I was language delayed, assessed as having Autism as opposed to aspergers, and I go on and on and on and on and on.....
But I do wonder if severity of functional impairment is the right way to break down the ASD diagnosis. There does seem to be some kind of type difference in there. Certainly my vague understanding of the genetics supports that.
None of my friends (incl DH) who are assessed as aspie stim significantly, or have noticeable troubles with self-care or self-injury, which, somewhat embarrassingly, I do. The one person I know who does turns out to also have had early language delay and described a very similar thought process about how to present himself to what I describe below. Also, even amongst a crowd of mostly aspies, I have a well known and fairly intense reputation for not caring what other people think... which is wierd, 'cause I feel like I care painfully deeply what others think. Now, if I look at my life as objectively as possible, I have to say that my major life choices make it look like they're correct, and I'm out to lunch on that point. So... er... um.... yeah.
When people ask me about it I usually pretend I think the diagnosis was a misdiagnosis, or at the very least avoid any mention of the term "autism." I pass pretty well, apart from having some trouble holding down jobs, and most people just can't wrap their minds around applying "aspie," let alone "autistic" to someone like me.
When I'm being genuinely honest, I would self identify as HFA and not as aspie. But it's a minefield, and I've learned to not be honest most of the time. I think it's going to be a long time before this terminology can be made to matter in any valuable way. I think the DSM change (as I understand it) is all to the good. I was surprised it did't come up on here sooner.
uh. so now that I feel like I'm standing around naked... bye!
