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Yikes!I want to stress this. An online test is NOT a diagnosis! Please, go see a doctor and get them to set you up with someone that 'can' make a proper diagnosis.It was strange..I was talking to my AS friend yesterday about this and they pointed out that a lot of similarities exist between this and a few other conditions (one of which I was officially diagnosed with).You made me second guess myself but the best we could come up with was that the one thing I do have is soo severe that it can flip and ill get AS tendencies that are situational--including be overly sensitive to sound (ill hear things that aren't there) or smell..or wigging out because I see dirt or dust.You also made me think about my own past. And yes, there are key triggers there...excelling at an early age (I was doing long division before grade 1) but stalling after that. Not caring. Suddenly caring once I hit highschool.It fits, right? Not soo much--there were other factors im not getting into that made that stall happen. It could have been prevented but it wasn't...mostly due to a shy personality and a lack of caring on the schoolboards end.A lot of things do cross over. I haven't listed what I have but theres a good chance you can probably figure it out.Please. DO NOT think youve confirmed you have something based off of an online test. Those things are not accurate..you need an actual person to talk to you to determine a result.
A few points were made which I'd like to respond to...Firstly, I plan on trying to get a professional diagnosis and have no intentions of trying to self-diagnose. I am aware of the fact that a person may have a few traits of something, but may not actually have the thing itself...I would like a diagnosis as I think it will help me.Thirdly, everyone is different and for some, 'labels' are a good and liberating thing, whereas for others, they are emphatically not. I totally get that, and respect it, but for *me* a diagnosis (label) would seem like a positive and helpful thing.
We had a very long discussion about this in the WYP board a while ago, and we did come to a consensus that there is a large number of us in the collecting community who are also on the autism spectrum. I do want to note, however, that it is not technically correct anymore to use the term "Asperger's syndrome" and many people who were diagnosed with Asperger's as children have been re-diagnosed later in life as being on the autism spectrum. Some people can be offended by being labeled as "Asperger's" because of the controversial history that the diagnosis has had (not to mention the controversy surrounding the man it was named after).
Perhaps try an online test and bring the results to your GP is you are concerned. I just touched on a couple items that have made people ask about me who have known me well. Also speak to your parents, perhaps they have information you do not remember to bring to your doctor that would be of interest.
I wasn't able to get into college for money reasons and got into computers on a high school education and that served me pretty well for a decade or two and then I had some difficulties with some powerful bullies with friends in the local government of a town where I bought a house, who did things like send a swat team to arrest me instead of an ambulance when I called 911 with a detaching retina needing emergency surgery, and held me without treatment overnight and now I have partial blindness...the good part in the center (of my one really good eye) that used to be 20/10 is now zero except for a thin crescent of vision at 20/200 so it is very stressful to read and my brain substitutes things into the space I can't see through so I can't do the sort of high-level data analysis that made me a good network engineer, and I can't study textbooks faster than 5 pages per hour, and I can't scan at all. Seems I hadn't learned how to avoid angering bullies, or let's be honest, even tried to avoid angering bullies.
It's Aspie I have a problem with because I hate how that word sounds which is another trait; hating how certain words sound.
Again, it's text heavy so I haven't fully read or found the post in question I'm mainly replying to, but I actually am a person who likely would have been diagnosed Aspergers when it was a thing, and am super uncomfy with that terminology. Also, I'm totally pro self diagnosis I'm not talking about taking one online test here of course. There's lots of resources online that are more accurate than what the doctor's use and the autistic activist community as a whole is pro self diagnosis for a number of reasons I won't go into here to stay on topic.
I must apologise. I had absolutely no idea that my post would elicit such strong feelings among so many here on the Arena. With hindsight, I suppose that was obvious, but that really wasn't my intention! I'm glad everyone is talking about it, I really am and I think that's great, I just really had no idea it would stir up so much!I really did just want to know if people generally thought there may be a connection between AS and collecting ponies because something I read mentioned that toy collecting and categorising is common in AS children. I just wondered if it continued to be common amongst AS adults and given that we are all adults on here, I thought I'd ask the question In spite of the thread turning out to be mostly about diagnosis and it having wandered slightly OT, I want to thank everyone for their posts. Everyone has been incredibly honest, open and incredibly kind and it makes me happy to be a part of this lovely, supportive community. Thank you all for your heartfelt advice - I know it all comes from a good place and is very well-intentioned. I will spend some time going back over the thread and re-reading it when I have more time as there is a wealth of information from people who are far further along the path in this area than me and I will keep you posted on my progress.Many of us will have faced lots of difficulties in various aspects of our lives due to having some of the traits associated with AS. For me, it seems to be chronic fatigue, being unable to fit in with my peer group, having chronic stress and anxiety and being overly emotional (along with lots of other things!). Many of you have shared your specific difficulties and talked about how hard it was to get a diagnosis (or whether you even wanted one!) and what it meant to you once you had it......you have also touched on the many, many positive traits of the "syndrome" (not sure what to call it now, lol!) and to my mind, those wonderful attributes, many and varied as they may be between individuals, vastly outweigh any of the negatives. Again, thank you so much for sharing all of your stories - it's given me a hugely greater insight into AS and a positive starting point for what could be a lengthy and difficult process ahead. Knowing how many of you are out there, and specifically here, on this forum, and that you all share a wonderful passion for ponies, makes it all seem so much easier