My youngest was diagnosed with PDD, he's being reevaluated now that he's older for aspergers, they also believe he has ODD, and the neurologist we recently saw for him implied that he thinks I should be tested as well, because Im antisocial due to social anxiety and dont sleep.

The degree of ASD on SteamGifts is probably directly correlative to their Contributor Level.

;D

Really though I'm not one for labels. I don't think we should group together a people with broad spectrum of symptoms with no clinical scientific method of diagnosis. In my opinion until there's a blood test or something solid in terms of testing for it anyone with developmental disabilities, whether at a young age or through adulthood, is purely that. The only upside I've seen from the autism labeling of anyone is the ability to access generalized treatment through headstart/pre-preschool programs and such.

Didn't they map the human genome like 15 years ago? Why the hell can't they fix errors in DNA yet like in the scifi movies?
Poor eyesight, unibrows, gynecomastia in men, children born with fucked up shit like 3 arms, allergies.. being allergic to fucking peanuts or GLUTEN?? WTF is a gluten.
I feel like this should be real simple shit after 15 years, but I guess we need those medical research studies on whether or not the g-spot exists or why men over 65 have difficulty getting hard with their 65+ spouses.

I've just wrote a long comment and accidentally closed the page >.< In short, I have Asperger's syndrome and it's making my life hell.

TLDR....This is a long post but the OP asked me to share a bit about the subject and i have this is bit of my opinion and a bit about me but also my brother.

I think as a society we seem hell bent on giving everything a label that is just a bit different from the average joe.Then when they do it a stigma attached to it as even if your a minor case of it,you some how become the worse case of it.

Example..

Sex Offender,yes it was meant for good,but now society has treated anyone on that list as a rapist or molester.

A simple mistake could land you on that list,one as simple as getting drunk and pissing outside some random person sees your junk and takes it as you flashing people.Do i think it deserves a punishment sure,do i think they need to be on a sex offender list no,but they can end up on it.

I am just trying to say everything that gets a label it seems most of the time whenever someone mentions they are part of it people always assume the worse.Like i have a brother who is borderline of being fully autistic he can still function for the most part as a normal person but he does have his moments after all he is no smarter then your average 13 year old despite being 30 some.So yeah he still thinks farts are funny and awesome and he does other things most would not his age.Yet when i am out with him the looks people sometimes still give him for his behavior and for being who he is.You mention what he has and they say oh wow i am sorry and so on,like he is some how to stupid to function or something.

We all struggle with something and we all excel in something,while my brothers mind may work different and he has trouble remembering things when he is talking,he far makes up for it with a photographic memory.He will remember the strangest things from 10 years ago but he is no rain man i think imo he still lacks some things to fully use that part of his memory but he does a lot better visual then trying to tell him something.

I also have what i guess they would called AADD.Though i never use that term since i can function just fine despite having it,i also have memories issues linked to that so i have been told.I have trouble recalling things tend to stay in short term memory and get left behind for long term.Then again it not enough where i forget car keys and what not,but i do struggle with like puzzles and stuff anything that involves a lot quick short term memory recalls i am not so good at.

Hence why i suck at puzzle GA's as i struggled with reading and remembering everything i read.I do a lot better visual and that makes sense why as my brain is using that to try make up for the other.So usually if you show me how to do it i am good.

Anyhow as i said we all have things we struggle at and we all have things we are good and to put label on such things at times i think it is a bit silly.Not everyone that has some memory issues needs a label or to be prodded I think they only need that if it is effecting everyday life for someone so they can find out what may be going on to get you back on track to live a normal life.

In the end to the OP good luck with your life and getting out awareness and glad you using this as a way to help it and not using it for other reasons like why you struggle with life and so on good luck on your journey.

I never met autism but have a bump!

I have ASD too, am unemployed at the moment and not sure if I ever go back to working again, but that has other reasons besides autism. For me real life social interaction can be very scary unless the conversation is well defined. Talking and interacting online is SO much easier for me :)
Although I live in my 'safe cocoon' lately I'm getting more and more fed up with that and trying to break out with reasonable success but still got a loooong way to go.

One of my biggest problems is it is not very visible. When you are missing an arm or a leg it is clear for people to see what is wrong. but if your problem is so to speak 'between your ears' people are often a lot less accepting and think you should just 'get over it'

I found this read a little more synthesized about the signs of detecting autism:
http://www.helpguide.org/articles/autism/autism-symptoms-and-early-signs.htm

I've personally never met a person with this condition, but my knowledge is that they are people who have a harder time to communicate with other people and kind of perceive the world in their own and unique way, but until now I wasn't aware that some people with autism didn't have socialization issues, my definition was too generalist I suppose.

I've been diagnosed in the spectrum. But only a few years ago while going through a depression. After that I learned who I am. I know when to say no, when i'm near my limits. I'm much more happier now.
A year ago I learned from my grandmother that my grandfather was diagnosed asperger. So it's probably family-related.

Would it have been different when i've been diagnosed as a child. Yes i think so. I would have been more challenged in my education. And also understand why I wanted to be by myself so often and lot of other things. Ah well, can't change the past. And why would I want that so bad. I might not have met my wife. Who helps me alot.

But other people only hear of extreme cases, and therefore if you tell them, they don't believe you, because it isn't that visible. And you need to explain. And then they understand.

and using the words disability or challenges is just a way to put you in boxes. Everyone is limited by something. If i would get a child, and it would have autism. I will not use these words, because they limit you. I would tell them how they can enjoy live the best. Just as I have learned some years ago.
And society can improve by not saying we are disabled. We are different then some people are used to. But find the place where we function the best, and you can be astounded what will happen. Some of our scientist/doctors etc have/had autism. And they contributed a lot to this society. Some say even Einstein had autism, but ofcourse this can't be proved when somebody is already dead.

1. I may or may not have Asperger's Disorder myself. My friend has Autism, and my roommate probably does as well. Thing is, we're all women, and based on that and my hard-trained ability to detect annoyance [if no other emotion] I was told I don't have it the only time I was tested. Mind you this was years after the initial diagnosis, after I had been working hard at being sociable and understanding of others. My roommate was [I'm almost 100% sure] misdiagnosed as having depression and OCD, as well as ADHD. Also, the person diagnosing her was super rude, and implied she wanted to have the disorder for some reason. I assume he figured she wanted disability or something.

2. College, as late as it is. I have severe depression too, so for a long time I wasn't able to figure out if I even wanted to do anything, much less if I was capable of it. Right now I'm working towards one of two things- a Psych degree or a Japanese degree [for translation purposes].

3. I think the choice in vocabulary is less important than the feeling and behavior behind it. Disability and Challenge mean the same thing if the behavior behind it is the same; even then, to treat a 'disability' like something capable of being worked past, or improved upon, is the same connotation as 'challenge', isn't it? And oftentimes people will refuse to use 'disability' but still treat it as a hard limitation, even judging the person in question based on their perceptions of what it should and shouldn't mean. Oh, but you can't say 'disability', because that makes them sound less than, right? People are paradoxical.

4. That all Pervasive Childhood Developmental Disorders [including ASDs] are Down's Syndrome. The extent to which this pisses me off is enormous. People are deathly afraid of having an autistic child without ever even realizing what that would mean, or that it's a spectrum of disorders. I'm a reasonably well-spoken, slightly awkward individual with a small group of friends who has learned to work with her disability to a certain extent. My room is a thoroughfare to the kitchen and backyard, with the living room on the opposite end, and an entrance to the house on a third wall. To avoid overstimulation I generally just stay in there, with the knowledge that someone will eventually come in and give me the social contact I need for the day anyway.
   Invisible Disabilities are incredibly damaging to social situations, especially when growing up, and they still are. I have difficulty not being a know-it-all about certain subjects, and I don't have any idea what to say when talking to new people. When I speak to people I know, I will occasionally say something stupid or accidentally insulting, and sometimes catch it just in time to make it sound lighthearted, but have tried hard enough for long enough to be able to usually recognize when I say something like that even when I don't catch it. It's always a struggle though.

5. I dunno. I think that one of my obsessions [rabbits] is actually pretty accurate of, not Autistic people exactly, but introverts. They are social animals at heart, but are strange for housepets. If they want attention, they will come to you and let you know. If they don't, they will go away. They like being by themselves, but also appreciate pets; the thing is, they are only willing to be loved on their terms. In the meantime, leave them alone. They will let you know if they want you to include him.
   That being said, I guess I understand that nebulous things like mental difficulties are nigh-impossible to explain properly, so I'm a bit stumped.

I was actually diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome last year (although I'm not sure if I have Asperger's or High functioning Autism). I always had a passing suspicion, but never really looked into it (the Asperger's/ Autism itself was a roadblock towards that).

It was a huge relief to finally have an explanation for things I've dealt with my whole life. It hasn't made too much difference yet, but I've started to find resources and other things to help me.
Also, people around me have started to be a lot more understanding and stop thinking I'm being weird or lazy, which is nice. I'm highly intelligent and it's very hard to tell that I am autistic on the surface.

I definitely have intense interests (linguistics, for example). It's both a blessing and a curse. I have been able to become fluent in reading/writing/speaking Mandarin Chinese, and I've studied Greek, Hebrew and Japanese (learned katakana and hiragana in one class period while everyone else took a week or so). I was even in some Masters/PhD linguistics classes alongside the Japanese and Korean professors when I was an undergraduate (it was interesting being a classmate with my Japanese professor :) )
But on the other hand, it's hard to focus on anything that I'm not at least somewhat interested in. This has made it very hard to find work over the years. When I actually try a job, I find myself (sometimes literally) falling asleep in the middle of work and most jobs just lasted a few months. Also I need to have a sense of purpose, and retail and such seems so empty.

I don't have social problems per say. I'm very friendly and enjoy being around people, but I do have trouble with social cues sometimes. I sometimes get a bit loud when I talk, and I don't always notice when I've said or done something awkward. My biggest problem socializing is not being able to fit in. I don't have many similar interests as most people, and since I don't always work and don't drive currently (I have a license), I don't have a lot of common ground.

I have sensory hypersensitivity, so pretty much everything can be overwhelming at times. Sounds, light, temperature, textures, etc... etc... which also hinders working and things like parties and whatnot. Winter is hell on me, and tends to undo some of the progress I make during the summer. It's not fun having to start over every summer.

Not sure if this is exactly related or not, but I have an extremely strong, photographic memory. For example, I can clearly recall things from when I was 2 years old, that my brother who was 7 at the time can't remember a bit, but my parents and other people can confirm.

As an added bonus, I've got OCD and anxiety disorder, and I've suffered from depression, although that's been better since getting my Asperger's diagnosis.
And I started having seizures last year too! \o/ Thankfully those are under control with medication, but I've never had anything similar happen before, so nobody's sure what caused them.

Sorry if I this was a bit rambling / incoherent :P, but it's late, etc...
Thanks for starting this thread, it's been interesting reading :)

Happy Easter :D

Really nice to see someone make a thread about this <3

1) I have asperger syndrome. The lightest possible form of autism. I was diagnosed as an adult. (BTW, the Asperger syndrome was found out when I was in school, and for next 10 years hardly any doctor in my country ever heard about it) I heard first suggestion that I might have autism when I was 19, but I ignored it. The second time other doctor said I act like someone with ASD I was 24, and still it took me few more years, and one more suggestion from third doctor before I decided to get tested.
The biggest challenge for me was probably overcoming the uncanny valley. When people are speaking with me they realize that something is different about me. Most of them don't even realize that, but their behaviour is changing. At school I was usually described as "moron", "idiot" and "retard" by most other students and three teachers. (one called me like that in the face inside crowded classroom, with all my classmates present in high-school) School was a nightmare, and mostly because I could not understand why all the people are acting so irrational. (If you're an aspie the entire world is one big WTF to you, after some time it is easier to accept this, but other people never stop to amaze you) I found an interesting way around this. I chose my clothes, and the rest of my appearance in the way to make sure that intuition of other people are telling them that they don't know how I will behave. It is not perfect, but the improvement is astonishing. (I usually wear bright shirt, jeans, long hair tied in a pony tail and moustache - combination which looks slightly weird, but still can be considered semi-formal. When I need to go to some formal occasion I usually chose white suit and black shirt.)
The other problem is the fact that many people are thinking that I have mental disability. So one thing. Asperger Syndrome is not a mental disability. I can understand what you are talking about, and if I ask you to repeat the question it means that I wasn't listening to you, and you don't need to speak very slowly and loudly. When I say that I don't know how to get to some place, you don't need to tell me every single turn I need to take after leaving office or home, just tell me the address, I'll use sat nav. And I know how to turn on the computer, and what does the keyboard do. Many people act like I am contagious or something. It took me many years to learn how to act like a normal person. But it is still only acting. I am pretending my entire life that I am someone else than I really am, and my acting is not perfect.
And last big thing. Other people emotions. I have a lot of problems to understand them. It takes me a while to realize that someone is irritated or sarcastic. It is not that I don't see emotions, or not feel any emotions. It just takes a while for me to understand them. And more complex and more unusual the emotional states are, the more time I need to realise what is going on with other people.

2) I'm in my early 30's. I have a job as a software developer, creating solutions for small business. I'm earning about 20-30% less than average person at this position, but I was unemployed for too long to turn it down. I'm not sure how they found out that I have ASD, but they known before my first job interview. I'm currently looking for a new job in Game development.
But it wasn't always like this. I had a lot of problems at school. The funny part is that there were four classes that no one could get even close to my level (mathematics, physics, chemistry and IT - top scores in all of them) but in the rest I usually were average with the exception of polish language (below the average all the way - and it is my first language) The first college was disaster. I dropped out after two years of pain and suffering. After that I never lasted more than 6 months in a single job, until I was hired to set-up computers, printers and some basic software for real estate evaluator. It was supposed to be a job for a day or two and ended up in six years. All because the company was run by a better kind of people.
In the meantime I tried college again. This time I finished Computer Engineering with average score of 4,92. (in Poland theoretical maximum is 5.0) I would like to get also title of Unity Certified developer, but nearest exam is over 600 km away, and I can't afford it.

3) First of all - there is no such thing as "typical autism". There are 8 or 9 most common types of autistic disorders, and more than half of people diagnosed with them does not have any disabilities of any kind. Calling us "people with disabilities" is unfair towards both us and people with real disabilities. People with Asperger Syndrome are like PC with Linux. Different than Windows, and not so common but not worse nor better than Windows or MacOS. We are just different.
It is more complicated with people who have more serious types of Autism. But I would still hesitate to call them disabled. If you tell a lie a million times it will become truth. If you tell someone that he is worthless, he will believe it. I know I did. The words can hurt. Of course saying that everything is all right won't work. But it is necessary to say it the way which will leave some space to work with. If someone will tell you that something is impossible it might be impossible. Saying that something will be challenging gives you a chance. And it makes all the difference in the world.
The problem for me was that I wasn't diagnosed at that time. It is always better to know.

4) The amount of prejudice towards autistic people is just unbelievable. And some media (like "Forrest Gump" or "Millenium") only try to extinguish fire with gasoline. Most of us are not idiots. We are not geniuses too (or savants). Some of us are idiots, and some of us are geniuses - just like normal people.
So this is short list of things I was suspected to do:

• need to use adult diaper all the time (just no)
• need to have a full time nurse or doctor when I'm outside hospital (the last time I visited doctor was when I had flu, and the last time I was in a hospital was when I broke my leg. I don't need any help to tie my shoes or make a cup of tea. I can take care of myself)
• not knowing how to operate everything (cars, computers, fax machine, microwave oven, office fan, satellite navigation, phone, door, printer, credit card, internet, soap... all real cases, and BTW I got my driving license before I was diagnosed with ASD, and it is legal for me to drive a car)
• causing accidental pregnancies, or being uncontrolled sex maniac/rapist (one guy suggested this just after reading "Forrest Gump", but surprise, I know how human reproductive system works, what is consensual and non-consensual intercourse, and why the second one is not legal in any country I know of, and for the last time I WOULD NEVER HAVE SEX WITH HIS 12 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER! Even a suggestion that I could do something like that is just disgusting. I know Forrest was having sex any time and anywhere, but it was just one stupid fictional book, not operating manual for autistic people.)
• not knowing how law and civilized world works... (not sure if we live in a civilized world, but I am pretty sure that I know how the one we live in works).
• being moron, idiot or something like that. (Nope. I am not less intelligent than average human. What's more, according to Mensa test I am more intelligent than average human. Average human has 100 IQ, and I belong to 50% of human population which have higher score.)
• having photo memory (my memory is much more complex than most people are thinking. I learn very quickly everything which is interesting to me, and I almost can't learn anything boring. And things interesting for me might be very boring to anyone else, and vice versa. Have you ever read Quake source code just for fun? My point exactly.)
• being savant/genius (unfortunately no. I'm good at what I do, possibly above average, but it doesn't mean that I've got some sort of mental super abilities.)
  And by the way - autism isn't not caused by vaccines, but by genes. If you know someone who says otherwise than ask him to stop using us to hurt other people.

5) A lot of people with asperger syndrome was thinking about it for a long time. But how we can say what is the difference between us and other people when we were all born this way? We don't know different life, and so called "normal point of view". It is like describing how the colours look like to the blind man. The only difference is that most of the world is blind to our point of view.
But we might have found a way, we would like to make a game about autism. This way we could give other people reference point to how we see the world. But there are a lot of challenges here. For example how to show in game over-sensitivity to smells? Or how to make people see how we think?
Also we need to secure funding. And our team is too small to create this. My best estimate is that we need about 10-15 more people, about 50-100k USD for outsourcing and licenses, and we can finish this in about 12-18 months. Unless we agree on some sort of easier to make graphics style, and maybe cutting few features.
I saw one great example of game showing autism in a serious way, pointing the right strengths and weaknesses of the autistic woman. It is called "To The Moon". I recommend it to everybody who want to find out something about autistic people.

Posted my own giveaway here! Thanks for bringing attention to this topic!

This is very important to discuss really. I studied in a school where we had a student with autism, he has always been treated by us (colleagues) as a normal person, but there has always been more attention.

bumpy please

4 I have no issue with any disabled people whatsoever (is autistic people even considered disabled?). As long as they don't endanger my physical self I'm fine interacting with them. Some people have tendency to push things though, and that's the state of society we live in. I can sympathize with their situations, but I'd rather not doing more than I've done as I have enough personal issues to deal with. At least I don't contribute more to their hardship.

Or maybe I just haven't realized I had met some autistic people?

I have special prejudices against LGBT (either autism and these are more about mental) though to the point I don't want any dealing with them in any shape or form (unless I don't realize the person is one of LGBT lol). Personal reasons. They're not physically disabled anyway.

I'm autistic, but it's kinda hard to talk about it, since I didn't really know that untill a couple years ago because I didn't know Asperger's syndrome was a branch of autism. Also, bump.