4 ms·
I have trait agreeableness in the bottom 1st percentile. I'm also diagnosed with ADHD which is often co-morbid with ASD. I very much refuse to go along with a
by nullsense 6y ago
I have trait agreeableness in the bottom 1st percentile.
I'm also diagnosed with ADHD which is often co-morbid with ASD.
I very much refuse to go along with a looooot of things just for the sake it. Anything steeped in tradition without a whole lot of logic to it gets met with mostly flat rejection. This has steadily increased as I've gotten older.
My mum used to be a special needs teacher and she kind of suspected I might be on the spectrum when I was a teenager. I've met people diagnosed with ASD whom I share a bunch of lived experience in common with. My step brother has a son whose diagnosed with ASD and he sort of indicated I show some signs of it. So, there are hints that maybe I am somewhere possibly the invisible end of the spectrum? Or maybe it's just my personality?
I read through Asperger's The Complete Guide. There are a few puzzle pieces which fit like ding ding ding. But there just aren't enough of them. And I watch things like Love On The Spectrum etc and I have had my share of difficulties perhaps but nowhere near what those people experience.
I've kinda tossed up getting a professional opinion about it multiple times. I just mostly feel like this is me and it's who I enjoy being. Perhaps my 20s were just one big development of coping mechanisms? My social skills just haven't really troubled me until this year. Mostly it's either workmates, long term friends who share my interests, or special interest groups where I have stuff in common with people. This year I had to take my son to a school thing where there were other parents and the only shared context was our children. It was very anxiety inducing and I just felt like I had nothing. My son wanted to stay longer but I panicked and I said we had to go home.
So... At this point I don't really know.
- novok 6y agoWhy not go then. It's good to know for self knowledge alone I would think, especially if you have a tech worker income and health insurance. And if you do, then a bunch of resources and books will be more applicable to you. "I am acting like this because of my ASD" vs. "I am acting like this because I'm not very agreeable" I think is valuable self knowledge alone.
- drtillberg 6y agoIt's a spectrum and you already know you're somewhere on that spectrum or nearby. IMHO, you have all the information a professional could reasonably supply. I tell my own ASD child, it's such a broad spectrum of otherwise loosely-associated characteristics that whatever diagnostic standards are deployed by professionals almost certainly will be reassessed as erroneous in my child's lifetime, which means all authoritative guidance you can receive now on the subject is 'wrong'. ASD is a bucket of 'different'. Those doing the judging can't even be consistent in expressing how ASDers are 'different'. That is all.
- sandspar 6y agoSpectrum diseases like schizophrenia and autism seem ripe for splitting. In particular, I'm holding out hope for improved diagnoses (and treatments) once we learn more about genetics and neuroscience.
- nullsense 6y agoThe opposite happened with ASD. It was Autism and High Functioning Autism and Asperger's and it all got merged into ASD.