I know the feeling of being/feeling different. Sometimes what I say or post can be off the wall, but not in a bad way. Just off topic or out in left field, LOL. Iām a mellow person with āa beautiful mindā (referring to the movie).
Soā¦. Iād like to be sensitive, and please feel free to call me out if Iām not.
A cursory google search brought back 1-2% of people on the autism spectrum and .05-.02 with aspergers, yet the poll is saying the prevalence here is somewhere between 23-43%.
Without making anyone who identifies as Neuro-diverse uncomfortable, is it worth asking if this hobby draws a particular group? Is this a known thing that Iām just unaware of?
I'm definitely diagnosed. ADHD along with it. Adderall worked until I started taking all 3 in the A. M. instead of spacing them out. Boom! Addict. No Adderall for you.
You're not alone-I'm pretty much the same. "Modernizing" the flashlight fleet is a case in point. Thank God I can do paperless on credit cards..
Energy is always an issue. Wife: What did you do all say?! Me: silence. (drinking enough coffee to kill a horse to try to get a kick start, that's what!)
Oh, and about wives.. wait'll she gets menopausal. That's when I started doing my own thing. I can't deal with the nagging over bullshit stuff any more.
āā¦. hear more about Aspergerās and autismā¦ā
well, i answered no, only because i have met/known people with both.
this is what i know only through my experiences.
1. Autism. of course, it is referred to as a āspectrumā.
the ones i know require constant supervision.
as in, ādanger to themselves and othersā.
2. Aspergerās. sort of a mid-range diagnosis,
but that classification is fading away.
some people think of the movie Rain Man
as a fictional representation of symptoms.
personally, Aspergerās means awkward
and/or VERY inappropriate public behavior,
which appears to come-and-go suddenly.
3. High-Functioning Autism. in my opinion,
that depends on your definitions of High and
Functioning. the ones who i came to know
were fine in public as long as distractions
were minimized. i would not ride in a car
with them driving, even though two had
driverās licenses in the recent past.
in all 3, repetition and resistance to change
are evident. i can vouch that these two symptoms
are definitely on a sliding scale or āspectrumā
which can range from silence to violence.
Thereās nothing fun about ASDās and seeing a bunch of random people uneducated on the topic writing stuf like āself diagnosedā is just sad. Not being a social person doesnāt make you āaspergerā, stop it.
I see three fallacies in your post, nobody said that ASD was fun, from the data available in this thread you canāt infer that self diagnosed people are uneducated on the topic, and nobody said that having social anxiety means you have Asperger, to have Asperger you have to go to the grocery store as far as i know.
So I am being rude for saying ASDās are no laughing matter and that they CAN NOT be self diagnosed but people making fun of mental disorders on first page are OK?
Any and every disorder can only be diagnosed by trained professionals after testing, not by internet polls and google. That is the fact and personal opinions and feelings donāt change that.
My wife is one of those trained professionals that work with mental disorders every day and even she is reluctant to diagnose someone without checking twice and making sure her colleagus agree and all this time she couldāve just google the simptoms? I think not.
@Mraz: This topic isnāt the main concern, itās a matter of being polite and not arguing. Iām not condoning the posts earlier in this thread either, but those were from a long time ago and never came to my attention, so please focus on your own posts. And please avoid this thread from now on.
Mraz, I donāt like the phrase āself-diagnosedā but I think you are making some unfair generalisations. I suspect many people diagnosed with ASD as an adult essentially āself-diagnoseā before going through the formal process.
I answered āI donāt knowā to the poll. I have a child diagnosed with ASD and as we went through the process I realised that I share pretty much all the traits that led to their diagnosis, although possibly to a lesser degree (it is a spectrum after all). There are a few other factors that I wonāt go into (just to keep this post shorter) but I think itās not uncommon for a parent to be diagnosed with ASD after their child is.
I do feel that identifying as a āself diagnosedā autistic is potentially disrespectful to those who have a definite diagnosis. However, considering my life in the context of ASD has helped me make sense some things in my past and better manage some current issues.
I think itās possible that I could be diagnosed but perhaps I would be below the threshold. Either way, applying strategies for understanding and managing ASD to myself has been beneficial. At this stage of my life I donāt think having a diagnosis would be of much benefit.
While I wouldnāt encourage āself-diagnosisā, I would encourage anyone who thinks they might have some of the traits of ASD to look into it. You may benefit from the the understanding even without a a diagnosis.
I think the above applies to some other conditions like ADHD too.