Possibly Having Aspergers

[Daggie]

Hello people of AC.
I was recently seeking diagnosis for what I assumed to be a personality disorder/mental health issues with a specialist personality disorder team and I had my review meeting two days ago where they said that I don't have BPD which is what I thought I originally had but instead they believe that I may have aspergers (60-70% sure as they aren't aspergers/asd specialists). This isn't entirely a new idea for me as I felt like there was something wrong for most of my life and would research different things that could explain that difference, as well as being terrible at socialising as a kid. I'd always want to play as one or two things and that was it, I didn't understand other kids and they hated me. I spent all my time reading and not talking to other kids. I wanted comfortable clothes and shoes, I didn't and still don't care about the way they look. I had some points where I'd go non-verbal due to distress/overloading I think.
The thing that really made me think I didn't have it is that I am pretty decent (or so I thought) at socialising. I hate being alone so I try and get people to be around me if I need to go out or do anything. At the same time I've read that women with asd/aspergers tend to be better at socialising, although I'm not sure I'm a woman I identify with the described symptoms of women with it. I'm just trying to figure out everything which is really difficult at the moment and I'm getting a letter of 'recommendation' from the team I was seeing to my gp about it. I don't even really know if I have a question in all this text sorry

 

[paloftoon]

You can try to take a test or a few tests online for your own curiosity. While those tests are not official, it might give you an idea of what kind of things people look for to help determine a proper diagnosis. Many others know the links better than I do on here.

It is worth looking around for asperger/autism groups in your area and letting people know you are currently self-diagnosed or such and looking for more information and that you want to meet more people possibly like yourself.

 

[ksheehan88]

Welcome

 

[Southern Discomfort]

Yes, I don't have too much of a problem socialising in the broad scheme of things. As long as a person is also giving and taking in a conversation I shouldn't have too much of a problem. But I do lack a bit of imagination in how to start conversations however. I'm not very literal outside of being told instructions where I don't interpret steps that aren't being told to me. For example, I was on a driving lesson a few weeks ago, my instructor told me I need to put the windscreen wipers on but she didn't tell me I should wait until I'm on a straight piece of road to do it instead of on a bend, so I just tried to turn them on there and then. This happened twice. And I'm pretty good at knowing what is appropriate and what isn't - most of the time.

Despite professional and mother alike are telling me that I have Asperger's, I score quite low on the Autism Quotient.

While those tests are not official

You probably didn't mean to word it like this, but the AS, SQ and FQ is as official as it gets, coming from Cambridge University and the Autism Research Centre.

 

[Daggie]

I totally get not being able to follow verbal instructions if they aren't 100% explicit. I have to constantly ask, reconfirm or just simply don't get it if people aren't really clear. Same with if someone asks me to pick them up something from the shop, I force them to specify what because I'll break down or panic