Hi all,
Not sure if I have highly functional aspergers, or if I should even care whether I do or do not.
When I was almost eighteen I took a WAIS III test and some dyslexia screening tests, scored 99.9th 99.5th, 99th, 97th 95th and 32nd percentile in the various subsets of WAIS III and "average" and "above average" in the dyslexia screenings. The 32nd percentile subset was to do with visual processing, scanning, matching, copying i.e. has some correlation.
About 10 years later I read a book about ADD out of interest and just thought "wtf that is me!", self diagnosed and then I was properly tested and confirmed.
Lots of social things and a kind of emotional detachment do not fit with ADD and plenty of people have asked me at times if I have aspergers. I dismissed it a long time ago after a very brief read, it appeared not to fit in some key areas (but actually it does):
a) I considered myself very social however I do find it hard to make good friends and I have read and practised a lot to do with reading body language and psychology. This took a lot of conscious effort.
b) I have a great and diverse sense of humour (according to other people too!). Some politically correct idiots who laugh at predictably awful family friendly jokes think my humour is inappropriate, rude, cruel or politically incorrect.
c) I thought I could get on well with people, but in reality I had taught myself to (usually) not care about what strangers and relative strangers think of me. I have trained my mind but I still think too much about what people I like and am getting to know quite well think of me.
There is a lot more I could say but this is getting far too long so:
Took http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php
First one: over thinking every question, taking a long time considering how to objectively decide on my agreement with words like "extra" "harder" "easy" etc.
Your neurodiverse (Aspie) score: 113 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 103 of 200
Second one, a day later, trying to imagine myself between the age of 7 and 18 and answering more impulsively, without over thinking everything.
Your neurodiverse (Aspie) score: 140 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 66 of 200
I think the largest amount of changes come from things that I have learnt, particularly people skills. It may not have changed some fundamental things, but it has changed the answer to a great many questions in that test, especially when questions are phrased in certain ways: some things may still be about as hard, but I now find them more rewarding or interesting so I enjoy them more or I may have developed tactics to cope with other problems so I don't consider them so problematic anymore.
So, what do others think here? Aspie or not? Any opinions welcome!
If anything, if I do have highly functional aspergers, I would assume I would better understand and be better understood by others with highly functional apsergers, so perhaps finding local groups or associations could potentially lead to interesting friendships or something, as for help in any other way, I think I could have done with it when I was younger (at least so my parents and many teachers didn't just think I refused to listen and was disruptive on purpose), but at this point I don't think anything can really help and the ADD is by far the bigger problem for me in my day to day life.
Not sure if I have highly functional aspergers, or if I should even care whether I do or do not.
When I was almost eighteen I took a WAIS III test and some dyslexia screening tests, scored 99.9th 99.5th, 99th, 97th 95th and 32nd percentile in the various subsets of WAIS III and "average" and "above average" in the dyslexia screenings. The 32nd percentile subset was to do with visual processing, scanning, matching, copying i.e. has some correlation.
About 10 years later I read a book about ADD out of interest and just thought "wtf that is me!", self diagnosed and then I was properly tested and confirmed.
Lots of social things and a kind of emotional detachment do not fit with ADD and plenty of people have asked me at times if I have aspergers. I dismissed it a long time ago after a very brief read, it appeared not to fit in some key areas (but actually it does):
a) I considered myself very social however I do find it hard to make good friends and I have read and practised a lot to do with reading body language and psychology. This took a lot of conscious effort.
b) I have a great and diverse sense of humour (according to other people too!). Some politically correct idiots who laugh at predictably awful family friendly jokes think my humour is inappropriate, rude, cruel or politically incorrect.
c) I thought I could get on well with people, but in reality I had taught myself to (usually) not care about what strangers and relative strangers think of me. I have trained my mind but I still think too much about what people I like and am getting to know quite well think of me.
There is a lot more I could say but this is getting far too long so:
Took http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php
First one: over thinking every question, taking a long time considering how to objectively decide on my agreement with words like "extra" "harder" "easy" etc.
Your neurodiverse (Aspie) score: 113 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 103 of 200
Second one, a day later, trying to imagine myself between the age of 7 and 18 and answering more impulsively, without over thinking everything.
Your neurodiverse (Aspie) score: 140 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 66 of 200
I think the largest amount of changes come from things that I have learnt, particularly people skills. It may not have changed some fundamental things, but it has changed the answer to a great many questions in that test, especially when questions are phrased in certain ways: some things may still be about as hard, but I now find them more rewarding or interesting so I enjoy them more or I may have developed tactics to cope with other problems so I don't consider them so problematic anymore.
So, what do others think here? Aspie or not? Any opinions welcome!
If anything, if I do have highly functional aspergers, I would assume I would better understand and be better understood by others with highly functional apsergers, so perhaps finding local groups or associations could potentially lead to interesting friendships or something, as for help in any other way, I think I could have done with it when I was younger (at least so my parents and many teachers didn't just think I refused to listen and was disruptive on purpose), but at this point I don't think anything can really help and the ADD is by far the bigger problem for me in my day to day life.
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