To Be Aspie Or Not To Be?

A lady was recently telling me that some people felt that ADHD is on the autism spectrum. That was interesting to me, because although my official diagnosis is severe ADHD, before I got that diagnosis I felt that I had Aspergers Syndrome. I got diagnosed with ADHD when I went in for an Aspergers Syndrome evaluation.

The doctor who tested me thought I couldn't have Aspergers because I had enjoyed playing pretend when I was little and I enjoyed reading fiction and stuff like that, and because I do like being around people. (Some say that people with autism get attached to things, instead of people. I don't really think this is true. Every child with autism that I have ever met has definitely been very attached to his or her family members and close friends! I think that for people with autism, forming attachments can be hard, not because they don't want to be friends with people, but because others look at their unusual mannerisms, communication difficulties, etc, and keep their distance.)

Its also worth noting that, if someone asked me, "DO you like to be around people?" I would say YES because I do want to belong. I like going to the bar with Jimmy and Diana, and I used to love our family parties at Tigerlily's parents' house, but I have a lot of trouble participating. I don't do things like walk around and mingle. I will sit and watch a band play, but I hate to sing or dance along! I will play darts but only if I can play for fun, because all I do is wildly chcuk the dart at the board and hope for the best. I can most often be seen sitting and watching everything. I want to be there to be around people and to feel like I have friends... but I am often left behind or ignored because I am "no fun."

I also know that I do get very attached to things.When I was a kid I would get extremely upset when my mom tried to get rid of my outgrown shoes, clothes, toys, etc, because I just couldn't part with those special things that I loved! And I get very quickly attached to animals. (I don't think of animals as things, but some people would count animals as things, I guess!)

Anyway. So I was bored today and took a few quizzes online regarding Aspergers Syndrome.

On this one I got a score of 34, where anything over 32 would usually mean autism or aspergers, and anything over 34 being "extreme."

And here are my results for this very interesting one:

Your Aspie score: 166 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 42 of 200
You are very likely an Aspie
Your MBTI type: ISFJ

(that one I sort of felt was reading my mind with some of the questions!!!)

Another thing I noticed was that, on the Aspie quizzes, some of the things I got high scores for were things that I also got high scores on when I was evaluated for ADHD. But the aspie quiz included other questions, which I got high scores on, that were not included when I did ADHD evaluations.

So what do you think? I know some people have kids with autism spectrum disorders, and others of you may have ADHD or autism spectrum disorders yourself. DO I qualify as an Aspie?

 

Comments

[Tanya @ Teenautism]

Yeah, those online quizzes are interesting. I've taken a few and have also scored within the Asperger range, but I think it's just because I'm such an introvert!

[Account Deleted]

Wow… That was interesting to me. Children with asperger are isolated because of their poor social skills and narrow interests. With effective treatment, children with Asperger’s can learn to cope with their disabilities.