Anyone here have Asperger's?

[TheNewZero]

I've had social anxiety since middle school, but recently I have been discovering that I may have Asperger's. I have a lot of AS traits, but am having a hard time figuring out whether it's AS or my anxiety. For example, I get very overwhelmed in public areas and when too many people are talking or making noise, but I don't know if that's because I'm getting stressed out by the people or because it's a sensory overstimulation thing (an AS trait). Likewise I have a hard time telling whether my social awkwardness and trouble with speech is due to anxiety or not.

I'm 21 and a girl, so it may be hard for me to find a good psychiatrist to get a diagnosis. It's also expensive and I want to be fairly certain that I have the traits before I go in. If anyone has AS here how do sort through these different traits and figure out what caused it? I'm not sure if Asperger's gave me social anxiety or social anxiety gave me Asperger's traits.

 

[TheStatue]

I don't have it, but I thought I had once. But I figured out that it was just the extreme social anxiety that gave me the symptoms. The reason for believing I had AS was that I was searching all over the place for an explanation of why I am the way I am, convinced that there must be something seriously wrong with me.

Now I'm convinced I don't have it (and even if I may be a little bit on "the spectrum" it's not nearly enough to give me any significant difficulties on its own). The reason being that my new algebra teacher clearly has it, and I'm nothing like that.

In either case, I'd advice you to deal with your social anxiety first, and then see if there is anything left after that which is giving you additional trouble. And when the anxiety starts to fade, you will notice that it will feel so much more natural to communicate with other people. That is what is starting to happen for me.

 

[Luke1993]

ha well I was diagnosed with Asperger's at the age of 2, so I'm not sure whether I actually have it or it's SAD. My symptoms seem to lean towards SAD but I honestly do not know. I have some sort of mental issue that's for sure.

 

[Felgen]

I'm diagnosed with it.

 

[TheNewZero]

I don't have it, but I thought I had once. But I figured out that it was just the extreme social anxiety that gave me the symptoms. The reason for believing I had AS was that I was searching all over the place for an explanation of why I am the way I am, convinced that there must be something seriously wrong with me.

Now I'm convinced I don't have it (and even if I may be a little bit on "the spectrum" it's not nearly enough to give me any significant difficulties on its own). The reason being that my new algebra teacher clearly has it, and I'm nothing like that.

I've been going back and forth on this for years now. I thought I had AS when I was sixteen, but there was a boy in my high school with AS who was sort of your stereotypical Asperger's who had very obvious symptoms of it. I thought I didn't have it because I didn't act like him.

I don't know if you're a girl or not, but recently I've been doing a lot of research about girls with AS, and they generally act very different than guys, particularly with being able to hide their symptoms better. I've met a few girls with AS and you can't tell at all that they have it.

In either case, I'd advice you to deal with your social anxiety first, and then see if there is anything left after that which is giving you additional trouble. And when the anxiety starts to fade, you will notice that it will feel so much more natural to communicate with other people. That is what is starting to happen for me.

I was on paxil last year for two months and saw a lot of improvement in my SA but my social awkwardness didn't go away. Again, I can't tell whether that's because of years of SA or AS. I have a lot of other symptoms of AS like stimming and obsession with specific interests. But yeah, with the whole social skills thing I find myself going in circles.

 

[TheNewZero]

ha well I was diagnosed with Asperger's at the age of 2, so I'm not sure whether I actually have it or it's SAD. My symptoms seem to lean towards SAD but I honestly do not know. I have some sort of mental issue that's for sure.

How were you when you were younger?

I think I've blocked most of my childhood memories out so don't really know what I was like when I was a kid. I didn't have the anxiety issues that I have now but I don't quite remember how "normal" I was.

 

[planemo]

I haven't gone for a cognitive assessment yet, but my psych did tell me I was borderline PDD-NOS and NVLD. So I'm not quite sure. Sometimes I'm certain I have an ASD, and other times I'm not as convinced.

 

[TheStatue]

I was on paxil last year for two months and saw a lot of improvement in my SA but my social awkwardness didn't go away. Again, I can't tell whether that's because of years of SA or AS. I have a lot of other symptoms of AS like stimming and obsession with specific interests. But yeah, with the whole social skills thing I find myself going in circles.

I don't really know what you mean by social awkwardness; but perhaps if you've avoided interaction with other people for long, then it will definitely be awkward at first even though the anxiety starts to fade.

Becoming an expert on a few specific interests may be interpreted as an obsession while in reality it could also be just hobbies that get unusual attention as a result of social isolation. At least that was the case for me. In my case, I've also pretty much had OCD type behavior ever since I was a kid, but those "rituals" and repetitive behavior were just caused by constant anxiety.

I don't really know how AS manifests itself in girls (I'm male btw), and I sure can't tell if I've ever met any girl with it. But it's usually very evident when boys have it.

But in the end, nobody can really tell over the Internet like this whether you have AS or not. Do you feel as if a diagnosis would really help though? It is quite expensive, and there is always the chance of misdiagnosis when dealing with complex stuff like autism spectrum disorders. This is after all a neurological condition we are talking about: there is no real cure.

 

[God_help_Us]

I share a lot of the frustrations that people with aspergers do, but I'm not sure if I have it. Going by how most of them behave, I probably don't, or if I do, it's very mild.

 

[206Raider]

I thought I may have had Aspergers at one point but I had an evalutation on it and didn't meet the criteria just good ol' Social Anxiety. I can function just fine in many different situations its just sometimes I get too uncomfortable with certain people and don't want to be there and have no clue what to say to anybody about anything.

 

[Flowers-Of-Bloom]

People with Aspersers Syndrome have difficulty understanding the emotions/facial expressions of others, lack of motor skills, they may speak formally for no particular reason, change pitch and rhythm of speech in a noticeably odd way, they may have little capacity/understanding of humour, become obsessed with seemingly irrelevant things such as telephones, and proceed to have long-winded and one-sided conversations with people about that particular obsession. Something like that.
You'd have to speak to a professional to get a diagnosis. Self-diagnosis is unreliable and not very helpful. It could simply be a lack of social skills, which could easily be misinterpreted as autism by someone without proper knowledge of the disorder.

 

[lyricalliaisons]

I've never been tested, but I do believe I have either AS or High Functioning Autism. I think HFA is more likely given my developmental delays. From what I've read, the only thing that seems to separate AS from HFA is that people with HFA had developmental delays as children & I did. I hope to get tested one day, but I have no health insurance & still haven't brought it up with my psychiatrist or therapist.

 

[redski]

People with Aspersers Syndrome have difficulty understanding the emotions/facial expressions of others, lack of motor skills, they may speak formally for no particular reason, change pitch and rhythm of speech in a noticeably odd way, they may have little capacity/understanding of humour, become obsessed with seemingly irrelevant things such as telephones, and proceed to have long-winded and one-sided conversations with people about that particular obsession. Something like that.
You'd have to speak to a professional to get a diagnosis. Self-diagnosis is unreliable and not very helpful. It could simply be a lack of social skills, which could easily be misinterpreted as autism by someone without proper knowledge of the disorder.

Have you seen it too
Adam (2009/I)

Sounds just like what I saw in the move.

 

[Felgen]

I've never been tested, but I do believe I have either AS or High Functioning Autism. I think HFA is more likely given my developmental delays. From what I've read, the only thing that seems to separate AS from HFA is that people with HFA had developmental delays as children & I did. I hope to get tested one day, but I have no health insurance & still haven't brought it up with my psychiatrist or therapist.

I don't know the differences in the US, but in Norway--the only difference between AS and HFA is speech delay. People with HFA tend to stim more, have more narrow interests and so on, but this is not a diagnostic criteria.

In Asperger's and ADHD, there's often a delay in motor skills. Many people with HFA have normal motor skills, though...

 

[Lea]

Aspergers... sounds like asparagus... no wonder people think we are even more crazy than we are .

 

[anxiousguy83]

I was diagnosed with AS when I was 18, worst thing ever happened to me cause didn't get the help I needed then, and was basically seen as a "lost case" cause it isn't any treatment or "cure" for it

 

[Luke1993]

People with Aspersers Syndrome have difficulty understanding the emotions/facial expressions of others, lack of motor skills, they may speak formally for no particular reason, change pitch and rhythm of speech in a noticeably odd way, they may have little capacity/understanding of humour, become obsessed with seemingly irrelevant things such as telephones, and proceed to have long-winded and one-sided conversations with people about that particular obsession.

Oh haha then maybe I do have it! This fits me down to a tee, though I'd say I understand humour and emotions better than I used to. My current obsession is guns, but I've had others.

 

[guessed]

I've had several psychologists say they thought I have Asperger's but I haven't been formerly diagnosed.

 

[stephen]

I have suspected that I am probably on the fringes of the spectrum but I believe social anxiety can muddy the waters as far as diagnosis goes. I found this online questionnaire once that indicated I may be on the spectrum but online quizzes are hardly reliable. I suspect I may have auditory processing issues which is also a feature of Aspergers. I guess the thing with any disorder is that it is basically a cluster of symptoms that might be present in any member of a population. It's all a bit academic really as they can't do much to help once it has been diagnosed. If a diagnosis would negatively affect your self esteem or make you feel stigmatised then it may be of more benefit to focus on your social issues. At least you can try something constructive like CBT that may be of benefit. If you find a good counsellor you could certainly bring up the fact that you have wondered about Aspergers as this may affect their assessment of treatment options. I guess either way it's not the end of the world. You're still you labelled or not.


There's an interesting quiz here Aspie quiz. Mine was inconclusive as I have Aspie (90/200) and neurotypical (81/200) traits. In any case it's not an official diagnosis or anything, more of an interesting distraction from work.

 

[Lonestar473]

I was diagnosed as a teenager, and I got some help, but not much, and in school was treated - I guess like a lost cause as someone else mentioned. School didn't want to deal with me so I was put in the special ed classes starting from middle school on.

In middle school I was put in one class room the entire day with people with autism and other disorders where they couldn't do normal work.. thus I had no real challenges as far as school work went. High school was little different. I can't remember what the classes there were called but they were basically in-between the kind of class I was stuck in for part of middle school, and normal classes.

So there was actual work, and each class was separate, so no being stuck in one room all day. But the work wasn't much a challenge most of the time. I was able to try a normal class once but I didn't have the necessary classwork/homework management skills and the work became overwhelming even though I really did enjoy the learning.

And of course I haven't even mentioned yet... that during my teenage years, I had those outbursts like what happened to Adam in the movie all the time. It was a very bad time, constant changing, little explanations of what was going on, and no one being understanding, and lots of people ready to give up on you or just pick on/torment you.

I was also much more like Adam was in the beginning of the movie too. Little idea how to communicate effectively with NTs - or understand them since they tend to not say and mean/do the same things. And even though I had been diagnosed, I hadn't been told what all it really meant. Most of the help was receiving at the time was centered around controlling my outbursts and helping my Mom cope.

Which I realize in retrospect is a bit like trying to treat/hide/suppress the symptoms of a problem rather than dealing with the cause. I don't really think its anyone's fault in particular, rather just a barrier of communication, and a lot of small failures added over time that just kind of kept me in a not so good place, so I didn't really start getting past that stuff and actually begin learning how to more effectively communicate with people.

Sort of like in movie Adam when at the end of the movie he was beginning to pick up on things that he totally missed in the beginning. Its basically just learning what actions/word combinations/etc mean and how your supposed to respond to them, and on the other side of the coin how your supposed to respond not only in words but actions.

I've made much more progress in the former than the latter. So I tend to not interact much with people still because I usually mess up and act all weird. So I think that I while now I'm not near as bad as Adam was, I'm not anywhere near 'there' yet.

I can understand the whole being afraid of socializing thing because I have to deal with it myself now, because when you mess up, people don't tend to be very forgiving, so I have ended up most of the time not letting people get close enough to see, which means I tend to have short conversations if any at all

I'm lucky I guess that one of my bigger obsessions is with computers/technology so that I should be able to at least get some kind of job doing something that I at least enjoy partially. Though I'm still a bit away from that. And there is the whole... interview thing too

Anyway.. enough rambling from me. Sorry, that's something I'm still working on.