Asperger's Diagnosis

[SherlockHolmes]

OK,
Here's my story:-
A long time back, I was experiencing serious difficulties in life because of having various health-problems(physical and mental) due to an allergy, which resulted in all sorts of problems. I then read up on this Aspergers' Syndrome, years ago, and thought, at first, that I might have it. But, after looking at the online info on it in more detail, I realised that almost all of the very vague pieces of info re AS symptoms could just as easily be applied to a standard nerd without a trace of Aspergers' in him - I found it rather difficult to believe that all socially-inept males were Aspies etc.. When I did some further research, I also came across many other common AS symptoms such as prosopagnosia(not recognising faces) etc. which I most definitely did not have - so I realised that it was extremely unlikely, indeed, that I had AS.

My problem is this:- I've long since recovered from my health problems due to changing to a more healthy allergen-free diet, but am still undeniably a nerd in terms of social skills. The trouble is that I foolishly mentioned the possibility of having AS to my family, at that time, and they are still convinced that I have it, partly because they haven't done much reading on this issue. For various financially-related reasons, I need to convince them of the opposite, and also because I'm fully aware I don't have it. So, my question is, what specific list of symptoms do all(or typically 95%+) Asperger's Syndrome people have, which a non-Asperger's nerd would never have?

[SherlockHolmes]

I should add that I did take the test and got 121 out of 200 and 78 out of whatever. I consider the test misleading, though, as , again, many results could also be applied to non-AS socially-awkward people(eg:- some non-AS people fidget quite a bit. Plus, given the test's limited scope re answering, I felt obliged to post a more extreme response than otherwise - I'll see what score I would get if I played ultra-safe and was more cautious re answering.

[SherlockHolmes]

Well, when I was being cautious, I got the following results:-

Your Aspie score: 82 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 118 of 200
You are very likely neurotypical


Anyway, back to my previous question:- are there any symptoms typical of 95%+ or 100% of Aspies which no non-Aspie has?

[Gareth Roberts]

Interesting thoughts there... I'll post back after I've had a brain wave... :-)

[Carey2]

SherlockHolmes Wrote:Well, when I was being cautious, I got the following results:-

Your Aspie score: 82 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 118 of 200
You are very likely neurotypical


Anyway, back to my previous question:- are there any symptoms typical of 95%+ or 100% of Aspies which no non-Aspie has?

Hmmm, interesting indeed.

I think you may have answered yourself here with "when I was being cautious".

I think most (certainly up to young adult) Aspie's would complete the test giving the first applicable answer to each question.

You have gone back after some thought, re- read the questions and altered your responses to gain a different outcome.

A list would be very hard to produce , most of the population have some of the ASD traits to some degree........ perhaps a better question is " what is normal/neurotypical? "

Also the "list" of ASD traits cannot be relied upon as a singular diagnostic tool. You mention "prosopagnosia (not recognising faces)" for example, this is not presented in all Asperger cases, I know many people with Asperger's Syndrome ,my son included, that have quite the opposite ability and can remember people from one quick meeting that occurred even years previously, one young man remembered a doctor he first saw when he was only 3 years old, when they met again 8 years later, he knew the doctors name ,where and why he had first met him.

The same is true of all the other signs and traits, they will be present to different degrees in every autistic person you meet, people on the spectrum are highly individual and do not conform to some strict menu or list which is an impression many have gained from some of the reading material available.

[SherlockHolmes]

From what I've read, Asperger's Syndrome used to refer to a much smaller range of people with more severe traits such as prosopagnosia. It seems that the diagnosis conditions have been widened considerably over the years, until people with more minor characteristics were covered by that AS diagnosis as well. That likely results in the confusion.

As for the test, I think it would have been better to have had 0-5 points, rather than just the 3.

All in all, I'm pretty much convinced I don't have Asperger's - it isn't only the lack of prosopagnosia, but the total lack of any of the other similiar major conditions that Aspies mention having in passing. I would expect to have at least one such.