Do you ever think you could be a bit autistic?

kowloonkev

Sure look, at the end of the day, aren't we all just looking for a spot to park closer to the door.

Hodors Appletart

I know that, and again I'm not trying to argue against you here, but the fact at the moment is that there is no differential diagnosis anymore.

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120195406#Comment_120195406

I think that’s a very unfair assessment of this thread and calling people sad bastards is anything but helpful - no one is dizzying autism here but the forum is AH so some light hearted comments are to be expected.

Whether spectrum is still there or not doesn’t matter , I do believe there are many adults out there who have mild versions of autism or other related conditions undiagnosed. Some careers have disproportionately high levels of people with autism - mainly roles and careers that limit dealing with people or focus on very black/white things like data/figures etc - I believe people with such conditions naturally gravitate towards roles that maximise their strengths ( maybe numerical computation) and minimise their challenges- social engagement for example .

Whether people are “struggling” or not in adulthood with undiagnosed conditions I guess depends on person to person

Reminder to attack the posts not the poster(s).

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120193992#Comment_120193992

I'm not talking about remembering the event or incident, I'm talking about always knowing the year/month.

That's what I mean too. People can often remember the exact time that something happened. Even trivial stuff. For some reason an event, some of which will be of no importance whatsoever, will get seared into our memories. It happens to everyone and there's nothing autistic about it. It's perfectly normal.

As to clutter and the rest, we're pretty hardwired to clean our shite up. Humans tend to respond better to uniformity rather than chaos. Plus, with upbringing that basic necessity becomes more or less important depending on the person. In fact I'd say being untidy and living in a mess is less normal.

As for attention to detail, that's probably you just being a bit pedantic. It's no proof of autism though. Everyone can get that way.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120195482#Comment_120195482

Exactly.

We need to get away from this silly idea that we're all a little bit autistic. We're not. To be autistic you have to have the condition and the vast majority of people don't have it. Odd idiosyncrasies that a person exhibits or tends toward doesn't qualify as autism.

One eyed Jack

In answer to the question in the title - no.

I did have to laugh yesterday though when one of the lads came into my office for a chat and was wearing what looked like a pretty snazzy looking lanyard (I can just about make out colours, couldn’t make out the text),

”What’s with the snazzy lanyard?” I asked him,

”Oh, this? It’s for autism awareness”

”I didn’t know you were autistic? Explains a few things”

”I’m not!” he responded quickly, before he copped the rest of what I’d said. He stared me out of it and would still have been staring at me if I hadn’t asked him “are you sure?”

Turned on his heel and stormed out.

Hodors Appletart

what a hilarious anecdote, well done you.

HalloweenJack

There are some typical autistic traits that I have which have made me suspect it but they are also things that overlap with anxiety, which I do have.

They are also not permanent traits, e.g. if I'm not having a rough time with anxiety, they fade into the background. They only come on when I'm in a more 'active' state of anxiety.

There was a good show on Netflix called Love on the Spectrum which haf a good look at autistic people managing romantic relationships. I'm sure they chose more extreme cases of people with autism but it gave a very good idea of how people with autism approach life.

Being a bit shy or introverted isn't autistic. Watching that show, I actually found a lot of them don't have trouble approaching people and starting conversations, its more building two-way interactions that seemed to be a problem for them.

Hodors Appletart

that's part of what my own autism manifests as - now I'm married and have friends, but I haven't made a new friend since I got married I'd say. I find it incredibly difficult to know when it's appropriate to join in a conversation, and when I'm in a group setting with people chatting around me I invariably just stay quiet unless and until someone addressed me directly - the rest of the time I'm following the conversation in my head, even thinking of responses or things to say in relation to the topic, but I can't pick up on the social cues of when it's my "turn" to speak. I hate talking over people, it's very rude, but it appears to me that that's all people do in a group conversation setting. I never know where the natural gaps are for me to get involved.

If that makes any sense.

So...people then assume I'm a quiet, shy person, or worse some aloof dickhead who doesn't want to interact with them. Which I'm not.

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120196104#Comment_120196104

Fair play to you too for dispelling the myth that autistic people have no sense of humour!

Hodors Appletart

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120196195#Comment_120196195

not here to "dispel myths" for you or any other hilarious comedian who thinks it's ok to use autism as a jokey put-down. I hope that anyone who is actually autistic wasn't within earshot of your absolutely hilarious repartee.

Hodors Appletart

actually your "it's just a joke" excuse is the most egregious comment on this thread really.

You think it's fine to use the condition as a jokey put-down to someone who was actually wearing a lanyard to raise awareness about the disorder, then have the temerity to tell an actual person with autism that it is up to them to dispel myths about it.

you can't actually be serious here. You probably think you've done nothing wrong.

I really, really hope nobody who has autism ever encounters you when you are having your incredible and hilarious office banter, using their condition as a way to put other people down.

Lunchtime breaks must be inusfferable for them when you are around making your jokes and witty observations.

Tell me, what "few things" did the lanyard explain for you. Willing to say right here, that you won't answer that, because it was "just a joke".

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120196205#Comment_120196205

Ah, I see now you just interpreted the anecdote arseways, and nothing to do with being autistic either 👍

Hodors Appletart

nope, you said you "had to laugh" about a situation where you thought someone was autistic and that it "explained a few things" about them.

What things? or was that just a joke about autism?

I knew it though, you are absolutely of the belief you've done nothing wrong here.

Fair play, continue on using autism as a put down. Seems to suit you.

Only because my kid has been diagnosed and I had the exact same issues they they do

Still have some of them, all to be honest but can "hide" a lot of them.

Hodors Appletart

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120196262#Comment_120196262

yep it's called "masking" and I find it incredibly exhausting in certain settings.

Grayson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120193992#Comment_120193992

Time is intensely tied to memory. But it's in a weird way. So you will remember an event and I could ask when that happened. You might say "Sometime in august. But I said, no, what time was it, you'd remember that time quite easily.

If you are old enough to remember 9-11, can you remember if it was a Monday/Tuesday? But I bet you can probably remember the time of day when you heard.

I'm terrible remembering dates. I can't remember birthdays. And like most Irish people if I say I'll meet you at 6, I'll be there at 6:05. I can remember events from when I was 1 year old. When I heard that most people can't remember anything from before they were 4 I thought it was weird. I couldn't imagine that people had years of their lives that they couldn't remember.

So yeah, I'm **** at dates. But I notice number plates. I notice patterns in them.

The most important thing I learned about autism is that if you know someone with autism, all you know about autism is that you know a person with autism. Everyone is different. How it manifests differs from person to person.

It's also not a bad thing knowing if you are or are not. I spent ages not wanting to be before I realized that this was a chance to make myself a better person. To learn new things and improve skills. And make live easier for myself.

Grayson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120196167#Comment_120196167

People with ASD are more prone to anxiety and depression.

HalloweenJack

Understandably so.

I did the test there and got 15 out of 50 so it's just lazy generalisation on my part.

DownByTheGarden

But I think everyone has their own unique way of thinking about things and doing things. We are all autistic in some way if we sit back and really think about our own traits.

Grayson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120196387#Comment_120196387

No. Just no :)

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120196249#Comment_120196249

Yes, I had to laugh at myself, because I’d put my foot in it. It wasn’t the end of the world or anything.

It’s because I don’t go around assuming people are autistic that I don’t lend any weight to behaviours which are normally associated with autism, and I don’t have any stigma or prejudice about the condition either, so when I assumed that what he was telling me is that he was autistic, that’s why I made the remark that it explains a few things. I was wrong then, obviously! When he began staring at me, I asked him is he sure, because excessive staring is associated with autism. I laughed afterward thinking about it because I was laughing at myself for having made the mistake.

There was no using autism as a put-down or anything else, that’s nothing more than your own interpretation of my intent, similar to his in being offended because I’d made a mistake in thinking that’s why he was wearing a lanyard to raise awareness of autism.

Hodors Appletart

everyone else's fault but yours, gotchya

I wasn't wrong, you definitely think you did nothing wrong.

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120196492#Comment_120196492

First line of the previous post -

Yes, I had to laugh at myself, because I’d put my foot in it. It wasn’t the end of the world or anything.

I've always been skeptical of "everyone is on the spectrum" all right, but couldn't know whether it was true or not.

However there are obviously varying levels/ways in which it presents itself.

And I can remember the dates of trivial things. Just great having people tell me what I mean when I don't mean that. 😊

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120196229#Comment_120196229

I’m only seeing this now, but this?

then have the temerity to tell an actual person with autism that it is up to them to dispel myths about it

Didn’t happen.

It’s quite obvious that you’re purposely misconstruing what I posted in order to lecture me about it. I figured you got the joke, that’s why I followed up with saying it dispels the myth that autistic people don’t have a sense of humour. I know plenty who do, and don’t need you or one of my work colleagues to inform or make me any more aware of the condition than I already am.

It was a light-hearted anecdote at my own expense, but I don’t expect you’d be familiar enough with me to know that, and that’s about all the explanation you deserve tbh.

Jequ0n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120197268#Comment_120197268

I think the funny part is how you keep keep making this worse with every follow up post.

fits

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120196387#Comment_120196387

No we aren’t. Being autistic is a diagnosis that reflects how certain traits affect us in a such a significant way as to make typical life more challenging.

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120197683#Comment_120197683

There’s no making anything worse. Poster wilfully misinterprets another posters intent to get up on their high horse is standard practice on the Internet. My misinterpreting my work colleagues intentions was entirely accidental, and my own fault for making assumptions about him being autistic. It’s why I could laugh about it afterwards, because it was silly, and it fits perfectly in this thread because this is After Hours on Boards, not the bloody Lancet.

Jequ0n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120198169#Comment_120198169

They really didn’t misinterpret you, and you put your foot in it. It happens, let it go.

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120198490#Comment_120198490

Whole point of the thread is asking people have they ever thought they could be autistic. It’s not about people who have been clinically diagnosed as autistic. Plenty of posters have admitted attempting self-diagnosis and claims that we’re all somehow autistic, yet mine is the most egregious post in the thread? Please 🙄

I’d have let it go if it wasn’t for the attempt to wilfully twist what I’d posted to make something out of nothing. I was just correcting their deliberate misinterpretation.

Jequ0n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120198533#Comment_120198533

This has nothing to do with people diagnosing or self-diagnosing.

Your initial post was a poor attempt at being funny. I don’t judge you, I have made far less sensitive comments thinking they were amusing. What’s really funny is that you can’t hold up your hands and admit it because you enjoy your holier than holy appearance.

It’s a sad day when someone like me has to tell you that you were are out of line there.

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120198618#Comment_120198618

There’s no holier than thou effort on my part because you’re choosing to invent something that didn’t happen. I don’t mind admitting my sense of humour isn’t to everyone’s taste, but trying to make it into something it wasn’t, isn’t any reflection on me whatsoever. How important you think you are is entirely your own business too.

Jequ0n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120198673#Comment_120198673

Re-read your initial post and think about how it landed.

Nobody has been twisting your words from what I can see, and I am totally impartial to this topic. This is becoming embarrassing at this stage.

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120198789#Comment_120198789

No Father, I don’t think I will. I know the risks of posting on the internet is that anonymous strangers will accidentally take me up wrong, and some will intentionally take me up wrong. It happens, and it’s nothing to be embarrassed about.

A bit? Who are you calling " a bit" ?

Jequ0n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120198846#Comment_120198846

No need, you made enough of a joke of yourself on this thread already. Keep going to keep us entertained

junkyarddog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120191903#Comment_120191903

I scored 36 out of 50!

I'm not sure I believe there is such a thing as autism. I tend to see people as individuals each with their own unique set of traits and qualities. There are many ways of being in this world and they don't all belong under a label or a disorder or something to be analysed and managed.

mod

cut the fighting out if you want to argue with each other take it to PM don’t clog up the thread.

Count Dracula

I would say if you had it you would probably know all about it......?

Work that statement out before continuing. If you don't comprehend what I am getting at you are not suffering from any issues of autism. If you do, you also are not, suffering from autism. But if you are not able to read this at all , it is highly likely that your cognitive brain functions have never synchronized to the same levels of the majority of functioning adults and have suffered learning difficulties all your life, in saying that my compassion is futile as if you are autistic you certainly would neither understand, read or imagine what I am talking about, you simply are not able to do so, sorry.

What frustrates me most about the classification of human disorders is that it demeans the individuals who are struggling with them the most.

It shouldn't be about reaching quotas of staff members based on modern diagnosis techniques, the concept or thought process around classifying mental or physical disorders needs a more rigorous or robust consensus. I would imagine anyone having to deal with it has no notion of what they are dealing with? It must amount to a challenging existence and whilst it has garnered acceptance in the 3rd millennium, people should really try to understand how incompatible the condition is with other livelihoods.

Therein lies the problem of over categorising everything and attempting to rationale its' existence with people more fortunate to not suffer from it, irrespective of what some overpaid committee of woke arseholes are attempting to coerce everybody to accept, for fear of the consequences of not accepting it, might lead them to be perceived as being heartless or unsympathetic?

People suffering autism should not be allowed fly planes for starters. Or help land them either. Would you let someone with autism carry out an open heart surgery? Drive a bus with 40 children on it? Babysit your kids? Just saying.

But forcing human disorders into normalised society should not be forgotten, as it being potentially, a really misinformed and misappropriated judgement and thus implementation of a really stupid idea, delivered unsupervised by a gang of overpaid, over adhered and ironically out of touch academics who have the life skills of a hedgehog crossing the road? All their crap is far too easily adopted by other chunts in powerful positions, who are looking to establish a blame mechanism to verify or perhaps exonerate themselves ( proper English for covering their asses OP in case you are still here ) , from adverse social opinion which they themselves judge to be potentially harmful to their reputations.

We are probably correct universally in adopting progressive social approaches to facilitate better livelihoods for sufferers of the condition, but we should also be scrutinsing that decision annually. Too many poor options proceed and get enabled by Kangaroo committees of experts appointed by others who haven't a **** notion of what is occurring outside of their own little bubble, which is actually ironic when you think about it?

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120199222#Comment_120199222

There’s a degree of truth to that idea alright, but it’s more taking a social approach to autism than a medical approach. As a clinical condition the degree to which a person’s quality of life is impacted depends largely upon the degree to which they are autistic. Adults who are severely autistic will have very different needs for example from children who are mildly autistic. They require different techniques and treatments to manage their condition in order to enable them not just to function but to thrive in society. The support services and resources to do so just often aren’t accessible or available to everyone who needs them.

BrianD3

I scored 43 in that test - significant autistic traits. Quite surprised given that the majority of my answers were in the slightly rather than strongly agree/disagree categories.

If I am either autistic or have autistic traits, so what. I'm not going to hand over money to the autism industry so that I can be "diagnosed" and "fixed".

Anyway, better to be "high functioning autistic" than being some trend following spoofer whose only skills are social interactions and workplace politics. A normie, in other words. The older I get, the more I realise just how awful a lot of people are. Bullsh*tters, arseholes and bullies whose words mean nothing and whose "success" in life is down to manipulation, nepotism etc.

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120200231#Comment_120200231

Anyone would be better to regard the results of an online ‘test’ with a pinch of salt tbh, they’re an indicator of nothing, no more clinically significant than your daily horoscope. That’s also one of the issues with terms like “high functioning” and “normie” in terms of a clinical diagnosis of autism. They’re not official medical diagnosis’, they’re just terms which have gained popularity in society due to the visibility of people who self-diagnose themselves as being autistic. People who are severely autistic are rarely visible in society.

It’s why a few organisations have sought to abandon terms like “high functioning” to describe autism (as well as other conceptions of autism which are often misleading such as referring to autism as a ‘super power’) -

As noted above, high-functioning autism is not a medical diagnosis. It is more a classification of an ASD individual with a milder level of severity on the autism spectrum. Those referred to as high functioning used to (usually) fall into the out-of-date Asperger syndrome or PDD diagnostic classification. Today’s DSM would likely diagnose them as ASD Level 1 patients who may or may not need treatment. Rarely would a high-functioning ASD individual be diagnosed as ASD Level 3.

As defined by Autism Speaks, the adjective high-functioning simply means that the individuals “have average or above average intelligence but may struggle with issues related to social interaction and communication.” The term isn’t clearly defined and can be frustrating to parents and medical staff alike. One relatively common trait of those with high-functioning autism is that they usually do not show significant delay in language development, whereas low-functioning children with autism usually do. Typically, children with high-functioning autism tend to have more behavioral issues than intellectual ones.

Usually, people who have high-functioning autism (Level 1) will be able to lead ‘normal’ lives and be functioning members of society. They may have occasional difficulties in social situations or struggle with unusual behaviors or interests, but their intellectual capacity is usually fully capable of managing and engaging with life. If one is unfamiliar with ASD and its nuances, it would not be uncommon for them to be unable to tell the difference between a child that has high-functioning ASD and one that does not have any form of ASD.

https://www.appliedbehavioranalysisprograms.com/faq/high-functioning-autism/?amp=1

https://www.autismawareness.com.au/aupdate/why-we-should-stop-using-the-term-high-functioning-autism

The way you describe other people? That’s just getting older, it’s nothing to do with autism.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120200231#Comment_120200231

I don't think anyone should be taking that test as a serious result of whether they're autistic or not.

BrianD3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120200732#Comment_120200732

Do you think that the test has any value then? It's not as though Borat's cousin pulled it out of his arse - see below link. I appreciate that this was in 2001 and things may have changed since. Makes no difference to me, I won't be handing over money to anyone to get diagnosed with anything. Also this thread is about whether posters think they might be a bit autistic, it's not "have you been diagnosed with autism by a qualified professional"

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11439754/

Edit: Leaving thread, rather than interact with pseudo clinicians who know everything.

Really wish we could delete posts

Andrea B.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120198169#Comment_120198169

Why have you brought The Lancet into this?

OscarMIlde

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120199222#Comment_120199222

As someone who has a non-verbal autistic brother there definitely is such a thing as autism. From my mother's description my brother was happy, smiley and learning to talk when he regressed and turned into a distressed toddler who would scream and cry for hours a day, would desperately avoid any eye contact and never uttered another word (he'll be 43 this year). It's a devastating condition at it's worst and people like my brother are being marginalised by the tendency over the last few decades to focus on high functioning individuals and the odd decision to remove the distinction from classic Kanner autism and Aspergers syndrome which seems to have no scientific basis.