Aspergers, me?

[Silver]

Someone, I cannot recall who, informed me during a thread discussion on another forum that I should have myself checked out for Aspergers.

I still plan on doing that, but first I thought I would check out an online test.

http://aspergerstest.net/aq-test/

I scored in the highest percentile for Aspergers. Therefore, it is something I am going to attempt to get checked out, and I figure why I was not diagnosed when I was younger is due to the fact that my family simply thought I was shy and it was something I would eventually outgrow.

[vorlon13]

I have a cousin with Social Anxiety Disorder.

He doesn't like being around people, IOW. When he was finally dragged kicking and screaming (as an adult) to a mental health professional for it they didn't hesitate to let it be known they thought the family really FUBAR'd things. Funny thing was though, he was taking Ritalin for whatever they prescribe Ritalin for in school and whoever was overseeing that didn't notice his SAD either.

I've been accused of being on the spectrum too, but I can turn it on and off, generally folks who think I'm some kind of autistic are folks I don't want to have anything to do with because they're maroons. IANMTU, when I was laid off at the defense contractor I was surprised how upset the departmental employees I worked with every day were and I was considered one of the 'popular' ones unlike every second I experienced of high school.

I'm not sure how old you are, but awareness of Aspergers over the years has really changed. Might explain quite a bit regarding your parents being unaware or unwilling to acknowledge it.

[Silver]

I'm turning 38 tomorrow.

[vorlon13]

In otter years ?

[vorlon13]

[Silver]

In otter years ?

As far as I know, otters don't differ in years to humans as dogs do.

Though I could be wrong.

[The Industrial Atheist]

You're almost exactly a year and two months older than me. I hope that you can get the answers you want Lutrinae.

[c172]

I lost the link, but I got a 33, which indicates some sort of ASD, including but not limited to autism itself. 

My mother apparently had me tested for autism, but the answer was no. Not sure what kind of test it was, though. I was a little kid. This may have been late '70's. But she has allso indicated that she is frustrated that people nowadays are overdiagnosed with things. I don't quite agree, but I do see misdiagnoses quite a bit.

The thing is, I have spina bifida, a physical disability (see link. It's a quick summation) that can vary wildly from patient to patient. It sometimes includes outright intellectual impairment (what had been known as mental retardation). It often causes mild learning disabilities. My speech was delayed until, I think, three. Even now, I get a bit dysnomic, sometimes stalling when I speak, or rambling during speech or writing. 

I did have a very odd and pronounced fascination with numbers. Not mathematics, per se, but numbers in their own rite. As such, I used to love memorizing area codes in the North American Numbering Plan. Even prefixes in the same code were of interest to me. In San Diego County, for a long time, it looked like 3 or 8 would not be a first digit of a local phone number ever, but up in L.A. sure (as well, up there, 0 or 1 could appear as the second digit, much like every single area code of the day, i.e. (213)702-xxxx).

Nowadays, that all has gotten too hard because those area code and prefix norms have changed, but I did see a story a while ago about the possible day when we have 4-digit area codes in North America. That struck me as kind of wild, but that's progress. 

Socially, I am pretty awkward. However, I have always attributed that to societal neglect due to my disability. So therefore, when everyone else was going to football games and dating and all that, I was noticing number patterns, or cultivating other unusual interests. I'm torn on this. It definitely sounds kind of ASD, but it also looks like the product of my individual surroundings.

[Silver]

I lost the link, but I got a 33,

I had a 37.

Numbers are easy for me to remember.

[AFTT47]

I scored a 36 - right behind you. The result didn't surprise me. I've long suspected I'm an Aspie although I've never been diagnosed. I don't think there is much to be done about it.