Thanks for starting this thread! I’m looking forward to learning more!
4 Likes
That’s where I’m different. It’s both, and I can’t deal with it. If someone says my name quietly on the other side of the room with a few conversations going on between us, I hear it. I often just glaze over in this kind of situation and you may need to shake me to get me to respond, which is probably a kind of shutdown, I guess.
Incidentally, this is one possible explanation for certain stimming behaviours - you’re basically shutting down one sense to let yourself take in the others, or to control the input. I can listen to a lecture and doodle, and I’ll remember quite a bit. If I’m writing notes, not so much.
3 Likes
I couldn’t decide if the questions were leading or vague.
I was really expecting to score much higher on the neuro-diverse end.
5 Likes
Since everyone else seems to be posting these…
4 Likes
The confound here is that those with an ADHD diagnosis often report the exact same thing. Ditto for increased sensitivity to sound and light. There are several overlaps in phenomenological criteria for ASD and ADHD, which explains not only their comorbidity rate but also the importance of having a licensed professional assess anyone suspected of meeting criteria for diagnosis.
4 Likes
Aw, I have fond memories of getting mashed into a wad of 1500 people, dancing six hour straight, going home and coming down with that crud you get when you’ve licked a lot of strangers elbows.
1 Like
ADHD children tend to get tag sensitivity as well.
When I was a little kid I ruined a lot of shirts and underpants trying to tear off/dig out the demonic itchy thing that won’t stop touching me.
4 Likes
Your neurodiverse (Aspie) score: 77 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 112 of 200
You seem to have both neurodiverse and neurotypical traits
I know I’m a problem case, I have never been able to get a diagnosis other than “We know something is wrong, but we don’t know what it is.” I wouldn’t have said my neurotypical communication was that high either.
My PTSD and depression may also be affecting the results, with things like how I used to enjoy crowded social spaces but I have panic attacks in the same situation now.
7 Likes
Hmm, interesting; I did the same thing. I also drove my parents nuts because I refused to wear socks that had a seam running across the toes – the ridge of the seam would irritate me all day. Between that stuff, my general weirdness/dorkiness as a kid, antisocial nature, and “gifted and talented” status, I probably would have been diagnosed as ADHD as a kid, but as this was the late 70s/early 80s, that wasn’t really a thing yet.
5 Likes
Yup, ditto on the socks.
Also, I still can’t wear long sleeved shirts with any kind of seam that runs “ventrally” on the cuffs. I’m also still picky about tshirt collars, but the tagless revolution has been a real relief.
2 Likes
I remember as a kid that I couldn’t wear anything with tags (and yes, that toe seam in socks!) and for some reason I absolutely could not bear undershirts.
But that went away a long time ago.
3 Likes
I’d be really interested to know how many of you who self-identify as autistic have been formally diagnosed by a neurologist and/or psychologist/psychiatrist. There seems to be a subset of autistics (and particularly Aspergers) who have only been informally documented.
I ask because I had originally intended to do my PhD thesis on exactly that subject, but I was told there I wouldn’t be able to do the level of research required to reach a conclusion. But I still suspect the generally accepted counts (currently 1 in 68 people are believed to be on the spectrum) may be artificially low because of the difficulty and expense of getting a formal diagnosis.
(For those who might be interested, I ended up with “Techniques for Reducing Situational and Social Aggression in Low- to Moderate-Functioning Autistics.” Which sounds rather detailed, but covers a lot of ground; I’m currently trying to get it published.)
8 Likes
Yeah, me too. I’m not on the spectrum at all, but I can’t stand tags on my clothes, tickling me all the time. [shudder] I clip them right out. I also hate logos on my clothes and will deliberately buy things that don’t have them or have removable logos. There was a William Gibson story about someone like that, and oh my! did I identify with that character.
5 Likes
Cayce Pollard, Pattern Recognition.
5 Likes
It’s interesting how many symptoms you can have without being diagnosed or considered to have anything diagnosable. I did know a couple of boys with Aspergers when I was young, but I didn’t make the connection (although I had a number of the same behaviours). One older boy would have pretty violent meltdowns that were clearly involuntary; we would all leave the room and the adults would make sure that he was safe. I was considered to be rebellious or throwing a tantrum, because they were a lot milder and seemed more controlled (even though they were out of character). I don’t think my interests were that stereotypically autistic either - the different profile of female autistics fits me much better than the one of someone who’s obsessed with numbers and uninterested in others. I was more bookish and tended to spend more time with adults than other children, while my older brother (who is about equal NT and ND) was the one who would create statistics for everything, collect stamps, isolate himself from others etc.
3 Likes
If you’re an adult, have been living independently since age 18, and come across descriptions of autism that relate to your own difficulties, you’re likely not to find too many benefits to getting a formal evaluation, and entirely too many downsides.
Ever since the diagnostic criteria stopped distinguishing Asperger’s syndrome form autism, I can’t read threads like this one and not be concerned that my Asperger’s-dxed friends (I have more of those than the average person, as I am a resident of the Left Bank of the Charles River) are at risk of losing their legal autonomy one day.
7 Likes
I worry about kids being over-diagnosed these days, however. A friend of mine came to me recently, very upset, and told me that her 7 year old (who I’ve known since he was born) was diagnosed as autistic, ADD, and ADHD, and a whole host of medication was suggested for him. The reasoning? He often spoke up in class when things excited him, was hard to calm down, was exceptionally sensitive to criticism, and was far more creative than his peers. When I was his age, those weren’t seen as handicaps.
12 Likes
Your neurodiverse (Aspie) score: 54 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 171 of 200
You are very likely neurotypical
The results would have been different when I was a kid. From babyhood up until I was four or five, I’d rock back and forth. (I used to do it on hands and knees, banging my head against the headboard of my crib. And I drove my sister nuts doing it in the car, until sometime before kindergarten the urge just went away.) And my hearing was quite sensitive when I was young; an excess of loud rock-n-roll seems to have cured that. And I used to be quite sensitive to tags, though they bother me less now.
Weird. Growing older has built up a number of calluses over previous sensitivities.
3 Likes
As I said; only enjoyable with chemical enhancements! Don’t go to a rave straight! OMG is that ever a mistake! LOL
3 Likes
I think there has to be a balance - I’m pretty high functioning, but that’s partly because I have set up systems around me that turned out to be deal with the issues pretty well. I didn’t know what the problem was and why I kept coming up against invisible walls though. Big parts of life made very little sense to me. I certainly don’t consider myself to be disabled at all, but it’s kind a mix of blind luck, privilege and a caring family that allows me to do what I can. It’s a huge relief for your life actually to make sense after beating yourself up for failing without understanding why.
But yes, overdiagnosis and overprescription are a problem, and a number of techniques to deal with these issues are not helpful even if you do have legitimate disabilities. ABA is one that seems to be more harmful than helpful - I’m glad I wasn’t diagnosed earlier if this is what I would have had to face rather than people actually listening to me:
3 Likes
