Theory about "us"

[Brian the brain]

Indulge me and watch the next vid:
edit:Oops...
Here it is:



Did you answer yes to a lot of the questions?
Then read on.If not...this isn't very interesting.

Recently my wife and I have been seeking help for our son.
He's a bright kid but can have some very strange reactions sometimes..


Anyway...long story short.
I came across the discription of the Asperger Syndrome and have concluded that not just me, but also my brother ( more intensely) and probably my son fit that bill.
Everything fits.Including the narrow but intense interest for technical...well anything.
That and the social clumbsyness...and grammatical jokes...they keep coming..
I have discussed the issue with everyone around me and the symptoms go back to my very early childhood.


Usually somebody with the syndrome is a mix of the types explained in this vid:


This brings the discussion back to spudfiles.
A forum like this is likely to be appealing to " Aspies".
I could think of a few members that would surprise me if they weren't.

I'm not trying to offend anyone, but I immediately thought about Ragnarok when they discribed the Einstein type.
If I'm wrong Rag, please let me know.

I have contacted a few other people (including SF members) and in those cases my hunch was correct.


Google "Aperger Syndrome" if this appeals to you so you might understand yourself a little better.
It might make life easier.


( oh and I don;t care if this post comes across as weird..that's an Aspergers trademark, some call it Wrong Planet Syndrome)

[Necrosis]

I'm from mars obviously.
Either that or the netherlands I cannot seem to recall.
Wait what?

[Brian the brain]

Your signature explains it well.

You my friend, are an Aspie.

[Gun Freak]

Hehe strangely, the first 9 Q's were yes for me. The last one was not so much. Interesting post, I will be reading into it. Thanks.

[SpudBlaster15]

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[Brian the brain]

As I said.
This place ia like an Aspergers magnet.

It took a couple of minutes to find a couple..while less than 5 members where online during this time.


Although I got 8 out of 10.
The remaining two questions are " conditional"
Or rather the answer depends on the situation or precise defenition.

Most can work around these typical issues by using their intelligence.
For instance, I have learned not to interrupt conversations ( fails sometimes) and have accepted the fact that people don;t like to talk about what I like...and I can even sometimes ask them questions like, how are the kids.
I genuinly am not interested in the answer however.
I wish them and their kids the best,..but
I don;t want to hearthem talk about it.
I live in a small town but I know only two people here, by name that is.
I lived here for a couple of years now.
I 'd start every sentence with " I" if I could...

You get the picture.
Aspergers means self centered, but not egotistic!
Hence the effort to possibly help others with this thread.

hope it helps.
Yours truely,
I

[MrCrowley]

I could honestly answer 'yes' to maybe 3 or 4 of them. I would be wary of using that video for giving anything more than a rough idea of certain traits of Asperger Syndrome. Our answers to the questions are probably inconsistent with the true scientific requirements to answer one of those questions with 'yes'. While we may think we are applicable, professionals may believe that we hardly qualify and a more serious condition of say, not being able to generate small talk or make friends, is required than what we think.

I guess if you answered 'yes' honestly to all those questions, you might want to be checked but I know that psychologists don't like to diagnose people with just a few set questions. Many psychological disorders/syndromes aren't always consistant person to person and more indepth analysis needs to be carried out. I'm sure a psychologist could diagnose someone with Aspergers without knowing how many friends they have or whether they're good at making friends. If you haven't already realised you're extremely socially awkward and you look around to realise you don't have many, if any, friends, you probably only have an acute condition anyway.

Though on the other hand I know one person who would definitely qualify, if he hasn't already been diagnosed, and he personally sees no problem in not feeling attracted to either girls or boys, not having many friends and caring about his social life. To him, it seems irrelvant and not important, while i'm sure he knows it's not normal he probably doesn't care and thinks it is irrelvant to his way of life. I would be surprised if he didn't think he had some form of Aspergers.

edit:

Goddamnit, I wrote a long edited reply but accidently clicked on the wrong tab and lost most of it. In short, I basically said that most of the questions are relevant to most people anyway.

Most people don't give a crap about small details in other people's lives. Small talk is basically pretending like you give a toss about someone else. You're just making conversation to fill the time. What person doesn't have an interest in something? Whether it is clothes, fashion, photography, cars, guns, boats or S&M. How do you define "unusually strong"? I don't know a single person without a particular interest they focus on. 'I do certain things in a very inflexible, repetitive way', doesn't everyone? It's called habit and routine. 'I find it hard to workout what other people are thinking and feeling', heard of the movie 'What Women Want'? I'm sure every guy and every girl feels that about the opposite sex in one way or another. 'I am good at picking up details and facts', seems a bit subjective to me. How do you define your skill at recognising details and facts?

I just think those lines of questions are a bit subjective to what you think about yourself.

[Selador]

Absolutely agreed with MrCrowley, here.

I answered yes to all the questions. A bit less emphatic on two of them. But yes on all, nonetheless.

But all that proved to me was that my own perception of myself meets 'the guidelines'.

And I am fully aware of the fact that my own perception has no bearing on reality. LOL

[saefroch]

I got an 8/10 and am 99% certain I do not have Asbergers. I agree with MrCrowley, a lot of the questions do relate to specific aspects of the syndrome, but are all the same, general.

Oxbreath: Your perception IS reality, for reality does not exist without an observer to perceive it. Whether or not it's close to mine is a different matter.

[Insomniac]

I can't say I'm particularly educated on the topic of Asbergers, however I get the feeling that there is no hard-and-fast cut-off on what qulifies and what doesn't... As Crowley said, there are questions there that he could answer yes to, but this may just be a trait of his personality... it's when these traits are pronounced to the degree that they start to intefere with 'normal' life that it can be called a syndrome...

I could answer yes to a fair few of those questions, but I highly doubt I have Asbergers. I may have a few personality traits in common with the syndrome, but that's just my personality and who I am... I can't say any of these traits are pronounced to the point where it makes me any less normal than the next person.

I do suspect my dad may have a mild case of it though, so it may be more of a nurture vs nature sort of thing when it comes to my personality... Luckily I seem to have inherited the good parts of both my mum and dad's personalities... I have an interest in science, and a technical mind similar to dad's, but I don't worry or stress over stupid things to nearly the degree he does. I enjoy socialising a hell of a lot more than he does as well, even though I'm still awful at small talk .

[Ragnarok]

I don't make much secret of the fact I have Asperger Syndrome.

To expand on what MrCrowley said, I will add, that unlike a lot of people who say they have it, my diagnosis was performed by trained psychologists.

Self diagnosis is very unreliable, as people tend to say "yes" to questions when the answer is more of a "maybe" and get the idea that this describes them better than it really does. Even doctors who are not properly trained frequently overdiagnose it.

And as MrCrowley said, many of those questions weren't even in my diagnosis.
Don't use that as any more as a "possible". Feel free to get yourself properly diagnosed if you think you may have Aspergers, but don't just assume you do.

~~~~~

One thing - I never talk about myself as an "Autie" or "Aspie".
I think it feels too much like simplifying myself down to an archetype/stereotype. I prefer to say I "have Aspergers".
Think about it like the difference between describing someone as a "cancer patient" and "having cancer".

[Selador]

You know the old saying about something being in the eye of the beholder.

Well, it occurs to me that if 'the beholder' were someone that liked you, they might decide that you had asperger's.

But if they didn't like you, and you were showing the very same 'signs'... They might simply call you narccissistic.

[Gaderelguitarist]

I genuinly am not interested in the answer however.
I wish them and their kids the best,..but
I don;t want to hearthem talk about it.

I know I don't have asperger's syndrome, but I too suffer from not wanting to hear people talk about their lives.

[wngovr]

Personally I think they've blown this mental syndrome thing way out of proportion nowa days.

Is it a "cool" thing? My daughter points out kids she knows at school and with almost every childs name there is a syndrome that goes with it.
Thats kim, shes ADHD. theres ken he's OCD.

It is certainly big money for the doctors and pharmacutical companies.

Maybe its just a way to get legal drugs.

Sorry little johnny slashed your tires Mr. Oldfeild, he's got such and such syndrome and he cant help it. We'll up his dosage and everything will be alright.

Raising a child on mind altering drugs CAN'T be a good thing.
Be very careful what you let them put into your childs mind.

Two people I trust the least,
doctors and lawyers.
They both make ALLOT of money from other peoples misery.

Just a few thoughts. I hope I didn't make anyone upset.

[Insomniac]

I agree to an extent, but it's obvious that severe mental illness exists... is it so unlikely to accept that less severe forms of the same syndrome can be quite common? Though one has to be careful not to let mental sydromes become an excuse for behaviours that the individual is still in control of.

The problem is that the distinction between a healthy and dysfunctional mind is not white and black, rather it's about 23 billion shades of grey.