*sighs*

[conuly]

*reads the comments*

Every time. EVERY TIME somebody finds this and takes the test, their friends take it too - and then pop up with their results, asking "what does this mean"? Look. Unless your score was very high (above 35) it doesn't mean anything. There's a reason the AQ test isn't used for diagnostic purposes. It is completely possible to be NT and get a fairly high score. It's possible to be on the spectrum and score under the mystical cut-off of 32. It's possibly even possible to be on the spectrum and get a relatively low score. The numbers don't mean anything by themselves. If you're really curious about what your score means, get a book or an internet connection or something and research the autistic spectrum instead of asking "what does this mean, what does this mean". Nobody can tell you what a score of 17, or 20, or 26 means.

*sits and waits to be told what those scores mean*

Comments

[deathchibi.livejournal.com]

I got a 29. But I'm weird. Unless I'm doing more than one thing at a time or pacing back and forth, I can't focus and I'm unhappy. One conversation can be hard to do, but more than one is fine. Then I get overwhelmed. Sometimes reading people is hard. Then, I blurt out things that make perfect sense to me, but no one else seems to make the connection. Oh well. I'm an odd critter.

I didn't know about the autistic spectrum and the page seemed kind of blank other than 'Most people with this get this score', but I can google it now. Woo! Thanks.

[ser-kai.livejournal.com]

*grumble* I actually find it a bit insulting.

I'm not sure why.

[ser-kai.livejournal.com]

Also, how does a test on one's pituitary gland diagnose Aspergers?

I just looked it up & got nothing except that environmental crap about mercury & toxins.

[unico-love.livejournal.com]

I do think it's kind of silly to take that test too seriously, but I love tests like that. I find them fun.

[conuly]

I believe this one is fairly reliable, but... yeah. If you're worried about what it means, do some research and find out.

[cumaeansibyl.livejournal.com]

I got a 32, which is apparently the cutoff. Somehow, I get borderline scores on everything...

What gets to me is that these are all things I know about myself -- so what possible good would it do me to put yet another label on a collection of personal oddities when I'm already living with them?

People need to understand that a diagnosis doesn't really change anything. You still have to deal with whatever it is.

[unico-love.livejournal.com]

I just have difficulty understanding what the statements actually refer to and deciding how to answer if I "strongly agree" in certain situations and "strongly disagree" in others:-/ I get really confused about answering things I can't put a little disclaimer with.

[conuly]

Well, if a diagnosis enables you to get help of some sort - different testing conditions, a right to sue against discrimination in the workplace (like that ever works...), a right to a half-fare bus pass or to the paratransit system where you are, SSI... then yes, it does change something.

[cumaeansibyl.livejournal.com]

You're absolutely right, of course, but I figure the people who were responding to that post wouldn't really have a need for the things you've mentioned or they would have found out already. Might be wrong, though.

[conuly]

It's amazing what you don't realize you need until you find out that it's available. I always assumed my hearing was normal, and that other people were deliberately loud. Now I really put "earplugs" at the top of my desired list, and if I could talk to the disability people at school (I hate talking to people) I'd ask for testing accomodations. It's *easier* to do things when I'm in a quiet environment, but until I realized that I wasn't normal with my hearing, it didn't occur to me to request any sort of accomodations.

[cumaeansibyl.livejournal.com]

Haha, a friend just took it and is now wailing that she's "slow" because she got a 27. Pfft.

[conuly]

Slow? *glares at thy friend*

[celticess.livejournal.com]

The test is subjective. I get two very different scores from that test depending on if I consider purely online life, or strictly offline life. I get a mid range score if I try to find a middle road. Oddly the EQ one going around is close on one of my official tests for my EQ. Not my overall EQ score which was 97. My intra and inter personal skills were in the mild to moderately mentally handicapped range for EQ.(BarOn EQ-i:S) My multi axial test score gave some results that were more common to people on the spectrum too.

If they were to get people that were friends or family ranking them on these tests the scores would also differ. It's a matter of their opinions and prejudices as to how they feel someone does with a situation.

I find the AQ to be rather entertaining. And wondering why some took the results as they did on your link. I viewed the test with some curiosity but I don't think it's a perfect diagnostic tool. Geeks and shy people or those with other issues might score in a certain range on it as well.

Btw my boyfriend scored 19 on the test and I scored 43 going on the middle of the road stuff. I'm autistic he's autistic like but not autistic. *shrug*

[celticess.livejournal.com]

Good lord I'm considered gifted and my score is 43... your friend needs to get over it. I know someone with an IQ of 150 that probably would score a point or two difference from me. Another one with an IQ of 200. They are autistics and they aren't slow, backwards, or whatever other stereotype people try to throw at autistics.

[celticess.livejournal.com]

I think some ADD/ADHD would also score within a certain range on the AQ. Though for several years they were using the Connor Scales.(my son used to be dx ADHD, my ex husband fits adult ADHD, and an ex boyfriend was Aspergers and ADHD) Alot of "things" if you will can cross grey lines and appear like something they aren't. Some people are just active temperment and not ADHD and some people have autistic features but aren't.

My current boyfriend for example has at points rocked, he stares into space in his own little world, he rarely talks in person, and he perfers social isolation. However he's just a shy geek and isn't autistic. Though there was a time I wondered if he was ADHD or ADHD like because he can fidgit/can't sit still very well when he's away from me.(I've observed this on a webcam and he's admitted I have a calming effect on him)

[celticess.livejournal.com]

I've never heard anything about pitutary glands. I have heard something about the superiour olive near the pons at the center of the brain.

One thing I do know from personal experience is that damage to the occipital lobe in some cases can cause autistic like things to appear. My daughter was typical but after her brain surgery for cancer they had done some damage to the occipital lobe. They warned us of the possible outcomes. Handedness can give a hint but to some extent she was ambidextrious. In the end she ended up concrete, literal, pronoun reversals, blurting out things, etc. She wasn't like that til the injury from surgery. Though the surgery had helped deal with other behaviours caused by high cranial pressure from the tumours.

[ser-kai.livejournal.com]

http://www.livejournal.com/users/zoethe/291383.html?thread=4445751#t4445751

I love knowitall NT's-- not.

[cumaeansibyl.livejournal.com]

She said she had a high IQ, but that was meaningless because she was "slow," which is worse than dumb.

Don't worry, I thwacked her about a bit:

Now WAIT A MINUTE. Autism has nothing to do with being "slow." Hell, a lot of autistic people are really smart. If you're talking about the implied social impairment... feh. Whatever.

By the way, there are some things you should know:

1) This is not recognized as a diagnostic tool in any way, shape or form
2) The "borderline" score is a 32, and that only means that you might have a touch of Asperger's
3) I got a 32

So don't complain.

[celticess.livejournal.com]

You know after all the poking I had done at me when little and all the poking my daughter had at her brain... I am so very tempted to say something to that person. Things like ask them if perhaps they ment thyroid gland and the t4/t3 thyroid test for thyroid related subtype of ADD/ADHD... but the pitutary somewhere between makes me want to laugh and makes me want to smack them with a big pointy stick.

[celticess.livejournal.com]

Ah what the hell I gave into temptation...

http://www.livejournal.com/users/zoethe/291383.html?view=4451383#t4451383

[ser-kai.livejournal.com]

I was kinda hoping someone would.

I didn't have the knowledge or the words.

[maelorin]

as i read more about as, i'm not entirely happy with mr baron-cohen being held up as the as guru.

i got a 40 on his little aq test - but depending on how i interpret the questions i could range from 29-47. and the darn numbers are meaningless in the end.

as is a serious condition, not a pop-psych's toy.

anyone else find mr baron-cohen's work unsatisfying?

[werewolf-song.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah.

[the-lady-aurora.livejournal.com]

I got 38. I know that I am obsessive where numbers are concerned - I have this thing where all numbers - car number plates, digital figues on a clock - have to be added up until they become a single digit.

[deathchibi.livejournal.com]

Well, I fidget. I pace back and forth. When I'm chatting online, I often get up to walk back and forth and come back in time to get a reply done. I type like a lemur on speed. ADD didn't occur to me, though. I just think I'm weird. ^^;