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Aspergers *mega merged* thread

K

Kronic King

Bluelighter
Joined
Dec 4, 2010
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94
Hey bluelight! I'm 16 years old, decently smart and socially normal kid (i think). My life seems to be pretty normal except for some excessive drug use last year. Anywyas, today at school one of my teachers talked to me. I have exams coming up and he asked if I wanted to be in a small group of people for it. I thought, no, I'll do it with the rest of the class why? And he says ohh because it says here (he shows me his laptop) that it suggests you do that. I looked at his laptop and looked at why it suggests it and it says "he has a case of functional asbergers". So... What the fuck? I'm 16 and I've never been told this. Its never even been mentioned to me. I used to go to speech and work with autistic kids and they said it was just for my speech but now I'm not sure. It's never been a problem and I've never worked in small groups before. So I have 2 major thought. 1. Maybe it was a mistake and my teacher was looking at someone else (it had my name though..) and 2. If I do have it, how do I ask my parents? So ya I'd just like some advice/feedback and just your general opinions. Thanks alot!
 
If you think you're socially normal, I think you can chalk this up to a mistake. Besides, "functional Asperger's" is a sneaky phrasing anyway.
 
Hm, this makes me wonder where your teacher was accessing this information. Was it on an internal school database?

I would suggest speaking to your parents about this to find out if they had any knowledge of your perceived condition.

Does your school have a guidance councillor or something similar? It would also be useful to speak with them about this situation - they might be able to shed some light on things and possibly have you tested if the school believes you have a learning problem and you don't.

It's important to realize that even if you *are* diagnosed with Aspergers it's not a death sentence! Plenty of people with social conditions such at this succeed in life and can become very highly functioning members of society. :)
 
Wow Kronic King, that is a strange way to find out you've possibly got Aspergers! I think the very first thing you should do is ask your parents about it. I can understand why, if it is indeed true, they wouldn't find it necessary to tell you when you were a kid that you had mild Aspergers. But now you're 16 I can't see why they'd need to keep this information from you. So, just ask them about it and see what they say.

Having a mild case of Aspergers (i.e. "functional Aspergers") shouldn't really affect your life dramatically. Even if it is true, do you think it will change anything about your everyday life, or your school life etc?
 
Lol man I wouldn't worry about it. I display some symptoms of aspergers myself, but I wouldn't say I have anything wrong with me, or that I should be classified as anything other than 'normal'. I have never been to a psychiatrist/psychologist in my life, so who knows if I would be clinically diagnosed as such. I can come across as odd in conversation, find some eye contact with certain people disconcerting, I do have a fairly repetitive and narrow focus sometimes, I certainly sometimes speak weird(but that could be the german doing that lol), and sometimes I can rattle on about certain topics forever. I know quite a few people like this though.

I am a generally happy person with great relationships, and a very good future outlook. I am right now studying medicine in a foreign language.

What I am trying to say is don't look too much into it, and live your life how you want to live it. Don't let some fairly stupid and arbitrary label get you down.
 
Labels are placed to give people a better understanding of someone who shows symptoms of mental disabilities.

Too bad with functional cases, they still look at the paperwork first instead of consulting you.

I'd chalk it up to communication differences (consulting paperwork before the person) and the teacher being unprofessional in saying "oh, this is what the paperwork says" and showing you.

In all honesty, you should have been told about this case and you should be given the opportunity to ask questions of whoever examined you and came up with this diagnosis. Do you remember going into any specific doctors in the past five years? I mean, perhaps I'm taking this too far, but my only issue with the shadiness of this case is that no one ever told you they were diagnosing you with functional asberger's (in which asberger's is considered a functional case of autism anyway, so what's with the shady adding on of "functional" to the diagnosis?).

Ask your mom first; if you were diagnosed before the age of ten, she might have just chosen to withhold the information from you. My mom did that with me and having hearing loss.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I don't believe this is something you should keep on the wayside if you would like to be considered normal among future groups of people that have access to paperwork (future employers). Once you are diagnosed with something, it stays with you the rest of your life.
 
Anything listed in your school records should have already been disclosed to you but it's possible that it was done when you were very young so you either don't remember or weren't at any of the meetings. To get accommodations for something like asbergers, though, there's an entire process with evaluations and such. Really weird to just have it come out of nowhere.

Before stressing about if you have it and what that means I'd figure out what's going on with your school records. So as others said - talk with your parents about it.
 
If the OP is confident of his social abilities, who is anyone else, psychologists included, to tell him otherwise?
 
Aspergers is the new ADHD craze in psychiatry. Every kid who likes video games and appears odd to adults has it now. I wouldn't worry about it even if you are diagnosed, it's just the flavor of the decade in child psychology.
 
If anything it's a bonus, ability to recognize complex patterns, heightened sense of memory, etc. Anything's better than being a normal dumbass tbh. In my opinion you should take it as a challenge and try to make the absolute most of your mental capabilities as you can.

I think psychology relies more on metaphors than anything. These labels are meaningless when you break it down to the individual level, they just help make psychology into a generic academic discipline, which is often mistaken for reality by people who don't know any better. Maybe take advantage of the small group thing? Who knows, maybe the kids in that smaller group are cooler than you might think? I can understand wanting to avoid the drooling, helmet wearing, crowd, but you never know if you can get along with other people who have Aspergers.
 
CoffeeDrinker said:
If anything it's a bonus, ability to recognize complex patterns, heightened sense of memory, etc. Anything's better than being a normal dumbass tbh. In my opinion you should take it as a challenge and try to make the absolute most of your mental capabilities as you can.

I think psychology relies more on metaphors than anything. These labels are meaningless when you break it down to the individual level, they just help make psychology into a generic academic discipline, which is often mistaken for reality by people who don't know any better. Maybe take advantage of the small group thing? Who knows, maybe the kids in that smaller group are cooler than you might think? I can understand wanting to avoid the drooling, helmet wearing, crowd, but you never know if you can get along with other people who have Aspergers.
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In my school, I'm almost certain I was the only one with progressive hearing loss. There were 2,500 kids at my high school. Unless Asperger's is really as big of a craze as you guys say, I doubt he's going to be in a room with 8-10 kids that have been diagnosed with Asperger's so he can make friends with them. :P
 
Hey when I was in the psyche ward I made friends with all sorts of people I wouldn't expect. Nothing wrong with making friends. I think the whole outcast card can be beneficial.
Plus, it's highschool...there's nothing to take serious about it. Who knows? All I'm saying Simply_Live is for him to simply live.
 
CoffeeDrinker said:
H All I'm saying Simply_Live is for him to simply live.
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i c wut u did thar

OP, discuss this with your parents. Then acknowledge your school's headmaster. I wouldn't worry about it at all, for the time being. You are happy and capable. That's all you need at 16.....hell, that's all you need in life.
 
I wouldnt worry a bit about it. phychiatrists love making 5 minute diagnoses that are often woefully inadequate especially when children are concerned. Ive been labeled lots of things but now im in college working on a degree and you couldnt pick me out of a crowd I promise. On the other hand your teacher is a jackass and should be told as much,
 
Hey kronic, I am in the same boat as you: well maybe a worse one: It took reading this thread and the subsequent aq test, pulling up childhood memories, and reading about how to deal with someone who has AS before I found out I have it. I hazily remember speech therapy as a kid, and loving legos and reading. I was told I was smarter than everyone else through high school too and I tested well, with 34 hours of ap credit upon graduation. Would I trade this for the social skills I don't have? Yes, but I can't. accept your "nerdiness". let your more animalistic friends win sometimes (whether in arguments, sports, or games) or else you'll alienate them. make a conscious effort to "dumb" yourself down when talking to your friends. Also, don't be afraid to make bad decisions with these friends.

To crimsonjunk: I love your username and location and feel the same way.
 
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You have probably had it for some time. You just have a name for it now. Enjoy it. Some of the most powerful and important people in the world had it. You are in very good company.
 
I would put very little weight into a diagnosis from a high school teacher/psychologist. If you are worried about it, go see a doctor. Don't let the school push you around and tell you what to do or WHO YOU ARE. My advice get out of the public school system.
 
Anyone have Aspergers?!

My Aspergers has really screwed over my social life which has caused quite a bit of depression that I have self-medicated with drugs throughout the years. It only seems logical that those of us with the condition would be far more inclined to heavy drug use and addiction. I definitely think I would use drugs if I never had the condition, but I think it's pretty doubtful I would use them at anywhere near the amounts that I currently do.

Does anyone else have the condition?
 
I kinda have a problem with threads like this. I completely understand where your coming from because I certainly have many social deficits and deviation from what would be considered normal behavior. I have never really tried to get a definitive diagnosis though because these things are essentially unable to be treated with medication. This also means that intoxicating drug abuse will, in the end, only be a desperate act to disguise and hide from your problems. It is easy to get a psychiatrist to tell you that it is not your fault and you have a genuine illness, but realize that this is a cope out. We really do not know enough about the brain besides being able to notice general patterns of behavior that we attempt to categorize into so-called 'diagnoses'. I recently realized the absolute fact that you need to face your problems head on. Yes, I realize this is like asking a mouse to go directly into the paws of a waiting cat. However, if you do not do it, then nobody is going to do it for you. You have no one to blame for your drug usage but yourself and if you do not like it, then change your behavior.
 
I'd like to get a dx as well as find adult aspergers support groups as a means of coping, instead of using drugs.
 
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