Do I have asperger's?

[Aaliyah]

I have always thought that there was something wrong with me and I used to go through my sister's college psychology books and just read all of the disorders to see if I had any of them. Which to me seems like a symptom of asperger's in itself. I thought I had all of them and then one day I came across autism and asperger's and I was like yep that's it. I've always had problems with friends it seems. I always had a lot of friends until like 5th grade. But it seems like I always had problems with my friends like they would get mad at me about stuff. And when I was n 4th grade I went to one of my friends parties and all of the girls like ganged up on me and were so mean to me because one of her friends didn't like me for some reason. Does that sound like I'm the problem or the girls were just mean?

Anyway so after all of that I moved to a different school because I just didn't want to see those girls anymore. And I wasn't accepted very well at my new school. I made a couple friends but they were mostly people I already knew. All of the other kids I didn't know didn't really accept me. But I think this has to do with the the fact that we were almost teenagers and I was the new kid whatever, you know the age group. Or was it because I have aspergers. So after that I was mostly just friends with the "geeks" at school in middle school and high school and I got teased a lot. Also I always used to like to play with my much younger cousins and I still liked to play little kid games until I was like 14 like barbies.

And in high school I didn't want to hang out with the "geeks" anymore so I just stopped hanging out with them and then I basically had no friends. Since then I've had like one friend. I made friends with other people occasionally but something always happened. Also a lot of my friends from when I was little moved away and even friends I made when I was a lot older moved away. I seem to have a problem with that. And now I basically feel like I have no friends and feel like I don't know how to make new ones and I'm embarrassed because I have no friends. I feel like I could make new friends but I would have to explain to them why I basically have no friends and then they would think I was weird or something.

So you see in my head I can find logical explanations for most of these things but it's always in the back of mind that something is wrong with me. Plus playing with my much younger cousins. Oh and also when I was about ten I was extremely obsessed with the Titanic. I watched the movie literally a hundred times I was like trying to break a world record literally and I knew all of the lines from the movie and could recite them. I used to draw the clothes from the movie and was actually pretty good at it. I had books and all kinds of stuff and even had a titanic birthday party. So this is what makes me think I have asperger's.

I've been to a psychologist before for something else and told her that I thought I had asperger's and she just basically said no you don't have it but I didn't tell her all of this or any of it actually.She said to me you know what a person with aspergers is like. She said I had a 15 year old girl in here talking about sitting at a lunch table with people she didn't know very well and I asked her what that felt like and she said it felt cold. As in the table felt cold. So obviously I don't have any problem like that but I just don't know.

 

[Sabertooth]

You would need some kind of psychological professional to confirm such a diagnosis, but there are online quizzes that can give you some kind of idea whether you are or not. See the thread at http://www.christianforums.com/t7320922/

 

[dayhiker]

I can see how you cam to the conclusion you had AS. I would no say you don't have it. The online quiz is the best way I know to evaluate how many of the symtoms that you have.

I would say learn to be comfortable with who you are and stop looking to others as a standard for who you should be. Study how relationships work. Learn to like other people for who they are and accept them for who they are.. I think that will help you.

 

[RuthD]

Hi. Here is another link about Aspergers: http://www.christianforums.com/t4537673/

 

[Aaliyah]

Okay, I took the quiz and this is what I got.

Your Aspie score: 92 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 116 of 200
You seem to have both Aspie and neurotypical traits


So what does that mean?

If I want to find out for sure, do I need to see a psychiatrist, a psychologist,a counselor or does it matter?

 

[dayhiker]

AS is how the physical brain works. The charactoristics are secondary. Few AS people have been put in the medical machine that maps the activity of ones brain. That is why the list of AS charactoristics been collected.

I doult any AS person has all 200, but I have known people that got up into the 140s. I think you can say you are AS with 92.

But this knowledge isn't for us to expect other to serve us because we have AS. Its a way to know ourself, who we are and why we act the way we do. We then can work and play to our strengths and learn how to get alone before with the NTs. Ya, its a thing we learn because it wouldn't come naturally to us like it does to the NTs.

dayhiker

 

[amberlight]

In the UKk you'd see a diagnostic expert, often a clinical psychologist, but not sure how it works anywhere else in the world. The major autism charities often know where to direct people for a diagnosis, so worth tracking down your nearest one and asking them.

 

[MoeSzyslak]

I doult any AS person has all 200, but I have known people that got up into the 140s. I think you can say you are AS with 92.

I score in the 180s everytime I take the test. I thought my answers might be getting swayed by preconceived notions or stereotypes, so I took it with someone who knows me overseeing it. They corrected me on the hyperactive as a child question and I scored a 192. Oh well....

Aaliyah,
I'm sorry I am not good at evaluating these things via written words. I can visually pick out someone on the spectrum in about 5 minutes. But words can mean different things to different people. I'm more visually orientated. Couple of questions:
1. Why did she say you don't have AS? Just the lunch table example? AS is considered a spectrum. There are all different levels of it. and it reveals itself in different people differently. If thats her only reason, then its not very thorough.
2. Why do you seek a diagnosis? Do you need public assistance or is it for self realization? Both good reasons, just curious.
3. I am told not to ask a women her age, so I won't. But, generally people get better at masking their conditions as they get older. How would you have answered the 'table example' lets say back in sixth grade? (not now as an adult) One of the hardest things about diagnosing a adult, is that they have become good at masking their conditions.

 

[Aaliyah]

I score in the 180s everytime I take the test. I thought my answers might be getting swayed by preconceived notions or stereotypes, so I took it with someone who knows me overseeing it. They corrected me on the hyperactive as a child question and I scored a 192. Oh well....

Aaliyah,
I'm sorry I am not good at evaluating these things via written words. I can visually pick out someone on the spectrum in about 5 minutes. But words can mean different things to different people. I'm more visually orientated. Couple of questions:
1. Why did she say you don't have AS? Just the lunch table example? AS is considered a spectrum. There are all different levels of it. and it reveals itself in different people differently. If thats her only reason, then its not very thorough.
2. Why do you seek a diagnosis? Do you need public assistance or is it for self realization? Both good reasons, just curious.
3. I am told not to ask a women her age, so I won't. But, generally people get better at masking their conditions as they get older. How would you have answered the 'table example' lets say back in sixth grade? (not now as an adult) One of the hardest things about diagnosing a adult, is that they have become good at masking their conditions.

Hey

I'm 21. It says it up at the top by my name...

About my counselor. I assume she said that because, like you, she can tell if someone is AS. She is trained in that basically. I mean I don't really know how much she knows about it but I assume some since she is a psychologist. Anyway, that's just why I thought she said that.

Sometimes I feel like my parents have it and that's why we don't get along. They definitely seem a little out there and weird and it seems like they can never understand why I'm upset about something that they did. They also both seem very selfish and only care about their own feelings. Which I think is kind of a symptom of AS. So if that were true it would explain a lot. But I think that if they have it then there is a good chance that I have it too because it is genetic. Or maybe I've just learned some of their behaviors but i don't really have it. But in my biology class we were learning about fragile x syndrome and how it's passed on. Fragile x syndrome is basically autism. And in my book it said that if a mother has so many repeated copies of a certain gene which causes fragile x, then it usually doubles in her offspring. Which means that a mom could not have autism but she could have some genes for it and then her son or daughter would have it because they multiply or something. Sorry if that's confusing. I'm not even sure if that's right though because everything I've read about autism is that they have no idea how it is passed on or whatever. But in my book they made it pretty clear that fragile x syndrome caused autism. So I don't know.

I don't know sometimes I really think I just live in a house full of crazy people and I'm the only normal one and they make me feel like I'm crazy.

 

[RuthD]

I am praying for you.

 

[carlyle418]

Aaliyah,

I would encourage you to seek a professional diagnosis if you feel strongly that you are on the spectrum. I struggled socially for most of my life and spent literally years studying various aspects of education, learning, and psychology trying to figure out what was wrong with me. I wouldn't say that I wasted that time, as I'm now an educational technologist, but my wife finally insisted that I see a specialist. I now realize that I really needed his help to fully understand it. I would strongly suggest that you seek out a clinical psychologist (or equivalent) with significant experience in the autistic spectrum for the diagnosis.

Counselors, social workers, and even psychiatrists who specialize in this area will be most experienced with children, and as Moe pointed out, adults often learn to hide the traits. Clinical psychologists, on the other hand, usually begin their careers doing research, and one specializing in autism will be knowledgeable in a variety of testing methods. I would also be very wary of anyone (expert or not) who attempts to diagnose you with a few minutes of observation (no offense, Moe). I'll admit to observing people and typing them using psychological models (based on the work of Dr. Kiersey and others), and I can often pick out someone on the spectrum, but that's a tool I use to make social interactions easier for myself. The autistic spectrum is broad, and there are many conditions that can look like autism even though they are unrelated.