why girls with asperger's may not be diagnosed (article)

[dottie]

here is a link to a newsweek article. i thought it was pretty interesting:

More Than Just 'Quirky'

Because they may have different symptoms than boys do, some girls with Asperger's syndrome don't get diagnosed.

i seriously wonder if i am one of those girls who have never been diagnosed.

 

[jschuley]

I have been afraid of having this, as I have read about it, and I am a hypochondriac anyway, and some of their symptoms mirror those of social anxiety disorder. But, I don't think I have it. This isn't me.

 

[Psychedelicious]

I am a girl who has been diagnosed with aspergers. It fits though, it really fits. I even had like over 5 hours of testing recently.

 

[Helyna]

Do you have obsessive interests in anything? Do you talk about one subject (when you talk - or write on here) or without paying attention to the opinion/reaction of the other person? A big one: can you read facial expressions or tones of voice?
Asperger's is a lot like social phobia (that starts in childhood - Asperger's doesn't appear like SP does), so it's easy to mix up the two. Both practically require unusually high intelligence. Both make the person act stiff, unfriendly, or generally odd around other people. Asperger's almost always comes with sensory integration problems (sensitivity to sounds or touch, photophobia, or clumsiness, to name a few), but that's common in anxiety (and just plain high intelligence) as well. But people with SP think about other people's opinions all the time while people with Asperger's don't quite understand. It's practically the opposite cause of similar behavior.

Edit: I should add that Asperger's is much more well-known than Social Phobia, despite being much less common. Trust your own thoughts.

 

[jschuley]

Do you have obsessive interests in anything? Do you talk about one subject (when you talk - or write on here) or without paying attention to the opinion/reaction of the other person? A big one: can you read facial expressions or tones of voice?
Asperger's is a lot like social phobia (that starts in childhood - Asperger's doesn't appear like SP does), so it's easy to mix up the two. Both practically require unusually high intelligence. Both make the person act stiff, unfriendly, or generally odd around other people. Asperger's almost always comes with sensory integration problems (sensitivity to sounds or touch, photophobia, or clumsiness, to name a few), but that's common in anxiety (and just plain high intelligence) as well. But people with SP think about other people's opinions all the time while people with Asperger's don't quite understand. It's practically the opposite cause of similar behavior.

Edit: I should add that Asperger's is much more well-known than Social Phobia, despite being much less common. Trust your own thoughts.

Thank you for this. This confirms that I do not have anything but plain old SA.

 

[Hoth]

Both practically require unusually high intelligence.

I don't buy that at all for social phobia. Source? The only thing that comes up in google is your own post here.

For asperger's, all I see is "the majority of children diagnosed with AS do have at least an I.Q. in the normal range and that many children do have I.Q.'s in the superior range" which doesn't seem very scientific or that resounding of an endorsement. And wikipedia says: "Although most students with AS/HFA have average mathematical ability and test slightly worse in mathematics than in general intelligence, some are gifted in mathematics[69] and AS has not prevented some adults from major accomplishments such as winning the Nobel Prize.[70]"

In other words, they're just like everybody else -- average on average, gifted in a few cases. Let's not get any delusions of being special.