Support thread for women who suspect or know they have ASD traits or are on the spectrum

[OxfordBags]

Hello, all! As the title says, I hope this can be a support thread for those of us who suspect or know we have some (or many) Aspergic traits; where we can share experiences, stories, problems, worries, knowledge and info, and hopefully benefit and help each other too.

I found a great link a while ago that is very comprehensive in its description of how Asperger's presents in women and how women experience it. Some of it is strikingly different from the male model and how most people perceive Asperger's. Here: ASD in women

I truly believe two things: 1) that ASD in females is woefully misunderstood and under-diagnosed and 2) that our current understanding and the definition of the AS Spectrum is, in itself, rather ASD in its rigidity, and that there is an actual spectrum of traits much broader and more nuanced than the current model, and that there are a hell of a lot of people struggling with some very typical ASD traits, who nevertheless do not have all the traits required to fulfil a formal diagnosis of having Asperger's or High-Functioning Autism.

So, with that rather typically ASD-style long-winded and unnecessarily detailed intro out of the way, let's chat!

Some terrible typos, I do apologise.

Agree with you both on the test and not noticing people's faces.

Got 56% on faces part and 48% on the voices. I actually thought I'd done worse on the faces than the voices. Found the faces one really hard. Thought I'd cracked the voices one.

9 out of 22 in 6.1 seconds for the reading the mind in films test.

That's not good is it?

I'm beginning to get the feeling that the things I though I was OK with like empathinsing, recognising how people are feeling etc that I scored myself OK on in AQ/EQ/RAADS tests might be more of a problem than I think. I just haven't noticed that I'm getting it wrong.

This might actually explain quite a lot of confusion I feel about how people react to things. Might be the emotions I think they are feeling are not the ones they actually are.

27 on 2 Factor Imagination scale. Could have predicted that one. My imagination is rubbish.

27 on 2 Factor Imagination scale. Could have predicted that one. My imagination is rubbish.

About the same as mine then. I think between 45 and 60 is 'expected' and above 60 is high spontaneous imagination.

Friendship Quotient is 58. Which while lower than for NT females doesn't seem especially low. Although it's closer to the score for females with ASD than NT females.

Testing

Just lost a long post. Essentially:

Was wondering if relying on the words was wrong. I did have to do that a lot to help me. I wondered if they'd thrown that in there as a red herring. Sort of saying one thing but meaning something else IYSWIM.

I think I might have had the same problem there Buffy. Did get yellow for imagination.

My RAADS, AQ and Imagination are highlighted but that's it. Everything else is unhighlighted. I think If I went back and redid the EQ, changng some of the answers about being able to read people's emotions based on face/voice/film test results that might well end up highlighted.

That's what I'm thinking holey. Am reading the paper that goes with the film one. The 3 wrong answers were specifically chosen so they matched language/body language/facial expressions or in some other way. Some matched different combinations but not in every way. Interestingly, on some of the questions a large number of the HFA/Aspergers group did pick incorrect options that relied heavily on the words used where as the control group did not.

Results were also linked to verbal IQ with a higher verbal IQ correlating with a higher score.

I realise that this is an ASD trait in women. It's more the fact that I hadn't realised that I do this or that other people might say something and mean something else.

Hmm. The more I think about it the more I think I'm going to broach the subject with my GP this week.

I have taken the AQ test before. Usually every time someone on MN starts a thread saying they think they might have Aspergers. What was an eye opener, and has been more of an eye opener taking these tests is the stuff I haven't considered. Mostly because it hasn't even occurred to me that these things are what NT people do and people with autism struggle with.

And it's not like I don't have a reasonable knowledge of autism/aspergers either. I was reading stuff in 6th form before I started my teacher training. I had a 3hr lecture on it with further reading while doing my teacher training. All of which made me start to think 'that sounds familiar'. I've had conversations with my sister where she's studied it for work and has put forward the idea that my Dad might have aspergers or something similar. I did a lot of reading a couple of years ago about different presentations in females when my much younger female cousin was being diagnosed.