Are you Aspergian?

[orz]

Possibly the only real aspergers case on the internet amongst an ocean of self-diagnosers: http://www.ulillillia.us/mainindex.shtml

[Susserer]

orz perhaps you'd like to read about the difficulties some people have experienced in getting a proper diagnosis?

http://asdgestalt.com/viewtopic.php?f=3 ... f213215511

[Nordic]

Normal here:

Your Aspie score: 69 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 127 of 200
You are very likely neurotypical

FWIW. I found it interesting how some of the questions can have different answers depending on age. For example, I used to love to jump over things just for the sheer hell of it. When I was younger! I used to be a high-jumper, too, so that's probably a big part of it. But now, at 45, with a bad lower back and questionable knees ..... forget about it.

Also, when I was a kid I liked to trap animals without hurting them, and making live traps. Does that count? Or is that just normal 10 year old boy stuff?

[orz]

orz perhaps you'd like to read about the difficulties some people have experienced in getting a proper diagnosis?

Not really, I was being facetious, and referring to internet trends you're evidently fortunate enough to be unaware of. Really it was just an excuse to link to Ulillillia's astonishing site.

[Username]

.

Terry, I do not seek to make this thread all about the mind control programs, but your mention of occasionally feeling "almost trained not to pay attention" to faces" I think justifies my mentioning that a number of survivors of those programs have that exact problem and it WAS a result of training reinforced with trauma. In their cases. Which I do not automatically suspect in all cases of face-blindness.

Hey There LilyPatToo,
Maybe it isn't fair to complicate this thread with the notion of mind control techniques being suspect in some of the traits that may apply to the aspie profile. I really don't know alot about aspies.

Like you, I have an interest in mind control because, again like you, I feel myself to be a victim of these programs.

Where we differ is the level at which we entered the system. My particular brand of manipulation was aimed at the general population. Perhaps yours was a bit more refined, idk. Maybe it's determined by class? We are both having trouble in the memory dept, so some of the results are the same.

Anyway, maybe it's a good time to start a thread and put our damaged minds together to see what kind of trouble we can get ourselves into. heh
I know we haven't always seen eye to eye in the past, but I honestly do admire your writing and honor your expertise in the field.

I have a severe case of it myself and know how frustrating it makes socializing. I also have a variant on it that automatically stops my eyes from reading name tags--useful if abusers happen to be working in labs--that makes conventions a nightmare for me. And I go to conventions regularly....

As for that niggling feeling of being "flawed"--I'm coming to see that as part of the Human Condition. Most people who are capable of self-examination fall prey to it sooner or later. Hurts, doesn't it? But if it's the price of living "the examined life" then it's one I'm willing to pay....

You know, it does hurt.
I have, after many years of self-examination, accepted (in progress) the flaws. Nonetheless, I would like to someday understand more fully what goes on/how it's done to better protect the children/become a child advocate.

Be Well and Happy New Year,
Terry

ps
I solved the "where to put my arms" dilemma. You put a cigarette in this hand and a cup of coffee in the other hand...Voila!

[chiggerbit]

Say, what about comfort in driving, say in heavy traffic? Is it just me? I've always had a discomfort about freeway driving.

[chiggerbit]

Also, is there any racial preponderance to
Asperger's? I ask because all of the family members who exhibit a trait or two of Aspie characterisitcs in my family are ones who come from the side of the family with some Indian heritage, and my kids have Indian heritage from both sides of their family, and one of them is more Aspie than I am, for sure, which was why I was interested in the subject in the first place.

[mentalgongfu2]

OK, i've been reading this thread and finally decided to take the test:

Your Aspie score: 115 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 107 of 200
You seem to have both Aspie and neurotypical traits

Like most standardized questionnaires, I think the questions are overbroad and may be based on faulty assumptions, but I think it pegged me right at being somewhere in the middle.

[chiggerbit]

....Like most standardized questionnaires, I think the questions are overbroad and may be based on faulty assumptions...

Well, yes, I agree, but for me it reinforced a suspicion that autism is a continuum, neither black nor white, just shades of gray.

[winston smith]

Your Aspie score: 103 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 91 of 200
You seem to have both Aspie and neurotypical traits

[nashvillebrook]

My contact with Aspies is thru parents of Aspie children.

As such, I've thought a lot about parents' traits vis a vis their children and have come to the conclusion that there's a BIG chasm between the Aspie "talents" that parents present and their childrens' full spectrum Aspergers.

This has led me to wonder, is Aspergers an evolutionary leap?

Certainly *some* survival benefit along with some survival challenges for an Asperger child. Aspergers children tend to be very intelligent and have the ability to focus on their obsessional things. The disability is that they also tend to have difficulty focusing on that which isn't obsessional, and they are "emotion blind." Aspie kids have no idea when you're angry or happy. They can't walk into a room and gauge the emotional atmosphere (something I'm really good at) which puts them to a distinct disadvantage in normal (neurotypical) society. I can think of plenty of social situations, however, where this wouldn't put them at a disadvantage -- such as in artistic communities or even some academic settings.

Could we maybe brainstorm a list of questions and commentary that pertain to Aspergers as evolutionary? Such as...

In what way would Aspergers present survival benefits?
What existing natural challenges does Aspergers address?
How might Aspergers benefit society as a whole, as opposed to individuals? And vice versa?

I'll stop there, b/c I don't to contaminate any brainstorming efforts. What say ye?



FWIW, my aspie score is 116 and NT is 92.

[Susserer]

My contact with Aspies is thru parents of Aspie children.

As such, I've thought a lot about parents' traits vis a vis their children and have come to the conclusion that there's a BIG chasm between the Aspie "talents" that parents present and their childrens' full spectrum Aspergers.

Aspergerians can and do "learn" how to do all the NT stuff, it just takes them longer, even into adulthood.

This has led me to wonder, is Aspergers an evolutionary leap?

Aspergers/Autistics brains grow faster and bigger than NT's- 10% bigger. How can that not be evolutionary?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 080815.htm

[nashvillebrook]

Aspergers/Autistics brains grow faster and bigger than NT's- 10% bigger. How can that not be evolutionary?

i did not know that. fascinating.

[Susserer]

Aspergerians/Autistics are resistant to culture- this should be fairly obvious- and this is why:

Everyones brains have mirror neurons. Everyones mirror neurons fire when they perform an action, like grasping. NT's mirror neurons fire when they watch someone else perform an action, even if that someone is only on television. Asperger/Autistics mirror neurons don't fire by watching anyone do anything. This of course must have a huge part in cultural transmission. Imagine the experiential difference between an Aspie watching a sporting event and an NT.

The part I don't understand is the function of Mu brain waves which have an inverse relation to mirror neuronal firing. In other words Mu brain waves are suppressed while performing an action or for NT's while watching someone else perform an action.

Edit: Link and quote added:

In this sense human culture and human brain have co-evolved into obligatory mutual parasites — without either the result would not be a human being.
V.S. Ramachandran
http://edge.org/3rd_culture/ramachandra ... an_p1.html

[annie aronburg]

I've started a thread devoted to Temple Grandin over in the health forum to keep things tidy here in general discussion.

There have been a lot of interesting questions posed here that I've added my study topics. Don't mean to ignore anyone, I'm still getting a handle on the enormous amount of research and opinions.

If you've read this far, you might want to check the health forum from time to time to see if there have been any new discoveries.

Here's a quote from Temple's book Thinking In Pictures:

In the summer of 1978 I swam through the dip vat at the John Wayne Red River feed yard as a stupid publicity stunt. Doing this provided a great boost to my career and got me several speaking engagements. However, coming in contact with the organophosphates had a devastating effect.

The feeling of awe that I had when I thought about my beliefs just disappeared. Organophosphates are known to alter the levels of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the brain and the chemicals also caused me to have vivid and wild dreams. But why they affected my feeling of religious awe is still a mystery to me. It was like taking all the magic away and finding out the real Wizard of Oz is just little old man pushing buttons behind a curtain.

Annie Asperger