Am i retarded?

[TehCookie]

Mild aspergers is probably one of thee most bullshit conditions/mental illnesses ever created. It's not a sickness, it a label people created to group a bunch of similar people who are different from the "norm". So they're shy and have quirks, that doesn't mean there is anything wrong with them. If it's not preventing you from living a normal life it's not a serious mental illness. Now I will be called out on how it is a real disease and how hard it is for them to live with it because they're different. Everyone is different, everyone has problems, some have more than others but you learn to deal with it. Jimmy at school is not retarded because he has to study to get B's while Sally get's A's while doing nothing. You do not have aspergers because you have trouble doing something that comes naturally to others, you just have to work harder (or drugs, drugs work too). If you whine and say you can't then you're just hiding behind that label and giving it a bad rep for the people who do have it and are doing something about it.

Go meet someone with full blown retardation. I would say go talk to one, but half of the ones I've met couldn't speak coherent sentences, they'll be 40 and and have the mental capacity of a 4 year old. To be honest I can't tell the difference between retardation and severe aspergers. One girl at high school has severe aspergers, and she would yell every time she talked. Not to mention she didn't just talk to other people she talked to her imaginary friends too, so she would just be screaming to herself in the corner of the classroom. She also constantly played happy slaps at her desk and would act like a 7 year old (crying and throwing a fit if she didn't get her way and one of her caretakers would come to take her away).

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

a few years back i was diagnosed with extremely mild asperger's disease.

Unless your IQ is below about 80, then no.
Given you can write and add an avatar by yourself, I'd say you're not a retard.

And I'm an epileptic.

 

[Korten12]

intense as yours I have trouble with talking fluently with people I don't know. .

Same, when I don't know them, I have a hard time talking with them.

 

[mental_looney]

Honestly no just sounds like a little awkward

 

[intheweeds]

One girl at high school has severe aspergers, and she would yell every time she talked. Not to mention she didn't just talk to other people she talked to her imaginary friends too, so she would just be screaming to herself in the corner of the classroom. She also constantly played happy slaps at her desk and would act like a 7 year old (crying and throwing a fit if she didn't get her way and one of her caretakers would come to take her away).

Unfortunately this could be entirely the disease, but some of these behavioral issues could be learned as well. I have worked with mentally ill adults and the truth is there is something called 'institutionalization'. The works of Erving Goffman would be relevant here. When someone is babied a lot and/or has everything done for them and/or is not allowed to fail on their own and/or constantly has people reminding them that they are 'different' in any other way, they usually begin to act like and become what others see them as. Why wouldn't you?

I just read a thread about a kid complaining about homework. If you had a caretaker come into the classroom and make everything better ever time you threw a hissy fit like a 7 year old, you would learn to do that every time to get out of anything you didn't want to do. It's very hard to say how much of this behavior is because the person actually can't help themselves and how much is a learned activity. People with mental illnesses are not stupid and they can game the system like every one else would. They know damn well you can't call them on it. I have employed people with autism where this was a problem (their family and workers warned me this person would try and game me. They were far more capable then they let on). Perhaps this person is actually way smarter than anyone gives them credit for.

I can't help but notice that some of the symptoms you describe (imaginary friends for instance) are not something one normally associates with autism. This is part of what leads me to believe this. Psychotic breaks (seeing/hearing things that aren't there) are usually associated with disorders like schizophrenia and others, which are a completely different animal. 'Imaginary friends' sounds like a 15 year old's idea of how to 'act like i'm crazy' rather than the real deal. Science is well versed on the precise reasons for schizophrenia and how to combat it with drugs because of that. Whereas autism and others are not so well defined in terms of brain function. I worked in the largest mental health facility in Toronto for 2 years and I have never worked with someone who was both schizophrenic and autistic at the same time.

I feel like perhaps the people in this persons life have not done them any favors by teaching them they are broken. It sounds like they are being cheated out of a good future and they are too young to know it.

 

[Comando96]

a few years back i was diagnosed with extremely mild asperger's

Syndrome

Asperger's is not a disease, it is a condition. I have Asperger's, no one noticed it until a year ago when I got severe pain condition and it came up during the pain psychological treatment.

Asperger people are not retarted, we are most of the time smarter than the average person.l Asperger's is not a mutation or a genetic mistake, it is a random occurance in which the neurological patterns in your brain have organized in a fashion that will give you a behavior pattern that is called Asperger's. It is no different from people who have cognitive behavior issues, their brains are wired so that they are unable learn as others do.

I have quite strong form of Asperger's, I am a person of solitude and intellectualism, I avoid people because I do not meet people who understand me or people who are smart as me. I own extremely broad band of knowledge and skills, I got ability to learn musical instruments with extreme haste.

Do not get destroyed by your Asperger's, embrace it, use it to your benefit, find out what your perks and obsessions are and wield them as a weapons against others, get a uppercut on them. We Asperger people rarely have friends or long lasting relationships, we usually enjoy only our obsession that bring us great deal of enjoyment, I get more enjoyment from music than I do from anything sexually oriented, it is the only thing that ignited emotions in me, otherwise, I am cold as a stone, solid and rough.

EMBRACE IT AND NEVER CALL IT A DISEASE!

If you do not recognize yourself from these simple "perks" then you do not have Asperger's. You need to have a Obsession, Natural talent to something, you require logic and patterns around you, you partly lack from basic primitive abilities of social interaction - may it be understanding sarcasm, inability to read faces, inability to "read between the lines". If you do not possess these then you have been misdiagnosed.
And to help your pain if you do have Asperger's so did:
Ludvig Wittgensteinin
Alan Turing
Albert Einstein (most likely)
Steven Spielberg
Also suspected cases in history:
Isaac Newton
Charles Darwin
Syd Barrett


Now tell me these people were retarted.

I also have Asperger's syndrome but am also dyslexic. What this guy said! Its a lot better than I could phrased it xD

The only think I shall add is about the depression.
The depression comes generally from the standards society appears to be pressing upon you and your concious sense or belief that you are not able to keep up with them or are separated from them in some form. This is very broad and comes in many forms.
There is also chemical and traumatic event but they don't apply to you.

I have have had to have my depression professionally seen to as I at one point was having suicidal thoughts, my only thoughts afterwards were "Only an option if death is close and it'll stop pain, or apocalyptic situation". However the route cause was I am smart, but could not for shit re-produce my intelligence onto paper for exams. Before exams, A - B if a tricky topic, exams I luckily got 1 a! then, 1 D, 1 E, 1 U...

I dunno how you are but you may want to reflect back at how you are doing in your life, what you expect of yourself and then what you are like and it is probably somewhere in that area.

 

[XDravond]

Aspergers does not mean retarded. I know more than one with different grades of aspergers and sure some of them are "weird" but then again so am I but in a different way. People do not understand what aspergers is so and therfore they are "afraid" of it..."what you don't know or understand you shall fear..." Met more than one that looked on "asperger kids" as they where contagious or dangerous and seen that they had either aspergers or some other syndrome themselves.

And in todays society weird or unusual people are looked upon as they are "wrong" but it is simply that most do not know how to handle "special" people.

And a disclaimer: I do not mean "special" in a bad way, people with aspergers syndrome are not "bad" people, retarded people can not help it, retarded and stupid is not the same, everyone thats depressed I tell "even if your life is shit, smile it could always get worse" rarely works but I say it anyway. and finally yes people with things like aspergers are sometimes harder to hang out with, but same goes for most people.

 

[DuctTapeJedi]

Are you retarded...?

Is your IQ 70 or less?

If not, then, no.

 

[WorldCritic]

Retardation and Asberger's Syndrome are two different things. Anyway, you shouldn't think you are retarded or that something's wrong with you. If you have Asberger's, then people shouldn't care. Yeah it's apart of you, but it's not like it separates you from everyone else.

 

[Rin Little]

You have nothing to worry about man. Everyone has moments like those, I get them constantly as a result of depression/anxiety. It might be possible that you have mild anxiety as well if this is getting you down fairly constantly. From what you said, you sound perfectly capable of having relationships, friendship or otherwise. I wouldn't worry so much about it I know, easy for me to say, but still...