What Does It Really Mean? Part 3

Diagnostic Criteria for 299.80 Asperger's Disorder

3. The disturbance causes clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
4. There is no clinically significant general delay in language (e.g., single words used by age 2 years, communicative phrases used by age 3 years).
5. There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or in the development of age-appropriate self-help skills, adaptive behavior (other than in social interaction), and curiosity about the environment in childhood.
6. Criteria are not met for another specific Pervasive Developmental Disorder or Schizophrenia.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well...I think we can finish this up today. The rest of the DSM-IV criteria are a bit more vague and open to interpretation than the other two. Area C is a given...I hide it well, and to the outside world it might be hard to imagine there's anything wrong with me, but spend enough time with me and you'll see it. Socially...well I do prefer to stay home most times and interact online or play games. I will go out and hang out with specific people and generally in the same places or to do the same things. I hate going to Wal-Mart or the grocery store, just too many people and too much input. I don't mind Target for some odd reason and I love little stores. Otherwise, I much prefer to shop online. A lot of it has to do with the driving/parking, but it's about the crowds and the input too. Occupational....well, work has it's moments of just being too much, but I just keep swimming because I know my students need me to. Most of my issues come with my perceptions of what other people think/feel about me or my work and in how they interact with me, back to the whole tone of voice thing usually. I'm much happier working with small groups and much, much happier working with Special Needs children, thus, my push to get certified so I can one day do just that. Other Important Areas of Functioning...I can't organize, hands down that's the biggest problem in my life. I can't clean well because I can't figure out what to do or how to get it done. Organizing takes major work for my brain b/c my brain can't even organize it's own thoughts. Budgeting is a nightmare...I can't even balance the checkbook and I'm sure I must have an award at the bank for the most times overdrawn in one year! I just can't make the numbers add up right. I've tried computer programs, tracking it by hand, etc...nothing works! It's a constant struggle. Driving is fun...I'm ok usually in the day if I'm going somewhere familiar. If I'm out of town I must have my GPS. I hate driving in the rain and at night b/c I just can't see the lines on the road and I still think everyone's getting into my lane, even when they're not! And parking, well that's just not fun. I can only turn one way to get into a park...I prefer one I can drive out of b/c I hate backing up more than anything...and under no circumstances can I parallel park! And I will having a "flappy moment" right there behind the wheel and just stop and panic if I can't figure out where to go and what to do. Generally, my friends realize this and they drive lol!

Area D - Nope...I was advanced. And I find most Aspies are. I read a newspaper to my astonished Grandfather at 2...I ate words like a sponge and always used them in the correct context. I had a college reading level in 5th grade. I loved to write poems/stories. So yeah, all good there! And now I know I am hyperlexic so that explains the crazy abilities as such a young age. However, after I read a book...if I don't talk about it, think about it, reread it...within a few months, I'll forget parts, and after a year or so it's like I never read it. So there's always something good to read on my Kindle lol!

Area E - Same here...I did everything ontime if not early and at an advanced level. Curious doesn't begin to describe me as a child...I'd have driven Curious George nuts! My Daddy used to say that I could "piss off the Pope"....yeah...I was that curious and had to know about everything...and not later, but right then!

Area F - No...I'm not crazy and I don't fully meet the other criteria...being an Aspie is the best fit for me after having read all the other possible ASD criteria with my doctor. We decided this one was the most perfect fit for me.

Well...there you have it. That's Asperger's Syndrome in a nutshell. But please remember, we're like snowflakes...all very different, yet made of the same stuff. What tweaks one of us out won't even bother the next Aspie and what one does really well another may really struggle with. But then again...I think that's just being human. I just remind myself that we were programmed with a different operating system so it's like being a Mac in a PC world! Or probably more like being a Unix system in a Windows world!! LOL!