Do you think you are mildly autistic?

[spittledip]

Originally posted by: Polish3d
All I know is that my penis is huge

Well now, that's all that really matters, isn't it?

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: moshquerade
i was just reading an article that said Aspergers and the IT field go pretty hand in hand, but often it is overlooked or undiagnosed.

This explains a lot of the methodologies I encounter in a lot of software.
It also makes me wonder why I seem so adept at working with really quirky software.


I know when I was in elementary school, I would usually prefer to interact with the teachers because they weren't so darned, well, childish. Too often when talking to others my age, I'd just lose them because they didn't have a clue what I was talking about, either from the subject matter or from the vocabulary.
Another interesting tidbit: in 4th grade, I was given the equivalent of an A in planetary science because I knew far more about the subject than the teacher. By then, I had memorized the diameters, # of known moons, distance from the sun, orbital periods, and numerous other facts about the 9 classic planets.

Other little personality "quirks," if you want to call them that, have made me long wonder about Apsergers or something similar. My parents seemed of the mindset, "he'll grow out of it," or something along those lines. There never was anything "wrong with me" at all, ever. I always got the vibe that they didn't want anything to be wrong, so that's what the reality became. I didn't want it as an excuse, I wanted it as an explanation, a classification, something to make things feel orderly.

School was hell because unwritten social rules didn't make a damn bit of sense to me. I didn't abide by "the rules," I followed what seemed pragmatic in my mind, which apparently would always come off as a bit odd. I also wasn't really introduced to sarcasm until high school. Seriously. I can use it now, but I suck at picking it up when someone else uses it; I tend to take people's words at face value. Asking for clarification of acceptable rules only invited ridicule, so I took the next available option: no interaction; invisibility.

And so on, so forth, etc. The rest has all been typed before, somewhere in the archives.


I of course never did any behavioral therapy or anything of the sort. I was just given the label "shy." I did my own behavioral modifications. Maybe they're not ideal, but they seem to be enough to make me "socially acceptable." But when I was living with roommates, I think it became apparent just how much restraint I exercise. Living with other people like that meant the façade was on 24/7, and it got to be draining and stressful. Living alone has been one of the most pleasant experiences in my life. I do still keep a sort of mental monitor in place, as I do know that people who live alone may tend to develop odd personality abnormalities, and I don't want anything to make things more difficult. Kind of like the SMART thing for hard drives, except hopefully mine works better.

 

[WT]

276 toothpicks .. definitely 276 toothpicks.

 

[Fenixgoon]

i'm sure there's something wrong with me, just not wrong enough to get anybody guessing

 

[Cuda1447]

Originally posted by: spittledip

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: spittledip

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: spittledip

Originally posted by: moshquerade
i was just reading an article that said Aspergers and the IT field go pretty hand in hand, but often it is overlooked or undiagnosed.

I highly doubt it. Most disorders tend to be over diagnosed by the plethora of hacks in the field.

give it a read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asbergers
key word for this type of diagnosis: pervasive

tell the author of the article you "highly doubt it". he was very convincing. if i have time later i'll see if i can find it for you online.

that IT guy who is really good at his tech stuff, but has some quirky things about him, yeh, that could be Aspergers. people with aspergers are usually functional members of society unlike those with other forms of autism. so why the need for a diagnosis?

Please do.

Quirky really is a very poor descriptor for Aspergers. Therapists need a diagnosis b/c insurance demands one for treatment to be covered. Therapists want to get paid, so they give a diagnosis that can be covered. Hence the over-diagnosing of the US population.

They use the word "quirky" in this article as I have.

Not everyone with Aspergers needs treatment. People are so quick to want to label everyone and everything and then try to get these people to a therapist to make them talk their way into being more "normal".


Here's the article I had mentioned that I've read:
http://www.computerworld.com/a...asic&articleId=9072119

I read the article.

Letme first say taht it was very poorly written. I gave it a quick read, and found myself wondering what exactly the author was trying to say. So I went over it again. After a few stories and a couple of descriptions of symptoms, I found the one little line, "Problems over people? Hmm, sounds like a techie." (page 1). So one of the points of the article was to suggest that a "techie" or someone in the tech field is likely to have aspergers or at least appers to be a person with aspergers. So we aren't making allowances for people who hae different interests and priorities than "normal" people? What about the possibility that some people just like and are engrossed in tech? Can that same person also have anxiety or discomfort with other people, of if so will they be considered an "Aspie" if they do? The genrealization and categorization of a group of professionals is grand hackery at its finest.

Also, it seems to me that the article left out one very important aspect of diagnostic criteria: C. The disturbance causes clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. Significant impairment in any one of those areas would make it close to impossible to get a job in the first place. How is someone who is significantly impaired socially going to get through an interview unless the interviewer and corporation is very understanding of the condition of the individual? An "impairment" in the field of psychology is not considered clinically significant unless it creates considerable difficulty for the individual in living their life.

There are a couple more assumptions in the article, such as "People with aspergers gravitate toward IT jobs," and "Aspies are everywhere among us."


As far as the "1 in 150" estimate found here, this figure is highly doubtful also. Autism and Aspergers are in vogue to diagnose right now. You will be seeing more and more kids diagnosed with it. I am not sure what the exact reasoning is, but i witnessed the same phenomena in grad school where the favorite diagnoses were schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder. You find it out in the field just as much. There are a couple reasons i can think off of the top of my head: 1. is insurance necessity (which i mentioned before). 2. Sense of competence and power in being able to pin down a client's "problem" in a neat, well packaged way.

A big problem is that people, especially lay people, do not understand that DSM IV diagnoses are genrally not a black and white thing, but more a guide for professionals to categorize commonly occurring symptoms within a grouping for the purpose of research, identification, and conceptualization. B/C these thigns are not so black and white, diagnoses need to be made very thoughtfully and carefully. As a crude example, think of an episode of house. You know all the running around and examining and studying of varying factors they do to nail down a diagnosis, and how difficult it is due to complexity and lack of predictability? It is similar for psychological diagnoses. Or at least it should be.

edit: lol at irony: "Letme first say taht it was very poorly written."

Good post mate, I agree with everything you said.