Aspergers Syndrome

[GrandizerII]

Yep, here. Psychology major and someone with Asperger's. Let me know what you want to know exactly. Haven't checked the whole thread yet.

Okay...

Obsessions with rules.

Obessions with narrow interests.

Analyzing the hell out of those narrow interests and wanting to know everyhing about them.

Seeing all my favorite music and foods as all good or all bad.

Loving my comfort zones until they change. They change when my obsessions with my 'mental rules' change. Those change either back and forth quickly when I'm anxious or suddenly and dramatically which makes me depressed until I find new rules to comfort me and keep me in my comfort zone.

So I want to know if any of this seems rather Aspie to you?

ETA and P.S. I like you an awful, awful lot you're not irrational at all but I've seen your explanation for your username and the explanation and motivation behind it is very like my own justifications for my own online usernames (in the past... lately my usernames have been given to me by other people... which is kind of neat because it prevents me from changing it over and over when it no longer fits my 'mental rules' and I no longer feel justified).

Oh P.P.S:

I feel like if I deeply know something to be true but I can't explain why it's true I can't allow myself to believe it until I can explain it to myself.... I also then feel compelled to explain it to others to help justify it and to make myself feel more secure. Also because I love debate.

For example, well, this is going to be very abstract but I'm a very abstract person, don't know what else to call it if not an example though:

When it comes to logically sound premises that are sound and intuitively are obviously true to me.... I don't actually allow myself to accept those premises until I can find valid arguments or valid evidence for them. I need validity. Intuition for what is sound and "just makes sense to me", is not enough at all. I won't allow it. I have to scrutinise for that validity and I feel compelled by this.

I have an extremely deep desire to understand myself and others basically, so I have to know WHY something is true not just THAT it is true otherwise I'll be like "nope, can't be true yet... without knowing why I don't truly know it"

If i can't know why something is true my brain quickly finds reasons to see the falsehood in it.

It's an epistemology. Anyone who says they "know" without knowing why or rather... HOW they know, to me, doesn't really know. Knowledge is absolute. And understanding implies knowledge.... to me understanding is knowledge + comprehension of information.

Anyway, yeah, so any of this seem Aspie to you?

Well, speaking from my own personal experience, and not as a professional, they do seem like they may be pointing to something like Asperger's, but it's hard to tell when I don't really know you and I've never had to observe your body language and how you interact with people in social situations.

I can relate to the abstract part. It probably means you're more at ease in your inner world than when you interact with the outer world. But this sounds more like an introvert vs. extravert thingy, rather than Aspie vs. NT (neurotypical). While there may be a strong correlation between introversion and being on the autism spectrum, there are people on the spectrum who are extraverts as well.

The narrow interest part, I can also relate to. But let me ask you this, for more clarity: Do you find yourself rather uninterested in certain social topics , that other people tend to be interested in, to the point that you have almost zero motivation to learn anything about them? And I'm not talking mathematics or rocket science or anything of the sort, but rather casual topics that are meant to be common topics for discussion in social groups. For example, maybe cooking, or house prices, or whatever.

What about how you behave socially? Have people made comments about how awkward you tend to be socially (e.g., lack of eye contact, lack of social smile, standing up/sitting down in an abnormal manner, selective muteness, etc.)?

I mean, maybe you have a comorbidity of a couple of conditions, one of which is Asperger's, or maybe it's just OC. Hard to tell online. Hopefully, your psychiatrist/psychologist will inform you of the needed results soon. But happy to continue this exchange with you if you want.

EDIT: I like you too, Alasdair. You're a really sweet guy.