Expert: James Michael Roan - 10/26/2008

Question
my question is vague, but i feel it deserves answering. i am sixteen years old, and i think i might have autism. you see, every time time i try to talk to someone i form my words in unusual ways, purposely so i have time to judge what they were asking me in the first place. i place the concern of what i think they want to say over what they actually said, kind of a selfish manipulation on my part. but i don't think what they said could possibly be real for some reason, i have to constantly listen to music to even begin to focus on anything, of course that makes it kind of hard to focus on what my teacher is saying. or what other people are saying to me. i have been diagnosed with medium range obsessive compulsive disorder. and i have noticed that the symptoms for autism and ocd are similar on some areas. and for the areas of symptoms that are different, i have found i sway mostly to the autism side. if you are wondering it has taken me thirty minutes to form these sentences. i have always been a little different. i have urges to do weird things like randomly walking around yelling i only do this when i am by my self but if i don't do it i feel extremely wound up. when i am around people my only salvation from my own thoughts on them is to make them laugh, by saying something random, or disgusting. i can not look people in the eye for more than a second if i am not comftorble with them. one sentence from somebody can literally bring my day from happy to literally wanting to commit suicide. i traveled to a behavior center for suicidal thoughts after a friend of mine made a single gesture that i took the wrong way. i believe that i am either diagnosed wrong or my parents know and they are waiting to tell me when i am ready.
recently i made a comment on how Dennis leary said that autism is just an excuse for dumb kids and the person who i was talking to said "like you" thats what made me do the research, witch led me to this site. i did not really think i would talk this much. thank you for listening.


Answer
Hi Jason;

Some of your behaviors are similar to folks who have Asperger's syndrome, a high functioning form of autism. You can go to: http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/aspergerscaleAttwood.html and download the Australian Scale for Asperger's Syndrome and/or you cold download the Childhood Asperger Syndrome Test (CAST) and scoring key and we can take it from there.
















James Roan Bio:

James Roan (roanpsych@gmail.com) has been consulting in the areas of autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, and learning difficulties in the United States and in Ireland for over ten years. James Roan has traveled to Galway, Limerick, Mayo, Clare, Dublin, Cork, Waterford, and other cities and counties across Ireland assessing children and adults, and consulting with solicitors (lawyers) in defense of children with disability and with enforcement of their rights. James Roan was the consulting psychologist responsible for many of the autism and ADHD screening tools and other content for www.accessspecialneeds.com. James Roan is past president and currently on the board of directors for the Autism Spectrum Disorder Foundation (www.autismspectrumdisorderfoundation.org). James Roan consulted with the graduate department of the Waterford Institute of Technology in the development of their graduate program for the certification of private autism tutors.