David Brown

Asperger's Diagnosis

Introduction

This page describes my path of discovery from initially learning about AS to an official diagnosis. This will be described as a timeline.

The Geek Syndrome

On Feb 6, 2003, a coworker showed me a copy of a Wired magazine article titled The Geek Syndrome. My interest was mostly out of curiosity. The article has an AQ (Autism-Spectrum Quotient) test. I took the test, and scored 46 out of 50. At this point, I began scouring the net for articles about Asperger's.

That's Me

Most of the articles are written as kind of a guideling for determining if a child is AS. As I read these articles about childhood behaviors and other such things, I had many memories of doing very similar things as a child, and even as an adult. Obsession on one topic is something I still do, and even find it difficult to imagine what it would be like to not give myself to my obsession.

The more I read, and the more I thought about, the more this description seemed to fit me.

A Professional Opinion

Some research led me to a Psychologist about an hour from my house who specializes in Autism Spectrum Disorders. I contacted him, and setup an appointment for an assessment.

The assessment was actually quite pleasing. The only real unpleasant aspect of the whole time was that he sat across from me. I much prefer to communicate with people in such a way that I don't have to look at them. I have no comprehension of how eye contact is supposed to work, but often do it intentionally because people expect it. It feels very awkward. The entire time took around 2.5 hours.

He diagnosed me with Asperger's Disorder (299.8), although I do have some traits more of High Functioning Autism (HFA). My impression is that autism is quite a spectrum and I fall in the area where it is fuzy between Asperger's and HFA. He explained that psychotherapy probably would not be all that effective, unless I had to deal with depression, or desired to learn more social skills.

From here...

At this point I'm still discovering many things. I believe I have probably discovered the cause of most of my frequent headaches (Overstimulation), and am still discovering many things related to this.