't seem to understand actual autism. What you described is the incorrect view that most people have about it. I'm not sure what the kids you mentioned had to do with autism - lots of people believe autistic people are less prone to lying (though I don't know how true that is). And lots of people have a good or bad memory. I don't know how that's associated with autism though, unless you're probably thinking of autistic savants or people diagnosed with hyperthymesia (for those with good memories), both of which are very rare. Having a bad memory though - which the idiom you used describes, I believe - has absolutely nothing to do with autism. Many of us report having strikingly accurate ones actually. I just honestly can't stand people spreading misconceptions about my "special interests." Your one experience does not mean autism - even "higher functioning forms" - isn't a real issue for those of us with it. And ASD certainly isn't as "common as colds" (I don't understand what you mean about the internet part). (If it were, again, more people would understand us rather than spread false ideas and misconceptions around about autism.) Depression is actually referred to as the "common cold of psychopathology."




tanstaafl28 said:


> I am diagnosed ADHD, which I kind of think of as the "mirror twin" of Asperger's. It's like we're a little bit TOO engaged with everyone and everything. Where Asperger's retreats within, ADHD pushes out, if that makes any sense.


This is definitely an interesting theory, but ADHD is actually a common comorboridity of ASD. And most people diagnosed with ASD are introverts, so it's definitely possible for introverts to have it too!



Brian1 said:


> No, but, I know someone who does. She would talk about it all the time. She, I think has problems with empathy, has an extremely high pitched voice, and it overly knowledgeable about useless facts of bullshit, that would only be handy, in a Jeopardy situation. She's rather thin. I assume those are transferable Aspergers characteristics. That's the first time I heard of the Autism Spectrum. Interestingly enough, one of the arcane trivia areas she absorbed herself in, is the Myers-Briggs Test. The first time I found this out, I thought, why would anyone want to go to pieces over an stupid test about theory. She's an INFJ.


Those are some of the more common characteristics people associate with Aspergers (excluding the girl being thin), but that's not nearly enough for an actual diagnosis. Most people with ASD seem to be INTJs, INFJs, ISTJs, and INTPs.


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## Brian1 (May 7, 2011)

JasmineC said:


> Those are some of the more common characteristics people associate with Aspergers (excluding the girl being thin), but that's not nearly enough for an actual diagnosis. Most people with ASD seem to be INTJs, INFJs, ISTJs, and INTPs.


It's funny you should say that, she mentioned testing INTJ for a while. And I get the sense she wasn't pleased with this. So her new thing is INFJ.


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## psychgirl95 (Mar 10, 2014)

Brian1 said:


> It's funny you should say that, she mentioned testing INTJ for a while. And I get the sense she wasn't pleased with this. So her new thing is INFJ.


On that topic, I have a friend that tests INFJ (INFP too) and she has siblings diagnosed with autism, but she isn't. I swear she has a bunch of the symptoms though. 

I don't understand why someone wouldn't be pleased with their personality type though. Maybe she didn't want to be seen as mean and cruel, since I know we often get that stereotype! xD

But yeah the personality thing is interesting. It's a topic common on forums for autistic people: View topic - What Is Your Myers-Brigs Personality Type? | Wrong Planet Autism Community Forum. INTJ generally seems to be the most common for some reason. But there's a couple of outliers with some testing as Es or other personality types (like ISFP).


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## Malandro (Jul 17, 2014)

JasmineC said:


> Coming from someone with ASD and who also studies autism and is researching the neurobiological basis of it (as a psychology/neuroscience double major intending to also research it at the graduate level), ASD is more than just "looking at the world differently." The fact that it's considered a neurodevelopmental disorder tells you that something neurological affects (some or all types of) development. People with ASDs have neurobiological differences that people without ASDs don't have. It's not a disease either - it's a disorder. The same goes for AD/HD, which is also classified as a neurodevelopmental disorder; again, people with it also have neurobiological differences that those without it don't have. These disorders are not personalities or views of the world, they're literally cases of the brain being wired differently; aspects of personality are things that can be changed or affected by the environment or sometimes even by willpower. (For example, an introvert (or shy person) can decide to become less introverted (or shy) and accomplish this by being more personable and being around more people.) Neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism, ADHD, SLD (Specific Learning Disorder, which people know as dyslexia and dyscalculia), Developmental Coordination Disorder (known as dyspraxia), etc, on the other hand, cannot be changed that easily. We have no way to essentially "rewire" brains right now. That's why these disorders are labeled in the first place. People inaccurately see autism - and the other disorders too - as being less serious because they only hear of the "better" cases, like "oh that super smart Asperger's kid!" However, it's called a spectrum for a reason: it's a very serious disorder and everyone presents the same symptoms differently. Don't demean/belittle people's experiences by making it seem less serious than it truly is. You probably don't mean to, but it's unfair to inaccurately categorize a topic you're not extremely familiar with or if you don't have it, even affected by.
> 
> As for the Putin thing, to be fair, they (all the news sites that reported it) were only claiming what a "case study" by U.S. government officials claimed, so it's not like the journalists were the ones claiming they'd diagnosed him. So you might want to google it. Of course the study being referenced was complete bull, but one thing I've learned from my experience in psychology and neuroscience is that people who don't understand research methods generally aren't aware what's "real" research and what isn't. That, and that most people believe that they're an amateur psychologist that knows psychology topics better than the professionals in the fields do. (Both of these are especially rampant in the MBTI and autistic communities.)
> 
> ...


I didn't literally mean everyone and I was just talking about in my school environment, not the whole general population. All these people have formally been diagnosed with a form of autism. I'm not in that 'everyone has autism' camp either because if that were true, there wouldn't be any need for all the health professions and the diagnoses. And, no, I don't understand at all what it's like to have autism. Sorry if I caused any offence.


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## psychgirl95 (Mar 10, 2014)

sharlzkidarlz said:


> I didn't literally mean everyone and I was just talking about in my school environment, not the whole general population. All these people have formally been diagnosed with a form of autism. I'm not in that 'everyone has autism' camp either because if that were true, there wouldn't be any need for all the health professions and the diagnoses. And, no, I don't understand at all what it's like to have autism. Sorry if I caused any offence.


Nope, I didn't mean to imply that I was offended. There are just a lot of misconceptions out there about autism and I like to make sure that people are able to learn more about how it really is. 

Perhaps I just took your comments too literally (we do tend to do that). It seemed like you were talking about the general population because of these statements and you also mentioning British mental health experts:


> I think it's more common not to have it with all these changes they keep making to get people diagnosed.
> ---
> Basically, anyone who is too weird has it, anyone who is too normal has it. Anyone who stands out has it, people who blend in have it. They basically just want to squeeze everyone into this giant box in my opinion.


But if you were referring to your school environment, can I ask about it? What kind of school officials were trying to "squeeze people into a giant box"? And how so? That doesn't sound like a good school experience at all.


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## sampa (Dec 8, 2014)

Does Putin has it?

Pentagon thinktank claims Putin has Asperger's – has Putinology gone too far? | World news | The Guardian


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