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[INTP] Girls and women who have Asperger's syndrome

Coriolis

Si vis pacem, para bellum
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Maybe so- I'm not averse to that. But as things are now, kids with diagnoses have access to accommodations/help that kids without diagnoses don't have access to. And those accommodations can mean the difference between success and failure for a child who struggles in the current system.
I have heard about this phenomenon before. I have also known people who don't want themselves or their kids labelled, because they feel there is some stigma attached that can follow them through life. In any case, one shouldn't need some medical diagnosis to get treated as an individual. See comments to Fia below.

I also got really overwhelmed trying to teach a group of students because there were too many signals, so I adjusted my career to teach individually, and I also have gravitated towards special needs students because they are easier for me to understand than the "norm". Each person requires that I observe and reconstruct their communication and cognitive processing from the ground up instead of basing everything on shared assumptions. I am far more skilled at understanding a new system, than applying shared assumptions.
Apparently teaching people as individuals has benefits for the teacher as well as the student. I wonder how many teachers wish they were given time to teach this way?

I related to a chunk of the info in the OP, but I don't think anyone I know would think I have Aspbergers. My inter- and intra-personal ways of relating are different from the norm, though. I have always founds social norms confusing, even when I can observe and describe them. The pressure associated with these creates a lot of stress in me, and I do cope by being very polite and responsible, so that I don't stand out. I am a lot more unusual than most people realize irl because I have some ways to cope and cover up what is different about the way I think and socialize.

I deal with several people with high functioning autism and Aspbergers and what makes me different from it is that I don't have sensory rigidity that most people with these issues demonstrate. What I do have are certain kinds of emotional hypersensitivity combined with obliviousness that I related to in the OP. My sensory relationship tends to be very fluid and flexible combined with a lack of awareness, except for sound. Sensory overstimulation does exhaust me, so I can feel sympathy in that regard.

In the emotional realm, I can relate to these issues because a lack of consistency can be quite upsetting, but I don't care nearly as much if sensory experiences change. I do have an unusual level of sensitivity to time and routine, although too much routine makes me feel oppressed. I can estimate time down to the actual minute in several instances. So in some ways I relate, but in others I can feel opposite to the descriptions in the OP and also of what I know about these issues.

I can also feel a rather intense empathy in one-on-one situation and so I could also internalize aspects of this because I spend a lot of hours with people who struggle with these issues. There is something different about my socialization based on either experience or my brain because I did not form friendships in the way most other people I observed did during their childhood and adolescence. I struggled terribly to relate to the "norm", so in some ways I feel like some sort of term to justify everything I went through might feel good, just because it would be an "explanation". Although there may be no such thing available. It's probably just individual issues.

To give a concrete example: When I was in my early teens and Madonna come out with "Material Girl", I was deeply into astronomy at the time and thought she was singing about a materialistic philosophy of reality, and I thought the song was interesting because of it. I thought she just meant that she was made of matter. I couldn't imagine it was about shopping. Just imagine how a junior high school girl like that might fit in with other junior high school girls. I also brought my astronomy books and rode my friend's bus home because I heard she liked astronomy, but she just sat in the seat behind me and giggled with her friend about boys the whole ride, so I was pretty sad. I think "nerdgirl" is a more accurate term for me at that point.
Alot of this sounds like me growing up - perhaps Ni-dom experiences. I never was diagnosed with or felt I had autism/aspergers either. I didn't find social norms so much confusing as illogical. I understood what was expected, but couldn't see the point of it. I, too, try to be polite, though, because I prefer to stay under the radar until there is something to be gained by calling attention to myself. Your examples are humorous, and very telling. I think even by middle school I knew better than to expect any of my classmates to share my interests. I also knew by then that trying to relate to the norm was an exercise in frustration.
 

Siúil a Rúin

when the colors fade
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Himeko009

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I have Asperger's Syndrome and I agree with the description. Liane is one of the autism researcher who I more agree. Maybe due she have AS too. She understand how the things really is, not just theorizing... :)
 

prplchknz

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I must say cuz it's been on my mind, be careful with over diagnosing and shit. It's useful if it's legit but it's not always.

other than that I have nothing more to add :cheers:
 
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